In a Pickle

Friday, August 30

Nice leg room for R!

Our flight from LAX to ORD was not without some drama this morning. When we boarded the plane, we found out that the seats we originally booked were changed to accommodate a family with children. So instead of the four of us sitting together in Row 36, R was assigned to an exit row in the front of the plane, and the boys and I were given seats in Row 35, also an exit row. However, the gate agent did not notify us or the people originally assigned to Row 35 about the changes.  

Ordinarily, exit rows would be viewed as better seats. But we are used to having our backpacks and water bottles easily accessible to us, so this wasn't really an upgrade in our eyes. 

Things got worse when one of the original passengers boarded with a screenshot of their old boarding pass rather than using the United app, so she didn't understand why her seat was taken. It probably didn't help that she and rest of the party traveling with her only spoke Italian. Her son (I presume) was using Google Translate to communicate that he purchased the upgrade for his mother, and both of them were getting increasingly agitated.

#10

It's been 30 years since our first-ever Las Vegas family reunion, and the 10th one is now officially in the books. A great time was had by all, as usual!

March 1994

July 2024

Check out these other blog posts for more group photos from reunions #2-7, #8, and #9!

Circle the Wagons

In the 1800s, a wagon would have taken 8-10 weeks to travel between Independence, MO and Santa Fe, NM along the Santa Fe Trail. Thankfully, we were able to drive it in four days and see/do lots of fun things along the way!

Altogether, we spent 11 days on this trip - two in Chicago, two visiting my parents, and seven on the road between Illinois and California.

3117 miles

Where the Streets Have No Name

In an effort to pad our stamp and unit totals, we decided to make our long drive home even longer with a detour to Joshua Tree National Park. Well, even though it added almost another 60 miles, it's still kinda on the way, isn't it?! 😜

515 miles, 8.5 hours

Take It Easy

The penultimate day of our drive back home to California put us back into familiar territory, for the most part. We've driven this stretch of I-40 before, except for the section between Grants, NM and Sanders, AZ, when we took a slight detour to visit El Malpais National Monument and El Morro National Monument in 2016.

385 miles, 6.5 hours

On Top of the World

We left the hotel this morning a little after 7:00AM and headed about 30 miles east on US-64, turning onto NM-325 north towards Capulin Volcano National Monument. The reason for our early start was because Saiki-delic vacations usually involve some form of self-inflicted suffering. 😜

☑ Unit #189

In truth, maybe we are gluttons for punishment, but besides having a lot of ground to cover today, I didn't want to fight any crowds for a parking spot on this holiday weekend. So the goal was to be there when the Volcano Road up to the rim opened at 8:00AM. 

Trail of Tears

Three units in the southeastern part of Colorado were on today's itinerary. In prototypical Saiki-delic fashion, we gobbled down a quick breakfast in the hotel and were on the road by 7:15AM. We arrived in Eads, CO around 9:00AM, just as the ranger was raising the flag and opening up the Visitor and Education Center for Sand Creek Massacre National Historic Site.

360 miles, 6 hours

Stuck in the Middle with You

When we road trip, we are usually sleeping in a different place each night. Throw in exhaustion from the previous day's activities on top of disorientation from only being semi-conscious, and it's almost guaranteed that I will narrowly miss bashing my face into a wall as I try to find my way to the bathroom in the dark without my glasses. Today I woke up in the middle of the night especially confused, thinking that we were home because the winds were howling outside just like the Santa Anas in Southern California. 

And they were still gusting at about 30 mph(!) this morning at Fort Larned National Historic Site when we arrived around 8:30AM. After getting our obligatory pic of the entrance sign, we drove in to the parking lot and walked about a quarter-mile to the visitor center. 

Hang on!

On the Prairie

After eating a quick breakfast in the hotel this morning, we checked out and headed south on US-69, arriving at Fort Scott National Historic Site just before 9:00AM. From the alert on their website, I knew that the park buildings were temporarily closed on Wednesdays and Thursdays, but it didn't occur to me that it also meant the visitor center would not be staffed. Oof. 🤦🏻‍♀️ 

☑ Unit #182

A Journey of a Thousand Miles...

...begins with a single step.  -Lao Tzu

Or, in this case, a journey of *three* thousand miles begins with a single *park*!

In order to get to our last two stops in Independence, MO before closing time, we had to stick to a tight schedule today. So we said our goodbyes to my parents and were on the road by 7:45AM. 

An hour later, we arrived at Lincoln Home National Historic Site in Springfield. Since we have been here many times before, this was just going to be a "stamp-and-run" stop. But because the visitor center wasn't open yet, we walked over for a selfie in front of the house while we waited.

Wagons Ho!

Our main purpose for this trip was to box up the last of R's family mementos and bring them back with us to CA. I guess we could have shipped most of the stuff, but how exactly do you pack antique samurai swords? That's not exactly something that we'd trust in a checked bag either... 🤔

So, since we had to drive cross-country, I was very excited to map out a route to visit several national park units on our one-way trek, especially because the ones in the middle of the U.S. require some intentional effort for us to get there. For the most part, we will be following the Santa Fe National Historic Trail from Kansas City, MO to Santa Fe, NM, with a few detours in Kansas over the next week. 

Head 'em up! Move 'em out! 

Slam Diego

Last year I traveled to Orlando for a conference, and as a bonus, I got to see alligators and manatees at Canaveral National Seashore. This year's conference was a little closer to home, so rather than suffer in traffic on the 5, my colleagues and I took the Pacific Surfliner train to San Diego on Saturday instead. Amtrak business class is totally the way to go!

After arriving at the Santa Fe Depot downtown, we took the Green Line trolley ($2.50 in the Pronto app) to the Seaport Village stop near our hotel. Then we headed across the street to grab lunch at Kansas City Barbeque, which was used as the location for the "sleazy bar scene" from Top Gun.

Maybe this pic will ring a bell...

The Bear

Have you seen FX's "The Bear"? The show has garnered a lot of positive buzz of late, receiving several nominations (and wins) for the Primetime Emmys (10 for Season 1), Golden Globes (3 for Season 2), and upcoming Screen Actors Guild Awards. We were a little late to jump on the bandwagon, but after recently binging our way through both seasons on Hulu, count us among the fans of the show. 

Why?

1. It's set in Chicago, more specifically an Italian beef sandwich shop in Chicago. The main character, Carmen "Carmy" Berzatto (Jeremy Allen White) is an award-winning chef who comes home to run the restaurant he inherited after the suicide of his older brother. Besides his brother's debts, he is also left to deal with both a kitchen and a staff that are dysfunctional. 
2. Food. Given that the show is about a restaurant, and Carmy and Sydney (Ayo Edebiri) are trained chefs, the food itself is essentially another member of the cast. Everything they prepare looks amazing!

Several of the locations in the show are actual restaurants in Chicago, so we decided to take a "foodie field trip" around the city to try them for ourselves...

Stamp On

In my post about our trip back to Illinois last September, I blogged about trying to earn the Silver Master Traveler Award from the National Park Travelers Club by visiting at least 35 units across 5 regions and collecting 75 stamps minimum in 2023. Sadly, R's dad passed away just two weeks after we saw him in Chicago, so the rest of our fall travel plans were put to the side as we grieved our loss and settled his estate. The four of us returned again in November to celebrate his life. 

Then R and I both got an early Christmas present (COVID - ugh!), so the last few weeks of December were spent recuperating on the couch instead of visiting parks and getting stamps.

2023 final count:  31 units | 5 regions | 79 stamps