After spending some time with family in northern Florida, we headed west again through New Orleans (still a mess, although the Cafe Du Monde’s beignets were terrific), Texas (amazingly vibrant, and home to some of the best barbecue I’ve ever had), Roswell, New Mexico (exactly like the TV series set, sans actual aliens), Flagstaff, Arizona (where I finally saw the Grand Canyon!), Las Vegas (mind-blowing, especially taking Neil to see the Blue Man Group at the Venetian), then finally… home.
31 days on the road, over 9,000 miles, more cities than I can count, and more amazing things seen than I’ll be able to process for a long, long time. I took over 2,200 pictures during that time, shot a boatload of video, and heaven knows when I’ll ever be able to organize or edit it all down to something reasonable.
A vacation is meant to take you away from your daily life, with all its cares, and let you see something new and refreshing. This vacation certainly did that.
This is an amazing country, and every part of it has something special to offer. I know I spent a lot of time daydreaming about what it would be like to move out to different states, whether that meant soaking in the fresh air, open land, and beauty of Wyoming; living in the midst of the rush and excitement of Manhattan; or setting up my own spread outside of Houston.
But maybe the most unexpected insight I had this whole trip was that Silicon Valley may be exactly where I ought to be. There’s a lot of things about the Bay Area that drive me crazy, and a lot of things that I miss from when I lived in other places I’ve lived, and envy about the places I’ve seen…but as a whole, for me, for this point in my life, I think I’ve chosen a pretty good home, all things considered.
And for now, at least–even with piles of laundry, and hundreds of items in my In Box, it’s good to be home again.
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