Truth or Dare

Truth: While I love living here, there are some times I really (REALLY) miss the east coast.

It doesn't happen often but I do have pangs of regret that we moved so far away (though most of the time I just think it'd be nicer if our country wasn't so wide! hehe) I was flipping through my Preservation Magazine the other day, reading the ads in the back, and it struck me that we live SO FAR AWAY from so many of the places that we a) wanted to visit or b) wanted to go back and visit again. No plantations out here. No vacation drive to New England here. No easily planned trip to Philadelphia or New York or Savannah here. I recognize it's just a change of scenery because we do have a lot of untapped trip taking/history finding resources here. I'm just not familiar with them all yet. Definite easy trip to Vancouver/Victoria here. Easy day trip to Seattle. Vacation drive down the 5 and/or PCH here. Easily planned trip to Vegas or LA or Portland or any of the "big" national parks here.

In truth, it's not that we have less to do it's just that we have different things to do. We're also expecting our Big Life Changing Event (ie the baby) soon so we're not really thinking about taking trips right now, more like finding storage for baby clothes instead. Also, I'm in two weddings this year which (having finally sat down and calculated air fare, car rental, hotel, etc) will be felt for quite sometime in our pocketbook region (though so totally worth it for both!) - local is better for us.

Truth: I miss driving to WV/PA to visit family.

I saw an ad on fb for Sarris chocolate and it made me think that last Easter we were up visiting his parents. (We stopped by the Sarris factory/store for a treat coming back from Pittsburgh one day.) I don't miss the small bed pushed up against the popcorn wall that we slept in or the late nights getting back but I really miss being able to visit family for the weekend. We're pretty close to my parents here (well about 2xs the distance we were to Craig's) so it's not like we never get to see anyone but it was nice to be able to load up the car, leave in the early am and get there before dinner. It was nice to see everyone there and to explore Craig's old stomping grounds with him as a tour guide.

Unfortunately there's not really any middle ground when it comes to our families. If we're close to one, we're far from the other. They live on opposite coasts and Craig and I don't really want to live in TX and split the distance. :) Luckily, both sets are healthy and able to visit and we both want to travel to see everyone once the baby's big enough and we have enough money. Sadly, we wanted to take a trip to Chicago and see some of the family this summer (his grandpa who doesn't fly and my grandma who's in a nursing home) but we've realized that the weddings are going to cost too much for us to do that this year unless I stumble into a really well-paying job. I haven't had luck finding ANY kind of job so we'll see about that! I'm not too worried though. If not this year, definitely next year! :)