Carbondale, CO

We had a lovely time spent with Rose (Dad's mom's sister). It was very low key which was exactly what we needed -- some TV, pizza and hanging out. Pramod and I are really enjoying spending this time with family (and unrelated friends) and getting to know them all better. It makes me realize how important and easy it is to do so. I'm going to have to remember this lesson as we head into our busy lives. Visiting doesn't need to be extravagant, just a connection.

Driving and Las Vegas

I guess we were a little ambitious in our plans. This was our plan: leave San Francisco in the morning and drive 8 hours to Las Vegas (we at least made it that far!). Then spend a couple of hours there before driving the 10 hours straight to Carbondale, CO starting at almost 1 am. There weren't enough hours for me to sleep before Pramod needed to stop driving so I had a very hard time and we ended up sleeping for a few hours in the car at a gas station. We're only about 2 hours later than we had planned though, not too bad.

We've caught up with the winter though. Utah had some snow on the ground at the rest stop but now we're driving through what looks like the badlands again and there's no trace of snow.

Las Vegas! As Pramod says: "It's like being on a different planet". In India, that's what they think America is. I liked the music playing on speakers on the street so that even in walking from place to place it is like a big party. However, I wouldn't want to live in a city with that.

We had allowed $20 eac for gambling. Slot machines aren't too interesting and we don't know how to play anything else so we quit without spending that much.

We saw lots of Elvis, showgirls, a superman, batman, and Kiss. All very showy stuff. Anyway, it was fun and impressing. I'm glad we made our way down there to check it all out.

On our way

Our return journey began Thursday. We had a pretty uneventful flight home and we were met by Jon (grandma's brother) who was holding a sign that said "Becca" on it. We had a nice relaxing and welcoming day and night with Jon and Kathy. Aunt Nancy also came to visit early today and it was great to see her again. We all spent the day chatting, hanging out and preparing for the upcoming dinner.

Strange things about coming back to the mainland:

- It felt weird to be driving on a real highway where people go fast!

- The temperature wasn't cold--certainly not any colder than the chilly Hawaiian nights we were having up on the coffee farm, but the air felt crisp. I'm glad we're going to have a coupld of days of fall before heading off to winter.

A problem with Hawaii is that it never freezes and it is often very wet. Without freezing, even just for a couple of hours in the night, there's no period of hibernation and killing of bacteria and it feels like things never get really clean. Maybe that was due to the accommodations that we had but I'm realizing that I really do like winter.

- It was really weird getting into our car and it felt like a distant but familiar memory.

Dinner last night was great. I spent a while talking to Devon (mom's cousin), playing with her kids, and playing music with Mark. I'm glad my violin was still with me! What a great night it was. We have both really enjoyed all the time we've spent with the Searles clan. Very fun and loving people. Good to finally meet them.

This morning we left really early in order to get breakfast with Katherine in San Francisco. We met Katherine on the first farm when we were in Hawaii. We don't know when we'll meet again b ut it's good to know we have another friend waiting for us in California.

Now we're off to Las Vegas for the night. GPS says we'll be there in 8 hours!

Realization

I realized something great today. I want to go back to school to get my masters in accounting. I just need to do it. Here's how I found out:

I had an awesome weekend with Monica and her friend Shane who moved here int the last couple of months. He has this idea to get a grant from the government to start an avocado farm and visitors center. He says that there are over 100 different varieties of avocado on this island and he would like to have taste testings, raw food and vegetarian cooking classes, etc. He said he has all he needs except for someone to deal with the money. My initial thought was: "what a cool idea, I want that to happen and I would love to deal with the money for that!". And I would!

While this avocado thing may never happen or it may but I may have no part in it, I think my true colors showed themselves. I like math, money and organizing things. I just needed a cause that I'm interested in to call me to it (unlike my accounting teacher at the tech who used to work in food sales... boring!). My next move: Boston to get my masters in accounting!