day 9: woke up and had decadent breakfast at some place (?) that changes countries every so often--their sign, menu, and some of the decor all evolve accordingly. on this particular day, the country was venezuela. i got some whole wheat french toast with raspberry sauce that was delicious. we walked around a little, heading back for left-over lunches, then back out to sight-see around the queen anne area. it was very quaint, lots of boutiques and antiques, and a pretty fantastic record store (see my photo album and look for the phone booth listening stations). walked down the steepest hill in all of seattle (thankfully gehn knew of this and we took the bus up it), back for a nap while (i think?) the boys played video games. fraxl came home, and we headed out for fantastic italian food--i had a dirty martini, and was overjoyed to find a (new) drink i can actually handle; i'm such a picky drinker. after dinner we walked, went to (?) for the best coffee (ironically not at seattle's best coffeeTM), played connect four, and called it a night.

day 10 was all spent in transit. we said our goodbyes (thanks again for everything j&j!), took the bus to the airport (SEA-TAC almost undid my airport anxiety--clean, small, friendly. no panic-attacks! hooray!). also: all good things to say about frontier airlines. i was quite pleased with our flights (layover in colorado--we saw the rockies from the plane, and i sang john denver to myself), other than our loss of 3 hours we gained from time travel, and 1 hour lost to stupid daylight savings time. arrived in orlando, where we were greeted with balmy heat, rude drivers, and booty music. seriously, it was like florida was trying to show its worst side to us. i was grumpy, even a little depressed to be back...until we got home and saw the babies! puppies and kittens make up for bad weather, hands down.

returning to work on friday was rough--i left early, totally jet-lagged, and spent the weekend re-cooperating. i dreamt wildly every night since i have been back in the house. it's strange. by sunday i was finally back to normal: we saw thank you for smoking, had a nice dinner and went for a bike ride. still, coming back has been sort of surreal.

if nothing else, this trip has solidified our move (early spring 2008), the desire to travel more, and the desire to make the most of the place i'm at for the time that i'm at it. i can't wait to see the next few years unfold...so many exciting changes and experiences.