American Stash

A quickie, to show I haven't forgotten my blog...

When we were away, I only managed to do a little bit of stash shopping, and this is, pretty much, what I got... Not much, really. But, I had limited luggage space, and lots of other exciting stuff to do!

I only saw one dedicated scrapbook store on our trip, and that was closed. When we drove by the next day, I did point it out again, but it fell on deaf ears... So, the things I did get, were from stores on the high street - they were pretty good, and covered lots of different crafts. One had fabulous fabrics in, more than we generally get in dedicated fabric stores here. Oh, if only I'd had more time, some more dollars and some more luggage space...

California - Part One

So, you worked it out, then? I spent the last two weeks of June in the good old U.S.of A. Specifically, driving Route 1 from San Francisco to Los Angeles.

And, to quote my Facebook staus - "It was AWESOME!"

We first had the idea for this trip of a lifetime last year, when we decided to sell our VW camper. We decided that, if Mark got a new job, and there was enough redundancy settlement left, and the van sold, then we would book a BIG TRIP... Well, the stars aligned for us, and just after Christmas, we booked our trip.

Now, this was a huge decision for us. We usually camp in Cornwall. We hadn't even been abroad for 5 years, and that was 5 days at Disneyland Paris. And here we were, spending a huge amount of money on a holiday!! But, do you know what? It was absolutely the right decision for us, as a family. Lou has now left school, and starts college in September. So probably won't want too many more holidays with us. And Phoebe is old enough to appreciate the trip. And we now have a catalogue of memories. On the way home, Phoebe told me that "It was the best holiday, ever!" And she was right.

So, how am I going to document this? Well, I did a bit of journalling pretty much every day, and I'm going to put together some sort of journal/scrapbook/mini-book of our trip - it's a bit of a loose idea at the moment. I'll let you know how it's coming along over the next, days, weeks or months...

But, for the blog - I think I'll jump right in with some photos from the first part of our trip.

Our plane...


Our local streetcar stop (we had the pretty streetcars)



Chinatown.



Golden Gate Bridge.



Golden Gate Bridge and San Francisco.



One of San Francisco's hills.



Leaving San Francisco.


Our first view of the Pacific.

Wondering where I've been?

I'll be back soon, with news from my road trip... promise.