Coming home for vacation

We've been back in southern California for a couple of days now and it's been a delight! We've discovered though that we've become like the hive people in "I Am Legend" - we're almost allergic to the sun! Who knew that the sun could be so bright! It was so fun to drive down the I15 to Temecula on Saturday morning. Our old hometown looked very much the same. A few changes here and there, but it felt like being in a pair of comfortable jeans as we drove through town.

As we drove thourhg our old neighborhood, we saw our old house. That launched a wave of melancholy. The new owners have seemingly done nothing to it or keep it up after it sat empty for nine months. That was a bummer. We were stunned though by the number of homes in Temecula that are for sale and how many are bank repos. The real estate market has truly crashed here. Fortunately, the Taco Shop has survived. The burrito al pastor that I had and the little bite of Shari's carne asada burrito confirmed that all was well with the world.

It's been so good to see our friends. The kids are in heaven! We've hardly seen them and I think that's how the rest of this vacation is going to be. I don't think we'll see them again until we leave on Wednesday morning. Saturday night gave Shari and I a chance to have dinner with wonderful friends. We laughed and laughed all through dinner and afterwards. It was so good to be together again. Here's the gang after dinner:


Guess which one of the women pictured should have her picture on the awesome Phil Hendrie Show's "Wall Of Female Listeners?"

We cherish these friendships. There's not much better than the joy of these friendships and the memories that we have. It was really wonderful to be able to celebrate those friendships further as we attended our old ward today. It was great to see everyone again. We were home.

Has it been strange to be back? No. Is it sad? Frankly, yes. Last night, as we sat around the table in the restaurant, as sat next to my wife, looking at the six other couples that were there, I felt an almost tangible sadness. Sad that we weren't there anymore. Sad that we had moved. But that sadness is balanced by a continued sense of knowing that our move to Chicagoland was the right one. I still have that confirmation, but I can't help but wonder what it would have been like if we had stayed....