Leaving for home today.  Keep us in your prayers as we pass the Sierra Nevada and Rockie Mountains.  Hope to see the salt flats and Salt Lake City today or tomorrow. 

Where did we even leave off?  Its been an amazing trip.  Both of us are tucked away with friends and family for a week.  We hit the road again on Monday.  Here are a few highlights.  Check under, "What we packed" in the next few days as I will add a mortifying tidbit about all the STUFF I packed.  For now, we drink deeply of the sights and sounds, even the different air of far flung places.  Did you know that LA has different air?  The Grand Canyon has different air.  I don't know what it is, but you can smell it, feel it, breathe it.  The air of each locale is unique.  Love it.

You know you're in Texas when....

The Canyon and Charlie

 The Grand Canyon

 Ice on the canyon trail.  Ice?  You kids want to hike down that? Deep breathing.

Camping in the snow. 

Life in the middle, half in Nevada and half in California.

On the road again

This morning we leave for the Grand Canyon. Everyone is excited and the moms are bracing for the cold. Writing and posting pictures is a challenge because we can barely see the photos on our phones and the icons are tiny. I'm sure we're posted pictures that we're blurry.  Sorry about that.  Wi-Fi is also a challenge. I'm guessing there won't be data coverage from the canyon. We'll probably post again Saturday on our way to LA.  Here are a few random photos for your Thursday. 

Albuquerque

Petroglyph National Monument: got busted for letting the kids climb rocks.  Petrified forest beautiful at sunset.

Snow?

We were planning to camp tonight, but when we pulled into the campground the road was frozen and snow on the ground.  This is Gabi booking us a room. Call us wimpy and call us a pizza. Albuquerque, we're here.

San Antonio

We had lunch at Chuy's with Bill Fawcett's sister and niece, Aunt Marilyn and Ann. Then we went to the Alamo. It was awesome. Then we went to the Rivers Walk for ice cream. A lightning storm was expected with heavy rain, so instead of camping we drove several hours toward New Mexico in fabulously gusting winds.

Fawcetts in Dallas

This weekend the Reczeks and Fawcetts spent time with family and friends. We had burgers with Great Aunt Sarah and Uncle Jay.  Here's a photo with Aunt Sarah.  We stayed with Jim, Julie and Jillian MacManus.  Here's a photo of Margie with Julie.

So long, Louisiana!

We packed up the car for the second time in four days - it was a little easier this time - and stopped at Cafe Du Monde one last time on our way out of town -

We then took a shorter (but closer to the water) bridge back across Lake Ponchartrain.  We took the scenic route out of Nola so dam could see the Superdome.  We made our way north and west across Lousiana, finally getting to Texas. 

We met up with Margie's friends in Dallas. The Reczeks and the Fawcetts said goodbye until Monday.  We (Reczeks) had a late dinner before finally arriving in Ft. Worth (staying with family). 

Plantation Tour and New Orleans

Finding time to blog is harder than I expected!  Now that we have all the kids in bed, we are sorting through all of our belongings again and planning to pack up at the crack of dawn.  Here are a few highlights from our day today.

Beignets and Chickory coffee at Cafe du Monde.

Driving to New Orleans across the Lake Pountchartrain on the Causeway, the longest continuous over water bridge in the world.

Destrehan Plantation Tour

Resurrection Plant on 200 year old Live Oak

Gator bites, frog legs, crab cakes and fun at the French Market.

Off to Dallas tomorrow!

Blue Bayou

After a leisurely breakfast of beignets we headed over to Dr. Wagner's Honey Island Swamp Tours -

The trip down the river and into the swamp was magical.  The cypress trees with the Spanish moss (it's actually bromeliad) is enchanting.  

The "camps" are really cool, too.  

Those are wild boars. The came when called and feasted on marshmallows thrown from the boat!

We had a late dinner of gumbo, shrimp creole, catfish and shrimp po boys, red beans and rice, and fried catfish.  It was delicious! We finished the evening with a local mom and pop frozen custard, Bop's.