It’s nice to ease into the swing of blogging regularly again now that I’m home on the East Coast and still sort of recovering from the time zone change and from diving back into working from home so quickly following my very recent week-long venture/vacation out to the West Coast- which I had briefly discussed and detailed prior to my departure flight last Saturday morning.
Given that I’m beginning a mandatory 14-day quarantine ordered by the State of Massachusetts to all residents returning from any out of state travel- I thought I’d spend this week detailing the three legs of my trip: Nevada, my mini road trip through the desert to California, and wrapping it up with a recap of my time in San Diego and Carlsbad before I returned home. That way I can share my photos and adventures without my post(s) dragging on for too long. We’re all keeping busy these days, after all!
I think a lot of people (particularly co-workers) who had initially heard I was heading out to Las Vegas without knowing it had been where my best friend Kelsey had lived for many years thought my days would be spent gambling at casinos with social distancing protocols enforced and my nights would be spent walking the strip with cheap drinks- and while those things do admittedly sound fun- my actual time in Nevada was thankfully much more laid-back, quiet and calm- and spent in the comforts of air conditioning with some of the people I love and cherish the most.
Kelsey’s husband Andrew had been kind and gracious enough to let me stay with him and their children at their beautiful home on the outskirts of the city the first few nights of my trip- prior to our individually heading to California to meet up again at a family friend’s beach house. I hadn’t seen Andrew or his daughter since last May when I had visited for Mother’s Day and to see a concert with Kelsey in San Diego. At the time, she had been in the early stages of pregnancy with her son- so finally getting to actually meet him for the first time was wonderful.
Both kids are beautiful, happy and healthy- and they look so much like Kelsey- which was really comforting since I have been, and continue to, miss her very, very much. I have SO many photos and videos of our time together- playing outside in the shade after dinners when it cooled down a little, making “funny faces” with Snapchat filters- or trying to capture first crawls and first words (I think we have “dada” recorded a few times- so it was a success!) but there’s some of my favorites from those first initial days in the desert.
And I’d always known Andrew to be a wonderful, attentive and loving father- so for him to not only give his children the absolute best but to also go above and beyond for me as well while I was visiting with homemade meals, doing my laundry when I was too preoccupied with playing with the kids- or with watching movies during their respective nap-times and sharing much-needed wine and fond memories of Kelsey with me was even more poignant given I know how difficult these past few months have been for him. He will always be family and I can’t praise him enough.
By the middle of the week, it was time to pack up the bags and the kids and head out into the desert for the long drive to California- but I’m going to get to the sightseeing I did and the roadside oddities I encountered a little later on this week during my “Part II” of this series of posts.
Until then, I gotta’ catch up at work and with my sleep schedule since I still feel like I’m on West Coast time!
xo
Coffee & Chiffon 