Red: It's Been Awhile...

Alright, so Luke left the past few weeks to me. Let's see what I can fill you in on.

After we left Salt Lake City (that's SLC for all Luke's hipsters), we headed to Las Vegas for a few days before a week-long vacation. We got all our ducks in a row and we parted ways. While Beth, Janis and Gordy headed back to New York/Pennsylvania, Luke and I went to explore Ventura, California.

We didn't know this when we actually booked our hotel, but Ventura is actually called San Buenaventura (for all you non-Spanish speaking folks like myself, this translates to Saint Bonaventure). This means that everywhere we went, we saw all sorts of Bonaventure stuff, like a mission church...and...

Saint Bonaventure high school. There is NO escaping Bonas. Ever. You can be clear across the country and still be reminded that you have to go back eventually. Not that I want to at this point.

Anyway, Luke and I had a cracker-jack time in Ventura. We went to Anacapo Brewing Company to watch a few world cup games. I was filmed for a California beer festival commercial with Burt the Bear. I bought a USA soccer jersey, even though we lost, but I still love it.

We discovered the complete gorgeousness of the Pacific Ocean:

tapas and the difficulty of surfing.

Then we got back to Vegas for Freedomfest. We immediately found that the battery power had run out during the week we'd left the bus and everything in the fridge was...a huge, disgusting smelling mess. That, and there was very little air conditioning - problems that haunted us for the next few days.

Luckily, we were attending Freedomfest and staying at Bally's that week, so that didn't really drive us too crazy. The convention was good. It's safe to say that we all learned from it, made a ton of new contacts and...a new friend.

Miranda worked at the booth next to ours, and Vegas would not have been the same without her. We walked forever trying to find Chinese food, played penny slots and had one hell of a Vegas night that was originally supposed to involve cheap wine, Elvis and prohibit boys with mohawks, but it involved tons of other things instead. And it's also safe to say that none of us minded.

Due to the air conditioning problems, we were stuck in Vegas for a few extra days without our favorite person. While we waited for the bus to be fixed, Janis, Beth, Luke and I went to Auburn, California in the van to attend a tea party meeting.

The bus didn't find its way back to us until Saturday.

As a bit of an adventure, we went to San Francisco, and that's where we are now.

Friday night, we went to the Haight-Ashbury area, which I loved. I'm really hoping that's where we end up tonight, too.

I didn't really love the hotel we stayed at that night, though. I wish I'd taken pictures. It was very...interesting.

I do wish, however that I'd taken pictures of the Triton hotel. It was so artsy and random and fun, I could have lived there. Plus, they had Dr. Seuss books on the coffee tables. Those could entertain me for hours.

So we've seen a lot. We drove over the Golden Gate Bridge and I sang the "Full House" theme song. ["Crazy Aunt"] Meg came yesterday. We wandered around Mission Street and found Rogue Brewery where she and Luke tried to see who knew more about beer.

So I think that about covers it. I promise that we won't deprive you of the Legos for that long again.

Next on the agenda is possibly Sacramento and Reno, NV. Back to the blistering heat, but hey, at least the air conditioning's fixed. Stay tuned, sports fans.