In which I plan too many things before leaving, have a reoccurance of childhood motion sickness, get good news, and have cheese for breakfast.

The pictures included are a very small selection of amazing pictures that I took. The majority of them are up on Facebook, and visible to everyone, so you don’t even have to be my friend (although, you know, why aren’t you?). Sorry to those who aren’t on Facebook, if you complain a lot, I may try to upload more to Photobucket, but it’ll take a while.

Prefacing the trip, part of the reason I was very quiet online before the trip was that work was crazy busy. Between getting ready to leave and figuring out what needed to be covered while I was gone (I made check lists… and instructions), I decided to hold a March of Dimes Penny War Week. The walk was Saturday the 29th, so I made sure that the deadline was the Monday before to allow time to roll the coins and get them all deposited and make the online donations (to the 4 people walking for my work) before I left. Totally plenty of time right? Well, this Penny War became a pretty big thing, so much so that I had people calling me when my hair appointment on Monday went late, asking when I’d be in to count the coins. It went well, though, and we raised about $140 in a week.
Tuesday was kind of hectic at work though, due to me getting ready to leave and other things going on, and it became almost impossible to roll coins, so I didn’t get to the bank before it closed. Instead, I woke up early on Wednesday to do it before we needed to leave for the airport. Because of this I had to rush to get the donations done Thursday morning in out hotel in Carmel. Next year, I will plan better.

So, we drove down to Orlando, which I’m only even mentioning because I took a sneak peek picture of my new, aforementioned haircut.

This one is the only one I have of it in its non-windblown, perfectly coifed state. I kinda love it. It’s very red again (as will be seen better in other pictures) and it’s in an asymmetrical bob with the front angled longer than the back. It’s the first really “edgy” haircut I’ve done and I’m very happy with the way it turned out.

Anyway, this is a travelogue, not a hairlogue so back to the trip. We left from Orlando and had a stop in Denver before carrying on to Monterey. Shortly before we landed in Denver, I started feeling really motion sick, which was odd. I know I had a problem with it when I was a baby, but in all my years of going back and forth to PA and across the ocean to England and back, I’d never had a problem with it. Before anyone thinks about asking, though, no, I’m definitely not pregnant, as my very well timed period assured me when we returned home. When we arrived into Denver, we had a short time to get food and nothing was appetizing me, so we walked half the terminal before going back for McDonald’s (for Chris) and a turkey and brie pannini and salad for me. While I was there, I checked my voicemail and got a call from co-worker Alex who called to let me know that our show had gotten its official board approval at the community theatre in Gainesville and that we’d be opening the season in the fall. Woo! It’s all official-like, yay. After food, we got on our flight to Monterey and the motion sickness got even worse, but I managed to make myself feel a bit better with ginger ale, Sprite, and looking out of the window a lot. I was kind of awestruck by the mountains, especially as I never really thought of California as very mountainous before (hey, geography was not my strong suit).

We touched down into Monterey, which felt delightfully homey as airports go. It’s a small, regional airport and reminded me both in size, in style of landing (it’s nice to walk off a plane and onto the tarmac) and in dated 70′s decor. After getting our bags, we picked up our convertible (a steal I found on Hotwire) and set TomTom up to take us to our hotel in Carmel. We worried about TomTom a few times on this trip and this was the first. TT was taking us through very windy, very residential streets and yet telling us that our hotel was mere miles away. We didn’t trust it. We thought it was leading us to serial kill central, but in the end, our trust was rewarded and we got to our hotel, where the lovely check-in lady was waiting with a smile and cookies. Seriously, if you’re going to Carmel, check out the Carmel Lodge, it’s pretty darn adorable. Seriously, check out the adorableness (click to big up):

When we checked in, we got dinner and breakfast recommendations from the lovely desk lady and for dinner we found the closest thing we’ve ever seen to a pub here in the states, which did awesome food in addition. For breakfast, we went to Katy’s Place, which is apparently “A Carmel Tradition®.” Chris and I got breakfast dishes that truly personified who we each are.

At the top, you have Chris’ breakfast, all mixed up together (and soon to get even more mixed up). At the bottom, you have Crystal’s breakfast, pretty, pink and perfectly separated. Otherwise known as Corned Beef Hash and Potatoes vs. Cheese Blintzes and Fruit. Both were pretty tasty.

After checking out, we were on our way to California One (Amy… I made sure we listened to The Decemberists early on in the journey) to head down to L.A to meet the Annika clan.