VENTURE A HIGHWAY

Here’s a big question: If “home” is where the heart is, then which is home for us ~ Ecuador or America?

I guess the only real answer is both. When we’re here, Cuenca isn’t only where we live our daily lives, but it’s also where we feel most at home with ourselves now. We’ve built a great new life, surrounded by friends we enjoy tremendously and deeply care about. Yet still, the minute we spill off the plane into the States, there’s an instant sense of belonging. We’re in the home so deeply ingrained, it takes only minutes to step right back into its rhythms as if we’d never left. 

This trip back, though, was unique in that we didn’t go straight to back to places most familiar.  We were on our way to a special niece’s wedding in California, a state we know much about, but had never been to. It was the perfect excuse to “play tourist” and do a little traveling.  

We stayed in Pasadena, taking the few days before the nuptials to explore the local sites. We covered the usual ~ Beverly Hills, Hollywood, and the Santa Monica Pier. Jeff also visited a cousin’s alpaca farm. Then it was off to desert-like hills outside of the city to the exquisite Hummingbird Nest Ranch for the wedding. A truly California fairy tale.

But what did each of us just have to see in California? We were limited in time and scope, so for me it was the coast and Carmel, a charming town where a long-ago roommate hailed from. For him it was Yosemite. So with hotels already booked and GPS on the dash, we set out in our comfy Buick Lacrosse rental and got on the way.

The first day we drove up the coast to Morro Bay, landing a room right over the water. There we ate the first of many seafood dinners, looking up at the looming Morro Rock.

The next day we cruised up the gorgeous coast, music blaring, feeling quintissentially California free and easy. Hearst Castle wasn’t to be passed up, so we stopped and enjoyed one of its tours for a couple of hours. We ended up in Santa Cruz for the night, but not before a brief stint in Carmel.

The greatest highlight was the next day at Yosemite. Awe-some. Unfortunately that’s a word I tend to overuse, but incredibly apt here. The majesty of El Capitan and the Half-Dome cliffs seen from Glacier Point in the park left us speechless. There are no words to capture how tiny and humble I felt surrounded by all that natural beauty. How lucky are we? we said to each other. How lucky indeed.

But that wasn’t it. The next day we stood, staring WAY up at the Generals Sherman and Grant, the largest trees by volume in the entire world. We were in Sequoia National Park, being blown away yet again by this fantastic “home” we come from.

At this point, our home in Ecuador seemed light years away. We were about to embark on the second part of the trip - back to the northeast in Connecticut and Rhode Island we’re we’d grown up.  Stay tuned for a little taste of that journey...

And how about you? Where is “home” for you? Where is your heart?