We tried to hang onto every little moment since we knew that our week of freedom was coming to an end. We wanted to take this trip to enjoy a week of freedom before wedding season began. We wanted to be refreshed before we jumped in with both feet. So as the last hours counted down on our clocks we lingered a little longer at every stop than we normally would. We took an extreme deep breath of fresh air at every photo stop and made sure to record every memory mile by mile.
The last major thing we did was to visit the lava beds in Northern California. It was completely amazing. 100's of lava tubes run under the ground from all the volcano eruptions in the area. What's left? Caves! Eddie and I grabbed our flashlights, Lucy and our cameras and headed deep into the underground. If you haven't been in a cave then it's hard to explain what it's like. Every cave I have ever been in has a very distinct kind of air. It seems cold, but very thick and almost moist...no matter how dry the cave actually is. The darkness soaks up every ounce of light and swallows it. The flashlight that would normally give you confidence now seems like a small match compared to the infinity of black. It's a very serene and completely humbling experience.
We traveled through the caves like kids set out on the loose. It was the perfect ending to an amazing trip. We left as a family and came back as a family who felt like they could conquer anything. It was completely great.
We are now ready to start a very busy season with fresh ideas and a relaxed perspective.





This is such a strange picture. Eddie and I were starving, so we pulled over to eat a bit of crackers and brie. We took some photos of the city and then turned the camera on ourselves. With our shutter set to 30 seconds we had to sit perfectly still. So there we were in the 30 degree weather and Eddie is snickering in my ear while trying not to laugh. We have this horrible habit of busting up laughing whenever things get awkward. This was one of those moments. We later saw the photos and realized that we look like we are sitting on mars. So strange!







These were the sweetest horses on the planet. They wanted to cuddle with Eddie so bad. We had to stop and have a chat with them. We had to.





It helped that the sun was working it that morning too. They were hard to resist.





This is inside one of the lava caves. The entire cave is all lava, so what you see in this photo is exactly what it looked like as it cooled.



Our adventures were so different that day. We went from desert caves to snow?!



Inside the cave there were these mounds of ice that formed from the dripping water. We stuck a flashlight behind them to illuminate them.



The sky was super fierce that day so Eddie shot hundreds of photos trying to capture the amazing movement.











Lava chunkage.



I love this photo.



I have always wanted to see petroglyphs....and now I have. I just fell in love with this site.