Our Move to Corpus (in pictures) Part 1...Days 1-3

On July 26th, we left Whidbey Island, Washington and began our move back to Corpus Christi. I guess its true that you never know what you have until its gone. Washington wasn't my favorite place, but it was a heck of a lot better than South Texas, and given the choice between here and there, I'd chose to move back to Washington in a heartbeat. I guess over the course of three years, I came to love a lot about the area, and I made some wonderful friends while I was living up there. Now its time to start all over, once again, in the place I consider to be my own personal hell on earth...welcome back to Corpus Christi, Texas!

DAY 1 - July 26, 2011

(all packed and ready to go!)

(Welcome to Oregon! For anyone who is freakishly observant [I would notice this], yes these are the same clothes that we're wearing by the "Welcome to California" sign a few pictures down. Thats because this picture was actually taken as we were leaving Oregon, not entering it. We stayed in Portland for our first night on the road, and the exit to our hotel came before the welcome sign on the interstate. When we left the hotel in the morning, we entered the interstate just past the welcome sign. It would have taken too much time to turn around and get the actual welcome sign, so we just took it on our way out of the state. For the sake of chronological order we're going to just pretend this was actually taken on our first day on the road :-).)

Day 2 - July 27, 2011

(Voodoo Donuts in Eugene, Oregon...the main location is in Portland, but the one in Eugene doesn't have a 2 hour line every day, making it much easier to access for people who don't have all day to wait in line for donuts. Check out the Food Network if you've never heard of Voodoo Donuts.)

(the signature Voodoo Donut)

(proudly displaying my box of Voodoo Donuts)

(Crater Lake National Park - Thomas loved that there was still snow on the ground in July, and I have to admit that seeing snow in the summer is something I'm going to miss in Texas [or for that matter, seeing any snow at all]!)

(Crater Lake)

(Thomas and me by Crater Lake)

DAY 3 - July 28, 2011

(Grants Pass, Oregon...we have no idea what the Intergalatic Headquarters of Bigfoot is, but since people in the Pacific Northwest are generally a little obsessed with Bigfoot, we had to add this picture to our growing collection of Bigfoot pictures from the area.)

(Great Cats World Park in Cave Junction, Oregon...We didn't know what to expect from this place since it was a last minute discovery, but it was very cool, and I highly recommend it to anyone passing through the area. Its not a zoo, and its not a sanctuary. Its a place where big cats [i.e. lions, tigers, jaguars, etc...] are raised and then trained for movies and photo shoots. Thomas thought it would be necessary to bring one of our cats into this picture with us.)

(African Wildcats, which look like regular cats, but apparently they can tear your entire body apart in minutes. The one on the right is a cloned cat, and the one on the left is her daughter. I have mixed opinions about cloning, but having never seen a cloned animal before, I thought this was kind of neat. She's 5 years old, and apparently very healthy.)

(A tiger performing for the handler and getting his reward.)

(The tiger eating his reward)

(A White Tiger)

(I think this guy was a jaguar if I remember correctly, and he's roaring on cue. All of the cats could roar, hiss, swipe [without extending their claws] and stand up on cue...they were obviously all very well trained! I can't even teach my normal house cats to keep their claws in when they swipe at things.)

(Welcome to California!)

(sunset near Crescent City, California)

More to come....!