It’s nice to be back…but also weird. Going from being completely alone in Nature for hours at a time to having constant noise and people around. Wowsa. The drive was long (duh). My wonderful car, Ginny (yes, as in Ginny Weasley) made the 2400 round-trip trek with nary a problem! I’m so proud of her. It’s the longest she’s driven. I gave her a fancy bath at the Car Wash today and she seems very pleased with herself now. She’s showing off in the parking lot now.

It’s been a bit of a challenge to wind down. I’m more tired today than yesterday (got back Wednesday night), but I’m taking it very easy. I want to be truly refreshed and relaxed when I go back to work on Monday (or, rather, as much as possible) and that, of course, meant not working or even doing work email in my two off days in town. I think I’m finally getting to the point where I can close my eyes and NOT feel like I’m still cruising down the freeway at 80 MPH.

I have, however, managed to upload all of my pictures on Flickr; just follow that link and look in the Columbia River Gorge and Sequoia National Park groups. There’s probably over 500 pictures, though, just so’s you knows.

 I’ll post some directly on here in the next few days along with some stories about them, but I haven’t decided which ones to use yet.

But just to tease you a little, here’s one shot of one of the stags I saw while in Sequoia. I have tons more, and I’m not sure if this is the best shot or not, but here it is anyway.

There were 3 of the stags together, so that was pretty neat. I also have pictures of the three bears (sans Goldilocks, dunno what that bitch was up to) who crossed our path on a hike. VERY SCARY…but neat. 2 cubs and a mama bear. Needless to say those pictures aren’t as clear cause I didn’t want to get too close.

I’ll be back soon with more pics and more stories!