Handcrafted by Rachel: Things That Go on in a Thousand Mile Car Trip

Greetings, fellow Earth-dwellers. You've probably been wondering what I've been up to since my last post (was it really back in November that I last posted...?). Well, one thing my family and I did recently was to take a vacation to Delray Beach, Florida!

Our new minivan was much easier to pack than our old car had been. (I had a lot more stuff than you see here when my parents picked me up from college earlier this month though.)

Yes, that's a lot of stuff... 5/31/16

Pile o'stuff 5/31/16

The cameraman. 5/31/16

Another pile of stuff... 5/31/16

5/31/16

It's funny how your small pile of stuff at the beginning of a trip has a way of expanding into a vicious car monster by sometime in the middle of the journey. Things would randomly fall on top of those of us sitting in the backseat.

5/31/16

Our first stop of the trip was the North Carolina Welcome Center, after about three hours of driving. The sign said "No Pets Allowed", but we brought Esther in anyway.

5/31/16

I told her to smile for the camera, and this is what she came up with. 5/31/16

Lopsided baseball cap on the kid. 5/31/16

As I was eating up some leftover spaghetti we'd found in the refrigerator that morning...

...it gave me an idea for these new and improved song lyrics:

Real song 5/31/16

We arrived at the Florida Welcome Center early on the second day of driving since we'd stopped for the night near the state line. But we still had another 6 or so hours of driving ahead of us.

6/1/16

The Welcome Center welcomed us with free samples of orange juice and grapefruit juice. I think it would have been more welcoming if the glasses they gave us were bigger.

Esther and her free orange juice sample. 6/1/16

6/1/16 (photo credits: Diane Van Tuyl)

The Welcome Center dolphin. 6/1/16 (photo credits: Diane Van Tuyl)

There was a photo booth at the welcome center, where Esther and I took this charming self-portrait.

Actually, if this really happened, you probably wouldn't see me later... 6/1/16

6/1/16

Esther was absolutely thrilled that I got to drive for some of the trip (sarcasm alert!). I kept us in one piece, more or less, and through a set of skillful maneuvering skills, I managed to keep all of my passengers wide awake.