driving on the road is easily one of my favorite things to do. especially when it's the road less traveled. i've always done it by myself, but this time, matthew did it with me. it was excellent.

i think most people would think taking a 4 year old on an 11 hour road trip into the middle of goodness-knows where would be ... the wrong thing to do ... but i'm here to say he did it like it was genetics at play.

without going into the details and history of route 66, i'll say this -- it's infinitely more interesting than traveling on the interstate. and the 4 year old agrees. during our trip we encountered crazy storms, shady outhouses, awesome burgers, and haunted houses. what more could you ask for?

and the finale was also most excellent -- destination beach -- including a homey bed and breakfast with down feather-beds. sa-weet! at certain points i was almost misty-eyed. almost. here is the overview:

here is a photo set from matthew:

and just for fun, here is a panoramic montage of the storm we were running from: