Destination: Family

^ In case you can’t tell what you’re looking at, this is a shot looking down on Gracie as she lies on the couch, where she patiently lay as her one-year-old human cousin covered her back leg with stickers. 

Though there’s much to be said for an ambling circular ramble around the countryside, every Streicher Family Road Trip has a defined goal.

And ninety-nine times out of one hundred, the goal is family.

We are West Coast transplants; the rest of our extended families live east of the Mississippi; most of them in Michigan and Ohio.

And now even our second-born lives in Ohio.

So after our four-day 2400-mile road trip across the country, we pulled up, hopped out, and walked into our loved’ ones’ open arms.

^ Gracie knows how to work the pillows on my daughter’s couch to make herself feel right at home. 

Specifically, our visits involved:

Hanging curtains, potting plants, and building furniture for my daughter’s apartment.
Browsing bougie plant stores.
Adoring Gracie as she flounced around every house she entered as if she were the queen of each castle. .
Marveling at my brother-in-law’s best-ever grilled flank steak.
Taking Gracie for dips in the neighborhood duck pond

And yes, watching with delight as my little grand-niece made friends with my big furry dog.

These are the moments for which we traveled all those miles across the country. And every single inch was worth it.