Rush Hour

It's just crazy to me that we're halfway through the 7th month of 2018. July has been full of fun and surprises (like Lorelei breaking her arm on July 4th -- more on that later). And, you guys...I'M ACTUALLY ENJOYING SUMMER. I know, I know; it's uncharacteristic of me. I think the fact that the three oldest can swim and Ruthie is no longer a baby needing two naps a day (and it's the first summer in two years we haven't MOVED) has helped make this the first summer with kids I've found fun.

This is just a quick post because I feel guilty that my "Good Habits" app is telling me it's been 15 days since I last posted. So I'm going to randomly share with you a little about life in California's Central Valley, because this post has been in my drafts folder for months, and that's too long.

We live on the Navy base in Lemoore, CA, and when you exit the base you have to drive for miles and miles through desert-like terrain -- but with FARMS lining either side of the highway -- before you get anywhere. (But you have to drive EAST. You won't find anything if you go north, south, or west.) There are mountain ranges visible ahead of and behind you (unless the air quality is bad that day; then you can't see much of anything). I've never lived anywhere like it.

Lemoore is a town of 26,000. The next town over due east, Hanford, has the closest Target and Walmart (population 55,000). Visalia is a very nice town even further east of Hanford, population 133,000, but it takes a lot for me to drive 45 minutes for ANYTHING. Fresno, the closest big city most people have heard of, is north-ish of Lemoore, 45-50 minutes away. Population 500,000, with the closest zoo and an "international" airport (barely, it's difficult to get direct flights out of Fresno to anywhere, except maybe Los Angeles).

It's simultaneously close to nothing and everything. We're 2-3 hours from so many amazing places: Sequoia National Forest, Yosemite National Park, the Pacific coast, San Francisco. It's a little further to places like Disneyland, Los Angeles, Monterey, and San Diego, but much closer for us than for most people living in the U.S.

People complain there's not much to do here, and about the hot weather, and about the bad air quality, but we've settled nicely into life in Lemoore. After living in D.C. and Austin, it's been a nice change for us. We rely heavily on the services/amenities offered by the base. We don't eat out much, or get take-out, because there's nothing close enough to make it convenient. And we BASK in the fact that there is NO TRAFFIC. Literally. When we were driving home from the marathon a couple of months ago we experienced the closest thing to traffic Lemoore has to offer:

Seriously. We were stopped at a stop sign, surrounded by farms, waiting to turn right. Chet said, "Looks like we've hit rush hour."

Happy weekend, my friends!