Back at the house, trip recap

Today is our second day back from our big Christmas and New Year's trip, meaning it's the first day where we're somewhat in sync with everything. We stumbled out of the gate a little: I forgot to set the alarm clock for this morning, and LL hopefully messed up something too so that I don't look like the only slacker. But before we get too far along in the New Year, I thought I might summarize all that Team Daigle accomplished over the past two weeks.

Just a warning...we watched High Fidelity last night, so I keep thinking in terms of lists. Sorry. Maybe you can read this in John Cusack's voice, though that's sortof pointless since he has as indistinct a voice as I can think of. Here goes...

1. We brought the Xterra to a body shop for repairs and got a rental car to get around in (note that damaging the Xterra by trying to run over a Prius has not been listed as an accomplishment).
2. Drove rental car to auto parts store to get battery and windshield wipers, and installed them on the Jetta.
3. Drove Jetta 2,200 miles across country.
4. Between Dec 24 - Dec 27: a) replaced Jetta's cracked windshield, b) got Jetta inspected in Texas, c) got Jetta registered in Texas.
5. Left Jetta with LL's Dad in Dallas and flew to Laguardia via Midway.
6. Had awesome New Year's in Brooklyn.
7. Flew from JFK to SFO, where we caught the BART to the Caltrain station, where we caught a train to Palo Alto.**
8. Unpacked and washed all our clothes.
9. Returned rental car and got Xterra back.
10. Took down Christmas Tree, yet again recovering all 24 glass icicles (boo-yah), 6 strands of lights, etc. Hacked tree in half per curbside pickup requirements.

** While technically correct, item 7 is a gross simplification for the utterly painful experience that the BART laid on us. The whole two-week trip, up to this point, was smooth. Flights on time, no line at the Travis County Tax Office to register the car, very little road construction considering the mileage we covered, etc. I guess we should have known what was coming...the travel gods never let you off this easily. Well the last 15 miles of our around-the-country trip took more than 2 hours. I blame the following two things: 1) an unforgivable lack of signs explaining that, as of Jan 1, 2008, the BART would no longer go from the airport to the Caltrain n station, and 2) ...well, I guess the signs are the only problem, but it was so egregious that it just seems like more things.

Anyway, all in all, we rode in cars, planes, subways, half-assed subways (stupid BART), trains, and airport trams. I'm a little sad that we didn't take a ferry in NY since that would have really rounded out the list, leaving only obscure things like pedi-cabs, horse-drawn carriages, litters (which would be sweet), space shuttles, etc.