Finally made it to Gardnerville on a little two day trip... not quite the three day West Coast extravaganza planned by my instructor and I. The airplane was finally fixed and we were able to get off the ground. Although our time in G-vil was short, it was great to see my parents. When we landed in Minden, I took my mom and dad for a ride around the valley. It was a pretty short one, maybe 20 minutes or so, but they both had a lot of fun. Dad said the landing was the best he'd ever had in a small plane (this didn't say much for his brother who has been flying for years!). He was proud, and in turn, that made me very proud.

My instructor, Brad, got the whole small town treatment. The night we arrived we went to dinner at the J.T. for a good 'ol fashion Basque dinner. We had intended on just four of us, with the possibility that Cathy and Jim Simpson would join us. They did, and so did four others. We had ten in all for dinner. That's what happens in a small town. You show up and find out there's others there you should be having dinner with. It's just the way it goes. Brad thought it was funny. The next morning, we had breakfast at Sharkey's, another local's spot. It was a nice time.

On our way home, we flew up over Lake Tahoe and over to Monterey, CA. From there, we headed out over the Pacific and flew down the coast to Santa Barbara. We stopped there for some fuel and a quick lunch and then headed home to Vegas. It was a nice day.

Beth and I are going to try and fly to Palm Springs next Saturday and meet my parents there. I still need to build a little more time before the end of the month for school, so I have a great excuse to take these little trips. And I love it!

Our friends Brad and Kanako moved into their new house yesterday, just down the street from us. We are really happy to have them nice and close. It's good to have old friends down here.