It started as a disagreement: Disney World, or a trip to see the National Parks. The Parks won, but then, another disagreement: a road trip down the West Coast, Seattle to Los Angeles, squeezing in Yosemite and Redwood National Parks (and, OK, Disney Land too), or stick to the offerings in just Washington and Oregon. What resulted was a trip of a thousand memories and absolutely no regrets: a road trip bookended by a flight into Seattle, WA and a flight out of Portland, OR. In between? 1,136+ miles, nine days, five Airbnbs, four National Parks, two mountain ranges, one Pacific Ocean, and seeing some family for the first time in seven years.

After every exciting day, night, week, weekend, whatever — Karen will always turn to me and say, "What was your favorite part?" We will compare memories and churn over the recent events, sometimes sharing the same favorite moment but other times each treasuring something different. I think I can speak for both of us when I say that it quickly became clear in the beginning of the week that picking one favorite part of this trip was going to be damn near impossible.

And I was right.