Last night I came home to find this on our living room wall:

Kt found these maps that she had collected for her classroom and started marking out our trip in pink sticky flags. So exciting to see a large, paper version of our plans. Obviously, we've only gotten to San Francisco thus far. The return trip is still in the works.
This weekend my goal is to get hiking boots and a coat/jacket; Gander Mountain here we come! Too bad we don't have one of these nearby. Any suggestions for relatively inexpensive yet high quality gear?
Confession time: I don't have massive amounts of camping/wilderness experience. I've definitely had my fair share of roughing it and camping and rafting etc, but never at the Grand Canyon in the middle of the summer with myself as one of the "responsible adults". So many things keep running through my mind that we need to get or read about or research. I'm really looking forward to just sort of experiencig thing as they happen, but then I get the "second guesses"and the "unprepareds"and my mind begins its flurry of activity again.
I started googling weather conditions, hiking trails, tips etc. (google=wealth of knowledge at your fingertips, right Dana?) and found this pretty helpful website. I'm sure there are many more out there. So for those of you experienced wilderness adventurers, what kind of advice can you give us? If you have any suggestions for gear, places to visit, tips, checklists, books, websites, leave a comment for me.

Please pray this doesn't happen to us! The Worst!
Also, (FYI) if I ever figure out to set it up, you should see some ads on this blog. For every click/visit the ad gets I think I get like, $0.003, so help a girl out and click away (maybe I'll make $0.63 to go towards gas!).