My friends baked the perfect cake as I left the city that will forever have my heart.

With my apartment cleared, my mom wrote an itinerary and we drove from Chicago, Nebraska, Colorado, Utah and ended in San Diego, my new home.

Ma met my dog for the first time, we saw a perfect rainbow in Estes Park, encountered 101 degree heat, watched Stand By Me, picked apples at an orchard, I grieved, we laughed, I cried, and promised to return to the Arches in cooler weather.