Tuesday, July 26, 2011

The Last Road Trip

I guess this really wasn't the last road trip we'll ever take with our kids (I hope!) but it's the last one for quite awhile.  Unless you count the one next month when we load up the car with all their important belongings and then leave them (belongings and kids) behind at BYU.  I don't think that one counts. 

There is so much to see in California and I can't believe we haven't made more of an effort to see it all.  We decided to drive through the redwoods since we've never taken the kids there before.  As it turns out, all our kids really look forward to in the car is sleeping, listening to music, texting friends, and getting to wherever we're going.  So much for enjoying the journey!  

I was really excited to see this because I remember it from when my grandparents took me to California when I was young.  (Around 8 years old, maybe?)



The car really did fit through the tree but the picture is on my phone and I'm too lazy to transfer it to my computer.  Although if Google+ would play a little nicer with my blog I could get some other pictures on here.

After the Redwoods, we ate dinner at the Samoa Cookhouse in Eureka, spent the night in Crescent City, then drove to I-5 to continue our journey.  

Portland was great.  It was a little rainy, which surprisingly hardly ever happens when I'm there, but it was so nice to have cool wet weather in July.  We enjoyed the sales-tax-free shopping, and enjoyed even more the dinner with my brother and his girlfriend who we don't see often enough.

The next day we did more shopping in Portland, stopped at Multnomah falls, then drove to Pendleton to buy some wool fabric at the Pendleton Woolen Mills.  Ashley found some wool she liked and it was all on sale for $7 a yard so now I have tons of wool and a long list of projects.  At least I won't run out of things to sew any time soon!  If I get her coats done in the near future I'll post pictures.  Hopefully I can get at least one of them done before she leaves.  

Our next stop was Walla Walla.  We had a great time with my parents.  We went to the Sweet Onion Festival, saw Hairspray at the Fort Walla Walla Amphitheater, ate fresh raspberries to our hearts content, celebrated my grandma's birthday, and had the world's best milkshakes from the Ice Burg.  What more could you want from a vacation?  

The drive home was more direct and less eventful.  Our only side trip was to Voodoo Doughnuts in Eugene.  If you've ever craved donuts covered in cocoa puffs or grape tang, that's the place to go.  We came home to warmer weather, work, projects, lists, and the final countdown to college.  The kids have some fun things planned in the upcoming weeks but I think I just get to spend the time worrying about all the things I wish I'd taught them.


Puzzle-Piece Pattern

“It’s not the writing part that’s hard. What’s hard is sitting down to write.” -Steven Pressfield, The War of Art I’m c...