Road Trip

we decided to finish the summer with a road trip. a long, long road trip from la to seattle AND back! for a grand total of 3,200 miles. kristen, danny, jason and i packed up the car with abigial & sebastian (the pups) on thursday (august 7th) and headed out. i know i am behind...i was totally overwhelmed by the length of this post. it is as long as the trip...ENJOY!

visualize this, the back of my SUV packed to the roof with luggage, snacks (do you wanna pop tart?) and cameras. kristen behind the driver's seat, me in the middle AND the pups behind the front passenger seat for 4 hours. the pups enjoyed a week vacation at jason's parent's house. kristen has a picture of it...i will post it eventually. seriously...ridiculous. the pups are clocking in at 45 & 55 pounds. YIKES...that's a lot of dog!

after we dropped the pups, we cut over to the 5 and didn't stop until we reached weed.

WEED/CRATER LAKE
first night quality (inn). weed was the first night on the road. we beat the sun, barely, we pulled in at 4am. we crashed but were up early heading towards crater lake. seriously...just look at the pictures. crater lake is incredible. i don't even know if the pictures do it justice. crater lake was our stop before we jetted the rest of the way up the 5 to seattle.










SEATTLE
we arrived late friday night in seattle. we decided to hit the sack early and take advantage of our full saturday! it was packed like the car, full, with a trip to the market place (saw the 1st starbucks), the space needle, shopping, a baseball game & a special treat for me getting to see my cousin (who lives in colorado) in seattle (perfect timing maxine)! our finale in seattle was sunday morning exploring the underground city. then we hit the road...










Mt. RAINIER/PORTLAND
mount rainier was an amazing addition to our road trip. incredible waterfalls, breath taking meadows & snow in august! stunning.
portland...it's pretty! we arrived pretty late in portland. did i mention how much driving was involved in this vacation? just know we arrived late...a lot! we had a tasty dinner on the 30th floor of a bank building. the view was fantastic but i think we were all so sleepy we failed to capture it on camera. we didn't have much time in portland because we had plenty of driving to do the next day. we have decided we will have to fly back up to explore this pretty city!







ASTORIA/CANNON BEACH/OREGON COAST
goonies anyone? astoria and cannon beach are the two main spots that the movie goonies was filmed! my bro, jeremy, lived in astoria for a few months while filming a tv show (check out ax men on the history channel) & helped us locate some of the goonies hot spots! thanks jer! i am totally in love with the goonies movie. was one of my total favs growing up. "HEY YOU GUYS!"






CRESCENT CITY/REDWOODS
our recommendation choose quality (inn) over comfort (inn) every time. we had the ummm...pleasure of staying in crescent city at the comfort inn. we were welcomed to a special smell & trap door in the ceiling. just imagine the movie VACANCY! let's just say we didn't take our shoes off while walking around. in some of these smaller towns we stayed, the accommodations were not exactly what we were expecting.

the redwoods were gorgeous! we had the opportunity to stand, climb and drive in & on the redwoods. please note, no trees were harmed in any of the listed activities. at least not by us!









SAN FRANCISCO
thank you priceline! we were able to stay at a 4 1/2 star hotel for less then our night at the trap door motel! the beds were just like being at home. we spent two nights in SF and were spoiled with a sunny, fog free day in the city. which more and more i am coming to realize they are few and far between because the second day...not so lucky. our days were jammed packed with a great meal in north beach, a trolley ride, double decker bus (DON'T do it! our tour guide was CRAZY!), fisherman's wharf, shopping, the presidio, a great dinner at pier 39 & limo ride around the city! thank you jim, kathy & tim for coming to dinner with us. it was a blast.











MONTEREY/ATASCADERO/SLO
Before we hit the road to monterey we made a pit stop at grandma ruthie's house (jason's grandma). thank you for letting us come by ruthie! it was great to see you again.
the last stops on our trip. monterey dazzled us with it's incredible aquarium & tasty claim chowder. if you have never seen the aquarium in monterey it is worth a trip. jason's mom & dad graciously let us crash at their house for our final night away. (thank you so much patti and craig for watching the pups and letting us have a place to stay) we had hoped to make it to the farmer's market on thursday night but let's just say hwy 1 took a long, long time! friday we checked out gum alley & of course added a piece, my grandparents old house in slo & got some great sandwiches. that night we loaded up the car, with the pups & headed home! Oh i almost forgot our half visit to hearst castle!









thank you for a great trip kristen & danny! jason & i both hope this will be the first of many, many more to come!