Our house in the middle of the ....: 2300 Miles in 6 days....

We successfully arrived in Palm Springs airport only an hour late and drove as far as we could before we stopped at one in the morning….the kids were very patient with us. It was 30 degrees in Palm Springs! We stopped at Thousand Oaks, California just past LA, in hopes to miss the LA morning traffic the next day. This worked perfectly and we left after a morning swim with Starbucks coffees in hand.

After picking up the Landcruiser right on time from Karon in San Luis Obispo, the kids had the whole truck checked out in about 5 minutes and were experts on the sunroof. After filling gas…dropping off the rental car at the airport…we were off on our cross the USA adventure.

The drive down the California Coast was a super winding road and we averaged a whole 30 miles and hour….great view! We stopped to see the Harbour seals just past Harmony and shortly after we stopped at a roadside Market that grew strawberries and artichokes and bought ourselves a flat of strawberries for our trip…..were they ever sweet!

Our next stop was at Marina, California….a smallish town on the coast. The stop was quick but the hotel was very nice and the kids had fun…we had supper at “Franscisco’s” Bistro, a great little bistro that was recommended to us and just happened to be an award winning restaurant….it was excellent!

We then headed out for an 11 hour traveling day beginning with the Golden Gate Bridge. The kids were tired by the time we pulled into the Redwood Forest, however they spent their time in the truck watching movies, drawing, playing license plate bingo, and giving us a play by play commentary of Randy’s driving through winding mountain roads. We spent the night in the Woodland Villa Cabins in the Redwoods.

The next morning we wandered about a while before driving through a 15 foot wide tree whose top measures 90 feet, and the branches coming off it measure up to 164 feet tall, it is over 750 years old!! Unfortunately, it was really raining out and we couldn’t hike much as it was slippery and the path was really rugged. We then headed out on the coast once more stopping to see the ocean as the tide was coming in rather quickly…or should I say quicker than we thought. Everyone but Julia got wet feet as we ran in to the beach. The waves were huge and the water freezing!

After collecting rocks and driftwood we piled back into the cruiser and went out for breakfast in Crescent City with wet, cold, feet. We followed the Redwood Forest though mountain passes for a long time in awe of the amazing huge trees that made us look tiny! The trip then took us on the I5 up to Roseburg and stopping at Cottage Grove, Oregon for the night. Our evening at Cottage Grove was fun. The room included a room with a separate livingroom/diningroom, a garden courtyard, and a pool/hot tub area. It also included supper in an excellent little restaurant with a bottle of wine and a bottle of sparkling apple cider for the kids, breakfast in the morning , as well as a couple of movies, popcorn, candy, and toys for the kids!! They couldn’t be happier! They even got a deck of cards for the road trip!

We bought a couple of tires for the new truck in Oregon and apparently saved a considerable amount of money ($150/tire!!). It snowed there, yet we still dragged ourselves to the whirlpool outside. After searching for the Chapel we were married in, we checked several places around town and finally went to city hall and discovered the Chapel was sold as a house and had now become a little run down. However, we saw it, and took our pic on the corner of it….trying to leave out the Chapel/house as it was a bit of an eyesore.

We left in the morning bound for Spokane, Wa. We headed east out of Portland, for Multanomah Falls. With a little stop there, we were back on the road again. We pulled into Spokane just as it was getting dark. We played in the pool for quite a while ... they had free cookies at the check in counter, mmmmmm.

Morning found us originally trying to make it all the way back to Crossfield. Boy were we optimistic!! We crossed the border by Laurier, Wa., and were on our way with all the paperwork done in less than 15 minutes!! We pulled into Cranbrook, and decided that was far enough for the day. A brand new Best Western hotel, with a water slide was all we needed. They had a snowfall advisory for the area in the morning, and we woke up to a white landscape, just to drive to Canadian Tire to pick up our canoe that was waiting for us (half price, thanks Darren!).

Heading east out of Cranbrook, it really started to snow. Jacque realised that not only was her husband incredibly handsome, but really smart as well for getting the new tires!! Banff found us mostly out of the snow and ready for lunch.

Home by 4:00 and the kids ran to play at the neighbors, as Jacque decided that she needed a little more time with the cool guy. So we added an extra 1.5 hours to our day to go north and pick up the dogs.

All in all it was a great trip, no hassles at the border, great vehicle, great family to do it with, maybe we will plan another one.....in a little while!

....Cool Guy only got lost twice..... or should I say in his words "....just a little turned around"