TRAVEL BLOG

26 days on the road was very challenging with 3 kids, but we made it a ton of fun!!

We started our trip in Grants Pass, OR looking for homes and found a few we fell in love with!! We will be going back there soon to purchase, we were just getting a feel for the area of town we wanted to live in, etc...

We then went to our friends house in Redding, CA. They just had a baby, so it was great to meet her and see them again. We did get to see them this summer up at their 150 year old mining cabin in the Trinity Alps, during our July adventure.

Then we moseyed our way down Hwy 395 through Reno,NV and all the way down the East side of the Sierra Nevada mountain range, some beautiful area there. One of America’s great scenic routes for sure. You drive right by Mt. Whitney, and a bunch of little forgotten towns that had their heyday during the gold rush.

We took the scenic route 163 through Death Valley – Gorgeous colored clay mountains (reds and greens and blues and purples of every shade – amazing!) One of the tours we took was called “Artist's Pallet” if you could imagine what that looked like. We also loved the history of Death Valley. with the mining and gems and pioneers paving the way to the West. We even found a little town of 50 or so (that’s what it said on the sign) called Darwin. He LOVED it - a lot of mine shafts covered with dilapidated shacks and some make-shift houses made up the whole town. Most had broken down trucks and mining equipment in the front yard, and some had wonderful reclaimed material sculptures. It was pretty cool, like a living ghost town.

Then we stayed that night in Las Vegas. We walked around the strip until about 2 am with the kids – they had a blast! Ended up staying in a cool casino called Treasure Island – with a pirate theme and 2 full size pirate ships out front. It was across the street from the Venetian, which was like going to Italy – so cool!

After about 5 days of traveling we finally made it to Goodyear, AZ where Ken’s parents live; just SW of Phoenix. This was our destination. We had a nice extended visit with them. His parents mustered the energy to take us to a local World Wildlife Zoo – it was really a great collection of animals, more like a wild animal park than a zoo. Peacocks running all over the place – the kids fell in love with them, and I did all over again. They are my favorite animal - so it was a treat for me. It was hard for Ken leaving his parents knowing that it will be forever before we see them; it was bitter sweet, since we were itching to hit the road towards home.

This was just the 1/2 way point on our adventure – we covered so much more after this....

We went to San Diego Old Town and Balboa Park and Air and Space Museum with a great special exhibit of Da Vinci’s inventions in working interactive replicas. AWESOME!

Then we stayed with good friends in Carlsbad, and luckily had a wonderful warm day at the beach (it rained almost everyday of our whole trip – it followed us). We spent Darwin’s birthday at Legoland – which was perfect perfect for him :-) It was nice to be back to our old favorite places. When we lived there for 5 years we went there a ton.

We then went to Riverside to meet up with my old high school buddies, that I haven't seen since I had kids, so it was so good to meet their families and see them again.

Then we met my cousin and her new baby in Norco, and had a very brief visit with her. Next time we will make a point of taking a few more days to catch up. It was great to see her as a first time mom, and so fun to witness her in action.

Next we surprised Darwin’s godfather in San Francisco at his new café. That was funny. We also did the Fisherman’s Warf and Ghirardelli Square which the kids loved, of course :-) We didn’t manage to take the trolley cars though, it would have been $50 for all of us to take a round trip ride – the prices tripled since we were there last, and we just didn’t have it in the budget – bummer, but we will be close enough in our new home to go there for the weekend, so another time, for sure.

After that, we took the scenic route to Mendocino, one of our favorite places in the world. It is a great Victorian and modern mix of houses right on the cliffs – gorgeous vista views right on the rugged Pacific coast. It is a really unique little artist colony that we spent most of our honeymoon at, so it has a fond place in our memories. It was really special to share with the kids.

We next drove through Ft. Bragg, and the Mendocino wine country stopping at a few really small yummy organic wineries. One of the tasting buildings we went to was designed by Frank Lloyd Wright, so it was neat to stumble upon.

We then took an out of the way dirt road tour of the coast through the Humboldt Redwoods – so worth the time!!! And of course took a few hikes along the way. The kids loved climbing on the fallen trees – and I got to admit, no matter how many times I have been to the Redwoods I am utterly impressed and struck with awe.

We spent a day in a little victorian town called Ferndale that has a great kinetic sculpture museum and a hilltop cemetery that is right out of a Tim Burton film - best views in town.

We then made it to Crescent City, the North Redwoods. The significant part about this place is the Trees of Mystery – you hike through the oldest trees in the state and can take a Gondola Tour over the forest. AMAZING! They lined the hiking path with chainsaw carvings depicting the story of Paul Bunyan – they are really well done and it was fun to walk through – they were huge, by the way.

We then took an inland scenic route following the Smith River to Grants Pass, through parts of Northern CA that we haven’t seen before – and loved it. It was so much fun checking out our future stomping grounds, making plans to see certain areas again for quick getaways.

When we got back to Grants Pass we spent a few days shopping around for new listings and really getting a grip on the town layout and surrounding communities. But by this time we were really ready to get back home and bee-lined our way back, very few stop-overs.

I have tons of pictures and plan to put a travel blog together, I will be posting pictures here as I find the time.