Advertisement
I woke up early before everyone to get a work out in. I ran outside through the Bothell suburb of Seattle. Surprisingly there were glimpses of home in Seattle. A country village with an enormous statue of a chicken in front of it. After I finished running and stretching, I yelled at the kids and my hubby to start getting ready. We had a long day ahead of us.
The kids growled and so did Tim, but eventually everyone was awake, packing, and heading down to breakfast. We intended to leave by 6:30, but it was more like 7:30 when we finally hit the road. Being north of Seattle 7:30 is not really a good time to leave. It was the start of Rush hour. Rush hour would test our brakes with all the stop and go's.
We made our way down from Seattle to meet up with the I-101 a very scenic route, but probably 2 hours longer of a drive. The kids at this point after days in a car started to get irritable. The hierarchy of our family took over. Devin yelled at Issac, Hannah yelled at Issac, Issy yelled at Issac,
and even Issac yelled at Issac. After awhile the tensions lifted and the kids settled down. Truthfully they have been way better behaved than at home.
After a short episode of fighting the car became quiet. Suddenly someone loudly yelled, "What is that stench." Odor filled our 7 passenger minivan, as one of the children began to giggle like a school girl. Hannah yelled, "Devin" and we were reminded of our Mexican food last night for dinner. We will call this Montezuma revenge.
We drove for 4 hours to reach the border on not a scenic route I-5. As we enclosed on Oregon you could see a large lumber yard on a river and massive piles of timber. It was very startling and impressive at the same time. On our way down you could see the areas of clear cutting. A horrible practice of cutting down entire forests. As we made our way to the Oregon side we drove up a mountain. Suddenly the view changed to an ocean view. We stopped and the sun began to shine. The view was absolutely magnificent. I grabbed my phone and got a wonderful shot of the
kids looking out at the ocean. They seemed so happy.
After driving down the mountain we reached a town called Astoria where I had wanted to stop and see Sea lions or were they seals, not really sure. I saw the sea lions on the pier spread out, but it was too late to stop. Tim was not turning around. He was a man on a mission.
As we made our way down the coast on the 101 I would ask the kids if they wanted to stop and see the ocean. We stopped a few times to take in the beautiful view, but only for a moment as the trip was slated to take 14 hours. Curvy, cliff side roads would lead to sleepy seaside towns with slow speed limits and a different way of life. There were so many parks that peppered that landscape it was hard to decide where to stop. I wanted to see wildlife if possible.
After 7.5 hours Tim declared it was lunch time. We stopped a short distance from a Whale viewing town. My hope was to see Whales. Issac replied, "Whales, mom we
are no where near Wales." Oh Issac! There was a brisk breeze on the cliff side rest stop/park. It was cloudy, drizzly and dreary out now. All you could see in the ocean was a coast guard helicopter attempting to rescue someone. Here Tim wanted to change drivers at this point, but I was reluctant to drive as I remember how terrifying the road is from our trip in March. After my pouting Tim drove. Looking back I feel awful about not driving.
We drove, drove, drove, drove, and drove for hours. Everyone was starving at this point, so the McDonalds drive through it was. We ate our chicken nuggets and something that resembled hamburgers as we closed in on the California border. We had stopped 4-5 times to get views of the coast and ocean. I saw a sign in the distance as I tried to keep my eyes open. It said California. I clapped loudly as the kids stared at me and said, "Mom!" They were enthralled in the Iron Giant and I was interrupting their movie.
From the California border we had 3.5 more hours until our destination of Eureka. The
drive was beautiful. It would show cliff side ocean views and then ramble through green beautiful countryside eventually reaching our first glimpse of those giant trees. Tim was reminded of our recent trip here in March, which inspired our vacation. The trees were mammoth and the roads became dark as the trees blocked out any rays of sun that existed. Some of the cliffs were terrifying and I felt we could fall to our demise at any moment, but we kept trucking along.
Approaching Eureka a small herd of elk stood eating in a pasture and the ocean waves crashed loudly on the shore. At some point in the last hour I dozed off. When I awakened we were finally in Eureka. The hotel was called the Best Western at Bayshore Inn. It was a very neat hotel close to the elk river basin and Humboldt bay. It had a separate room for Tim and I, which made the kids grateful as Tim snores. I felt horrible that Tim drove the whole 14 hour trip, but grateful I did not have to take on the cliff sides. After this day we would stay put for 3 full
days of rest before we embarked back home.
Advertisement
Tot: 0.097s; Tpl: 0.018s; cc: 12; qc: 31; dbt: 0.059s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.1mb