Warren Family 2017 Road Trip

Today marks our last full day of our trip.  We decided to end our trip one day early for a couple of reasons.  Our planned last night (Thursday night) would have been at Lake Sylvia, which doesn't have much there except the lake.  Since it isn't hot and likely has lots of mosquitoes we decided that was one we could skip.  The second reason is that we are ready to be home and back to our comforts.  It is bittersweet for sure, and as always the transition back to reality will be tough in some ways.  We have had so much fun, and lots of really solid quality family time - which we so desperately needed!  We definitely had our ups and downs, but we all decided to end on a good note and head home on the 19th day. So on our last full day, we slid (and ran) down some dunes,     played on the beach,   stopped and had lunch in Cannon Beach,    and made our way up 101 into Washington,    and to Grayland State Park.  They ca...

Good news - we noticed very few mosquitoes when we woke up, and no rain!  We built a campfire to keep the bugs away, and had a leisurely morning.    We headed out to our next destination around lunchtime and found a small bookstore/restaurant in Newport where they had delicious homemade bread and pasta.   Next stop was Devil's Punchbowl, which the kids thought was "boring," but Chad and I loved it!  And we seem to have found the sun!       Of course there was a stop in Rockaway for this:   And then a random Wizard of Oz mini golf game.    Henry is in Glenda the Good Witch's castle, and Lilly seems to be in Oz.  This wouldn't have been complete without a windmill-like bubble machine created from 9 previously broken smaller bubble machines (or so the owner/creator told us).  He numbered all the golf holes with Roman numerals to "give the kids a learning experience while they were on summer break."  He rode around on the...

The thing about the fog is that with it often comes this drizzly stuff that just gets everything wet. That's what we woke up to.  Not exactly spirit lifting.     Even with the drizzle I still managed to build a fire - kinda proud of myself!   After awhile it started to clear a bit and there was this!       And this!   The kids happily rode their bikes around all the loops in the campgrounds checking for license plates from all over the country.  So far in the last 16 days we have seen vehicles from 31 different states! Then, since we were traveling at a more leisurely pace, we had time to go to the nearby botanical gardens and stop and smell the roses.   The kids had a rousing game of hide-from-their-parents.  Can you spot the kid?   Caught the blue blur trying to get away.   Then I made them pose for a picture.     The gardens used to be property of the Simpson family (not Marge and Homer), and there was one rem...

This is our view from our campsite.    This is the view if you're willing to take a 5 minute walk from our campsite.   Notice anything?  Not a human soul as far as the eye can see.  And this is at 10AM!   Waking up to hammering and power sanding - not to mention the elaborate set-ups RV's had (we're talking plants, extensive tables and chairs, comforts for their pets - you get the idea) - made us think there are some people that live here full time rather than a stop for one or two night camping.  We would not recommend the Turtle Rock RV Resort for a road trip stop as it was a bit run down, and we would say that a nearby state park would be the way to go. That is if you can plan well enough in advance.  But it was a place to sleep, and I got a beach run in.  Just me and the turtle rock in my happy place.   We were excited to have a leisurely paced day so we started on the road.  We stopped at a used book store in Gold Beach and got...

We woke up to a balmy 87 degrees, and took full advantage of the hotel pool.      We were happy to leave Redding at 10:30 when it was already 100 degrees, and forecast to be 112 that afternoon.  We got on highway 299, and drove through the Shasta Trinity National Forest - passing through towns with populations like 182 and 32!  I wondered what people do to earn money in a town that small.  Most of the businesses seemed to be around rafting down the Trinity River.  This is what the terrain was like for most of the drive through the national forest.     We drove by a sizeable mudslide! After the long (and pretty) drive through the forest, we reached highway 101 where the temps were more bearable in the mid 60's.   Remember that sigh of relief at seeing the Pacific Ocean?  Well, that happened again, and you can see why!     Until next time, California!   Hello Oregon Coast!   Now on to our "accommodations" for the n...

It was another night of good sleep.  I could get used to this!  We had talked about leaving by 10:30 AM because we knew we had our longest driving day ahead of us - 5 1/2 hours without traffic or stops.  We knew there would be some traffic in the Bay Area (surprise, surprise!) so we wanted to try to avoid some of that.  I wanted to run before a long day in the car, and I had heard about a route with some beautiful views.  I figured if I left by 8:30 I would have plenty of time to run and shower before 10:30.  Best laid plans... Here's what really happened...  I started out on my run along the main road to a dirt road turnoff. I ran up the road for about a mile where I encountered a gate and two hikers from Norway.  Posted on the gate was a sign saying that beyond the gate was private land on both sides of the road.  There was an opening on each side of the gate to walk through.  It appeared that the road was closed to cars but not pedest...