...So after the shower Thursday evening, we loaded up the car and traveled to salt lake where we stayed the night with our good friends, Brian and Anna Johnson.
Friday - We got up early and I fed Kalianna while the three of them got the car loaded. Then we were off! Kalianna did so great in the car! A lot of people thought we were nuts for taking a three month old on a long road trip, but she did fantastic! We took it slow; stopping every 3-4 hours so I could feed Kali and everyone could use the potty and stretch legs. On the way there, we took a longer route so we could drive along the coast. Beautiful drive! But I'm getting ahead of myself. We stopped in Susanville, CA Friday night and enjoyed the hotel's swimming pool after being in the car all day. Kali really enjoyed the pool too! The water was pretty warm and it was an indoor pool so we didn't have to worry about the sun getting in her eyes. We ordered a pizza to our hotel room that night and watched movies while we ate dinner.
Saturday - Again we got up early and I fed kalianna while the others loaded the car. Isn't it great how I had an excuse to get out of all the work? And in case you are wondering (since babies require tons of stuff to travel) we borrowed my parents suburban for the road trip. So great for traveling! We made the same feeding/potty stops along the way and headed up the coast to our destination in Lincoln City. One of the things I loved most about the trip was we took it easy and did whatever we wanted without any real set plans. In my opinion - the best way to travel. We were driving along and Matt saw a sign for some hiking trails so we pulled over. We went on the most beautiful hike I have ever been on! The trail went for about a mile through a GORGEOUS rainforest, then it opened out onto sand dunes for another mile (walking through deep sand is EXHAUSTING!), then we followed a fairly flat sandy trail lined with trees for the last mile. The hike ended at the ocean. It was so pretty! Unfortunately the hike was longer than we had anticipated and the beach got super windy so we had to book it back to the car in time for me to feed Kalianna again. We made ourselves sandwiches for dinner, downed several gallons of water and continued on our way. Even though it was tiring, the hike was one of my favorite parts of the trip! We stopped several more times to look at lighthouses and beaches and sea lions. When we got to our condo we unpacked, then we snacked while we watched a couple episodes of a TV show Brian and Anna introduced us to. Its called "Lie To Me" and its a really cool show. We were all pretty tired from the drive and the hike so we went to bed.
Sunday - We slept in and it was fabulous! We went to the grocery store to get stuff for meals for the week. Then we went to a seafood place for lunch. It was okay, but not great. We made the mistake of ordering fried oysters. Have you ever eaten dirty laundry mixed with feet? Cause I have! We discovered oysters should be eaten smoked or on the shell, but never ever fried. Their clams and fish were delicious though. We went to the beach and walked along the ocean for awhile. Our condo was super close and it was really easy to walk to. Unfortunately the beach is extremely windy and cold so we didn't last long. Then we made spaghetti for dinner and played games.
Monday - We drove down to the sea lion caves. It was really fun to see all the sea lions in the wild. They are really funny to watch! The sad part is they don't allow flash photography in the caves, and since we were 200 feet underground, we weren't really able to get any good pictures.
Tuesday - We went to the little shops in town and walked around. Lots of fun touristy stuff. Then we headed down to the aquarium. It was a really cool aquarium with seals, sea lions, otters, birds, tons and tons of fish, pools where you can touch different things, and a tunnel with sharks. The coolest aquarium I have ever gone to was in Baltimore, the worst one ever is in Salt Lake. This one was not quite up there with the Baltimore aquarium, but still pretty good. We had lots of fun, especially watching the sea otters at feeding time (so cute!) and the sea lions again.
Wednesday - We drove up the coast a couple hours to visit Cannon beach, which we were told by several people that we just HAD to go. We played on the beach for awhile but the only thing we noticed different from the beaches right by our condo was cannon was way more crowded. We couldn't figure out why it was better than any other beach we'd been to on the coast. We ate at another seafood place, which was much better than the first one. On our way back to the condo, we stopped at the Tillamook cheese factory. Now we know what suicidal people look like. Those people had the worst job ever! And the only thing to make it worse was they were being watched by hundreds of tourists a day. One of the girls even looked like she was falling asleep. Pretty funny. They did have excellent ice cream! And we were able to taste lots of freshly made cheese. Although both Matt and I skipped by the sharp cheddar, which Matt likes to joke tastes like feet. Sharp cheddar does, however, happen to be his dad's favorite, so we picked some up for him before leaving.
Thursday - We went back to the shops that morning to pick up a few souvenirs. Then we walked down to our beach again and enjoyed sitting by the ocean for awhile. The boys walked down to some rocks to poke the sea anemones while Anna and Kalianna and I sat and talked and listened to the ocean. Then we went down to the nearby outlet malls and walked around for awhile and had a fabulous sushi lunch. Then we drove down to a Wal Mart to pick up a few things for our drive home. On our way back, we stopped at another beach that had incredibly soft sand and some really cool sand dunes. We played there for awhile before returning to the condo to pack up our stuff. That night for dinner we grilled up some steaks and bought some crab from this crotchety old guy in a little shack of a place. The crab was excellent!
Friday - We got up early, everyone packed up the car while I fed Kalianna, and we left. We took the shorter, uglier drive home. That evening we stopped right at the Oregon/Idaho border and stayed the night in a hotel. We spent the evening swimming again, though Kalianna was less thrilled with this pool. It was an outdoor pool so the sun was bright in her eyes and the water was colder.Saturday - We slept in a little and went out to breakfast with Anna's brother before finishing our trek to Utah. We had a little car trouble, which left us without an AC for part of the drive home in 100 degree heat. We finally made it home that night around 7:00pm and Matt and I crashed! Kalianna was pretty worn out too. We had a great time, but it feels good to be home again!
Things we learned on our trip:
A 12 pound baby requires five times more luggage than an average adult
In Oregon, its illegal to pump your own gas
Jellyfish make excellent water balloons
Oyster burgers are the devil
"Lie To Me" is an excellent TV show
Matt and Brian should not be left unsupervised in a grocery store
Eastern Oregon is UGLY
