Journey to Alaska: 3rd Leg - California to Washington

Hello again! I know I know, I'm really not doing a very good job of doing my posts. We have been in Alaska for a week now and I still haven't posted on all of our travels. So these next two will be a lot of pictures not so many words.

As a kid our vacations were (as my brother, Cole, calls them) Drive and See Stuff vacations! They were great! We saw a lot of the country in a short amount of time. I would have loved to take a trip to Disney Land or Disney World or other family destinations, but if it would have been that way we wouldn't have seen as much of the country as we did. So for our Drive and See Stuff vacations, Thank you Mom and Dad they were great!

In the spirit of Drive and See Stuff vacationing....

The three of us, headed North out of Stockton on May 28th heading for Bellingham, WA where we would catch our Ferry which would take us to Alaska. I drove first while my men slept. While I was driving I was thinking about how awesome it would be to take the Redwood Highway which would also take us along the coast of California. Redding gave the perfect opportunity for us to head West to hit the 101 (Redwood Highway). We stopped for gas and I casually mentioned to Floyd that we could go West to the coast and get on the 101 to see the Redwoods. I might have mentioned several months ago I would like to take the Redwood Highway but it would add several hours to our trip. I believe this time I said it would take us about 2 hours to get to the coast. Floyd said "Sure we have the time."

So West we traveled. On a two lane road, going maybe 55mph at the fastest through the curviest road of all time (ok maybe not but Floyd felt that way since he was driving). I would say a good 3 to 4 hours we saw the ocean! I was so excited! All I wanted to do was drive through a tree! I heard you could do that. Well I googled it and there are 3 Redwoods you can drive through I California and they are all private property so you have to PAY to go through them! Ugh. Well it seemed like we had been driving down the Redwood Hwy for HOURS and the trees were big but they weren't HUGE! And I was sooo disappointed. I kept telling Floyd they must be baby Redwoods because they weren't at all what I was expecting...

Then there was the sign Daylight Headlight Driving....."Babe, I'm UNdisappointed! THESE TREES ARE HUGE!?!??!". I kept saying that to Floyd, I kept telling him the trees were ENORMOUS!! It was amazing! I kept hoping for a spot we could pull off and take a picture next to one, but there really wasn't ever a place to stop. We did pull over at one time but it wasn't in a spot we could really get a good comparison and Lil man was asleep, so I took a picture of the trunk right outside the truck window.

After our journey through the Redwoods our trip was fairly uneventful. We did make it out of California and into Oregon (barely). We stayed in Grants Pass, OR. In the morning we got the oil changed in the truck and headed North some more. The people in Oregon are nice, you can't pump your own gas which is weird, but kinda nice. Northern California, Oregon and Washington are beautiful and their trees are HUGE! I couldn't get over it. They are just big! The trip between Grants Pass, OR and Olympia, WA was fairly uneventful. But we got a hotel him Olympia, grabbed some dinner and then I went and saw my good friend Samantha and her beautiful family and Floyd got to see his cousin Steve, who is stationed at Fort Lewis. It was so much fun seeing Samantha again! I miss her face! Samantha Jane I can't believe how big your boys have gotten and I love that Peyton still remembers me and I'm really glad Adrian got to see me! I know Floyd had a great time with Steve, after not seeing each other for 2 years and 2 years ago it was a fun but quick two days (maybe). Needless to say Olympia was fantastic!!!

We left May 30th early in the morning heading to our final lower 48 destination, Bellingham, WA to board our Ferry. However, that is for another blog. So here are some pictures from our Drive and See Stuff vacation through Northern California, Oregon and Washington.