Friends, family and time are our most important resources. Prioritizing and managing to this truth, I believe, leads to true and lasting wealth.

Had a wonderful day today with family in San Jose. Kids are still fighting a bit of a bug and are tired (but don’t think they are) so we laid kinda low today. Did church, had an unsuccessful nap time attempt and then drove to the beach for a bit.

This area is so beautiful. It is sunny most of the time, but there is trees and flowers everywhere, in tones of different colors. There is a large wealth split here. The very wealthy and those barely getting by. The price of housing makes it hard to be middle class. I have been curious about the area since reading ‘The Monk and the Riddle”. The areas we were driving through sure didn’t look like much. Just simple neighborhoods with houses that needed work, but they were all way more expensive than I would every be able to afford. Such a change from Omaha and interesting, economically, because it is all held together by what people ‘think’ the land they are sitting on is worth. It would just make me nervous having %75 give or take, of my houses value built on the lands value…. that is trust. ….it is just dirt and rock.

We got to see the Apple headquarters! Not really much of a building for how big the company is.

We have had great company, as well as great food, comfy beds, warm showers and laundry and it has been refreshing and energizing. Goodnight.

We drove through lots of redwoods on the drive south this morning. We found the ‘Avenue of the Giants’ and drove it for a while parallel to hwy 101. The trees only have branches at the top where they can get light making a tight ceiling. Then all below there is just tall thick pillars. The forest floor is still covered with ferns and huge logs but between the floor and the ‘ceiling’ it is quite clear. The ability to see so far through, combined with the huge trunks gives it quite a majestic look.

After lunch we drove through a bunch of wine country. I don’t drink, but the area is beautiful and there is something about wine growing/making that seems to be the ‘high end’ of gardening or farming. Lots of work put in, but the high quality instead of a quantity output appeals to me a lot. Maybe being an olive farmer somewhere would be cool.

We got to the Golden Gate bridge around 4:30. It had been clear all day but just minutes before getting to the bridge fog began poring over the foothills. It was so foggy crossing the bridge we couldn’t see the water. Oh well, it was still cool.

Drove through downtown San Francisco to Chinatown. Such a neat city! The buildings and architecture were great, but poor Bryon didn’t get all the pictures he wanted to get driving. I am sure we both could wander the streets for days exploring. As it was, we only had a few hours so we headed straight to Chinatown. Chinatown in San Francisco is the largest Chinatown outside of Asia. We explored Chinatown in Boston last summer and loved it. We found parking right in the middle and hit the streets and saw what we could. Found some fun little souvenirs for the kids and I found some scarves I have been looking for.

We finished our shopping and dove into the first restaurant we saw. It turned out awesome. It was called ‘The Four Seas’ and had great atmosphere and great food for a really reasonable price. Ian was getting tired and was crawling all over the place the whole time. At one point I found him sitting cross legged under the table drumming on the table leg with his chopsticks. They were both quiet though, and liked the restaurant. They had lots of fun with the little tea cups, Ian even liked the tea.

Saw a bit more of the city on the drive out. It defiantly looks like a fun city to walk. Maybe someday. There has been so many places we have been on vacation that we would have loved to explore more.

Staying with my cousins tonight. Excited about being under a roof and having a shower.

 Loved this tree.  It was a hike up from the road.  There was a different tree I saw that I wanted to hike to and came accross this one.  It looks like it has been a camp site for several people.   Just so cool that it can be all burned out and still growing huge and staying green.

Ian, right before crossing the Golden Gate bridge coloring.

Lily, also right before the GG bridge. 

The bridge in the fog

This place was amazing, I have never seen so many scarves!  I could have spent forever wandering around down here.

Loved this cute restaurant!  Food was great!  At the back was Singapore style curry noodles, at the front is rice pancakes and chicken curry.

California has everything! Awesome beach, great mountains, green everywhere, huge trees, great weather…. And we have only gotten a few miles in. I wonder if it was populated for these treasures, or if it would have been much less populated if gold wasn’t found here.

When we came in last night it was pitch black. Between little to no moon, and tight trees, and mountains it was dark. Every few seconds the lights would shine on a ‘huge tree’ and there would be a sharp curve.

Woke up to find ourselves in beautiful forest. Turns out we drove through the redwoods but where we were camping was to far inland to have the big ones. It was still very pretty.

Both kids started to complain about not feeling good last night and this morning so we decided to try and get them to rest as much as possible.

After a ‘fancy’ camping breakfast we drove back into the redwoods and hiked the first part of the ‘Little Bald Hill’ trail. The ranger had recommended this hike because it goes through a bunch of ‘old growth’ redwoods. We hiked through the ‘old growth’ and some of the newer growth before we had lunch and hiked back out. Both sections were full of huge trees, the old growth showed more fire damage. Both were great. We found snails and big yellow slugs that the kids had a bunch of fun with.

We tried to have quiet time in the car after that and did manage to get Ian to go to sleep for a nap. I could tell he wasn’t feeling good but it is so hard to get either of them to sleep in new places. We drove to Crescent City to find a Laundromat but all we found were some run down places that we didn’t gamble with. Instead we headed to the beach. About 20 miles in, at our campsite it was a warm, close to 80 degree day, but by the coast it was bairly 70 and had a strong cold wind. The weather is so controlled by the ocean. (in Oregon they were telling us how a half mile could make the difference between snow every year and hardly any snow ever)

Headed back to the campsite earlier for supper. Turns out, while we were gone, they closed the showers because of a water shortage in the campsite. So, no laundry and no showers today.

This tree was all burned out in the middle.  Hard to see the kids with the lighting but it shows the size of the tree good.

Ian found this ‘pencil’ as soon as he got to the beach.  He carried it around for a while making lines in the sand.

Wrote his name in the sand.  He loves writing and has put his name all over the place this vacation.

It looked like fun so Lily had to try it too.  She is writing her name but it isn’t as easy to see.

Lily found some little dead thing in the sand and took it to daddy.  When he tried to give it back to her she didn’t want to touch it…. crazy girl.

My super talented husband. 

The kids have this as a favorite game.  They chase daddy until he finally lets them catch him… and then they hang on.

There are days when I don’t really feel like writing up much. Today is one of those days, but I have promised myself I will write every day of vacation so that we can really remember our trip. Already, day 22 it seems so long ago that we were in Canada, or Yellowstone. We are really getting settled into this road trip thing. Where, at first, I thought 5 weeks would be a long time, I wish we had 5 more weeks (at least) still to go.

Today was our ‘driving to CA’ day. We have spent so much time at the beach and Oregon is so wet and humid that we had to pack up lots of wet cloths and tents. First stop was showers, which, after several days of hiking and living in sand was desperately needed. We found one just down road at another state park. It was fabulous and warm….. And now full of sand.

Drove to Coos Bay, OR and found Thai food for lunch. Bryon and I have been seeing Thai restaurants all along the coast and have been wanting it for a while. We found EZ Thai, which, even though it sounds very cheese, was actually very good. I always ask for my food very spicy but I think this might have been the hottest restaurant plate I have ever eaten. Now, at 7:30 my lips are still a bit numb. It was awesome. The kids didn’t eat much, but they, (especially Lily) are really picky and we can’t really figure out what they will eat. Food is probably my hardest issue as a parent… but that is another post. Thai was great!

Found a fancy chocolate shop and a farmers market after lunch and found some yummy treasures. Super cute little town.

After lunch we went back north a few miles to the Oregon Dunes National Recreation Area. Another beautiful sandy beach. ….. Needless to say, we are now all covered with sand again. I finished my fire Thai and had a nap in the sand, it was therapeutic.

Getting a slow start and stopping so long for lunch put us to crunch time on driving. I don’t even know where we are now, but I know we have a long way to go. Bryon is stopping to take a picture of a bridge and the kids are tired and fighting in the back. Fun times.

Packing up our hot thai food.  The kids didn’t eat what we ordered for them so we took it to the beach for supper.

The cute chocolate shop we stopped at after lunch.  I see these and think it must be such a fun job to run a little chocolate shop like this. 

Ians ‘downward facing dog’   I don’t know what he is trying to do here… but the sand will be in the tent later.

I love this picture.  They just run and run. 

Bryon shot these pictures while I was sleeping on the beach. 

cold water…

Found this cool bench when we stopped for supper.  Wanted to explore the beach a bit but there was some strange people there so we continued on.

Missed these pictures when I put up my other post.

Found this spot on the rocks where Lily could sit with me close to where the waves were crashing in.  We got 1 good spray before we had to move on.

Got up this morning early (not sure why) and after finding food in town we went straight to the beach. There was a big section just across from our campground that was a mixture of lava rock and sand. It was low tide and was so fun to explore.

The lava rock close to the water (and probably covered in high tide) was covered with California Muscles. It is awesome to see, they cover every inch of the rock and come in all sizes. A bunch of the tide pools were covered in green anemone. They are round and have grass like arms and when they are touched the curl up and try and catch it. The kids had a blast touching them with their sandals and watching them curl up. We also found a bunch of star fish. I started counting them, but soon realized that there was way more, over 100. Learned they ate the muscles and there was billions of them so it all made sense.

The kids loved the water. They would play on a beach for days if we had the time.

Had to move to higher ground with the tide coming in, so we headed up to the nature center. Got there just in time to go on a ranger hike and learn about edible and medicinal plants. We were the only ones so the kids got to ask all sorts of questions. We tried several leaves and berries…. I don’t remember what any of them were called except the “salmon berry”. There is a tree by our campsite so we had some for dessert at lunch as well.

After lunch we headed to a 500 year old spruce. It was only a little way from our campsite down a trail. It was huge. It had a nurse log under it when it started growing that has all decayed long ago so there was a great hole under it.

After a hike and a movie at the nature center we headed up to the top of Cape Perpetua. Bryon thought he saw that it was the highest point on the Oregon coast. At the top, it said it was the best view of the Coast in Oregon. One is supposed to be able to see 35 miles out to sea from the lookout. There is a great stone building called ’The West Side Shelter’ that we tried to find a geocash at, but didn’t find it.

We headed back down to the beach for high tide. The waves were huge, breaking over the black lava rock, and spraying all over the muscle beds. It was awesome. We sat and watched for quite a while, Bryon taking pictures, and the kids playing in the sand and tide pools.

Again after supper we hit the beach. I walked back with Ian at 9, Bryon and Lily played taking pictures until long after dark.

This was a whole sandy beach that was all under water at high tide.  All the rocks were covered with life.

Shell hunting. 

Just one of the rocks covered with mussels.  Not much of a picture but it was so incredible to see.

These green anemone would curl up as soon as they were touched.  They had such a pretty color.  Some of the tide pools were completly covered with them on the bottom.

Not sure how Ian got Lily’s sweater.  They were all wet and covered with sand several times today.

This was so cool.  Thankfully, it is very popular and there was nothing growing or nasty under the tree.  Probably already climbed under thousands of times.

The full perspective of the tree.  This was only about .2 miles from our campsite.

Lookout that is possibly the tallest and supposed to be the best view on the Oregon Coast.  Cape Perpetua.

I loved this building.  It was so cute with all the rocks.  It was built close to 100 years ago in the winter…. by dedicated and patient people.

Loved the doorway to frame pictures.

….. had to make good use of the doorway

Got up before 6 this morning so we could try and beat Seattle traffic and have time to explore the coast on our way down to our Oregon campsite. After a super fun weekend with friends, and lots of late nights, we were all pretty tired.

Seattle, for only driving through, was a pretty (skyline) and organized city. The car pool lanes and the express lanes were great, and we flew through.

After Olympia we headed out to the coast and took hwy 101 south. Beautiful road, but very winding and lots of hills. I love all the roads that are lined with trees or the roads with rock walls up on one side and down to the ocean on the other.

Stopped by Astoria at Fort Stevens State Park around noon and found a beach for the kids. They were so excited and, with the combination of over tired and being locked in the car all morning they really went nuts. It was a beautiful day but the wind was cool and strong. I needed my sweater to be out on the beach…. But the kids dove right in. Ian came back out after about 20 minutes freezing but Lily was unfazed and screamed with anticipation at every wave. There was a shipwreck on the beach that was really cool to see.

We dried off and headed out in need of food. Somehow I managed to forget my and Lily’s sandals. I didn’t realize it until we found food 40 minutes down the road in Seaside. Grr. We have now lost a sweater, and two pairs of sandals. I guess it could be worse.

When we got back in the car to drive on I checked the weather hoping for warmer weather later in the week. …. The highs for the week are high fifties, maybe hitting 60. I was hoping for a warm beach vacation… but I must not have done enough research. Average temperature for the area we were camping in July is 75, but the highest it has been so far this month is 64. ….. And back in Nebraska at almost midnight the heat index is still over 100. This is just a cruel trick in nature. Nothing to do but curl up in agony in NE, and out here where there is beautiful beach it is to cold to enjoy it.

So after lunch we went back to the beach at Seaside to get the most of the heat we did have. It was just over 70 I think up there and it was the hotest day of the week at Seaside. The wind off the ocean was still cold. The kids played for another couple hours running, shaking, and screaming. The wind was blowing to much sand around so we couldn’t pull the camera out.

Drove down to our campsite by 9. Beautiful place, right beside a little creek. Get to go to sleep listening to the water run.

No showers here and we are all covered and caked with sand.

As soon as we got there she ran straight into the water.

Loving every wave.

Soaked, should be freezing, but energized with excitment.

Jumping the waves.  He just loved the water but his little body got cold quick.

I can’t believe it is already day 19. I feel like we have just started vacation, but now we are over half done.

We headed to Mount Baker today. Sand and beaches yesterday and snow today makes for the best of both worlds!

The kids are having so much fun in Washington with their friends. As soon as we left the house this morning Ian was complaining and wanting to make sure we weren’t going to leave their house for good. He didn’t want to go ‘too far’. …. then, promptly, fell asleep. They are so cute. Tomorrow, when we have to leave, …..might be hard.

Got as far up as they would let us drive and then hiked up the road further. OH MY! There was lots of snow left up there. It is the middle of July and there is spots along the road where they have plowed that still have 10-12’ high walls of snow. The kids have never seen so much snow. I am from Canada, and I don’t know if I have ever seen that much snow…. In the winter! When Washington does snow, ….. They don’t mess around. The kids were suited up with borrowed snow gear and they jumped enthusiastically in at first, but by the end of the small hike around they were wet and cold. Then, they were tired, wet and cold, so we headed back to the house for dry cloths, warm baths, good and a calm evening.

Thanks for a great weekend B, M, A, A, and A! So good to see you guys again, we will have to see you guys again soon.

Tomorrow we will be ‘on the road again’.

All along the side walls of the snow people had been writing their names and other notes.  Up around the last curve though, it started to get a bit more graffic with pictures and inappropriate language.  Bryon tried to walk ahead a few times and brush off words but the kids caught him on “Bitch”.  Just before he could rub it off Lily read it and said it outloud.  Then when Bryon rubbed it off she was all upset that ‘Daddy was taking off someones name’.

Road tripping is an awesome way to explore the country. I wanted to write out what we brought and why and how we survive on the road. …. I don’t have much on how to keep the kids from fighting or going crazy in the car… that will forever be a mystery.

What we brought:
With borrowing a Honda Civic there isn’t much space. It is saving us tones on gas so it is totally worth it, but we didn’t bring anything extra. Here is what we did bring:

1. 2 tents-Big one for when we are camped for several nights or have time to set up, little one for short stops, late nights, or full campgrounds that only have small tent sites left. One medium easy tent might be better but we already had the other two.

2. 4 camp chairs. We haven’t used these as much as we thought. The kids have small ones so they are easier to pack. Maybe we wouldn’t bring them again… still up in the air on that. At the campground it is nice to have somewhere to sit, but we haven’t spent much time at the campground except for sleeping.

3. Thermo rests. We have 1 real, brand name, thermo rest and it works awesome (especially since it was already used and from a garage sale when be bought it). We have another knock off brand one that is new and already leaking air bad. The kids just have little sleeping pads.

4. Bedding-We have two good adult sleeping bags. The kids have their kid sleeping bags but we brought them a moving blanket for underneath, a wool blanket and another cheaper adult sleeping bag for the top. We brought our pillows and I made small camping pillows for the kids.

5. Clothing-A suitcase would never fit in the trunk so we packed our cloths in the cloth (reusable) shopping bags that squish good. We have enough shirts, socks and underwear for a week but less pants because they are bulky and can be used more than one day. 2 sweaters and 2 pairs of shoes per person. We also have 1 of the outfits dressy for church or a nice restaurant. The weeks cloths range from hiking to nice, warm to cold.

6. Food-There really isn’t room for food. This has been practice during the trip but we are trying to keep only a few meals ahead in the car. It is easy to really pack up on snack stuff but it takes so much space so we just have a few things at a time. There is lots of grocery stores everywhere just off the road. We haven’t had trouble finding stuff anywhere yet… but in national parks it is way more expensive. We always have tea, sugar and lemon or lime for our water bottles. Salt, mustard and ketchup in small packages.

7. Cooking-Stove, fuel, pot and pan with lids to keep out the bugs, matches, small plastic plates, bowls, small cups, forks and spoons for everyone, 2 spreading knives, 1 sharp, 2 big metal stirring, cutting board, can opener, flipper, collapsible washing tub, small soap, and dish rag. We pack the food in a cloth shopping bag and the cooking stuff in another. These bags don’t crush but there isn’t any extra storage container space wasted. It is easy to pull stuff out of the trunk too, all in their own bags.

8. Medium sized cooler. We found a taller, narrower one that would fit between the two car seats and doesn’t take near as much space as a standard size one. Often it is empty and we can pack other stuff in it. Peanut butter, jam, hummus and lime juice is the most common.

9. Bath bag-soap, shampoo, 3 towels, basic make-up. Nothing fancy, no blow dryers or curling irons.

10. Basic camping stuff-flashlight, headlamp, first aid including pain meds, band aids, charcoal (great for digestive problems that always seem to hit sometime on a trip), rope and cloths pins for clothesline, matches, wipes and hand sanitizer. Should have put in a small hammer for tent pegs but we forgot this time.

11. Hubby has all his camera stuff

12. Kindle with all our books

13. Kids each have a small bag for toys.

….. We are only picking up very small souvenirs. Pictures and memories are the best!

Lodging:
Most of our campgrounds were reserved before we left, especially for the weekends because that is when they fill up. We tried to stay in National Parks when we could because we got a National Park Pass. If there wasn’t national parks where we wanted to stay we checked with state parks. There is different fees for different states which could make the night more expensive (entry fee plus camping fee). All the states that we have stayed in have ways to reserve their campsites online, often through other companies. Campsite fees are usually around $20 a night but can range up and down by at least $10. There are lots of other private campgrounds like KOA and others but they seem to be more expensive, way more tacky, less private etc.

Laundry and Showers:
Every place is different and these aren’t as reliable as I would like. All national parks have had options for these but they are usually charged, and possibly offsite and run privately. For laundry this is fine but it is kinda weird with showers. We shower and do laundry whenever we find it because we are never sure how easy it will be at the next stop. We do laundry every 3-5 days (we get showers most days). We brought a bag of detergent, it is crazy expensive from a laundromat.

Food:
Simple is key, otherwise the cooler is always overflowing and there are lots of extra leftovers hanging around. We do boil-in-a bag rice with cans of beans and a small jar of salsa. Makes a good protein/carb meal that doesn’t take much space. The kids really like ramen and canned veggies. No protein and very little nutrients in the ramen but makes for a warm meal. We do lots of apples, carrot sticks, hummus, nuts, and bars. Most breakfasts are peanut butter and jam sandwiches in the car driving to our next place or heading to hike. We stop at restaurants and fast food, especially when driving all day, when needed. We budgeted $30 per day for the 4 of us (so about $50 per day including lodging). So far, on this trip we have stayed under. Visiting my dad and other friends and family along the way is great for good, home cooked food. We end up out driving or exploring most of the day so we have used the stove much less than we thought we would. It is just to hard to set up at rest areas or picnic places, and takes twice as much time.

I have thought I would love to do the RV thing and travel the country for a year but RV’s are so much more expensive. Besides the obvious thousands of dollars to purchase it there is also the huge increase in gas costs. We are getting between 30-40 mpg in this car. It would probably be 3 times as much with an RV. The campsites for RV’s are also more expensive by probably around $10 a night. The other thing we have noticed especially on this trip, is that there are lots of scenic roads, bridges mountain passes that RV’s aren’t allowed on because of size or steep roads. So, for now, we are happy with camping and exploring as long as we can.

Got a great shower and slept in beds last night! I am going to get the laundry done tonight, and I am stuffed with fabulous food. It is good to have friends in great places.

Did church this morning and let the kids play in the yard for the afternoon. Our friends here have 3 boys and it is so nice to have little boys for Ian to play with. Lily has made several friends along the way, but Ian hasn’t found anyone to play with. The kids had so much fun playing on the trampoline and driving around the yard in the little jeep. As boys do, they figured out how to get soaking wet with the garden hoes as soon as we turned our backs.

We drove out to Deception Pass this evening and then down to a few beaches. Deception Pass has a really neat looking bridge we walked a little way out on. I was nervous walking on it, because it was really far down to the water and the currents were crazy, so we didn’t go far.

There is something about the beach that has such a strong draw. Something about watching and listening to the waves break and play with the stones. Something about walking on all the different textures of rocks, sand and seaweed. Something about all the smells of salt air mixing with seaweed blowing right at my face. It is a peaceful, energizing, pure, centered, understanding comfort. I guess that explains why houses cost so much on the coast.

We are going to try and hit the beach all we can this week!

Just saw a sign as we are driving back that said “Hey Karl, Get Circumcised” ….. I am sure there is a good story behind that. Ian is sleeping in the back. Lily is singing to her VBS CD, and at 9:33 pm pacific time we have rolled the odometer of the car to 100,000. Ready to dive into another week!

They road this till the battery died.  They were so cute!

New life and energy being by the water. 

The entertainment with this picture is the groop of teenagers behind us.   We turn around to look and one dude has stripped down to his underware and is running into the water.  …. as you can tell from us (besides Lily), it is cold.  He comes running right back out and shouts “I have the smalles wiener in the world right now”.  Ah, youth   Thankfully the kids were playing and not noticing any of it. 

This is still early in the evening… he was really covered with sand by the time we left.

I love these pictures of the kids.  It was almost dark, so they arn’t that clear.  Hubby has a Sony A-580 that takes really good low light pictures, and photoshop can bring back the color.