Last weekend Colin and I got to go on our first road trip, to California for a nice family visit. Not only did we get to see the sunrise over the mountains in western Utah but we got to spend 8 hours in the most horrible drive in the U.S., through Nevada. (This is a formal apologie for all the pictures I put up on this post)
Ya sure I mean its desert right, and we get that in Utah but this desert is just bad, its sage brush and small squat mountains. I mean I literally fall asleep from boredom on that drive. Luckily Colin was driving and he was super alert. To get an idea of how boring this drive is we literally kept the steering wheel straight and seriously celebrated when we got to go up or down a hill and try and get the car to turn the slight corners on its own. But after all of Nevada we got to go to California! Donner's Pass is really pretty and Colin loved the mountainous range much better. Since all we'd had to eat that day was mass amounts of nut-n-bolts (made by us specifically for the road trip, 3 full Tupperware...they barley lasted us the first car ride), we decided to stop at a small town just at the base of the summit called Colfax. Colin loved it, every small town we passed he was convinced was the Son's of Anarchy town. So we stopped in to get some very good local pizza and a nice little salad to share. Then we made the last 2 hours to Becky's house. I was so excited to be there, it had been over a year since I had last seen Becky's family, it was a long overdue visit. Also my dad was there from Canada so it made the visit even better! After giving everyone big hugs and sweating from being excited/playing and running around with the kids, we got to relax and play $100,000 Pyramid on the Game Show Network. Its super lame but really fun I swear. The next day, Thursday, Becky and my dad to pick up Meaghan and Max from the airport. Colin and I stayed home with Analynn and Isaiah. Then everyone came home and Colin and I took Isaiah to the park where I think we had just as much, if not more, fun than Isaiah playing on the jungle gym. Then we went home for lunch, hungout with everyone and waited for my mom, Josh, Ben and Meggie to come. And finally they did, around 7. We all had yummy spaghetti and eventually went to bed out in the tent (there were too many people to fit in the house). The next day Colin and I got to go into the city. It was Colin's first time to California so we really wanted to go into San Fransisco. So around 12:00 noon we took BART into the city, got off on Powell Street and walked around the mall for a bit.
We went to the MERRELL store where Colin bought his hat (show above) and I bought a nice new water bottle. After we went to China town where Colin was hoping to use his bargaining skill and awesome Chinese, but all we bought were some chopsticks. Most of the stores had American stuff in them anyway.
Then we walked through the city down to the piers, from Pier 7 to Pier 39. We stopped for a bit of a rest...
Our Walking Shoes...
Don't judge our handicappedness
We saw some sea lions,
homeless people,
street performers, Ghiridelli Square, there was a segway tour at Ghiridelli Square...
A cute bakery with these...
The ocean, Colin had never seen the Pacific Ocean before and he was excited!
We stopped in to get delicious fish & chips with a Seirra Neveda. We ended the trip walking back to Pier 1 and hoping on BART to go home.
The next day all of us...literally: My dad, mom, Becky, Shane, Jonah, Isaiah, Analynn, Josh, Ben, Meggie, Meaghan, Mason, Maximus, Me, Colin, Becky's friends, Liz, Adam and their kids Kaylee and James, went to the Muir Woods. It was a windy road down to the forest and we had to park far away but the trees were beautiful. We all went down the main path but Ben, Meggie, Colin and I went on a more vigorous hike up through the forest and met up with everyone at the end. It was so nice to be outside and experiencing the forest and nature.
It was a good last day trip for the vacation. Afterward we all went back to Becky's were we had a bit of a birthday party for her kids. Yummy vegan pizza and cupcakes were eaten, and awesome presents were opened. Also Kaitlin got to come over!! And it was so nice seeing her and catching up. We ended the day with everyone asleep and me and Colin watching How To Train Your Dragon with Analynn putting toys all over Colin. It was sad to go, but we had a really nice time with everyone and also my family just absolutely loves Colin, which is awesome (it was his first time meeting all of them). I miss them all already and we told Isaiah, who wants Colin to come back to play Pikmin with him, we would be back as soon as possible. On our way back we got to take a minor detour to Lake Tahoe City where we got yummy local food, Colin had a sandwich and I had a delicious cranberry walnut salad with feta cheese and raspberry vinaigrette...mmmm I want one now!
We went to the lake walked around a bit before finsihing the long 8 hours home. As much as we hated the drive the trip was worth it, but we are glad to be home too.
Ya sure I mean its desert right, and we get that in Utah but this desert is just bad, its sage brush and small squat mountains. I mean I literally fall asleep from boredom on that drive. Luckily Colin was driving and he was super alert. To get an idea of how boring this drive is we literally kept the steering wheel straight and seriously celebrated when we got to go up or down a hill and try and get the car to turn the slight corners on its own. But after all of Nevada we got to go to California! Donner's Pass is really pretty and Colin loved the mountainous range much better. Since all we'd had to eat that day was mass amounts of nut-n-bolts (made by us specifically for the road trip, 3 full Tupperware...they barley lasted us the first car ride), we decided to stop at a small town just at the base of the summit called Colfax. Colin loved it, every small town we passed he was convinced was the Son's of Anarchy town. So we stopped in to get some very good local pizza and a nice little salad to share. Then we made the last 2 hours to Becky's house. I was so excited to be there, it had been over a year since I had last seen Becky's family, it was a long overdue visit. Also my dad was there from Canada so it made the visit even better! After giving everyone big hugs and sweating from being excited/playing and running around with the kids, we got to relax and play $100,000 Pyramid on the Game Show Network. Its super lame but really fun I swear. The next day, Thursday, Becky and my dad to pick up Meaghan and Max from the airport. Colin and I stayed home with Analynn and Isaiah. Then everyone came home and Colin and I took Isaiah to the park where I think we had just as much, if not more, fun than Isaiah playing on the jungle gym. Then we went home for lunch, hungout with everyone and waited for my mom, Josh, Ben and Meggie to come. And finally they did, around 7. We all had yummy spaghetti and eventually went to bed out in the tent (there were too many people to fit in the house). The next day Colin and I got to go into the city. It was Colin's first time to California so we really wanted to go into San Fransisco. So around 12:00 noon we took BART into the city, got off on Powell Street and walked around the mall for a bit.
We went to the MERRELL store where Colin bought his hat (show above) and I bought a nice new water bottle. After we went to China town where Colin was hoping to use his bargaining skill and awesome Chinese, but all we bought were some chopsticks. Most of the stores had American stuff in them anyway.
Then we walked through the city down to the piers, from Pier 7 to Pier 39. We stopped for a bit of a rest...
Our Walking Shoes...
Don't judge our handicappedness
We saw some sea lions,
homeless people,
street performers, Ghiridelli Square, there was a segway tour at Ghiridelli Square...
A cute bakery with these...
The ocean, Colin had never seen the Pacific Ocean before and he was excited!
We stopped in to get delicious fish & chips with a Seirra Neveda. We ended the trip walking back to Pier 1 and hoping on BART to go home.
The next day all of us...literally: My dad, mom, Becky, Shane, Jonah, Isaiah, Analynn, Josh, Ben, Meggie, Meaghan, Mason, Maximus, Me, Colin, Becky's friends, Liz, Adam and their kids Kaylee and James, went to the Muir Woods. It was a windy road down to the forest and we had to park far away but the trees were beautiful. We all went down the main path but Ben, Meggie, Colin and I went on a more vigorous hike up through the forest and met up with everyone at the end. It was so nice to be outside and experiencing the forest and nature.
It was a good last day trip for the vacation. Afterward we all went back to Becky's were we had a bit of a birthday party for her kids. Yummy vegan pizza and cupcakes were eaten, and awesome presents were opened. Also Kaitlin got to come over!! And it was so nice seeing her and catching up. We ended the day with everyone asleep and me and Colin watching How To Train Your Dragon with Analynn putting toys all over Colin. It was sad to go, but we had a really nice time with everyone and also my family just absolutely loves Colin, which is awesome (it was his first time meeting all of them). I miss them all already and we told Isaiah, who wants Colin to come back to play Pikmin with him, we would be back as soon as possible. On our way back we got to take a minor detour to Lake Tahoe City where we got yummy local food, Colin had a sandwich and I had a delicious cranberry walnut salad with feta cheese and raspberry vinaigrette...mmmm I want one now!
We went to the lake walked around a bit before finsihing the long 8 hours home. As much as we hated the drive the trip was worth it, but we are glad to be home too.
