Driving to Sammamish

Our leaving Sunday morning was slightly delayed - my alarm clock didn't go off (or maybe I turned it off in my sleep?) and then we opted to get a quick car wash before eating a quick breakfast (there's nothing better than McDonald's). Our trip began with a drive to Abilene, followed by a quick stop in Lubbock before heading towards the border. We decided to skip Amarillo and join I-40 later - this could possibly have been the biggest mistake! This road was awful! There was hardly any one else driving and there was ABSOLUTELY nothing to see on the way. Even the so called "towns" had nothing but run down shacks - the townspeople were probably so bored with the area that they ran off. Once we joined with I-40 the scenery was a little better and having other cars on the road with us was much more exciting. In fact, we were so joyous about our new companions that we decided to drive through Albuquerque and stay the night at Gallup (a town relatively close to the border of New Mexico and Arizona). After staying in Gallup, we took some pictures as we crossed the border into Arizona. Our next stop was the Grand Canyon. For any one that has not yet seen this beautiful creation, let me just tell you that words can not express and pictures cannot capture the expanse of beauty that this canyon possesses! We took a lot of pictures and enjoyed the scenery before leaving in time to miss the storm that was on the way. On our way to Bakersfield – our stop for the night – I was blessed with driving down a super curvy part of the highway between Barstow and Bakersfield! It most likely would not have been so bad had it not been for the fact that it was 11 o’clock at night and I couldn’t shine my brights (it would have blinded the drivers coming from the other direction and I thought that would be mean – plus, isn’t it illegal?). Let me just tell you about how much fun this part of the trip was! The bonus – we stayed the night at Candlewood Suites and it was wonderful! The room was nice and spacious and the guy at the front desk gave us a discount because we didn’t arrive until almost midnight. The next day began with a delicious breakfast at Marie Callendar’s – it was very yummy. On our way to San Francisco, we stopped at Wendy’s for a brief snack (the Frosty mix-ins are nothing to write home about) and were very disappointed with the manager who snapped at her employees and was rude to customers. I could vent longer, but there are more exciting things to talk about. We were originally planning to stay a couple nights in the city so we headed towards a hotel we were hoping had vacancies. On the way, I accidentally ran a red light (I forgot the lights were on the corners and not above the intersections) and almost hit people - needless to say the people weren't too happy. We then arrived at the hotel to discover that not only were they booked, so were there partner hotels. After realizing that it would cost about $400 plus to stay in a decent hotel for the night, we began rethinking our decision to stay in the city. We drove down the red brick curvy stretch of Lombard street and walked along the pier at the waters edge before crossing the Golden Gate Bridge (sadly on a foggy day) and leaving San Francisco. We took pictures on the other side of the bridge and then headed north. As a result of our not spending as much money in the city, we treated ourselves to a delicious dinner at Outback and then stopped for the night in Ukiah, California. The fourth day we ate a yummy lunch at Marie Callendar's in a quaint little town on the ocean. While continuing our drive north, we passed a beach on the Pacific Ocean that was right off the highway. It was Bobby's first time to see the Pacific, so we pulled over and spent some time walking on the beach. The waves at this particular location were amazing! It wasn't the loveliest day, but our location made everything seem perfect. While walking along the beach, we noticed that a starfish had been washed ashore. We watched while another wave washed it further ashore and then we decided to toss it back into the water. I would like to think we saved a life that day - the life of a starfish. We continued north and stopped at the Trees of Mystery. The trees here had various unique characteristics - one tree had trees growing out of it, some trees were growing horizontally, and some were simply huge (19 feet wide)! We took a gondola higher up the mountain and spent a few minutes enjoying the panoramic view. After seeing the trees, we drove onward to a horrible stretch of road! There were parts of the highway that curved so sharply I had to slow down to 10 mph! The worst part of the curves was that we were on a very narrow road (no shoulder whatsoever), the road was supported by a steel barrier, and to the side of the road was a creek that was about 100 feet below - a huge drop! Yeah, it was fun!! Luckily we drove through the curves in the daylight - I can't even imagine how horrible it would be at night! We stopped and took pictures at the border and then stayed the night in Eugene - at the one hotel in the entire city that had vacancies. The final day of the drive was very uneventful. We ate breakfast at Shari's Restaurant (it was quite yummy), lunch at McDonald's, took pictures at the border, and then ended our journey in Sammamish, Washington at the home of my parents.