Twenty days, 3,000 miles, 6 states, 3 sons, 3 grand babies, and 3 cousins.
June 3rd, we are on our way--staying in Las Vegas the first night with a visit to cousin Barbara.
June 4th, off for the long drive through the vast and empty Nevada shrub lands.Creeping through small towns, we wonder why anyone would live here! The scenery and sights improve dramatically once we get into Idaho with its beautiful countryside and charming farms. Approaching the bigger cities as we get closer and closer to Boise and the babies, Ashlyn, Brandon and MaryAnn and Ryan
we see the Snake River in the distance, cross over it and keep going! Our visit with the babies takes us to several different parks with monkey bars, merry-go-rounds, slides, swings, picnic lunches and then off to McDonalds for ice cream! Our evenings in the capital city of Idaho are full of theater, fine dining and evening strolls.
In Seattle on the 8th of June we surprise Kyle and watch him play baseball! He has been playing ball for 3 years and we finally make it to a game. We are able to visit friends and spend the week-end with Kyle & Jen! We do the touristy things, Pike Place Market, the original Starbucks, and a field trip to Corporate Starbucks. We walk the waterfront at Alki in Seattle, and along Lake Washington in Kirkland, spend time in Bellevue at the park and in the downtown area. The weather is nice--cloudy and gray with sun breaks but no RAIN!
It is time to leave again and put on more miles. We head south towards Olympia and through the countryside of Washington, over the Columbia River into Oregon, looking over the beautiful city of downtown Portland. We drive across the state of Oregon and into California--we pass all the little towns and cross the Klamath River. Finally, we reach the summit of snow-capped Mt. Shasta along the Cascade Mountain Range and drop into Redding, then to Cottonwood for a visit with cousin Donna and Steve.
June 13th, we end up in Santa Rosa, California to visit Eric & Jan. The drive through Northern California is beautiful--the wine country. We discover hidden secrets in this small-town of Santa Rosa. First, we learn that it is the hometown of Charles Schultz and find Charlie Brown and Lucy's all over town. The town is a very desirable place to live with a population of only 50,000; it seems to be only a half hour to an hour away from everywhere: the wine country, the ocean, San Francisco, other small towns and of course the home of,
DOZER, Safari West.
More pictures to come!
