Saturday July 29

Saturday July 29th 

Party animals and car alarms at 5am made for a ridiculously early morning. We got up, grabbed Starbucks and some delicious Burger King pancakes and were on the road by 8. 

We headed north for Seattle and drove extremely quickly in order to make it in time for the 1030 am tour of CenturyLink Field - where the Seattle Sounders and Seattle Seahawks play. We had to stop for construction a couple times but rolled into the city with 15 minutes to spare. We grabbed tickets and were able to find a parking spot for only $20 while most other places were $40.

We entered the facility and were blown away by 70000+ seats! We toured through many suites,  tv rooms and storage areas before going out on the field. Our tour guide had tens of stories about players and games and kept us entertained for well over an hour. The boys were absolutely ecstatic about the experience and couldn't stop talking about it all day. 

We got out of the tour and grabbed 4 hot dogs and smokies on our way next door to Safeco Field to watch the Mariners play the NY Mets. It was an afternoon game so there weren't any tours available but we got 4 nosebleed seats for $30 each and went up and watched the first two innings. As you can imagine, food and beverages were crazy expensive so we were glad to have eaten beforehand. 

There were several hundred fans dressed up n bright orange here to cheer for the Mets. Apparently, they apply on a website and go to different games around the US dressed in different tshirts for each game. They were rowdy and raucous and made the game very entertaining. 

Because there were several thousand seats unfilled, I made the family relocate to seats in the 20th row just past the third base line in right field. We went 3 rows in front of all the Mets fans and what an adventure we had. They were loud and cheering the rest of the game. 

We were in the hot sunshine and watched the Mariners take a 3-1 lead before Krista and the boys retreated to the shade in the top deck. I stayed and watched the remainder of the game hoping to catch a foul ball but to no avail. The Mariners pulled off the win 3-2 and the home fans were ecstatic! 

We left the game and drove our van down to the Pike Place markets. We walked around for a couple hours and watched the fish throwers and visited many shops. We went to the Hard Rock Cafe for pizza and nachos. We walked down to Pier 56 and saw many sailboats, ships and ferries. We were pretty tired of walking and headed back to the van and drove to our hotel at the airport. It didn't have a swimming pool so we all just watched Harry Potter and The Half Blood Prince and called it a night. 

Friday July 28

Friday july 28th 

Up at the crack of dawn and was able to upload a our videos and pictures from our amazing day in the Redwoods. The boys finally got up and we had breakfast and quickly got on the road headed north. 

We drove a bit and came to a scenic spot where people were tidepooling. We joined them and declined down the cliffs to the sand. We saw thousands of clams attached to the rocks and even more mini crabs scurrying about in the water to burrow in the sand before the tide went out completely. There were jellyfish curled up In circular blobs attached to the undersides of the rock faces also. We even found a rather large octopus with 1m long legs hiding way underneath waiting for the tide to return. After an hour, we headed back on the road to our next stop.

We proceeded to Depoe Bay and parked to go to a great seafood restaurant for fish n chips. We walked across the street and watched the gray whales for an hour and then walked around the shops. 

We headed north again and arrived in Astoria. We checked wifi and then proceeded to several locations around the city where the movie The Goonies was filmed. From the bowling alley to the kids' homes, it was neat to put places to memories.

We got on the road yet again and hauled it all the way to Kelso Washington. It was sunset and it took us 15 minutes to get checked in and we were starving. We went over to Denny's and had a great Cobb salad and a burger. We returned and went to bed as we had an extremely early day tomorrow. 

Thursday July 27th

Thursday July 28th

What a horrible sleep in a hotel with a great bed but paperthin walls. We got the boys up and they were extremely grumpy but we managed to get things packed up and over to McDonald's for pancakes and hot chocolate. We bought a big breakfast meal for a homeless man as our good deed for the day and headed north along the coast line.

Mornings are always cloudy foggy and 12° before the cloud burns off closer to noon.

Our first stop was along beach in Northern California with giant outcroppings. We bumped into a man in his mid-50s and his 18-year-old son who were biking from Vancouver all the way to Los Angeles. I had a quick visit with them and then we walked on the beach playing football for an hour. The sandy beaches were fantastic but the water was absolutely freezing and the wind was blowing like mad. 

The mostly rugged coastline is absolutely fantastic and trying to concentrate while driving along it is very difficult. We will eat in and out of forests and then back to the coast line with magnificent views all day long.

Our next stop once we got across the Oregon border was in Bandon - A little coastal village where we stopped for fantastic fission chips and a bit of ice cream. We had aspirations of taking the boys on and adventure on the Sand dunes we were waylaid with some bad news. 

Our flights to Florida in March had been rescheduled and we needed to change them in order to get back. We were able to get a direct flight on the way back since they had changed our flights but we had very sketchy phone service and we were very worried about not getting one of the last flights on the plane. 

Because of the delay in getting everything booked properly, we were extremely late and unlikely to make it to our next destination before it closed. I put the pedal to the metal and we drove very quickly and arrived at the Torex AV Rentals on the Sand dunes! we rented a 250cc quad for each of the boys and Krista and I rented a 900cc 4 wheeler and off we went!

The dunes were like nothing we had ever done before. The wind was whipping sand everywhere and we were driving up and down in every direction! We would come to the top of one doing and realize there was a drop off and had to back up and turn around! We zipped around for half an hour and on miraculously did not tip over! Our time was up far too soon and we headed back to the rental shop where the boys were ecstatic for this new experience. 

We jumped in the van and headed into town and stopped at Safeway to refuel, buy a roast chicken and salad and find a spot near the ocean to have supper. Because it was so windy, we stayed in the van and enjoy the scenery without having all of our food covered in sand. We got back on the highway and drove another hour to our hotel located in Waldport Oregon. We Holiday Inn all of our clothes and did a little laundry while Jacob went for a swim outdoors and almost froze to death. Everyone had a shower to get sand out of their parts and Louis finish the evening by watching a classic on TV - The Princess Bride.

Another amazing day of sightseeing in California and Oregon!

Wednesday July 26th

Wednesday july 26th

Late nights and early mornings do not mix well. Especially when the battery in your smoke detector keeps beeping all morning when you're trying to sleep in... 

Needless to say - out of bed at 7 - packed up by 8 - eat breakfast and on the road by 9. 

We hugged our friends goodbye and put the rubber on the road doing 80mph headed north through Oakland. 

We stopped at a Starbucks for 15 minutes to get some caffeine in us. I quickly Video Messaged my mom in Saskatchewan and caught her up to her elbows in cookie dough! Had a quick catch-up and then back on the highway. 

We bypassed the Oracle again and kept east of San Fran but still went over a couple amazing bridges. I love bridges - they absolutely fascinate me! I only wish I had more time to observe them alas when you're the driver and doing 80mph you don't get much time to do so.

By noon we needed something to eat and a rather emergent bathroom break - or should I say Restroom. No one has a clue what you are talking about when you ask for a bathroom here. 

Fuel prices were ridiculously high at $3.29-$3.50 but we managed to find one at $2.59 and filled up with premium for $2.79 to give the van a treat. 

We popped over to Panda Express for a couple plates of Chinese food and back on the Interstate with Krista now at the helm. It was great to examine the countryside for awhile as we zipped alongside the Napa Valley near Sonoma. Such beautiful areas to see...

We finally arrived at the turnoff to the Redwood forests and the Avenue of the Giants. We pulled off the freeway and after 5-10 minutes we began driving through 200ft tall trees that were 1-3 metres in width! It was AMAZING! Such memories of first seeing these giant trees on television as a kid 40 years ago and then in Star Wars - The Empire Strikes Back ! The further we drove, the larger they got! We parked and walked around taking photos and videos of all the trees! 🌲 They are unfathomably tall! We walked beside ones that had fallen and some were over 200ft tall! 

We hopped back into the van and went in search of the TALLEST TREE! We turned off the highway onto quite simply the worst 4 mile road in the whole world. Potholes and insanely rough ride for 20 minutes before we found the park we had to hike in from. After walking across a river on A FALLEN TREE 200ft long and 5 feet thick! We weaved through hiking paths until we FOUND IT!! Hundreds of feet tall and a circumference of 53 FEET! I had to give it a hug and have my picture taken. It was a beast!! The fallen trees in the area were just as massive - it was one of the coolest places I've ever been on earth.

 I could have stayed hours longer but he family was giving me the "Dad! They're just TREES!" look and speech so off we went. The sun was setting hard and it was getting dark super fast and the road was obviously just as crappy going back to the highway as getting there. At last we arrived on the highway and sped like demons all the way to Eureka California. As we entered from the south side, we had two kids that insisted that we go to Taco Bell for supper. Upon entering the restaurant but we determined this was not our best idea as the place hadn't been cleaned in forever and the clientele was a little shaky at best. We ordered taco salads and lemonade and eight rather quickly as we were starving and needed to get back on the road.

Gas at Costco is $.25 cheaper a gallon so of course we had to go there but our card expired and I wasn't about to spend $120 US to renew my membership so I had to beg for a code and then none of my credit cards will work because in the United States they only use Visa and MasterCard at Costco. Thankfully I had a visa that I was going to cancel and we fuelled up and were on our way. 

We drove another 15 minutes to a smaller town with a very cheap motel six with paperthin walls but reasonably good Wi-Fi and after an hour we called it a night. Another amazing day in California and can't wait for tomorrow! 

Tuesday July 25th

Tuesday, July 25th

A bit of a slow start this morning as we had a late night last night. Krista and Caroline went for a morning walk to get a coffee and see the wharf where a series on television called big little liars with Nicole Kidman was filmed. Once they returned back we all got moving a little faster. Nicholas Jake and Randy went for a run while the rest of us had breakfast.

We wanted to go on some kind of a hike but not too long of one so we decided we would hike down the coast past fisherman's wharf all the way to Cannery Row. The morning cloud burnt off very early and we had beautiful sunshine walking along the coast. We came to Fisherman's Wharf and discovered a seal colony. We walked along the pier and observed them frolicking in the water. There were very large ones down to babies and many of them basking in the morning sun while others swam around the bay. There were hundreds of cormorants there as well. These birds have webbed feet and could swim extremely fast underwater like penguins.

We went to Fisherman's Wharf and toured around there for a while. It had many shops with tourist items for sale as well as numerous restaurants with seafood. We would hopefully get back later for oysters and other treats.

We kept on walking down the coast line until we arrived at the Cannery Row area. We stopped in at Ghirardellis chocolate for a nibble and then went to the Pebble Beach golf store that had a sale on many different articles of clothing. We purchased some golf shirts and hats and Nicholas got a very nice jacket for himself.

We hopped on the trolly shuttle and returned to the wharf and then walked back to our hotel. Everyone was starving so we hopped into the van and drove to In and Out burger which Nicholas was dying to try. We ordered double burgers and dirty fries and consumed calories like crazy. 

We left the restaurant and proceeded to the local shopping mall where Nicholas found a couple pairs of shoes while Jacob and I returned to Pebble Beach golf course to look at a jacket he liked there. Unfortunately it was incredibly expensive so we are going to continue our quest for a nice Nike jacket for him on our trip or else order it online.

We returned to the mall and picked everyone up and then came back to our hotel and headed for the pool! It was still quite breezy but we enjoyed a couple of hours of sunshine before planning supper. 

Randy and Darren went across the back alley to a hotel with a fourth story patio overlooking the ocean for an hour.

The boys had pizza while the adults headed back to Fisherman's Wharf to The Grotto restaurant for oysters and assorted seafood. The meals were absolutely delicious and we had a nice visit for a couple of hours before returning to our hotel late at night. Another fantastic day by the seaside.

Monday july 24th

Monday July 24th

We are able to have a nice sleep in in the morning before planning our day. Darren, Krista, Randy and Caroline grabbed an early morning coffee and went for a walk on the beach all the way down to fisherman's wharf and back. We stopped at McDonald's and grabbed some pancakes for the boys and had a nice breakfast back at the hotel. 

We went for a walk several blocks over to the skate park and famous Dennis the Menace playground. The kids enjoyed scootering around the skate park and then having a game of tag on the playground running around for over an hour before we returned to the hotel.

We went to a very famous destination known as Carmel-by-the-Sea. We found a place to park just out of the downtown area and then walked down to the ocean to spend some time in the waves and taking some family photographs. We left there and returned to the downtown core to go shopping. We found some great art places and had some sausages at a local deli and barbecue. We found a place for ice cream and Darren even found a hat at the Carmel hat shop. We jumped in the van and returned to our hotel to let the boys have a quick swim before we headed out for supper that evening.

We decided to go to the Pebble Beach golf course for supper as we were able to make a reservation for 5:30 PM. We drove along the highway through portions of the 17 mile drive and arrived just after 5 PM. We walked through all the stores and shops and found some nice apparel for the kids to wear prior to going to our meal at The Bench restaurant in the basement of the resort. As we walked in the front door we were absolutely blown away at the view over the ocean on the 18th green. We made our way down the stairs to the restaurant and were seated at the table of eight right in front of the picture window overlooking the 18th green.

We started off our meal with ordering a giant inflated bread basket that was then deflated and cut into eight pieces of flat bread served with hummus and dips. After our appetizer we all went outside to the edge of the 18th green and took family photos. We very much enjoyed watching some golfers come in and finish there round - especially the gentleman who drained an 80 foot Chipshot right into the hole!

We returned to the restaurant and received our entrées including various meals of steak, gnocchi and fish. It was a spectacular meal and very delicious. We were encouraged to go upstairs to the famous Tap Room and have a dessert of giant Sundae to share with the family. Unfortunately the Tap Room was very full and quite dark, so we settled into the sitting room overlooking the ocean. We ordered the famous coconut cake and giant Sundae. Minutes later we received our cake and a Sunday that would have easily said 20 people! The eight of us tried desperately to put a dent in it, but with more than 10 scoops of ice cream, several bananas, mini chocolate chip cookies and whipped cream, we were unable to finish it. We were extremely surprised to only be charged $19 for this dessert as many other individual desserts started at $15! It was a fantastic adventure and meal at the Pebble Beach golf club and we made her way back to the vehicle and back to the hotel late at night and called it a night. What are next sighting day with many new places to see and visit!

Sunday July 23rd

Sunday July 23rd

An epic day was in the making - but first - lets change it up a bit...

Off to the gym at 7 AM for 1000 crunches and 30 minutes of cardio on the elliptical. 

Yes that seemed like a good idea at the time... 😜😎😄

I met Randy in the van at 8 AM and we drove over to the airport so he could pick up his rental car. That was a bit of an adventure but I somehow managed to get there and back safely. We went to Noah's bagel shop and grabbed some breakfast and miraculously my family made an appearance. We headed back to the hotel and got packed up and decided we should start heading south to Santa Clara to get there early.

We got on the interstate and in 20 minutes we arrived to discover that parking would be anywhere from $40-$75 for today's event. We found a spot close to the stadium for $40 and started walking toward the stadium.

Levi's Stadium was massive and the closer we got, the more we found thousands of soccer fans for both teams already tailgating in every parking lot. We arrived at the parking lot outside of the stadium to discover that the doors would not open until noon so we had one hour to kill. I unfortunately was not allowed to keep my binoculars because they were too large so I had to return them to the van 8 blocks away. I jogged all the way there and back with much greater ease than I imagined. Apparently that morning cardio paid off! Randy and I had a couple of beverages and joined the family and entered at noon.

It was complete mayhem as everyone was scrambling to buy apparel from the event. We were able to get three nice jerseys but no hats as they sold out instantaneously. We had to make our way to a food stand with the other 65,000 people and get some lunch. Once we had something to eat we toured around the facility. We were just amazed at how much more modern then anything I had ever been to before. Giant concourses for people to move around and washrooms everywhere. Store and food places very accessible to the large number of people in attendance. 

As it approached 2 p.m. they introduced the two teams coming onto the field and the fans went wild, particularly when Real Madrid entered as I would say 80% of the fan base here was in support of them. Randy and Caroline's seats were next to the field and they let all 4 boys stay there for the warm up and the first 20 minutes of the game so they can take pictures and videos and then Nicholas and Jacob returned to our seats high up in level 408. 

It was well over 30°C and we were frying all day long in the summer heat and enjoying the soccer. Finally Manchester United scored and shortly after Real Madrid scored another one and it remained 1-1 until the end of the game. 

Thankfully due to international rules there was a mandatory shoot out. This was beyond exceptional as each team took turns and the crowd went wild regardless of whether it was a score or a miss.

Surprisingly, the goalies made three saves - there was 2 complete messes and one hit the crossbar and Manchester United ended up winning by one in penalty kicks. What an exciting finish!

The end of the game was also complete chaos as 65,000 people were trying to make their way to their vehicles or to the trains to depart. We thought about staying in the area for a couple hours and eating but our friends were eager to get going so we got into our vehicles and sat there for two hours in traffic before making it a paltry six blocks. Finally by 6:30 PM we were able to get onto the interstate to travel one hour south of Monterey California.

We left 30°C heat in Santa Clara and watched the thermometer on the van drop continuously until we got to the coast and the freezing brisk 12°C!! Apparently this is normal summer weather along the ocean as it only reaches 20°C in the day and goes down to 12° with cloud and rain showers in the evening. If you want heat you have to go inland as coastal weather is very similar to Vancouver in April. 

We found our little hotel by the sea, had a quick swim before showering and heading off to Chili's restaurant for super Sunday specials where both families ate tons of food and many many beverages for $50/family. Another exciting day in California and looking forward to more adventures tomorrow!