Travel

Europe – Vienna part 1

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Vienna…the capital of Austria and for 640 years the capital of the Austrian-Hungarian empire.  It is a beautiful city without skyscrapers and full of some amazing architecture.  It was our first stop in Europe.

The four of us (Hubbie, Nathan 13, Hailey 10) flew from Dallas to London, then to Vienna. Our oldest (Caitlyn 17) was in Nicaragua and would join us after a week flying to Munich by herself. Long but uneventful flights where sleep unfortunately eluded us all. We arrived at 1:30 pm to an unusual heat wave exhausted. But…we were in Europe!

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San Francisco…the Pacific Coast trip comes to an end.

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We had driven over 1000 miles along the Pacific Coast in an epic trip from Seattle to San Francisco. My husband had stayed home with our oldest who was working, and so it was just me and my 14 yr old son and 11 yr old daughter.

Hwy 101 was amazing, mostly two lanes and beautiful. I had survived driving it alone, back feeling fine and only one speeding ticket. Hey, I was passing an 18 wheeler so totally justifiable. But still $300.

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Giants

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The redwoods, once seen, leave a mark or create a vision that stays with you always. No one has ever successfully painted or photographed a redwood tree. The feeling they produce is not transferable. From them comes silence and awe. It’s not only their unbelievable stature, nor the color which seems to shift and vary under your eyes, no, they are not like any trees we know, they are ambassadors from another time.

– John Steinbeck

I can’t say it better than Mr. Steinbeck. I have wanted to see the Redwood Forest for as long as I can remember. I was not disappointed.

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Crater Lake

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I always wanted to go to Crater Lake National Park, I’m not sure why. I think I saw a picture once and the blue water intrigued me. We were so close to it driving down the Oregon coast that I just had to squeeze it in.

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The Oregon Coast

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After we left Olympic National Park, we continued three hours down Hwy 101 to Seaside, Oregon. The rest of Washington was pretty nondescript, we caught our first couple glimpses of the Pacific Ocean. We crossed the mouth of the Columbia River across the magnificent Astoria-Megler Bridge which kinda wigged me out at one end…I don’t like heights.

We arrived in Seaside, Oregon in the evening. I had booked a hotel right on the beach with an ocean side first floor room. The kids were in heaven.

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