2011 Summer Trip CA -> OR -> WA

08/01/11  Day 1  The Start

Our adventure began before the crack of dawn.  I started to drive in the early morning and watched the sunrise as we were descending upon Central Valley from the Grapevine, while the family slept.

Maya:  I stayed up almost half the night because I sat in between Maverick and Lana. Maverick was sick so I didn’t want to lay on him and Lana was too tiny to lay on.  I talked to Daddy for a little and then  finally fell asleep on my own lap.  I got a kink in my neck in the morning.  At the first stop we had Maverick get in the back and sit with Justin so I could make up the sleep I didn’t get.  Now we all know never to put a child in the middle of a sick person and a little girl.  It turned out to be a pretty good day though, after I got some sleep.

The family was very patient with me.  I made them sit and endure 580+ miles.  We drove all the way to our first campsite, Shasta Dam.

I didn’t know, but the water in the lake feed into the Central Valley as the main water source for all the farms.  It goes to show you how much you can learn from a security guard with a gun.  I have to say, all the guards we met at the dam were very nice, even when they were telling me about stopping and getting shot.

 

Once we got down to the bottom of the dam, we found there was only one other camper beside the camp host at the campground.  We found out quickly why this is not such a popular camp, it was just too hot down there.  It was 102 degrees in the shade at 6pm.

There were no campsite with shade, so we just settled into the easiest one to pull into. After a couple of hours, we were blessed with shade from the cliff wall we were parked next to.  We really lucked out.

I have to say, we are truly lucky to have the kids we have.  They are such troopers.  No complaints at all.  If you believe that, I don’t know what you’re smoking, but I want some.  They complained up a storm….I didn’t blame them.  I was complaining also. It was so hottttttt…..We put up the EZ Up and awning as soon as we could to get some shade, because like I said, it’s 102 in the shade.  I had to wear leather gloves to work, because the metal was too hot for bare hands.

There is a beautiful river running next to the campground, but there was no access to it. We are standing in heat with a cool running river teasing us, just out of reach.  But we did have a pretty good view of the dam from the bottom up.  NOT!  You have to stand in the middle of the road, under the searing sun to see the dam.

Luckily we had the kids to entertain us.  We found things to do.  Maya:  The boys and I went to the water fountain and put cold water on our face and feet.  Everyone else didn’t want to get wet or didn’t want to get up to splash with us in the cold fountain water.  I enjoyed the cold water.

 

 

We then headed into town for some ice cream and relief from the heat.  Maya: While we were in the parking lot eating ice-cream, Justin spit all the almonds from his ice cream onto the parking lot ground in a little pile.  The next time we visited the parking lot, I saw a few almonds still there.

On the way back from town, the armed security guard told us that we will be the only people in the whole valley.  The camp host had a heart attack while we were in town getting ice cream.  As it turned out, the other camper was the son of the camp host.  He packed up his stuff and left to spend the night in the air conditioned hospital with his dad.  The the security guard told us that they will be locking us in by ourselves for security reasons.  This trip just gets better by the moment.

Justin: It was really hot and I got really bored. The most fun thing I thought of doing and the most time consuming thing was to balance a stick on my face. When we were getting ready for bed Lana and I slept in the car. Just 5 minutes into sleeping I looked at Lana and I saw sweat dripping down her face. She was like a fat man running in the middle of the summer in 100 degree weather. So I decided we should go inside the camper so she doesn’t have to drown in her sleep.

It was so dark and quiet down in the valley by ourselves, it felt like a perfect time and place for a nice murder.  Who will know where the Chinese family ended up?  Their bodies washed down stream for miles before recovered by some farmer…..

08/02/11 DAY 2  It Gets Better

We packed up and left the perfect murder sight and headed north again. I wanted pictures of YinFeng on the dam.  I sent Marcia and Justin onto the dam on foot, each armed with their own camera.  They were able to capture some pretty good shots.

On the way out we stopped and took some scenic shots before leaving.  It was very beautiful, but I doubt I stay at the campground again.  Too hot, too secure and did I say just too hot?  Justin: I did not get very good pictures of them.  I chased after the car to get a good shot of them.

 

 

 

 

On the road again.  We took it easy on the kids today, since they had to endure such a long drive on Day 1. We only drove approximately 400 miles today.  On this trip, we didn’t just drive from Costco to Costco to Costco.

We actually stopped at a restaurant that was featured in Sunset magazine famous for the best cinnabon.  The restaurant is called Heaven on Earth located in Azalea, mountains of OR.

Justin: I did not like how they started to eat the gigantic cinnamon bun without me. P.S. I ALSO CALLED “DIBS!!!! ON THE 1st BITE!!!!”

Note: Justin was taking a after meal nap when we started in on the dessert.  😉

After our lunch, we had their famous cinnabon.  Then I change the name of the restaurant to Hell in the Mountains.  It was the worst cinnabon I ever had.  It tasted like Maya’s cinnabons after we left it out uncovered for a week.  My rib dinner tasted like it came from a cheap jar of sauce.  The ribs were so tough, Shiao Niu didn’t even want my left overs.  I must have been too light headed after that overpriced no good lunch, I had a miscalculation with the miles and how much gas we had left.

We made it to our next gas station with only approximately 2 gallons of gas left.  To be stuck without gas in the mountains of OR, would not be the ideal way to be on the 2nd day of a 14 day trip.

After our first night at Shasta Dam and our lunch at Hell in the Mountains, we were hoping things can only get better.

Justin: Shiao Niu looks really happy in this picture.

We didn’t know what to expect in OR.  We were staying at Champoeg (pronounced: shampooee), approximately 30 minutes south of Portland.  It turned out to be really nice.  We got a bit lost on the way to the campground.  Our GPS unit took us to the regional offices of the park services.  This was not a fun experience either.  I was really pissed.  I looked down the single lane highway with no turn around spots so I pulled into the parking lot.  Well that will teach me to be pissed at a machine.  The parking lot was tiny and down a steep driveway.  I barely got the trailer turned around.  Luckily Marcia was the voice of reason as usual.  She directed me back the way we came and we were able to find the campground.  

Once we pulled into our spot, I was grinning ear to ear.  It was a full hookup campsite with hot showers and shade everywhere and the grassy grounds for the kids and dog to play in.  It was a beautiful place.

While in OR, we visited with Marcia’s brother’s family.  We had a very nice visit with them.  We even got to spend some time with Nick and Laurie.

08/03/11 DAY 3 Relaxing in Portland

We had a nice relaxing day at the campsite.  The boys and I played frisbee and leveled the Airstream, after we bought some more leveling blocks at Camping World.  Marcia and the girls went to the Ranger Station to learn about what the pioneers in 1800s use to grow in the area for food.

Later in the afternoon, Michael surprised us with a round of golf.  I always promised to take Maverick golfing, but back at home we were always too busy to go.  It sure was a very nice surprise.  Luckily Michael had plenty of golfing equipment to outfit us all with clubs, golf shoes and shirts.  Looking at these pictures, I just can’t believe how grown up Maverick looks now. 

Sometimes I still see him as the little boy I use to hold in my arms.  They sure grow fast.

I am thankful for the family we have and the closeness he enjoys with his cousins and uncle, even though we are miles away.

 

At night, we went to downtown Portland to have dinner in Chinatown.  Michael and Carol shared a bit of their family story.   Every Sunday night, Michael, Carol and their boys and their friends would meet for dinner at this restaurant.

 

They ate so many dinners there that when we walked in all the servers knew them and their family.  Story like that make me wish they never moved away.  I use to love going over to Michael and Carol’s house to hang out with them and play with their kids and share in their lives.

After the nice dinner we went and walked around downtown Portland.  It’s a beautiful downtown.  

Michael told me that they have a train that can take them from their neighborhood to downtown Portland for a very reasonable price.  Why can’t we have that in LA?

08/04/11 DAY 4  Last Day in Champoeg

We relaxed and slept in this morning.  Washed the bug riddled windshield and played more frisbee.

Later in the afternoon, we visited Michael at his office, so Marcia can do some work on the computer.

It was real nice to have no computer connection while on the road, but also frustrating because we have become so dependent on the internet for everything.  

 

 

 

 

Michael and Carol came to Champoeg for dinner and some relaxation and cocktails.  I see Carol at our campsite, but who the heck is the mystery man behind the Camping World bag?

 

Is that the Unknown Comic or Gene Gene the Dancing Machine from the Gong Show? Oops, dating myself.

 

 

08/05/11 DAY 5  The Tinkham Adventure

We packed up early then Marcia took the kids for a hike down to the Williamette River.  I stayed at camp and wrapped things up and sat down to do some reading in peace and quiet. I watched other campers ride bikes and played with their kids.  It was real nice to have some people watching time.

About 2pm, we finally got on the road after a stop for souvenirs.

 

Today’s drive to WA was a drop in the hat, only 205 miles to Tinkham Campgrounds.  The kids really got a kick out of the fact the the state border was in the middle of the river as we crossed the bridge.

 

As usual, we had a good time in the car.  The kids with their antics and me armed with the camera, we are never short of a few chuckles.

 

Where did all these feet come from?

My navigator is in deep thought!  So deep I can almost hear the thoughts….zzzzzzzz

 

 

Tinkham Campground was an adventure to find.  As we drove past Seattle and headed eastbound, the weather got darker and darker as we headed into the mountains.  Since it was a short drive, we thought we had plenty of time to get to the campground before sunset.  Well it got dark fast with the ever looming thick fog all around us.

Luckily as we drove we saw a very clear sign on the highway telling us Tinkham Campground next exit.  Well, that elated feeling of good fortune only lasted until we exited the highway and drove into what we thought would be an impossible trap to get out of.  

 

From the fwy exit, the pavement ended after 500 feet and turned into a narrow, narrow dirt road with no turn off and gullies on both sides of the road.  Did we drive past the campsite?  The road also got dark quickly because of the fog and the heavy tree canopy.  After we drove down this dirt road a few hundred more feet, I found a fork in the road.  Well, I tried and tried, but there was no way I was going to be able to turn the trailer around at a fork in the road, basically a hair pin turn.

At this point, another couple drove down with an Audi behind us and  they were also looking for Tinkham.  They squeezed past us on the dirt road and found the campground.  We had exchanged our numbers and they texted us that we were on the right road.  The campground was over 1.5 miles down the dirt road with huge pot holes and ruts.  We were so relieved that we didn’t have to turn around or back the trailer up to the highway.

After we got to the campground we were able to set camp up quickly.  I have a real good crew of kids.  I think it only takes us about 15 to 20 minutes to set up camp.

This was the first time I ever started a generator.  Marcia’s brother bought two generator for us in OR where there are no sales tax.  Two brand new CPE 2000 generator cost less then one Honda 2000. (We are so Chinese)  I would love to have a Honda, just because of everyone’s rating for the Honda is 5 stars, but after some research, I also found that CPE had a pretty good rating.

Maverick and Shiao Niu stayed in the tent while the rest of us stayed in the Airstream.  It was so dark and the tree canopy was so thick, we could not see the stars at night.  It felt like we were in the amazon jungles.  The trees were so beautiful and magnificent.

 

 

08/06/11 DAY 6  Connecting with an Old Friend

At Tinkham we really felt like we were in the deep deep woods, except when we went down to the river running through the campsite.  Once we were standing at the river, we did not just hear the rushing water which was real nice, but we heard all the big rigs driving by on the other side of the river.  At first we didn’t know where the car noise was coming from, but we figured it out.  The highway was on the other side of the river up on top of the embankment.  At the campground, we found an old fashion water pump.  The kids had a blast taking turns pumping water from it.  At first the water was crystal clear, but I think they agitated the well too much and the second bottle of water had brown particles in it.  After the walk down to the river, we headed into Seattle.

We took Shiao Niu with us into Seattle.  When Shiao Niu was a baby, she really didn’t like car rides, but after we got the Airstream and has taken her on some trips with us, she has really been great on trips.

Marcia and the kids went up the Space Needle while I walked around with Shiao Niu down below. We were also blessed with an awesome air show with the Blue Angels buzzing the Space Needle.  

 

Maverick was on the Space Needle and captured them up close with my Canon camera (400 shots; left), while I captured them with my Olympus camera (one shot; below).  I think its true what they say.  It’s the operator and not the equipment that make the difference. 😉

Just teasing son.  You did good.  I was just lucky…..

In Seattle, I had the chance to meet an old old friend.  I have been friends with Smitty since the 70’s. Although, we have not lived in the same place since the Cape, we have always stayed in touch.

 

(Kids Comments here about the Space Needle)

 

 

After the air show, Marcia and the kids took the monorail to the downtown area, while Shiao Niu and I walked down and met them.

From there we went to Pikes Place Market, where the first Starbucks was opened and where they throw fresh fish around.

We had some lunch and met up with Smitty and his son Tesh.    

 

 

 

We walked around and enjoyed our time together.  It was a very nice afternoon.

 

 

 

The last time I saw Tesh, he was just a boy, now he is a young man.

 

 

 

We even saw Captain Ahab’s bird when we were sitting around catching up and enjoying people watching.

 

 

08/07/11 DAY 7  Relax and Someone Famous

We slept in and ran around the woods for a while.  We took Shiao Niu down to the river and let her go swimming.  At one point, she almost got swept away and we had our doubts whether she was going to be able to make it back to shore.

We split wood and made a fire.  I was helping the girls split wood.  Now that I see the picture of what we were doing, I guess it wasn’t the smartest thing I have done in my life.  I trusted their abilities, besides, it looks like my phone was more important at that time…

I got to have some fun with my camera and take some great shots of the woods and the kids.  The woods were beautiful, all moss covered and very amazonian feel.  There were some real pretty and strange looking plants.  There was some fungus looking thing with saplings growing around it.  I took a picture of it and then took parts of it that I thought would make a pretty picture.  What do you all think?  Nice?  I guess it really doesn’t matter, as long as I enjoyed taking the picture of it.  This place was the coldest place of the trip.  Where Shasta Dam was 102 in the shade, here we were down to 56 degrees.  I wore my usual shorts and I was in heaven.  Marcia and the kids were in sweats.

I took some shots of Shiao Niu in the woods.  This one was Marcia’s favorite.  I thought it was pretty nice also.  She is such a nice dog.

After farting around the campsite, we finally headed into Seattle.  

We visited Bruce Lee’s grave site. Brandon’s headstone was very beautiful, while Bruce’s was more traditional.  There were constant stream of people visiting these graves.

 

 

We found a perfect park next to the cemetery.  We spent some time relaxing and playing frisbee in the park, while we waited for Smitty and Tesh.  There was a huge patch of grass and a giant pine tree shaped like the perfect Christmas tree.  

Look in the very right corner and you can see a person standing there.  That is Maverick in comparison to the tree size.  WoW!  That’s a big Christmas tree.

We ran around and I showed the boys that the old man still had some moves left.  Not much, but some and the moves didn’t last too long either.  I was exhausted.  I felt like they had the Duracell batteries and I had some cheap knock off brand of batteries.

Marcia did an awesome job taking the pictures in the park while we ran around.  I can’t show them all here, but trust me, they were good.  I didn’t think she had it in her.  I was really surprised.

Marcia is always teasing me about taking too many pictures.  After I sat down, asking for an oxygen tank, she showed me all the pictures she took.  I think all together for this trip, we took 2149 pictures from two cameras.  Is that a lot for 14 days?  When we look back at them, we always get some good laughs and lots of memories to talk about.

After the park, Smitty took us down to the wharf area with lots of food and souvenir stores.  We had seafood at Ivar’s and it was a lot of fun for the kids.  They had an outside seating area with tons of seagulls waiting for french fries and bread.  I was able to take some pictures of the seagulls in action.

 

The kids got ice cream and bought souvenirs.  We even got to watch some artisans work on a real totem pole at the wharf.

As we walked around, Lana found a giant penguin.  It was very cute.  I don’t know what a penguin has to do with the wharf in Seattle, but she liked it.

While souvenir shopping, Marcia and the kids came up with Post Alley.  I never even heard of it, but off we went in search of….

It was an alley that had an old theatre entrance there.

 

The story is that as the patrons were entering the theatre, they would stick their gum on the wall as they entered, because gum was not allowed inside of the theatre.

While walking to Post Alley, we all started to chew gum in anticipation of adding our contribution to the alley.  Once I saw it, I thought how disgusting, but yet at the same time it was very cool.

Yes, that is not a painted wall, but a wall of gum.  I guess there was so much gum, the theatre ended up moving to another location.  But people still come by and keep adding to the wall.  Maya ended up buying a poster of Post Alley for her friend, Sam, who was tortoise sitting for her.

On this trip, I felt like we saw a lot of different stuff, but I never felt like we were in a rush for anything.  We got to see many many cool sunsets.  This one I thought was very nice because of the different levels of the highway cutting through the city in the foreground.  Some of these highway levels comes pretty close to the building that they past.  I just like that.  It’s different than other cities.

08/08/11  DAY 8  Off to New Adventures (114 miles)

Today we are on a schedule.  It was a nice gift from Michael.  He booked and paid for a tour of the largest warehouse in the world by volume at the Boeing plant.  I actually set my alarm and got everyone up by 6:30 am and on the road to Mukilteo, WA.

As we left Tinkham, Justin took some very nice pictures of the Airstream driving through the woods, but my most favorite was when he started to experiment with the camera.  He’s got some talent.

We got there just in time.  We were the last ones in the door, phew, just made it.  It was incredible how big the warehouse was.  Unfortunately, they did not allow cameras or any electronic devices inside.  We only took a picture of the warehouse from the outside.  Even from the outside the building looks enormous.

 

I couldn’t even begin to start to describe the enormity of the warehouse.  Look at the plane in front of the warehouse.  That’s one of their largest planes in the fleet and it looks small compared to the warehouse.

 

Justin was also able to capture YinFeng with the airplanes in the background.  After the tour, we walked around the inside of the Boeing Store and museum.

We saw their new fuselage material. It’s only the thickness of a quarter, but stronger then the old technology of metal.  It’s also suppose to keep the inside cabin of the future plane with more moisture, so, we, the passengers, don’t get dried out as much.

Due to my cheapness, I never updated my GPS since I bought it, probably close to 10 years ago.  It was not as helpful as I wanted it to be sometimes.  We kind of got lost driving from the Boeing plant to the Mulkilteo Ferry area.  But at this point, we were back on no schedule, not to say it didn’t get me frustrated.  Not so easy to turn the trailer around every time I drive to a dead end.  It just didn’t happen once or twice on this trip.  We won’t go into that….

Once we found our way to the ferry, we realized that it was less then a 10 minutes drive away.  I guess I will look into updating my GPS unit.  Maybe…

At this point, all the kids were hungry and very anxious to get on the ferry for the ride across the bay to Whidbey Island, our next campground.  Luckily, there was an Ivar’s right in front of our car.  Marcia walked 30′ and bought lunch for everyone.

I must admit, I was a bit anxious myself.  Having towed this thing around a bit now, I was still kind of scared that I would make a fool out of myself as I pull onto the ferry and possibly get stuck and hold everyone up from getting onto the ferry and delaying the ferry coming from the island.  As you can see there are two lanes going into the ferry, but once inside the ferry, there are actually three rows of parking.  It gets tight.

It’s just like pulling into a parking spot with only a few feet of room on each side.  Once parked, I can barely open my door to exit the vehicle.  Very tight spot.  The kids had a great time on the ferry.  Maverick stayed with me and Shiao Niu near the car, while Marcia and the other kids explored the ferry.

The car that was parked next to me was right at the end of my mirror in this picture.  It was a very exciting ferry ride.  Now that’s another thing we can cross off the list of things to do with YinFeng.

During the ferry ride, we figure we would do the same thing that we did at Shasta Dam.  Justin and Marcia was going to get off the ferry on foot before the vehicles and get into a position for a photo op.  I guess they were told that they couldn’t, but Marcia, using her wit and charm, was able to talk the ferry workers into letting them do it.  So we were able to get photographs of YinFeng exiting the ferry.  Then they let us pull over to the side to let Justin and Marcia into the car before leaving the docking area.  Very Cool.

I hope all of our kids can learn the art of persuasion Marcia seems to have.  Its like that everywhere we go.  She would send me to do something and I come back and say that we couldn’t.  Then she would go and talk to the same person, 10 minutes later, she come back with a positive answer.  She is my Yoda, since she has mastered the Jedi mind trick.  

The drive to the northern part of Whidbey Island was very nice.  It reminded me of what you see in a movie of a small and closely knit farming community.  Beautiful farmlands with great weather.  Whidbey Island turned out to be a bit bigger and longer then I had imagined.  But it was a very pleasant ride.  No traffic.  No one riding my tail trying to pass.

We camped at Deception Park, Quarry Pond, Site #304.  We actually passed the Naval base where Nicholas, our nephew, was stationed at for a while.  By the time we got up there, he had just completed his time in the navy and moved back into civilian life.  The northwest is so beautiful with all the tall tall tall trees.  I miss them living in LA.

After setting up camp, fast as usual.  This time might have been even faster, because the campsite was pretty flat and not a lot of leveling had to be done.  We took a ride to Deception Pass and a little hike under and on top of the bridge.  Very very deceiving how high the bridge is.  But its called Deception Pass not because of the height of the bridge, but the unpredictable strong current which flows under the bridge.

After the nice walk, we set out and found Nick and Laurie’s favorite restaurant when they lived in the area.  We tried 123 Thai.  It was actually pretty good.  Nice friendly service and good food.  After dinner, I took Shiao Niu, Justin, Maya and Lana for a short walk across the street so they can get ice cream at Dairy Queen.  What is the fascination with DQ?  When we went to AZ before YinFeng, it was the same deal.  We had to look for a DQ and actually go out of our way to eat there.  I don’t get it, but it didn’t matter.  It made the kids happy, so it made me happy.  Marcia took the time to get some free wifi from Safeway with a Starbucks in it.  Unfortunately for Marcia, Starbucks was closed, but fortunately for her their wifi was left on.  She was able to do some work and answer some emails.  Maverick kept her company.

08/09/11  DAY 9  Nice and Easy (Do they still have this product or am I dating myself again)

We all got up late and stayed in bed playing video games for the kids and Marcia curled up with a book.  I did what any other father would do, I fought the kids for video time….just kidding.

After lunch, we headed out to explore.  We went to Rosario Bay and Bowman Bay.

 

 

We learned a bit of history for the area and we let Shiao Niu do her favorite thing. Fetching a big stick in the water.

 

I really enjoyed myself in this area.  I told Marcia that I wanted to have a vacation house in this area someday.  I know its a pipe dream, but a man has got to have dreams.

 

 

After a nice afternoon of exploring, we went back to the campsite.  Marcia took a rest while I made a fire with the kids and let them have fun playing with the fire and making smores.

 

Lana and Maverick were such good sports, they let me have a chance to play with my camera.  They are sure tall from this perspective. Maverick wants to be 6′ tall.  I guess someday I might be looking up at him like this.

After a few hours playing with the fire, the kids wanted to play a game of kick ball.

Now I am not sure about the story of how this ball became part of our family, but its been with us on many camping trips.  I know for sure I didn’t buy it.

 

On one trip, this ball went over the cliffside, but it was some how recovered by the kids later.

Well, on this trip, this ball nearly killed me.  I saw my life pass before my eyes and then somehow I recovered and saved myself from certain hurt and pain.  I am getting ahead of myself.

It all started innocently, like any other game.  It was Lana, Marcia and I against Justin and Maya.  They were kicking our butts, because as usual, Justin is just too much.  He is Mr. WIN WIN WIN.  Before long, Marcia gave up and went to rest.  I of course, must compete with my son and beat him, continued on like an idiot.  Well shortly after, Maverick came to join us in the game.  Now it’s Lana and I against the three older kids. We were losing badly, but having a great time.

Then I think it was Justin that kicked this ball way over my head in perfect trajectory.  I turned and ran as fast as I could to catch him out.  Well, I didn’t look and forgot that it was an uphill gravel drive that I am running up.  Next thing I know, I felt one of my legs hyper-extend and then the other leg came so far up that my knee struck my chin.  Now I am hurting big time and falling forward very fast.  I don’t know if any of you ever experience when your head and upper torso’s momentum is faster then what your legs are capable of moving.  All I saw was these sharp gravel rocks with hard impacted dirt under it and thinking how painful its going to be to fall face first.  My mind was moving so fast.  I forgot the pain in my legs and just pumped them as hard as I could to make them catch up to my upper torso.  I guess it worked.  After some very painful steps with my hyper-extended leg I was able to catch myself and prevent from falling hard.  I finally slowed down enough, to let myself sit down in pain.  I like to hear from the point of view of the kids what I look like and what they were thinking.  I must have looked like a crazy man flailing.

(Children’s point of view here.)

After a long rest on the ground, I relented to them and went to rest.  Of course, they ran to Marcia right away and told her.  I can’t remember the comment(s), but I think it was something to the tune of, “What were you thinking?  You’re going to hurt yourself one of these days!”  I went and sat down and rested.  I did something which I should have been doing in the first place.  Take pictures of the kids and nature.  Something I can handle and not get hurt.  What fun would it be without participating sometimes though.

I guess this is as good a place as any to introduce you all to Justin and his antics throughout the trip.

Many Faces of Justin

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I hope you all enjoyed it as much as we did during the trip.  He is a handful.

08/10/11  DAY 10  Southward Bound (The Return Trip Begins)

On our way back Home, we made many stops to have just as much fun as going northbound.  Our first stop was to the dumping station.  There are the good part of having a trailer/RV and then there are the bad parts.  Here’s my imitation of Robin Williams in RV when he first went to the dumping station.  It really isn’t that bad at all.

Our first destination was Michael and Carol’s house to spend some time with Cameron. Nick and Laurie was there on our way northbound, but Cameron was there on our southbound trip.  We missed Chris and Jeanine though.  They moved from Eugene or else we would have seen them.  Hmmmm….were they trying to tell us something?  Moved right before we arrived….

On our way back southbound, we stopped off at the first Costco, just south of downtown Seattle.  That Costco even had an automatic car wash.  You can kind of see the car wash in the picture between YinFeng and the Suburban.  Yeah, I know, I like the picture of my Airstream better then the car wash.  Sorry 🙁    But nice Airstream 🙂

The kids didn’t want Costco food anymore, so Marcia took them to a designer hamburger place right next to Costco, Burger Madness.  It turned out to be a great burger place.  Justin even bought a t-shirt from that place.

Maya waited with me and Shiao Niu.  She even came up with a new invention.  What’s that old saying? “Necessity is the mother of all inventions.”  I think that’s how it went.  Help me out folks.  Is that the right saying?

Maya’s automatic poop catcher.  Patent Pending.  Every pet lover will need one of these.  No more pooper scooper needed.  Look how Shiao Niu is modeling it.  She wears it so well.  The bag will come in every color under the sun or just plain clear as it’s being modeled here.

As we got on the road, something went terribly wrong.  After several hours of driving, I told my sleepy navigator (No repeat of Picture needed, just refer back to earlier picture) that I thought we were going the wrong way.  But my lovely navigator said don’t worry.  Until we saw this sign.  VANCOUVER!?  Noooooooo!

Just kidding folks……I am just teasing Marcia.  After all these years and miles of travel,  Marcia is right more then she is wrong.  I think I have one of the few women in the world that can navigate and read a map flawlessly and still look so beautiful.

We got to Michael and Carol’s place with no problems.  

Traveling long distances are not a concern for the kids by this point.  It’s just routine now.

Just before we left for the trip, I bought new light truck tires for the Suburban.  At first, I was kind of concerned with the way the tires performed while towing YinFeng.  I think it just really grabs the road.  I am probably more use to the bald tire towing with my old tires.  I bought Bridgestone Revos.  I like the way the tires look and the performance on the trip was only ok, not outstanding as I hoped.

It was good to see Cameron and hear his stories of his school and his travels.  We stood around the kitchen island and discussed politics, family, life, and how and where is Cameron’s life headed.  He really has his head screwed on right.  Carol did an awesome job of printing out and arranging Cameron’s blog into a book on his trip to Japan.   We really enjoyed reading it.  Good job Cameron and keep it up.  We are all very proud of you.  I will let you in on a little secret, so don’t tell anyone.  Maverick wants to be tall like you.  I don’t know how that’s going to go for him, since I am so short.  Just don’t tease him too much about being vertically challenged.

08/11/11  DAY 11  Continue our Southbound Trip

After almost a week of short drives, we drove from Portland to Folsom to see our friends Anh and Hue.  It was only a short 589 miles drive.  It took us over 12 hours.  We stopped in Shasta to have dinner and it was hovering just around 100 degrees.  Man that place is just too hot.  We stopped off for gas and found Nipa’s Thai restaurant with an aviary in the back parking lot.  Man did they make a racket, but the kids loved it.  I loved the price, “Free” for the bird show.

I didn’t enjoy the drive back southbound.  It just got hotter, hotter and hotter.  Give me the cool northwest any time.  But I did feel relieved when I saw the CA sign.

Isn’t it strange how seeing your home state’s sign can bring a feeling of comfort even though you know you are just getting to the end of your vacation and back to the grind.

 

I think I like being on the road a bit too much.  I can’t wait till we are retired and free to travel when and where we want, within reason, unless I hit the lottery.  Then we will travel when and where we want in a newer Airstream with my dream truck, silver F350 crew cab dual rear wheels 4×4 diesel long bed.

As we entered CA and started down towards Shasta, we were blessed with a beautiful view of Mt. Shasta.  It was spectacular.  We want to thank Anh and Hue for their patience and their generosity for opening their house to us once more.  We didn’t get to their house till it was close to 11 pm.  Again, my super crew, set up YinFeng in minutes and then got the dog set up also.  After talking for a short time, we all headed off to bed and got some well deserved rest.

08/12/11  DAY 12  San Francisco Bound (150 miles)

We hung out during the morning with Anh and Marcia got to go on a well deserved shopping trip to a nearby outlet stores, while Anh and I did some shopping for supplies.

In the afternoon, we headed to San Francisco to see our friends from Shanghai, China. We drove YinFeng across the Oakland Bridge.  A first for everyone in the family, except for Marcia.  It was very cool.  It was partially overcast with partial bright sunshine.  It made the bridge very pretty.  What made the bridge very ugly was all the traffic on the bridge.  Oh my god!  It took forever to get across the bridge.  I guess I got my money’s worth.  I got to spend a lot of time on the bridge compared to the amount of $$ I paid.

As we drove to Pacifica, yes we stayed at Pacifica again, but this time, we stayed in an inland slot.  We saw a hang glider having a great time in a fog that was so thick, he disappeared into the fog as fast as he appeared.  I was thinking how brave or stupid he was.

Luckily, there was no major storm this time as we stayed at Pacifica.  This time, the park was also full, I think there was only one slot left when we pulled in at 6:30 pm.  We set up camp and changed within 45 minutes and headed off to a rock and roll show put on by our friend’s band, Studio 188.

They were awesome.  Both their children performed also.  Asha belted out a couple songs while accompanied by her brother, Andres.  What a team!  They are only 11 and 9 respectively.  I guess it must be the good genes from mom and dad, Diane and Michael.

08/13/11  DAY 13  Santa Cruz (65 miles)

We drove to Santa Cruz and stayed at Sea Cliff State Beach.  It was dry camping right next to the beach.  They had full hookup as well, but being in the middle of the summer and last minute arrangement by us, we counted ourselves lucky to get a spot.

It was a beautiful day when we arrived and the kids played on the beach. Shiao Niu even got to enjoy the beach with the kids.  Shiao Niu helped the kids dig a very large hole, whether the kids wanted her to help them or not.

We got to witness an amazing event that afternoon.  We saw thousands of seagulls and pelicans in a feeding frenzy.  They trapped a sailboat in the middle of their feeding frenzy, which was incredible.

Marcia, being the mystery that she is, I don’t know how she does it, but she found a great Italian restaurant as we were driving to the Boardwalk.  She’s been doing this for the last 22 years that we have been together.  We go somewhere and she finds the best food.  I don’t know how she does it, I don’t care.  All I know is that she is able to find me great food.  AWESOME.  We had dinner at Lillian’s Italian Restaurant.  We all agreed that Lillian’s Italian Restaurant was the best food we had on the whole trip.  Not that we went to any fancy restaurants, but it was very good.

After dinner, we went to the Santa Cruz Boardwalk.  Marcia and the kids got to enjoy a few rides and souvenir shopping.  I got to enjoy some quiet time with Shiao Niu.  We walked up and down the quaint little canal.  We got to see some local homeless and gang members along with some local families walking around and enjoying the sunset along the canal.  I couldn’t go to the Boardwalk with Marcia and the kids, because no dogs are allowed on the Boardwalk.  I didn’t want to leave Shiao Niu in the car or campground by herself.  She has been so good the whole trip, I couldn’t leave her.

08/14/11  DAY 14 Homeward Bound (368 miles)

It was a short 8 hours drive home from Santa Cruz.  All in all, it was an awesome trip.  The kids had a great time and they can’t wait for the next trip.  Everyone was very happy to be home, but sad that the trip was over and they have to look forward to going back to school.

Due to technical difficulty, that’s beyond my comprehension.  I could not add any pictures to the last few days of the trip.  Pictures to come later, hopefully.  I hope I didn’t break anything.