Our comfortable sunny weather was about to turn wet as we headed north toward the Oregon border. Actually “wet” isn’t strong enough. After driving many hours through the lovely winding roads of the Shorline Highway, we turned inland just above Fort Bragg and the weather became soggy.
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This day could have set a record. Since I had recently visited San Francisco as a tourist and spent 10 days getting to know the city, I was able to give Kelsey an intense overview in just a day. For most people our agenda would have been considered ridiculously overburdened but not Kelsey. We started our tear around San Francisco at 8:00 AM on Saturday and except for sleeping we didn’t slow down till the next morning.
We started the day with a drive around Apple’s campus at 1 Infinite Loop in Cupertino and continued on to a tour of Stanford University’s campus in Palo Alto. These are a company and a university which we both admire and wanted to see first-hand. We visited both these icons in one morning. The day had only begun!
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Not wanting to be elsewhere when Kelsey arrived by plane in Los Angeles, I arrived the night before to avoid any potential unpleasantness. From Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument I zipped across southern California and descended into San Diego as the sun set. Very nice! From there is was a shot up I-5 to the Santa Anna Airport where I had a reservation at a near by motel for the night.
By now I’d been on the road for about 10 days. That meant this blog wasn’t current. That meant I hadn’t been swimming in way too long. That meant I needed to sit still for a while. In 24-hours I took care of all this getting my blog current in the Newport Beach Public Library and swimming in the Public Pool next door. By the time Kelsey arrived I was ready to go again!
The game plan was simple: drive up the west coast of the United States as close as possible to the Pacific ocean starting in Tijuana, MX and ending in Victoria, BC. She’d drive as much of it as possible and she’d fly home from Portland, OR after visiting with family. We had nine days to do it. That’s it.
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From home, I had to get to the start of my adventure up the PCH with Kelsey and that meant driving from D.C. to San Diego. Not a huge deal. There’s always something new to explore along the way and this time I was going to focus on a section of the deep southwest I’ve usually just driven past.
Along the way I did a little bike riding and President hunting.
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My daughters have both been seriously bitten by the travel bug. Given an opportunity to travel, they’ll take it. Kelsey is at the stage in life where she’s considering where to apply for college next year and during Spring Break is a convenient time to visit schools. Oh boy, and did she visit schools!
I didn’t catch up to them till I met them in San Francisco where I began my role as chauffeur. Prior to flying out to the West Coast Kelsey had already visited the University of Virginia in Charlottesville for the Engineering School Open House. Her odyssey had already begun.
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It happens all too infrequently anymore. With Courtney off at UVA and the Kelsey on a different school holiday calendar we have few windows in which to all be together. Winter breaks they have in common so this holiday season Beth made sure we took full advantage of it. Off to Cancun we went!
There’s something special about only having one agenda and no distractions. Courtney wasn’t trying to run off to see old friends. Kelsey didn’t have games or activities or homework to pull her away. We were all “stuck” in Cancun and we were living the relaxing experience together. Sun. Water. Warmth. We had their favorite ingredients in abundance and only wavered from relaxing on two occasions for tours to Isla Mujeres and Chichen Itza.
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At the end of the last ice age, water from Glacial Lake Missoula found it’s way to the sea by bursting through the Cascade mountain range at the point we now know as the Columbia River Gorge. Who knew?!
Again, I learn through my travels and I found this insight fascinating. No wonder rivers plunge hundreds of feet forming world-famous waterfalls. No wonder the gorge walls can climb as high as 4,000 feet straight up. No wonder this river-to-the-sea is so mighty. It’s all due to the residual impact of floods from a melting glacial lake over 12,000 years ago!
Just look at the majesty of the eastern entrance to the gorge … glorious.
Before the melting flood broke through, this canyon didn’t exist.
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This trip worked in visits with family in Silverton, Washougal, Vancouver, and several folk in Hillsboro. One of my favorite visits was with my brother who is moving from Texas to Oregon and getting back to his roots. It was a gratifying few days…a part of my heart will always be in the Pacific Northwest.
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At first glance the contents of this beautiful glass building didn’t appear very photo-worthy. Then I took a closer look. Flowers filled the place but in a quiet way. Beth had a hard time getting me to move away from the orchids!
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Road trips with Kelsey are starting to become a tradition. Our first outing was down the east coast to Charleston. Our second trip was along Route 66 <fix> from Chicago to Santa Monica. She’s proven to have what it takes to flourish on this kind of trip so why not keep it going?! Heck, soon she’ll be able to share in the driving so we can do even more.
Wanting to ensure she has a good time, I take her over territory I’m already familiar with. Just recently I had been along the Maine coast <fix>and up to Prince Edward Isle, <fix> two years ago I drove across Canada, and three years ago I’d visited Niagara Falls. I proposed weaving these together into one massive loop and she agreed. The route of our trip is mapped below. We started in D.C. and went clockwise around the circuit.
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