Vacation 2010 - Day 11

Today we had planned to go to Yellowstone National Park. Not entirely sure why we booked a hotel in Butte (MT), guess it was that it was the closest city that had hotels in our price bracket available. If that wasn't the case then Kenny screwed up when he booked the hotels. Either way there was no point in bitching about that. We just had to accept the fact that Yellowstone was about 115 miles south of our hotel and that it would probably take us about 2 hours to get there.
We took the I-90 east to State Route 359. We followed it until we got to the junction with State Route 287 and followed it until we reached West Yellowstone. Once there we filled the truck up and got lunch a Dairy Queen for an almost obscene price. Well, since you don't have that many choices... you just have to accept that.
Next we drove to the West Entrance of Yellowstone and took a picture in front of the Yellowstone sign. We drove into the Yellowstone and very soon we saw some moose. We stopped and took pix and video. One of the moose walked by us in a distance of about 5 feet. That was pretty cool. Guess the moose knew, that the weird humans with the cameras in front of their face don't pose an threat at all. Shortly after that we saw a couple of Bison gracing pretty close to the road. We stopped to take pix and video, without leaving the car. We followed the road along the beautiful Madison River and very soon we got to the Lower Geyser Basin. I walked up first, since dogs are not allowed near any of the geothermal features. It was very neat and very interesting. I took tons of videos. The hot springs are fun... okay their smell leaves a little to be desired, but otherwise interesting and fun. My favorite was called the Red Spouter... a feature were red mud is moving around in circles. Very interesting to watch. After I was done it was Kenny's turn to check it out and I stayed with Daisy.
We continued on the road and got to the Midway Geyser Basin. I checked it out first. There are 2 large geothermal features. Both have the most amazing shade if turquoise that I have ever seen. The steam can be quite intense at times but it is absolutely great and interesting. I took lots of video. It actually takes you way longer to walk around this feature than you would think. While I was taking video Kenny was hanging out with Daisy near the river. Once I got back it was Kenny's turn to check out this feature.
After that we moved on to the Black Sand Basin. Again it is a very interesting geothermal feature. Lot's of hot springs and tiny mud features. The tiny features are at least as interesting as the large one. One of the hot springs has steam features that are just amazing and reveals and amazing shade of turquoise. The last feature could best be described as a 'little Old Faithful'. I think I good pretty good footage of the thing erupting. Next it was Kenny's turn to check it out and take pix, while I stayed with Daisy.
Then me moved on to see the main attraction: Old Faithful. Just our luck that we missed Old Faithful by just 5 minutes. So we had to wait for about 90 minutes. We found a spot in the shade and just hung out and waited for the show to begin. About 10 minutes before the show was supposed to start, I went to the front to have a better view to take video. While Kenny stayed back in the shade with Daisy. After a couple of teases Old Faithful finally erupted. It was absolutely great, even considering that I was watching it mostly through a screen of the Video Camera. Once the entire show was over I walked back and found out that several kids had petted Daisy and she was completely fine with it. Surprise, Surprise. Guess, she's getting social in her "old" age. Kenny managed to take quite good pix from where he was standing.
It was a little after 6 pm and we still wanted to see the Mud Volcano. We headed west until we got to Yellowstone Lake. It is an absolutely beautiful and huge lake. It's actually way bigger than I imagined it. We then headed north and reached the Mud Volcano. Kenny got out first and took pix of that feature. After he got back it was my turn. This feature was the one that smelled worst of all the geothermal features we had seen all day. The 2 features that really stood out were "Dragons Mouth" and the "Mud Volcano". The first one a bubbling mud feature with lots and lots of steam. The "Mud Volcano" is as the name suggests a mud feature that pretty much shows how a real volcano would be working. After that I took video of steam coming out through the pavement. You could also see how the sulfuric acid was slowly corroding iron. By the time we were done with that feature it was past 8 pm and we started to head to the North Entrance of the Park.
We stopped to see a herd of Elk gracing across the river. I tried to take video and got about 2 minutes of it. Not too sure how good it's going to turn out, since there was only very little daylight left. We continued to the North Entrance and watched a lightning storm. That thing had been building up all day long. So it really didn't come as a surprise. We were pretty close to the exit of the park when it started to rain. But that wasn't even the worst. While we were driving through a very narrow canyon the thunderstorm really started. Thunder, lightning, strong wind gusts and rain. Nothing really out of the ordinary. The only difference is that the wind gust increase greatly in a very narrow canyon. At times the dust was so thick that you barely could see the hand in front of your eyes. Kenny was scared to death... It didn't bother me that much since I have experienced the down draft winds before. We finally made it to the North Entrance and to highway 89. We were driving in lots and lots of lightning and heave down pours. Finally we made it to the I-90 and headed west. About 60 miles before the hotel, Kenny had to pull over since he was way too tired to drive and I took over. We made finally made it to the hotel by 1 am. That was quite a long day and all in all we drove 435 miles.

Vacation 2010 - Day 10

Today we had planned a visit to Glacier National Park. We got up at 8 am and packed up the truck and were ready to leave by 9.30. We took US Route 93 north. Once we reached the junction with Highway 40 we followed it east to US Route 2 and followed it to the west entrance of Glacier National Park. We got a annual pass for all National Parks for 80 bucks. That might sound a lot, but by the time this vacation is over it will have paid for itself.
First we checked out the visitor center and Lake McDonald. We followed the "Going to the Sun Road". We got to see lots of forests, rapids, white water, water falls and lakes. Then the road started climbing. We got to see the aftermath of an avalanche. The narrow and windy road was actually fun to drive and is absolutely stunning. I just love driving mountain roads and it doesn't bother me and it reminds me about driving certain roads in the Austrian Alps. That road is definitely the wrong choice for the fainthearted driver or if you're afraid of heights. The higher up you get the more amazing and breath taking the views become. The view right in front of you is absolutely breath taking, you turn around and there is even a more amazing view. Kenny and I took tons of pix and video. Shortly before we reached Logan Pass the road narrowed to a 1 lane road since an avalanche had taken out part of the road a couple of years ago. We were in luck and there was no wait on our side. Once we got to Logan Pass we drive by several snow fields. We also saw a mountain goat on one of the snow fields. That was quite amazing.
Once we passed Logan Pass we had to wait on the east side since there the road also to a 1 lane road, because they were doing road work. We had to wait for about 5 or 10 minutes and that was the perfect opportunity to take video and pix. After that we went down on the east side. The road on the east side is far not that impressive than the one on the west side.
Once we reached St. Mary's we jumped onto US Route 89 and followed it south, until we reached the junction with highway 82. We followed highway 82 until we reached the junction with highway 83. we followed it south to State Route 200 and followed it south until we reached I-15. We were driving through lots and lots of rural area's of Montana. Rolling hills as far as the eye can see. It was pretty amazing. It gave Kenny and I a very good idea what the great planes must have felt to the first settlers. Until this trip I could never imagine that. Driving on rural highways with literally no traffic on a wide open road is pretty much what the average European thinks when it comes to driving in the States. It definitely was quite interesting. One thing we learned is that if you go on a road trip through rural Montana make sure your care has enough gas and you bring enough food and water with you, as it might be a few hundred miles until you can stock up on these items.
We finally reached the city of Helena. I'm talking about a real city and not some tiny, rural townships. We had Wendy's as very late lunch and then continued on the I-15 south. around 7.30 pm we finally reached our hotel in the city of Butte. This leg of the trip was 350 miles long.

Vacation 2010 - Day 9

Last night we slept in my truck in a rest area. Let's just say it was not to most relaxing night I've ever spent. I guess I'm not used to sleeping in my car any more. Kenny said this morning that he had a horrible night. Well, I think I slept somewhere between 1 1/2 to 2 hours at the most. Besides that it was quite interesting to see the "dawns early light". Has been quite a while since I saw that last. At 4 am I was completely awake so I decided it was time for me to get up. By 4.30 am Kenny was up as well and we started to pack everything up and we got ready to hit the road again.
We left at 5.30 and headed on I-90 east. We took the St. Regis exit and took State Route 135 east, until we reached the junction with State Route 200 and headed north. Once we reached Plains we jumped onto State Route 28 north.
For most part it was an very interesting drive. Lots of valleys and forest. State Route 28 is an entirely different story. The majority is pretty much a straight line and the surrounding area is fairly flat. Driving such a highway is exhausting under normal circumstances... driving it with having only slept for about 2 hours makes it even worse. For a short time the monotony of higway 28 was interrupted by the fact that due to construction the highway had turned into a dirt road. Both, Kenny and I, felt really at home. To make a long story short, about 40 miles before we reached Kalispell, I pulled over and let Kenny drive the remaining 40 miles, since highway 28 was slowly putting me to sleep.
Once we reached Lake Flathead we took US Route 93 east to Kalispell. We got into town around 9 am. Now we had about 6 hours to kill, since we couldn't check into the hotel before 3 pm. So we hung out in a parking lot. I was taking a nap, while Kenny was working on his blog stuff. After that we drove a little around town... but there isn't much to do in Kalispell. At noon we had lunch at Wendy's. We hung a little out at the outside sitting area at Wendy's. By that time it was about 1 pm and Kenny called the hotel if there was a possibility of an early check in. Fortunately the answer was yes and so we headed to the hotel.
Once we had settled in Kenny continued to work on his online stuff while I was just resting. By 5 pm we ordered pizza for dinner. So all in all it was a fairly slow and mostly relaxing day and this leg of the trip was only about 190 miles long.

Vacation 2010 - Day 8

Today we continued with our vacation road trip. We left Aberdeen (WA) and took State Route 12 east to the 101. We followed US Route 101 west trough Olympia (WA) until we merged with I-5. We followed I-5 north through Tacoma to Seattle (WA). Once we got into Seattle we really hit traffic. The last 2 miles, until we were supposed to get off the I-5 to see the Space Needle, took us about 40 minutes. Once we got off the freeway our GPS got a little confused. It tried to lead us in circles. After the 3rd wrong information from the GPS we turned it off and followed our instincts. A few turns later we were pretty much in front of the Space Needle and found very quickly a parking spot. We went over to the Space Needle and took pictures and lots of video. The little fair in front of the Space Needle was definitely not Daisy's friend... as she didn't like the noise and commotion too much.
After Kenny had recorded his daily video blog in front of the Space Needle we hit the road again. While getting back onto the I-5 again Kenny and I had a difference of opinion. I wanted to take the I-5 north and Kenny wanted to take the I-5 south. The GPS agreed with me and it turned out to be the right direction. We took the I-5 to the I-405 north. Once we reached the junction with State Route 522, we followed it west until we reached the junction with US Route 2. We took US Route 2 east until we reached the town of Leavenworth (WA) It's a recreation of a Bavarian (German) Town. It really comes pretty close to a Bavarian town. We walked up and down and took lots of pictures and video. We stayed to watch the Folk Dance Group perform. It's definitely a neat place to visit.
By about 5 pm we left Leavenworth, followed the US Route 2 to the junction with the US Route 97. We followed it east until we reached Spokane. Eastern Washington looks nothing like I thought it would. The freeways are almost straight like a line, the land is flat like a pancake and the forests, Washington is famous for, are nowhere to be found. I can say one thing for certain. I love western Washington, western Washington on the other hand is not really for me. It's too flat and reminds me way too much about the Mid-West.
In Spokane we stopped around 9 pm and had dinner at a Panda Express. After dinner we got back onto the road, since we weren't able to get a hotel on Spokane and surrounding areas, since there were 2 major events going on. At least not for a reasonable price. The only hotels we would have been able to get our hands on would have been in the price bracket of 300+ bucks... and I'm not really willing to spend that much on a hotel room. So we got onto the I-90 and headed east. We managed to take a little video and some pix of the Idaho State Sign. Then we passed through Coeur d'Alane and headed further east. Kenny was still driving, although he had been driving for the past 6 hours... why he got behind the wheel in Spokane again beats me. There was no reason to do so. And driving the sometimes narrow and windy I-90 east through Idaho is just a bad idea. Around midnight we crossed the State Line into Montana and a couple of miles later we put into a rest area. This was the last rest area before we getting of the I-90 altogether and we were both sure that there wouldn't be a single rest area before reaching Kalispell at the entrance of Glacier National Park. So we decided to stop for the day and sleep in the car and drive the remaining 150 miles or so the next do. So today we managed to drive 500 miles.

Vacation 2010 - Day 7

Today was a very relaxed day. We went over to Ricks place and had breakfast with him and his family. Rick made Belgian Waffles, which were delicious. After breakfast we hang out and did a recording for a podcast of one of Kenny's friends. We were talking about the 2st season of Startrek TNG. After that Rick, Kenny, Catherine (Rick's daughter), Andrew (Rick's son) and I went to the movies to see Toy Story 3. All 5 of us really loved it. For those of you, who have not a clue what I'm talking about here a short synopsis:

Woody, Buzz and the whole gang are back. As their owner Andy prepares to depart for college, his loyal toys find themselves in daycare where untamed tots with their sticky little fingers do not play nice. So, it's all for one and one for all as they join Barbie's counterpart Ken, a thespian hedgehog named Mr. Pricklepants and a pink, strawberry-scented teddy bear called Lots-o'-Huggin' Bear to plan their great escape.

After the movies we went back to the Moyer's house where Amy had prepared a special snack... a Deer / Elk Sausage. The sausage was absolutely delicious. For me it wasn't that much of a surprise, since I have had deer / elk sausage before. But for Kenny it was a surprise since he had never had this kind of sausage, and he really liked it. While we wee at the movies Daisy had stayed with Amy and she actually did fairly good, except that Daisy and Tess got into a little barking match a couple of minutes after we left. Other than that she has been doing fine.
Then Kenny tried to find hotels for the rest of the trip. We didn't want to drive all the way trough to Montana and wanted to stop in Spokane (WA). Turns out there is some sort of event going on this weekend and it is literally impossible to find a reasonable priced hotel room. So we opted to book hotels for all other stop on this road trip. This of course means that we have no hotel book for tomorrow. Tomorrow we will drive east and visit Leavenworth (WA), a town that is a recreation of a German city. After that we will have to decide if try to find a hotel to stay, continue to drive east and hope to find a hotel along the way, or sleep in my truck in the parking lot of a Walmart e.g. Right now we haven't quite figured that out yet, guess we will decide that while we are on the road.
After that we took Rick and his family out for dinner to the Mazatlan restaurant. All of us love Mexican food and it was absolutely worth it. After dinner we hung out for a little longer the Moyer's house and Kenny had S'mores for the first time in his life and he really seemed to like them. Then it was time for group pictures since that was our last day with them. Both, Kenny and I, loved spending time with them... and it's sad that we had to say good bye. Maybe they can make it down to our place for Kenny's 40th birthday in September. That would really be great.

Vacation 2010 - Day 6

Today we were supposed to meet with Kenny's friend Rick at 9.30 am. Of course we were running about 15 minutes behind. So that wasn't too bad. We had breakfast with with Rick and his family. Rick's wife Amy cooked a absolutely delicious breakfast that I would describe as breakfast burritos. After breakfast we headed out. Since Tess and Daisy hadn't been getting along with each other yesterday, we put today a muzzle on Daisy and introduced the two dogs very slowly... and the at least manage to tolerate each other. So there are chances that the two might mange to get along with each other after all.
We went with Kenny's friend Rick to Westport to see Pacific Ocean in Washington. We climbed up the Jetty and took some amazing pix and lots of great video. Next we walked along the docks and Kenny and Rick picked up some sinfully delicious fudge. After that we stopped at a non-functioning light house. We took some pictures and video. Daisy was supposed to stay in the truck, but managed to jump out the window on the drivers side. Luckily she didn't get hurt or run over by a car. Guess she really wanted to see the light house.
After the light house adventure went to check out a beach. This was our first visit to a beach in Washington and Daisy's first visit to a beach ever, since there are only very few beaches in LA county that allow dogs. The beach was really great...a little different than SoCal beaches. On the SoCal beaches the sand is a little lighter. This beach had quite a nice amount of driftwood, and that is quite a nice thing, since you don't see that on LA beaches. First Daisy wasn't to sure about the entire thing, but warmed up very quickly and so absolutely enjoyed her time at the beach and wasn't too thrilled when we were leaving.
After the beach adventure, we drove back to Aberdeen to check out a Star Wars Store. That was absolutely amazing and I had a hard time believing how much Star Wars Stuff there was to see. Kenny was feeling like a kid in a candy store. His eyes were really lightning up when he first walked into the store. I took a ton of video. I was experimenting with different styles of camerawork... not quite sure how good the will turn out to be. After I was finished with the video, I took over supervising Daisy and that gave Kenny time to take pix in the Star Wars Store.
After the Star Wars Store we went to Dairy Queen for a rather late lunch. Next we picked up some groceries at Walmart and headed back to Ricks house. After an fist few tense moments, Daisy and Tess sniffed each other and started to get along with each other. Well they weren't exactly best buddies, but Daisy tolerated Tess for most part. Tess kept following her around and Daisy was kinda fine with it. Sometimes Daisy got a little annoyed with it but other than that she was fine. So there is definitely hope for our dog. We hung out at Ricks house for about 1 1/2, then dinner was served. Rick's wife Amy prepared her famous Tater Tot Casserole... and it was absolutely delicious. As desert Amy prepared Apple Crisps and it was equally delicious.
After dinner we hung out with the Moyers and then took a walk at Friends Landing. That is a man made lake, and you can take a walk around the entire lake. It's a very nice, about 1 mile long walk. After we got back from the walk we hung out with the Moyers till about 10 pm. It was definitely a great day with very nice company.

Vacation 2010 - Day 5

Today Kenny and I got up at our usual time, since we didn't have to be at Kenny's friend's Rick house before 10 am. So we left around 9.45 am and got to Rick's house pretty much at 10 am. It was a very nice and warm welcome, and it was also the first time that Kenny and I met Rick and his family in person. Daisy and Tess didn't get along with each other at all. Tess is way too excited and Daisy doesn't quite understand what to make of it. So the only solution was to keep the 2 dogs apart from each other. Maybe with time they will warm up to each other. After that Rick's wife Amy prepared very delicious Swedish pancakes with strawberries.
After breakfast we left for a trip to the Washington Rain Forest. It took us
roughly a hour to get there. Again we were driving through lots and lots of
forest. We got to hang out at the beautiful lake Quinault. After that we walked over to the world's largest Spruce Tree and took lots of videos and quite an
decent amount of pix as well.
Our Daisy is quite shy and as the went on she warmed more and more up to Rick and his family. Next up was lunch at the Mercantile, a 'mom and pop' restaurant near the lake, and lunch was absolutely delicious. After lunch we hung out at the lake a second time. Next was a tour of a architectural very interesting lodge. Next we went to see Marriman Falls. It might not be the tallest waterfall,but it is certainly the most beautiful waterfall Kenny and I have seen on this tripso far. Believe it or not, but Daisy actually walked through water. Considering how water shy she is, that was pretty amazing.
After that we headed back to Ricks house and a delicious pot roast for dinner.
The we hang out with Rick's family for a couple of hours.
All in all it was a fun filled day with nice company.

Vacation 2010 - Day 4

Today Kenny and I were going from Hood River (OR) via Astoria (OR) to Aberdeen (WA). Since that is only a little over 200 miles that wasn't really a big deal. So we got up at 8 am and I started packing things up, while Kenny was checking his emails. Once he was done, he joined me by 9.30 the truck was all loaded up and we were ready to hit the road again.
We were going via Astoria to Aberdeen since the movie Goonies was shot there, and Kenny is a big Goonies fan. So we took I-84 west and on the outskirts of Portland we merged onto the 205 North. It's rather odd as the GPS made us go up north into Washington and than back south into Oregon. So we passed the outskirts of Vancouver (WA) and then took highway 197 west and were supposed to go via the Lewis and Clark Bridge over the Columbia River back into Oregon.
But somehow our GPS got at little confused and told us to go right and that
way we ended up in a lumber yard.So we turned the car around and took the Lewis and Clark Bridge into Oregon.
This is a big and architecturally very impressive bridge. From the Oregon side
you have a absolutely stunning view of the bridge. We then followed the historic US Route 30 west. It's a 2-lane highway and you get some interesting views. What you see most of the time is lots and lots of forest. We could have driven through Vernonia and check out the home-base of 2 of History Channels "Ax Men", but that would have brought us further south than we actually wanted to go. So we opted to continue on the 30 west until we reached Astoria. We stopped at the entrance to take a picture with the city sign and than drove into town.
While we were driving through town in search of a fast food place we found a
way better 'Welcome to Downtown Astoria Sign'. We stopped and took a picture
in front of that sign and then we hit the road again. We didn't find any fast food place that would have agreed with our stomach, so we opted to drive over the 4.3 mile long Astoria Bridge into Washington. This bridge is absolutely amazing... not only because of it's length, but also because of it's architecture. We stopped at the next turn out on the Washington side and took quite a number of pix and videos and we also took picture right in front of the Washington State Sign.
We merged onto the 101 and followed it north. Again we came across some quite interesting views, but lots and lots of forest and for about 1 1/2 hours we didn't come across any city. We finally reached the city of South Bend but didn't find any fast food place that would have agreed with us. That prompted my statement, that "in South Bend fast food isn't on top of the list of priorities". We continued on the 101 north and soon reached the city of Raymond where we had lunch at a Diary Queen.
After lunch we got back onto the 101 north. That's when a really odd thing happened with the GPS: We had about 30 miles to go and the GPS estimated that we would need another 2 hours. That struck Kenny and I as rather odd.
Turns out that the GPS was wrong, as about 40 minutes later we reached Aberdeen and checked into the Hotel. So far this hotel is the nicest on the entire trip. All in all we have been lucky with the hotels we have chosen.
Tomorrow we will be spending with Kenny's friend Rick and his family.

Vacation 2010 - Day 3

Today was the first time during this vacation that we weren't doing any major traveling. That way you get to enjoy the area you're in way more. For this day Kenny and I had planned to visit a couple of waterfalls about 20 miles west from where we were staying and to explore parts of the historic Columbia River Gorge Highway, which is part of the old US Route 30.
We headed out around 10.30 am and took the I-84 west. At Cascade Locks, we went onto the historic part of the old US Route 30. We drove through Cascade Locks and checked out the "Bridge of the Gods". This bridge really stands out and is architecturally especially impressive.Kenny took lots of pix and I documented the bridge with a decent amount of video. We didn't drive across the bridge, since it was a toll bridge. After that, we followed the historic highway west and got into Ainesworth State Park, were we explored the Horse Tail Waterfall. Absolutely gorgeous. After that we went even further west to the Multnomah Waterfall. This waterfall is absolutely stunning and definitely worth a visit, and reminded me very much about a couple of waterfalls in the Austrian Alps. All the scents, tons of people and lots of dogs were getting the better of Daisy. She just couldn't help herself... all that taken together was just too overwhelming for her. But as time went on she started to calm down a little more. We did hike up to a bridge from where you have an awesome view of the waterfall and we managed to take lots of pix and absolutely stunning video of the waterfall. After that we hiked back to the base of the fall and decided that it was time for lunch. We checked a restaurant near the fall, but neither Kenny nor I were willing to pay 12 bucks for a burger. So we got back onto the I-84, headed east and picked up lunch at Dairy Queen. Taking lunch back to the hotel was definitely the easier thing to do.
After lunch we relaxed for a couple of hours at the hotel and then we headed back out. This time we wanted to explore parts of the historic US Route 30 east of Hood River. So we got onto the I-84 and headed east. One of the first few exits lets you explore the historic Columbia River Gorge. We took that exit and followed US Route 30. This is a very scenic road, but also very windy and very much reminded me of many mountain roads in the Austrian Mountains. Highway 30 brought us higher and higher up until we reached the Memaloose Overlook. From there you have a absolutely gorgeous view of the Columbia River Gorge. You have an almost 180 degree view from up there and it is definitely well worth the detour. We then followed highway 30 and reached the highest point at Rowena Crest. This is another place from where you can enjoy absolutely stunning views of the Gorge. We then took the narrow and windy US Route 30 down back to I-84 and followed it to a city called The Dalles, and crossed via the Dalles Dam Bridge over into Washington.
We took US Route 197 north to Highway 14 and followed the 14 west. The scenery of the the Gorge on the Washington side is equally impressive. I just wish there would have been more turn outs, so that you can stop to take pix and videos. We stopped at one turn out and got quite a number of great pix and some good video as well. After that we took the Hood River Toll Bridge back to get back into Oregon. While we were crossing the Gorge we got some awesome pix of
Mt. Hood and Toll Bridge. Turns out that this bridge isn't paved, and you have to drive over steel plates across the Gorge. On top of that this bridge is quite narrow and a drawbridge... and that's something that Kenny wasn't particularly comfortable with. Regardless how you fell about the bridge... you definitely get some stunning views.
All in all it was a really great 3rd day of our vacation and Kenny and I enjoyed it a lot.

Vacation 2010 - Day 2

On day 2 of our vacation we wanted to drive all the way up to the
Columbia River Gorge. We had planned to leave Mt. Shasta at 9 am, but we were running about 1/2 hour behind. Around 9.30 we started to head the I-5 north. The scenery of NorCal is very beautiful and we took tons of pix and video. The Volcanic heritage of norhtern California was especially impressive. On the way to the California - Oregon border we passed through a number of very small towns.
Around 11 we made it to the CA - Oregon state line. We stopped right at the Oregon State Sign and took a couple of pix. We headed further north on the I-5 and took a stop at Country Junction to let Daisy out. Of course she loved it... but all the new and different smells were driving her crazy. She just couldn't help herself and the scents were getting the better of her... at least partially. We got back on the Interstate and headed up north. Driving through Oregon is absolutely beautiful. Trees as far as the eye can see. Oregon is really green and coming from SoCal that's quite a nice change. Some parts of Oregon reminded me about parts of my own home country. At Sutherlin we got off the freeway to have lunch at Burger King.
After lunch I took over as driver, since Kenny had already been driving for a little ove 200 miles. We got back onto the I-5 and headed north. We passed through Eugene and Salem where it got more and more gray. From the look alone I know I was heading straight into the rain... and surely enough only a short time later it started raining. It was only light rain. From that point on we were hitting pockets of light and heavier rain from in periodical intervals. I didn't mind that, since driving in the rain doesn't really bother me at all.
About 25 miles south of Portland we stopped at the Baldock Rest Area, to give Daisy a chance to get out of the car... and of course she absolutely loved it. I have to say one thing about Rest Stops in Oregon they are with wooded and really beautiful. We also found out that it is against the law in Oregon to fill up your own car. Being from SoCal that hit me as particularly odd.
We headed the I-5 further north into Portland. Not exactly sure what it is but all the freeway intersections in Downtown Portland reminded me of more of a metropolitan jungle. While driving in LA I never had that particular feeling. We finally had it made to the I-5 / I-84 intersection, got onto the I-84 and started with the last part of today's travel. One last note on Downtown Portland: Neither Kenny nor I were particularly impressed.
So we headed on the I-84 east and about 1 hour later we reached the final destination in Hood River. We checked into the Sunset Motel, unpacked the truck and were both glad that we could finally relax. Later in the evening Daisy finally was hungry enough to eat her regular food... as for the past 1 1/2 days she hasn't been eating. But that is pretty much normal when she's taken out of her familiar surroundings.
Kenny and I will be in Hood River for the next 2 days.

Vacation 2010 - Day 1

Today Kenny and I got up at 7 am to get things started. I started preparing a couple of things that I wanted to bring with me on the trip. Once I was done Kenny joined me and we started packing the truck. Everything went smoothly, but we still were running about 1/2 hours behind. We left around 8.30, took a quick stop a Pepper Tree Gas to fill the truck up and then followed Sierra Highway and got onto the I-5 at Valencia.
We took the I-5 all the way up north, through the absolutely flat and boring CA Central Valley. The boredom is only being interrupted by Tree Orchards and quite intense smell of cow manure. Periodically I had to shut off the cruise control otherwise I would have fallen asleep. The only positive side is that the I-5 is the shortest way to get up north and since it's completely flat you use less gas.
Around 12.30 we stopped for lunch at Del Taco in Santa Nella. Once we were done with lunch we decided to fill the truck up again and then continued on the I-5 North. We went through Stockton and Sacramento, but didn't stop anywhere along the way, since we had done a CA-Vacation in 2005 and we wanted to get as far north as we possibly could.
After driving for over 400 miles I decided a north of Sacramento that it was time to let Kenny do a little of the driving. Of course I could have driven the remaining 200 miles... but because you can do something, doesn't necessarily mean that you should. So Kenny took over and it gave me a chance to relax a little and to enjoy the scenery that got nicer and nicer with each mile we drove further north.
Around 8.30 pm we reached our Hotel in Mt. Shasta. All in all it was a very good first day of our road trip. But Kenny and I are both happy that we made it to the hotel and can relax. On this road trip we brought Daisy along. At times she wasn't quite too sure what to make about the commotion, but for most parts she was doing absolutely beautifully. And Daisy absolutely loves to go on trips in the car.
For tomorrow we have planned to drive up to Mt. Hood in Oregon... and that are roughly about 400 miles. I will keep you guys posted on hour road trip!!

Vacation Preparations

Today Kenny and I spent the day packing and prepping for our road trip. Packing for 19 days of travel. Think we are all good to go. Gotta get up early tomorrow to begin our 10 hour drive up north to Mount Shasta.

Kenny is going to try and do a daily video blog of the days events. So keep an eye out for those. Kenny will also take a ton of pictures and I am going to take video. Guess we should have lots to share in the near future.

Today Kenny and I spent the day packing and prepping for our road trip. Packing for 19 days of travel. Think we are all good to go. Gotta get up early tomorrow to begin our 10 hour drive up north to Mount Shasta.

Kenny is going to try and do a daily video blog of the days events. So keep an eye out for those. Kenny will also take a ton of pictures and I am going to take video. Guess we should have lots to share in the near future.

Blog Feed

Just added my Blog to the Facebook Blog Feed... and of course the feed doesn't show up. Doesn't really surprise me at all !!!

More Yard Work

Today started out with I checking if AHF had already refilled my prescriptions for the vacation. Turns out that the girl it told it on Monday hadn't told anyone about that. Well, it is not the first time that this particular girl screwed something up. Guess I should have gone with my instinct and checked with them on Tuesday. So I told my regular 'pharmacy guy' that I needed my prescriptions refilled for my vacation. He told me that he would get right on it and that I can pick them up on Friday.

Next Kenny and I headed out to Sylmar to pick up a thing called "The Bagster". It's a sturdy large bag where you can put in construction waste and a lot of other stuff... up to 3000 lbs and Waste Management will pick it up for a fixed fee. The price for the Bagster itself is fairly low about 35 bucks, but you about about 130 for the pickup... but that's still 1/2 of what you would pay for a construction dumpster.

Next we headed over to Valencia to have lunch at Islands. After that we took the back roads back to our house, since the I-5 was really congested. While driving the back roads we saw tons of stores we normally shop in, and neither Kenny nor I had any clue that the were there... and we've been living out there now for almost 1 year. So taking the back roads was definitely worth it.

By the time we got home I had a voicemail on my phone. I checked it right away and it was the pharmacy. That gave me a really bad feeling... so I called them back right away. Turns out that they just wanted to let me know that the vacation refill had been approved and that I can pick up my Meds on Thursday. I'm very happy about that.

Then Kenny and I went outside and filled the Bagster up with weeds. Then we dumped the contents of the Bagster in the trash bin. That almost filled the dumpster up. So I came up with the idea to jump into the dumpster and use my body weight to compact the weeds. That way only the bottom 1/3 of the dumpster was filled. Then we put all the clippings of the east facing slope into the Bagster and dumped it again... and I used the same method to compact the weeds as before. There is one downside to that way of compacting weeds: I'm getting too old for that. I'm just not 20 anymore and being 30 lbs overweight isn't particularly helpful either.

After that we took a little break. For the rest of the afternoon Kenny and I raked and filled the Bagster up with weeds and yard clippings. At 7 pm we were finally done. All the weed removal is done. Now we have just to figure out how we're going to dispose of the weeds... as there's no way that we can dump them all into the trash bin. Either we leave them for now and dump them over several weeks into the trash bin or we have Waste Management come out and pick the Bagster up. Not quite sure what we will be doing.

Errands

Today was pretty much and day of running errands in preparation for our upcoming vacation. I needed to get a second battery and a second memory card for my video camera. I had checked earlier and it turns out that Fry's had the cheapest batteries and memory cards. Kenny joined me as I was heading out to Fry's in Burbank. We got battery and memory card. The total was about 110 bucks, but since I still had the rebate debit card form when I bought my new Blackberry, it ended up costing my only 10 bucks.

Next Kenny and I decided to have lunch at Chevy's. Lunch was absolutely delicious. Next we headed over to Ralphs in Burbank to pick up some groceries. After that we headed back but had to make a stop in Santa Clarita since we had to pick up a couple of things at Petsmart and Lowe's. At Petsmart we got a 6 foot leash for Daisy, since she will be needing it when we're visiting a couple of National Parks during our upcoming vacation.

After that we headed over to Lowe's. We picked up a glass cleaner and a container for gasoline, since our weed whacker needed to refilled. After that we headed back home. We stopped at Pepper Tree Gas Station to fill up the gasoline container.

Once we got back, Kenny continued to finish mowing down the weeds on the last remaining slope. While I took the glass cleaner and finally cleaned the inside of the windows of my truck, since a oily film was forming on the inside of the windshield. Usually that doesn't particularly bother me, but driving against the sun causes a nasty reflection on that oily film... and I really didn't want to go on a long road trip without that having been taken care of.

So we got quite a lot done today. 3 more days to go until we leave for our road trip and there's still a ton of things that need to be taken care of before we leave.

Hard Drive Troubles

Well a couple of month ago I bought a 2 TB External Hard Drive. Somehow I never got around to use it. With the vacation coming up I had to check the external hard drive, since I will have to pull of the video footage daily from the memory card. So I unpack the hard drive, start it up and connect it to my old laptop. It works without any problems. I move the video footage to the external hard drive. No problem either. Then I connect the external hard drive to my iMac... and I don't expect any issues either.

Not so fast. Turns out the way the hard drive is pre-formated, the iMac can read the hard drive but doesn't have any 'Write Access'. That doesn't really help me. So I used iMacs Disk Utility to partition the hard drive. I partitioned it as Mac OS Extended. I re-check it with my laptop... and of course now the damned PC can't do anything with hard drive.

So I connect the external hard drive with the iMac and partition the entire thing as FAT. That way iMac and Laptop have read and write access to the hard drive. Can't say that I'm particularly happy about that... as I'm really not a fan of FAT at all. But for this vacation it will have to do. After I have pulled the video footage off the hard drive I can then re-partition it as Mac OS Extended again.

I said it years ago and it is still true: PC's are nothing but a royal pain in the ass !!!

Weed Control

Well, before we can go on vacation our property needs to be free of weeds. So today we started up with the weed removal process again. We need to keep 200 feet around any structure on our property free of weeds. Luckily we finally got a hold on one of our neighbors and could borrow his heavy duty weed remover. Kenny spent most part of the day removing all weeds on the east facing slope of our property.
I had planned to join Kenny, but apparently something I had eaten the previous day didn't quite agree with me. It gave me an award winning case of stomach cramps and diarrhea at the same time. I didn't even touch my lunch... and that's a certain indication that I'm feeling really sick.So I took some Pepto-Bismol and spent a couple of hours rolled up in my TV-Chair. Later in the afternoon I felt way better. Still not sure what didn't agree with me, but I'm really happy that I'm feeling better now.

Vacation Plans

Today Kenny and I sat down and pretty much finalized the revised vacation plans. Since we can't take Lora's trailer, we'll be staying in hotels.

We will be driving all the way up to Mt. Shasta in NorCal. The next day we will be driving to Hood River in Oregon and stay there for a couple of days. Then we will drive west to Aberdeen in Washington to spend a couple of days with Kenny's friend Rick and his family.

From there we will be heading to Columbia Falls in Mo

ntana and spend a couple of days at Glacier National Park. Then we'll be heading down south into Wyoming and spend a couple of days in Yellowstone. From there we will be heading to Arches National Park in Utah and spend a couple of days there. Then we'll be heading to Zion National Park. From there we will be heading back home, without step

ping even 1 foot into "New Nazi Land", formerly know as Arizona.

All in all we'll be on the road for about 3700 miles and we think that it will take us somewhere from 16 - 18 days.

New Layout

Today Kenny told me that Blogger had added a bunch of new templates for my Blog. I had to check it out right away. Before there had only been a very limited number of templates. Now there are so many things you can choose from and so many things that you can change, that it makes your choice quite difficult. I spent a little over 1 hour setting up the background, the colors, fonts and the positioning of the Blog Elements. I guess I was lucky since I only spent 1 hour and I liked the result. Now we will see how long that version lasts before I start moving things around again. Let me know what you think!!

Accounting

With the move last September and the remodel of the house I have been falling further and further behind with the accounting. The further behind you fall, the harder it is figure out what each receipt was for. Besides that there was constantly something to do around the house, so that the accounting got pushed back. Well yesterday I finally sat down and started with the accounting. Not something I was really looking forward to. But by the end of the day I had figured out pretty much all of receipts and entered them into Quicken. Well I still wasn't entirely done since I was missing about 6 weeks worth of bank statements. I printed the missing bank statements out and entered the missing accounting data into Quicken. Af course there were several discrepancies. Surprisingly it took me only a very short time to find the discrepancies. After I had corrected the errors all balances matched up perfectly. Of course having worked for years in accounting comes here in quite handy. It might sound to many rather weird, but I actually enjoyed doing the accounting. For most parts I really had fun and figuring out the discrepancies can be quite rewarding.

I was very happy with the result. Now I know exactly how much we spent on the entire remodel and the number didn't shock me at all. Home Remodel + new furniture + all decorative pieces + all power tools came in with a total of about 26.000.

Being Sick

Being sick really sucks. Well, that I woke up today with a sore throat didn't come as a surprise to me. Yesterday evening I was already feeling that I was getting a sore throat... and there isn't much you can do about that. But when I woke up this morning it was even worse than I imagined it would be. The sore throat is most likely a "free gift" of my husband... thanks at lot!! I had a really bad sore throat, and my throat felt so rough that you could have probably used it to grade parmesan cheese. Well with some Airborne and 6 cuts of tea my sore throat felt a little better. By early evening I didn't feel so bad at all... except that now I was feeling that I was getting a cough on top of the sore throat. Well, given the choice between sore throat and cough, I would rather choose the sore throat. What a pity that it doesn't work that way.

Kenobi's 1st Birthday Party

Today was Kenny's nephews very first birthday party. Kenny and I got there around 12:30, got some BBQ and hung out with friends and family. Got to watch Kenobi walk by himself (which he has been doing for a week or so) but this is the first time we got to see it... he's growing up so fast. But Kenny did get to spend some quality Uncle time with him.. which was very nice. We did cake and presents and slowly family started to leave until it was just Mike and Lora's friends and the "party" was beginning so Kenny and I left around 4pm, picked up some of our favorite Chiense from Hong Kong and headed home for a relaxing night.

Click here to check out Kenny's video of Kenobi walking for the 1st time !!!

Dentist Appointment

Today I had my final dental appointment. I supposed to have the appointment at 7 am, but they called yesterday to have it moved to 11.30 am. Well that didn't bother me as it means that I don't have to get up that early.

So Kenny and I left around 10 am. We first had to pick up Meds at AHF. Next we drove over to my dentist office what is just 1/2 a block down. We got there about 11.10 when I got a phone call from the dentists office to check if I was already close by. Kenny and I walked in, filled out the paperwork and I went into the OP. They were going to knock me out for about 1/2 hour to put the permanent crowns in. Within 2 or 3 minutes after getting the anesthesia I was completely out. The next thing I remember was the nurse talking to me. But this time the knocked me out way less that when they did the extraction and the 2 root canal... as I could recall all the conversation from the point I woke up the first time.

Next Kenny and I went to a Target near by, to pick up Kenobi's birthday present. From there we went to a comic book store, since Kenny wanted to get the latest 'The Guild' Comic Book. Next we went over to Islands in Burbank to have burger and cheddar fries. As always the Islands burger was absolutely yummy and I haven't had Islands in quite some time.

All in all I'm doing very well with the new crowns. No discomfort or anything of that kind. But the porcelain definitely feels a little different than your real teeth. And takes a little getting used to chewing on the left side again, since I have tried to avoid that as much as possible for the past 4 or 5 weeks.

Shrek 4

Today Kenny and I went to Shrek Forever After, the 4th installment of the Shrek franchise. As with all the other installments I loved the characters, the story and of course the animation. It's just a a fun movie to watch. I'm not entirely sure if paying 5 bucks more to see the movie in 3-D is justified.

For those of you who have no idea what I'm talking about, here a short synopsis:

A bored and domesticated Shrek pacts with deal-maker Rumpelstiltskin to get back to feeling like a real ogre again, but when he's duped and sent to a twisted version of Far Far Away -- where Rumpelstiltskin is king, ogres are hunted, and he and Fiona have never met -- he sets out to restore his world and reclaim his true love. Now, it's up to Shrek to undo all he's done in the hopes of saving his friends, restoring his world and reclaiming his one True Love.

RIP

Today one of my favorite actress', Rue McClanahan, died. Okay, she has been looking not too well for quite some time, but it still was very suddenly and unexpected.

RIP Rue McClanahan, you will be greatly missed!!

Errands

Today was truly a day of running errands. My truck had to go to the Dodge dealer to have several maintenance items taken care off. I had already moved the appointment from last Thursday to this Thursday, since Kenny had been sick last. So today we took my truck to the Dodge dealer. We got there around 9.30 and David (the manger of the service department) told me, that the truckwould be serviced all day long.

After that Kenny and I headed to a Target on Canoga Park to look for 2 seasons of Friends that we're missing. We

only found season #8. We then looked for a birth

day present for Kenny's nephew Kenobi. We wanted to get him a wagon but couldn't decide which one to get. So we tried to give Lora (Ke

nny's sister-in-law) a buzz, but couldn't get

a hold of her. We wound up buying a a few shorts for our upcoming trip.

Next we headed over to Best Buys where we got Friends season #7 and The Big

Bang Theory season #2. After Best Buys we went to have brunch at a Denny's close by. After brunch we went to the Pacific Theatre's in Winnetka to see Shrek 4. The movie was over around 2 pm. Kenny and I thought about seeing Prince of Persia, but decided in the end against it as that would have meant that Daisy would have been in the house for 10 hours and that's really pushing it. So we wound up driving back home and relaxed for about 1 1/2 hours.

Then we went back to the Dodge dealer to pick up my truck. We got there around 5.30 pm. Kenny wanted to stop by a comic book store on the way home, while I decided to take the back roads back home, since the all the freeways were backed up and bumper to bumpe

r. I got home around 6.40 pm. About 1/2 hour after me Kenny pulled up to the house and he had picked up dinner as well.

Vacations Woes

Today we found out that the RV-trailer that we were going to borrow from Kenny's sister-in-law is to heavy for my truck. Although I have a large and powerful truck, it's just not strong enough to pull the 30 foot trailer without burning up the transmission. So now we have to come up with a plan B. We either stay in hotels along the way (but keep in mind that we will be having Daisy with us) and the second option would be to rent a smaller RV. Right now it looks like if we will be going with option no. 2. Of course that will be an unexpected expense, but Kenny and I haven't been on a vacation since 2005 and we were really looking forward to that trip... We'll make it work one way or another.

Weed Control - Day 3

Today I continued with the weed removal. There is something in those weeds, that Kenny and I seem to be allergic to. It both gives us hives on the lower arms. Normally it takes a couple of hours for the hives to disappear. But the last time I worked with the weeds I must have gotten a quite substantial amount of the "weed allergen" since it took a couple of days for the allergic reaction to disappear. So today I opted to wear a long sleeve shirt.

I was working on the upper south facing slope. I took here and there a short break in the shade but never took a longer break to go inside. For some reason I didn't even realize how much time I had spent out there. But the time I was forced to take a break, since I was getting close to feeling dizzy, I had worked out there for about 2 1/2 hours... and that's way too long.

Heat, wearing pants and long sleeve shirt and not drinking enough took quite a toll on me. It took me over 1 hour to cool really down. While I was inside, Kenny continued to knock the weeds down with the weed whacker.

Later in the afternoon I decided to go out there once again. This time I spent about 1 hour out there digging out those weeds that where too thick for the weed whacker. All in all we made quite some progress, but we're still far from being done.

Kenobi's Birthday

Today is Kenny's nephew Kenobi's 1st birthday.

Happy Birthday Kenobi!!!