The Saturday morning drive from Luke and Amber’s home in Santa Cruz to David and Gretchen’s home in Santa Rosa was, unexpectedly, traffic heavy over the Bay Bridge and most of the way up Highway 101.

Our old neighbors from Compton Heights David, Gretchen, Oliver and Vivie.  

David and Gretchen were totally prepared for our visit. Upon arrival at 12:45 pm, lunch was served. And, WOW what a lunch it was. We started with a Guinnes beer toast. Our lunch was Portillo’s  Italian Beef shipped directly to their home from Chicago.  After a great afternoon walk and hanging with the family we had NY PI Pizza for dinner.

Our private guest room and bath was located above the garage and away from the family so everyone could get a good nights sleep.

Sunday morning Gretchen prepared a delicious breakfast– egg quiche, scones, and fresh fruit. David made his special French Press dark roast coffee with foam cream on top. It was sooooo good.

We really hated to leave Santa Rosa so early Sunday. It was great to see David and Gretchen and it was so cool to see how they included Oliver and Vivie in everything we did. As we got ready to depart Oliver entertained us with an awesome Kung Fu  demonstration.

The Sunday drive through the wine country on Highway 128, then on to Highway 101, then on to the Fort Brag Highway 20 was amazingly beautiful. We ended up driving all the way up through Redwood forest to Eureka, CA to spend the night.

The Monday drive may have been the most beautiful of the entire trip. We stayed on Highway 101 hugging the California Northwestern coast except for when the road veers off for some winding mountain type roads through on the Redwood Highway.

We stopped frequently for photo opportunities- far too many to include in the blog. At Trinidad Bay we spent an hour r more walking up a small rocky hill that jets out into the ocean. We have been hoping to see Blue or Gray Wales but so far no luck. Our view from the rocks edge was spectacular but we haven’t seen any sea life. We did see three Elk in the wild yesterday but that’s about all we can report from our car window.

Today, we have ended our drive in Gold Beach, Oregon. We are staying at a rustic place with an ocean view. Headed out to dinner now and then early to bed.

Tuesday we traveled a short distance up the coast to Newport, Oregon. As I climbed the mountain foothills through the Redwoods I was reminded of the days when I would be driving in the fast lane passing everyone as soon as I could. Today, I drive the slow lanes, far to the right, driving the speed limit or slower trying to notice the running water in the creeks, the large lakes down below in a valley, or peeks at the ocean as we drive by. Cruising along the highway at slow speed with no particular destination is liberating.

We have traveled more than 4500 miles and have not yet seen a Cooling Concepts refrigerated trailer. Somebody, tell my brother Tim he has lots more work to do.

We arrived in Portland in time to do some laundry and visit with Fisher. After a quick snack at Fisher’s favorite Blue Star donuts we had dinner with Jen and Fisher. We all know how much Fisher loves to have his picture taken.

Thursday we showed up at Scott and Emily’s old house in Renton, WA. Ooops my mistake! We were supposed to be at their new house in New Castle, WA.

They have a spectacular new home customized to their taste and they have made it awesome. After a quick walk through the house we headed out to lunch. In downtown Bellevue they took us to Din Tai Fung for one of the best Asian meals we have ever had…..we ordered Taiwanese Soup Dumplings and green beans. Fabulous!!! The pork loin dinner and salad Emily prepared was equally fantastic.

We were entertained by the two boys, Coleson and Teddy, until they went to bed. Thanks to Scott and Emily for moving out of their Master Suite to make room for us. I’m not sure Scott got a good nights sleep but Emily insisted we get the Master and they got the guest room. Scott and Emily are gracious hosts and very good friends.

 

We finally arrived in Anacortes, Washington. After a brief visit with Kris and Kerry we arrived at Kelly and Mark’s home in time to drive them to LaConner to pick up their boat where it had been getting some electronics updates and engine repair.

Hopefully, all goes well with the boat repair because the whole family will be in it tomorrow as we do some Island hopping on our way to Orca Island for dinner and an overnight stay.

Mark, Kelly, Rumi, Teo, Kerry, Kris, Sienna, Seba, Brian, Emily, Amaya, Sandy and myself all headed for a fun weekend together on Mark’s 36 footer.

HAPPY EASTER to all.