We awoke the next morning full of excitement. Today we would finally see our new home!

We were on the road again and drove east, headed towards Eugene on a beautiful little highway taking us along rivers and over bridges and through the trees. It rained most of the way, so we weren’t able to get many pictures. Plus, I think Jacob was tired of taking pictures while driving… From Eugene, we headed up through Salem via I-5 all the way until our final destination, PORTLAND!

We navigated downtown and drove up to our building. We had seen it so many times via Google Maps Street View but nothing can describe our relief and calm as we sat there on Park Ave, sitting and resting after this long adventure.

We met with our landlady Nina (the infamous voice over the phone for the past few months) as she reviewed property rules, etc. asking us to sign here and there. Lulu was growing impatient but then we went on a tour of the building, with our unit being the last stop. The coveted moment had arrived as the key turned and the door opened.

It was basically just what we expected and hoped.

/EDIT/

The building was finished in 1931 and features about 80 units from a studio apartment (what we have) up to the 2-bedroom units. Each have original oak hardwood floors, 8in baseboards, picture rail moldings and (apparently) original bathroom/kitchen tile. From the photos above, you enter into the main room, which we will make into our living area and bedroom. To the right is an opening into the dining area and then the kitchen. To the left of the entry is a good-size storage closet and a door leading to a small dressing room with cupboards. The bathroom is just beyond that and has a bright window of its own. Each window opens fully or can latch just little to let air in. Jacob plans to make custom screens to cover the windows so Lulu doesn’t get too adventurous. We are on the third floor, after all. We plan to install translucent contact-paper-esque coverings in the bathroom for a little more privacy. Honestly it was a little smaller than we expected, but its beautiful, with great historic features and we’ll make it work!

/EDIT/

There were a few little surprises. Who wouldn’t pair lavender and sea-foam green tile in the kitchen!? We assured ourselves we’d make it work. Lulu likes it, anyways. She can easily relax while staring out the windows.

After sitting and enjoying the empty space for a few minutes we had to continue by moving our things into the space. We had sent all of our things up to Portland from Dallas via U-box, a service similar to PODS but by U-Haul. Jacob had to pick up the box  and bring it back to our apartment by renting a U-Haul truck and trailer. He braved driving through the narrow downtown streets and we began to unload. For the hours it took us to load (at midnight!), it only took us 1 hour unload all of our things into our unit. Fortunately, nothing seemed to have moved in the U-Box. Our items (sans the furniture, since we sold most of it in Dallas) made it safely. Now for the fun part. Furniture shopping, anyone?

This was our last full day on the road. Leaving Fort Bragg, we headed north through the redwood trees along the beautiful Hwy 1.

After a little while we saw a sign ” Drive-thru Tree Ahead.” Of course we had to stop. We paid our 5 dollars, drove down this little path and were met with the mother of all giant redwood trees. We nearly scraped the walls going through, even with the side-mirrors closed but it was so neat to see the inside of the tree trunk.

After perusing the gift shop, we made our way through the Avenue of the Giants. This was a fantastic drive with shaded roads and beautiful giant redwood trees upon which to marvel. Even Lulu got to experience their awesomeness.

This one took a little photoshopping…

Almost there!

The treeline was incredible. Trees taller than we had ever seen before.

A herd of elk. No big deal.

On our way, we finally made it to the state of Oregon. Woohoo!

Once inside our new state and still close to the coast, we noticed an abundance of scenic turnoffs. Well, after about 10 of them, we were convinced we had to see what all the fuss was about. We stopped at one, only to discover it wasn’t like the ones before. You had to hike this one to earn its view. So we started off on our first Oregon hike! It was stunningly beautiful with lush fern foliage all along the ground. Such a different landscape than two days before.

After quite a little hike we made it to the “bridge view”. It was great, but the trail continued and we could hear sounds of waves crashing ahead. A little further was an incredible view. Jacob, being the photographer he is, had to climb down the steep trail a little farther to get a better view.

After the trek back, we continued on towards Coos Bay, OR. In a small town near our destination called Port Orford, we stopped for dinner at “Crazy Norweigan’s Fish and Chips.” According to the waitress it was voted the best Fish and Chips on the West Coast, second to someplace in Hawaii. Being only our first F&C experience, we couldn’t judge but must say that it was really incredible.

Appropriately, it began to rain as we finally arrived at Coos Bay and checked in at The Edgewater Inn.

We were filled with anticipation as we woke up the next day to make our way through San Francisco and along the Pacific Ocean to our destination of Fort Bragg, CA.

After completing the over four hour long drive to San Francisco up the monotonous I-5, we finally made it to the Fog City. Even though it was a Sunday, traffic getting over the Bay Bridge was terrible. Not to mention you have to pay $5 to get over it. But once in the downtown, all was better.

The city was reminiscent of  a cleaner New York City. Jacob instantly feel in love with everything about the city, the buildings, the atmosphere, and the people walking and bicycling down the streets.

We made a quick stop at a fabulous flower shop called Studio Choo which is part of the Prairie Collective, as recommended by a friend. Sadly they were closed for two weeks on their summer vacation, but we got a glimpse through the windows, and we will definitely be going back.

Some of the slopes through the city were incredible. Literally a 40 degree downward drive! Good thing we weren’t driving stick-shift.

After driving through downtown and parking to take a quick stroll (it was like 65 degrees!), we made our way on to the much anticipated Golden Gate Bridge. We tried to navigate towards a beach on the west side of the peninsula for photos, only to discover we took a wrong turn and were actually on the bridge’s feeder.

Driving over the Golden Gate was surreal. The enormous red structure and scale of it all was a lot to take in. But our cameras were clicking away nevertheless.

Once we made it to the other side we stopped at a park outside of Sausalito for pictures. The brisk wind was chilly here too on the July afternoon.

Leaving the bay, we continued up Hwy 101 and turned off on Hwy 128. It was a beautiful drive. A windy, forested road through western wine country.

The landscape changed slightly. The trees were getting bigger and bigger. Redwoods!

Eventually we drove along the mouth of the Navarro River and held our breath at this incredible view of the Pacific Ocean.

It was so picturesque. Just like you hear about. Grassy shores, blue water, rocky cliffs.

We stopped at a few look-out places to walk around.

From there we made our way up Highway 1, another scenic drive with picture-perfect views, all the way up to a cute town called Fort Bragg. Driving down their Main Street, Jacob and I nearly decided to just settle here. It was a really neat town, complete with a little town hall and a small fixer-upper for sale!

Alas, we continued through and checked in at what was most likely the smallest room at the quaint, Beachcomber Motel. While our room did not feature a view, the hotel sat right on the ocean beach.

They recommended a little seafood place on the water called Heron’s On The Bay. While at dinner, we met a nice couple who were basically making our route up the coast but in the opposite direction and they pointed out this little guy (notice the small dot in the picture below).

We had a treat after dinner when we saw this seal. A real, live seal! In the wild! Sort of. Apparently he frequents the harbor. It’s that little dark spot below.

The hottest day of the entire trip ensued as we made our way through Death Valley.

This scenic drive took us 214 feet below sea level. There were actually many other travelers on the road, and we even passed through a small town at the very bottom, complete with golf course. Yes, a golf course. We were in California, after all. Perhaps they made up for it with the gas prices. Fortunately we didn’t need topping off.

Further along, it was a little disturbing when we saw the sign, ” TURN OFF A/C NEXT 10 MILES TO AVOID OVERHEATING”. We followed orders just in case.

Driving through the national park, we saw miraculous views of mountains, sand dunes and dried-out river beds. We stopped at a scenic overlook  and trekked up what seemed like a small hill, but with the heat was a very challenging hike up. Atop we were graced with a breathtaking view of sand colored hills, apparently used to mine for Borax.

We eventually exited the aptly named valley, turned our A/C back to MAX and drove near the snowy peaks of the Sierra Nevadas.

We drove through the southern Sierra Nevada mountain range, which were full of Joshua Trees. Have you ever seen anything like these?

Finally, we cruised through a beautiful stretch of golden Californian mountains. Halfway through the pass was a town which sat on the lovely Isabella Lake. It’s a quick vacation destination for Bakersfield residents apparently.

Nearing Bakersfield, we saw many fruit and wine vineyards. Just as you would imagine. Beautiful.

We checked in at newly renovated Padre Hotel. We highly recommend staying here if you are ever in town. The once-famous-hotel, then-eight-years-abandoned-hotel, now-hotel-again establishment had been tastefully restored to its original glory. It was a little more glamourous than the Ace Hotel, but with a fairly minimal design, maintaining an art deco feel. While the hotel featured a cool-looking restaurant of their own, our limited presentabl-clothing options led us to try something less fancy. Per a recommendation, we ate a terrific lasagna at Scardinelle’s a few blocks away before calling it a night after an exhausting day of heat.

The next day we continued on our way with a short four-hour drive towards “Fabulous Las Vegas!”

We took a few side tracks on Historic Route 66, eating at a great little burger shack.

And the landscape quickly changed as we neared the Arizona-Nevada border.

We knew we wanted to stop at the Hoover Dam but you must first drive over the newly built bypass bridge (from which you can’t see anything – the walls are way too high). Then you can exit and drive back over the dam for touring. It was an incredible sight. It is a true piece of historic workmanship.

Jacob was busy trying not to run over pedestrians on the damn dam road while ordering me around with what photos to take. This one above is of Lake Mead. Apparently it is shaped like a martini glass, so the fact that the water is this low is probably not a good thing. But I think it looks surreal with that perfectly crisp dividing line.

The new bridge! Pretty neat from below.

Now off to Veeeaaagaaaasss (mimicking the voice of MK on very mary kate). Traffic in the Sin City was horrendous. We took the wrong turn off Las Vegas Blvd, plus two lanes were closed so we ended up on a feeder road for about 45 minutes trying to turn back on the strip. But we finally made it to the Aria resort around 5pm in the new and ultra-modern City Center casino.

I was most worried about sneaking Lulu into this place than the others, but when Jacob came back with the keys, he assured me that a wiggly brown duffle bag would be the last thing on security’s mind. Sure enough, the lights and sounds and sights of this place distracted any stray eyes and we made it safely to our room on the sixth floor. As we walked inside, the curtains slid open, the lights raised and music began playing on the TV, which also said Jacob’s name.  Lulu instantly fell in love with the floor to ceiling windows and laid next to them gazing dreamily out.

Everything in the room could be controlled by a touch-screen monitor. Kind of like on this episode of ModernFamily. And similarly, Jacob set the curtains to open in the morning to wake us up. Well, he must have had a bit too much of the margarita because at 7:30am (apparently) the sheer curtain opened as scheduled but the black-out curtain remained closed. Oops.

Everything in Vegas was ridiculous, way over-the-top and wasteful. But you just have to go with it. So we did. Jacob and I made our way out on to the strip and saw the Bellagio fountain display a few times and walked through many of the casinos. We decided on a dinner in “Paris” at a little bistro called The Sugar Factory. After leaving the restaurant we went into the casino and got an Eiffel tower Margarita to share (Of course I had to get the giant 36oz container shaped like the eiffel tower, as cheesy as it was). Continuing down the strip, drink in hand, we visited the M&M store, the MGM Grand (sadly the lions were asleep) and New York, New York before calling it a day. Goodnight, Las Vegas.

In Alamosa, CO, we stayed the night in the the quaint and quirky, Lamplighter Motel. It was right on the historic Main Street and we were able to walk past storefronts and even a legitimate old J.C.Penny store, on our way to dinner. It’s always fun to drive through these small downtowns. Many in Colorado were bustling with activity.

Hands down, the best breakfast of the entire trip (besides home cookings in Wichita) was at the hotel’s very own Rocky’s Restuarant.

Somewhere in the middle of the Rio Grande National Forest (btw isn’t that a great typeface they use for “National Forest”?) was this incredible look-out point. We and a bunch of motorcyclists from Vail stopped to swoon.

On the road again, we drove through signature Colorado mountains but the landscape soon changed. As we neared Four Corners and the Navajo territories, the colors of the land became warmer and the rock formations more compelling. John Wayne could have rode past at any moment and we wouldn’t have been surprised.

We stopped a bit at Four Corners making quite a scene as Jacob laid out over all four states on the scorching hot cement. I also bought a cute pair of turquoise earrings. Native Americans were set up all around the monument in booths selling handmade jewelries and knickknacks.

We traveled on to our main destination, The Grand Canyon. I thought I knew what to expect, as I hadn’t yet seen the natural wonder, but I was completely amazed as soon as we drove past the first look-out. These pictures do not do it justice. It’s as if a giant movie curtain was drawn across our eyes. The color change and depth of the canyon was incredible.

We stayed in the national park at the Yavapai Lodge. We assumed the room would be fairly nice and “outdoor-sy” but instead found a rather luxurious and very comfortable hotel suite. Before the sunset, we walked the half mile to the rim on our way to a late dinner at the El Tovar Lodge. This is the oldest of the lodges, built in 1905 for travelers going west on the Sante Fe Trail. The beautiful wood construction on the interior was stained black and the taxidermied local game gave a feeling of grandeur. It was even constructed with Oregon wood! Imagine that  Our dinner was delicious. Jacob had a cranberry-seared duck and I the vegetable pasta.

Stay tuned for more!

Photos mostly by Jacob and text mostly by Tracy.

Also see the link “Our Route” located in the right sidebar to view trip details.

As you might know, Tracy and I are well on our way to Portland, Oregon. After a family gathering in Houston, Texas on July 4th, we stayed a night in Dallas, drove and visited with family in Wichita, Kansas and have now made it to Alamosa, Colorado. Today’s drive was the longest at over 9 hours. While it could have logically been an uneventful drive (I mean, gee those golden fields of Kansas sure are great), it actually proved to be exciting.

An especially interesting leg of the drive was Colorado Hwy 10 from La Junta to Walsenburg. Most of the day featured rolling hills and farmlands, but these last two hours introduced mountains! The view was incredible. Traffic was at a minimum and the weather held out, making for a killer scenic drive.

Stay tuned. It’s nearly 2AM Mountain Time but there are many more photos to share.