Re-cap Road Trip 2012 - first half

Day 1 - pack up and drive to the Roberts in Roosevelt for the night.

Day 2 - Relaxing morning, hit the road to Jerome, ID KOA - stopped at a small park in industrial N. Salt Lake City and to play at a park in Snowyville, UT.   KOA was nice - Autumn loved helping with tent set up and camp cooking.  The pools was too cold so swimming didn't last long, but the park was a hit.  The big slide even scared her a little - scared is a rare emotion in her world...  Slept pretty well!

Day 3 - Through Boise and west to Crane, OR.  Lunch was a congested/construction stop in Boise.  Filled up with gas before leaving ID and  then made it to our lovely hot springs campground Crystal Crane Hot Springs.  What's not to love about a natural hot springs pond, big teepee, ducks, cows, horses and bunny's? Autumn and Aaron hung out in the AC'ed commons area much of the evening, we made meals in the shared kitchen - not very rustic for camping - but really a nice mixed between camping and having a cabin.

Day 4 - up early, breakfast in the communal kitchen and on the road.  Most of this day we drove the road Aaron road his bicycle on 11 year ago when he rode across the country - so it was fun having him remember different spots along the way.  We stopped at a park in Bend, walked around Drake park looking at the ducks and geese and then ate at a pub with yummy food, The Summit Saloon and Stage.  On the road again we drove the prettiest stretch of road between Bend and Stayton.  The forest was thick, the river winded around and the smoke from a close wildfire made it almost morning foggy looking.  We arrived at our Bed and Breakfast and found that our room is perfect - 2 rooms, a king bed and little balcony.  It was walking distance to the wedding, which was awesome!  We relaxed in the AC a bit and then headed to the park for dinner and then to the pool.  Autumn ran out her energy on the equipment and then swam and swam at the pool for an hour and a half switching between the slide, diving, practicing swimming, and shooting the basketball.  She loved the slide - at first we went with her and then by the end of the night she was doing it by herself with her life jacket.  She'd climb the steps, come down slide, we'd lift the rope for her to go shooting under and she'd swim to the stairs for another go.

Day 5 - I was kind of hoping after the park and pool that we'd get a long nights sleep.  Autumn went down around 10 and I dinked on the computer until 11:30.  I woke around 6 to see the most beautiful sunrise out our balcony door.  Then Autumn woke at 6:30 - luckily she cuddled until nearly 7:30.  Aaron went to spend time with the guys last night, so we went down stairs to get breakfast and let him sleep.  Our host made a delicious breakfast with a waffle, berries, whipped cream and bacon.  We went back upstairs watched a video and then got stuck playing for a while!  We then took off for the park 4 blocks away which is right next to the wedding venue.  We had a great time riding the train to Triatica, Triathlon and Nebraska, running through the forest, playing hide and seek and playing on the equipment.  Autumn climbed some trees on the way back to the B&B for lunch.  We wanted to rest and relax and actually got to! Autumn fell asleep for a couple of hours. We got ready for the wedding and Aaron and Autumn walked there.  I didn't get things going fast enough and went ahead and drove the 4 blocks.   The wedding was lovely and it was nice having a park right there for intermittent wiggle breaks. We enjoyed long time friends and met some new ones.   We stayed until the dancing was done and the bride and groom left. The pictures from the wedding got their own post  here.

 

 Day 6 - Day with friends!  We got up and went down stairs for an amazing Eggs Benedict breakfast and then sorted and packed all our things up. Amazing how much stuff we had packed up to the room in 2 days.  We checked out and headed to a Vineyard for brunch with the wedding party and other out of town guests.  It was an amazing and delicious meal - I think I ate 3 days worth of food - omelet, waffle, fruit, honey roasted mac nuts, chocolate covered mac nuts... yum....   We then spent the rest of the afternoon with friends - hanging out and going to see Silver Falls State Park.

 

  We went back to the groom's house for dinner and fun.  Autumn and I left at bedtime for the hotel - she cried for at least 5 minutes because she wanted to stay with the guys.

  We checked in, went for a quick swim and then went to bed.  We thought another friend was staying at our same hotel, but there is another with the same name in town.  Luckily he was gracious enough to drive Aaron to ours after we discovered he wasn't at our 210 room.

Day 7: Off to the Palouse!  We woke around 8, grabbed continental breakfast and hit the road down the Columbus river and up into Washington.  We thought it would be a much longer drive, but we arrived at the Watson's in time for dinner!   Good to see our good friends, be at our Pullman home, and meet Vivi for the first time!!!!