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Scenes from a road trip...

We've been back for a while now, but work (and now, a cold) have prevented me from blogging about our road trip to Oceanside.  It was a really great trip that ended on somewhat of a solemn note, but good memories were made nonetheless.  I'm glad I got to spend quality time with my family, my sister, and my extended family in California and just relax and have fun.  It was quite an adventure since we didn't really plan anything past where we were going to stay over the first night.

We took off from Gig Harbor early Sunday morning and took I-5 down to Portland, where we routed off to Hwy 101 and headed toward the Tillamook Cheese Factory.  Since it was Sunday, the factory wasn't making any cheese for us to see, but they did have ice cream for us to eat.  Mmm.  Probably not the smartest idea for those of us who are lactose intolerant, but hey, we were going to be spending a lot of time in the car together, so we might as well get used to those sounds and smells, ifyaknowwhaddimean.

We stopped at a couple places to take pictures and enjoy the natural beauty of the Oregon coast.  These were all taken somewhere before Newport, since that's where we spent our first night.  Before getting to the Comfort Inn, we experienced our first drive-thru Subway.  At first we thought, "Cool!" but after spending a good 10 minutes at the drive-thru box trying to explain our order, we were afraid that the sandwich artists would spit in our sandwiches.

Day 2 of our trip started off watching a whale at Devil's Punchbowl and visiting the highly-touted "World's Largest Sea Lion Cave" in Florence, OR.  The sea lion cave was something Bee and I had been looking forward to, but unfortunately when we got there, there were no sea lions in the cave.  Oh well.  We bought some more travel bingo cards and got a souvenir penny from the gift shop and went our merry way.

Mike spotted an air museum that looked interesting, so we decided to detour and go there.  When we finally got there, it too was closed.  We took some pictures, ran around in the rain, and hopped back in the car only to get lost around some cow poop yards (thanks, TomTom) before getting back on 101. We picked up a brochure at the Sea Lion Caves about this cheesy dinosaur place that raved about their "lifelike" dinosaurs, but lo and behold, when we got there, they were closed as well.

From there we went to Coos Bay, OR where Mike knew of a Steve Prefonataine exhibit at a museum he wanted to check out.  Guess what?  The museum was closed.  We start to wonder if anything we want to see will be open on our trip.

Eventually we made our way into California and visited the Avenue of the Giants to see the majestic Redwoods.  It was really beautiful!  These trees are HUGE and OLD.  We had fun driving through trees and climbing on stuff.

We squeezed in a trip to the Jelly Belly Factory but unfortunately weren't able to go on any of the tours.  We actually made it to the factory 10 minutes before it closed due to heavy traffic in Napa Valley.  We made good use of those 10 minutes, zipping around buying souvenirs, jelly beans, and taking pictures.

We drove through San Francisco and compared what we saw to visuals on "Full House", and drove across the Golden Gate Bridge.

After a night in San Jose, we went to the Winchester Mystery House.  Unfortunately it was 90 degrees with no wind, and the house has no air conditioning or ventilation.  We went on the tour and had to stay in the back because Baxter wanted to either babble or scream while our tour guide was talking.  The house had some pretty interesting architecture.  We didn't have any paranormal experiences, but we did learn how to pose in pictures like Billie.

From San Jose we ditched Hwy 101 and drove the rest of our trip on I-5 because we didn't think we'd make it to Oeanside by Friday at the rate we were going.  We stopped over in Anaheim and spent Baxter's 10-month birthday at the Disneyland Resort.  It was Bee's first time visiting Disneyland since she was in 6th grade, but unfortunately she couldn't ride any of the rides.  Bax rode on a couple of rides and really loved the Small World ride.  He fell asleep on Pirates of the Carribean.  It was here that we discover his fondness for Winnie the Pooh characters.

Baxter actually bit Tigger's paw and wouldn't let go after the picture was taken.

This splash area is in California Adventure and Bax LOVED it.  I have a little water baby who loves getting wet.  Of course, whomever was holding him also got wet.

On Friday we graced Oceanside with our presence.  Tita Baby was kind enough to let us all crash at her place, and Tita Josie and Uncle Henry had a nice pool party for us at their house.  All my cousins showed up to meet Bax and eat good food.  Mike learned how to play poker.

My cousin Dennis took us out to the Carlsbad Lagoon on Saturday for some jetskiing and kayaking action.  We all had an awesome time.  Bax enjoyed playing in the sand and even tried eating some of it.  

Tita Mila hosted a Mexican dinner for us that night.

Billie flew back to Washington early Sunday morning, which ended up being a pretty laid-back day.  Mike and Dennis watched a bunch of movies MST3000 style, and Bax took a super long nap on his Uncle Dennis.

On Monday we met up with an old high school friend, Steve Lazo, and his family at the Carlsbad Outlets.  We forgot to take a picture, but had a good time catching up and meeting his wife and their children.  Afterwards we visited Guy, Kate, and Quinn to see how they were holding up with Erin being gone on a European trip.  When we saw them, Erin had been gone five days, and the girls' hair had turned into afros.  I took pity on them and gave them pigtails and french braids. 

Monday night was a dinner party at Tita Rosie's house with Ate Ann's family.  I don't know what Jon is telling Baxter in this picture.  Maybe he's teaching him the rules of autocross.

We had lunch with Tita Baby and Tita Rosie at Ruby's Diner before heading back to Washington on Tuesday.  In a last minute fit of cuteness, Baxter started performing all of his "tricks" for his Lola Baby and Mama Rosie.

We took I-5 all the way back to Washington.  Here's a picture of Baxter in the car playing with a gift from his Tita Marivi, a DJ sound table with no volume control.  Thanks, Tita Marivi!

We had a really good time on our road trip and can't wait to do it again next year for Dustin and Jennie's wedding.  I think for next year's trip, we'll plan the activities a little better so things are actually open when we stop by.  :)  Thanks to all of our family in Oceanside and San Marcos for opening up their homes to us!  We had an awesome time!