This year we decided for various reasons to combine our annual trip to see family with several mini-adventures to make our "ordinary" trip a little more "extraordinary"...at least for us.
Hitting the Road
We set out from western Oregon heading due East, opting to take the road less traveled due to its lack of rest stops and curves in the road, not to mention the slower speed limitation. Our thoughts were, less miles at lower speeds = save on gas..which is close to $4/gallon at the present time. We stayed with friends in Idaho at our halfway point, carving off another$100 that we would have shelled out to a hotel and the kids had a great time with their kids.Idaho to Utah
The next day we took off early (our friends had stuff to do) and headed to Utah where we met up with a large group of friends in Eagle Mountain for a bbq and some reminiscing. From there we headed to Grandma n Grandpa's house where we spent a few days with them and and my sister's family. Arizona Sister Trip within a Trip...twas a trip!
Here is where we threw in a mini adventure...My sister and I with two of her kids left on a road trip to Arizona to see all but one of my siblings. After leaving at 4 am and driving for 12 hours missing exits twice and sitting on the dessert during construction for 1/2 an hour, we both decided that this was probably going to be a once in a lifetime adventure. One missed exit led us to taking another way through the mountains East of Cedar City...an absolutely beautiful drive and I wish a little bit that I was the passenger so I could have appreciated it a little more. We did have a good time be it short down in Phoenix. My opinion of Phoenix was a hot, brown, over populated place that from the sky probably did look like a "giant litter box" as my sister described it. You see, all the roofs were this off white with earth tone specks on them and houses were all earth toned as well blending into the landscape and into each other as they were close in proximity. The highways were actually prettier then the average gray cement type and were adorned with dessert foliage that was in bloom. Even so, for me it was endless amounts of people and cars, which didn't appeal to me at all. What was very nice, was the pool time we were able to have. A dip in cool water and hanging out with my sisters and their kids in a "resort-like" setting was really a fun thing to do after not really spending much time with them over the last decade. Worth it.While I was away, my hubby had our three kids up in Utah. I will let him blog about his adventures with them. I know he had some great ones as his goal was to keep them busy and happy while I was away. I could report on them but it would be secondhand information.
Back in Utah
When my sister and I returned we spent another weekend with family in Utah...including a Father's Day celebratory dinner, a hike in Sundance, Utah, and a rootbeer float family night with my hubby's brother's family and some old friends of ours.  |
| Hike at Sundance...still a lot of snow in June but warm enough to wear shorts. |
The next day we took off through Nevada. A road we have never traveled as a family. We stopped at a rest stop on the salt flats there. What an amazing and blinding white vast landscape! A must see and a must stop to photograph!
Sparks, Nevada, The Nugget
Well, it was hard to find the entrance to the lobby of this hotel. It didn't have any good signage directing us as hotel guests. The focus was the smoke filled casino on the ground level. We finally figured it out after looping around several times...just what you want to do after driving eight hours or so. We got to our rooms finally! We had adjoining rooms which was a great feature of the hotel...the price was cheap, too. The rooms were bigger than the aveage hotel suite. The cons--one of the rooms smelled wierd...almost like fecal matter or maybe a nursing home? The arcade was fun for the kids but the smoke from the casino right below it permeated through...not a fan of secondhand smoke. The pool was GREAT! It had a waterfall that cascaded right into the poolside that the kids could walk right under. The hot tub was huge and on a Monday night, the pool was not that crowded. We worked up an appetite and decided to seek out dinner options. There were several restaurants in the hotel but again, the smoke permeated from the casino right into every one of them. Who wants to feel like they are eating on an ashtray? Not me. So, we scouted out a an INnOUT burger joint a few blocks away. We had heard that they were good but after one trip, we were not that impressed. For one, they only had burgers and our daughter doesn't like hamburger meat. Secondly, they were not that great. Not bad...it is just that we have had better. The service was fast and the fries were fresh cut by some very clean cut employees on a good note.
The next day, my hubby scouted out a fast food restaurant and loaded up a bunch of breakfast goodies and brought them back to the hotel. Once we had that we left SPARKS on an eventually pretty drive through the mountains of Eastern California by Lake Tahoe.
Cordelia, California Comfort Inn
Cheap, sufficient, small pool, good continental breakfast...not the kind you have to be up at 6am to get more than a muffin crumb, and location ideally located far enough away from Six Flags to avoid crime and near enough to be convenient to the park while justifying a trip to the jelly belly factory which also was close by. One last plus to this location was the ample choices in restaurants...McDonals, Denny's, Wendy's, Jack n the Box, a pizza place, and more I can't remember.
Jelly Belly Factory
This is a must see if you have the time...maybe an hour or so to kill. We had that much while we were waiting for check in time. The tour is interesting and they give you samples along the way. At the end of the tour we were given a bag of jelly bellies for free. There was a nice place to picnic outside which we did.Six Flags
We purchased our tickets from the Comfort Inn which saved us about $15/a ticket...sweet deal! We got there early to get good parking. There was a free shuttle from the parking lot into the park which was super nice to save on the shoe leather. They have a metal detector at the gates which we didn't think about and because we had a swiss army knife on our keys we had to get a locker outside the gates...which turned out to be great so we didn't have to pack around our lunches or the little weapon we had no intention of using. It only cost us $11 for the whole day for that locker...not a bad deal. We decided to hit the BIG ones first so we got right up in front where they had the path roped off and waited and waited and waited. When they opened up the path that led to Medusa we grabbed hands...all five of us...and ran to the line for the ride. We must have looked like the Griswalds running to Wally world. We made it to near the front of the line and had to wait forever...well, another 20 minutes while they were "testing" the ride. One would think that they would take care of the "tests" prior to opening the park. I don't want to complain too much on account of the safety issues of rushing the testing process. We got on. It was our kids first big ride...ever. The biggest one in the park. Our youngest who was eight and myself, just wanted it to end...a bit of a freak out for us. The boys and their daddy were thrilled...our nine year old moreso than our thirteen year old. There were plenty of rides for everyone's thrill level, animals including but not limited to lions, tigers, giraffes, orcas, dolphins, and one of my favorites...the butterfly pavillion where I was lucky enough to have a butterfly land on me! The whole day was great. The weather good. The kids were happy. Okay, the food was expensive beyond our imagination making us very grateful for the lunch, snacks, and water we had back at our locker. So, if you go to Six Flags pack plenty of snacks and store them in the lockers...you won't regret it...unless you like to spend money recklessly. As dinner time approached we had had our fill of fun and so we headed out back toward Sacremento. We stopped at a fast food restaurant for dinner which was as cheap to eat there as it would be to get icecream at the park. Not to dwell on money or anything...well, I do that naturally so I won't disregard my natural tendencies.
West Sacramento, California KOA
It was all that we needed in a place to lay our heads for the night...only we had forgotten the bare bones of the situation so we went to a nearby Walmart...not to endorse the place but it was the only thing open that late at night. We bought essentials such as towels, food to eat for breakfast, and such. It is camping there...we knew that going in but forgot to plan for it as Six Flags distracted us with it's funfactor.
Mt Shasta KOA
We drove through some beautiful mountain country and around some of Shasta lake to get to the KOA. It was a much nicer setting for a KOA and our Kabin was a much better set up than the one in Sacramento. The town of Shasta was small and set against the foot of the mountain. We got settled into our Kamping Kabin and the younger two went for a swim in the KOA pool...yes they do have a pool and we now had towels thanks to our late shopping spree the night before. My teenager and I went to the local Rays grocery store to get essential supplies...like smore stuff...of course along with dinner and breakfast foods. We had a great evening around the fire and also the KOA office had popcorn and a movie for us as well as horseshoes. 
Final Stretch Home
The next morning we ate some breakfast and hit the road back to Oregon. We enjoyed going a different route home. Southern Oregon is pretty with its green rolling hills.
All in all a great two week trip getting out of Dodge by covering six different states and combining with family and new places to see and new things to do.
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