Road Trip!

This post has a TON of pictures, beware. I wanted to remember the main points of our vacation though, so I had a hard time picking and choosing. Believe it or not, we actually took 700 pictures during this trip and this post only has about 60. Pretty good if you ask me.

Anyway- we went on a road trip with my grandparents and Andrew right after the 4th of July. Our girls really didn't want to do that much driving (4-8 hrs daily), so they stayed in Duchesne with Ben's parents. Our first stop was Butte, Montana. It was a pretty interesting old mining town. Driving around Butte felt like walking into an old western movie. I would love to explore the town a little further sometime, but we stopped for lunch and went on our way.

We stopped in Kellogg, Idaho that first day so that we could ride the world's largest gondola. This turned out to be the first disappointment of the trip. We showed up at 4:15 and they stopped selling tickets at 4:00. We drove back early the next morning, and they were doing work on the gondola and closed it. We were all so frustrated.

We spent the first night of our trip in Coeur d'Alene, Idaho. Ben and I absolutely loved it here. We have several friends that are from this area and have told us so many times how great it is, so we were glad to finally check it out ourselves! The HUGE lake is gorgeous, clear, and warm. We are already planning another trip to come back here. We hiked around the lake a little bit and Andrew finally jumped right in and swam.

For dessert, we stopped at the Coeur d'Alene resort and had a giant dessert called a Gooey.

The next morning, after the disappointment in Kellogg, we made our way to Seattle. We stopped at Snoqualmie Falls, just outside of the city. Ben and Andrew hiked down to the bottom and played in the river for a little bit.

We finally arrived in Seattle and went to dinner at Ray's, right on the bay. It was the best seafood I had ever had in my life! I'm still craving it. I had salmon tacos and Ben had a smoked salmon salad. Andrew and my grandparents had fish and chips.

 We spent the next two days in Seattle exploring the town. We went to the Space Needle, the beach, the locks, and Pike Place Market. We took a cruise around Seattle that was supposed to be 2 1/2 hours long and turned into 4 hours because of docking schedules and construction. The cruise was great, but I was so mad over the lost time, I called and complained and we got the cruise for free. Don't mess with hormonal pregnant women! :) We went to eat at a restaurant called Chinooks and it was fabulous seafood as well.

Right before we boarded for our cruise, I met up with one of my BFFs from high school, who just moved to the Seattle area. I haven't seen her in about 8 years, but we text and email to keep in touch. It was great seeing her for a little bit.

View of the city from our cruise.

Going through the Hiram Chittenden Locks, my grandpa's favorite thing in all the world. They raise and lower the water to allow boats passage from the bay to the lake. We went back here the next day and watched the salmon run.

Pike Place Market closed by the time we got back from our cruise, another reason I was so mad, so we had to go back the next day. It was packed! But we got some yummy produce and yogurts.

Ben and I at Chinooks

Playing at the beach...

More Pike Place photos...

After all the fun in Seattle, we headed for our next stop: Astoria and Seaside, Oregon. We drove across a 4 mile bridge that crosses into Astoria. We loved that city so much. It was a cold rainy day, but gorgeous. We stopped for fish and chips at a little fish stand in town and it was great. Then we took some pictures by the Goonies house and drove up to the top of town to get a view of everything.

We drove to Seaside after we left Astoria and spent the night there in a hotel right by the beach. It was perfect. The only thing we regretted on this trip is that we didn't plan enough time between stops. It would have been nice to spend more time at each destination.

The next morning, we went to the Seaside aquarium. Andrew got to feed the seals, which he loved. We then drove to Cannon Beach and spent a little time there. We probably would have stayed longer, but it was a pretty cold and windy day.

After Cannon Beach, we headed for Boardman, Oregon, but made a few stops on the way. We had lunch in Portland at a cute little sandwich shop. I had the best cheese steak sandwich ever! Portland was insanely crowded, so we didn't stay long.

We also stopped at Multnomah Falls and hiked around near the falls. Andrew and Ben went all the way to the top of the falls, which was a one mile super intense hike. I stayed at the bottom and ate an ice cream cone. :)

Our last stop before heading back to Idaho was in Boardman, Oregon. My grandparents love this little town right by the Columbia river. We stayed at a nice lodge there and the boys swam, while grandma and I did laundry at the laundromat. After a week of driving, we were out of clothes!

 We then stayed one night in Boise at my grandpa's sister's house and headed home to Pocatello. I was so excited to see the girls. It ended up being really hard to leave them for so long. Olivia would send me text messages saying that she was crying because she missed us and had fallen out of the top bunk on the bunk bed or gotten hurt outside. If I didn't reply right away, she kept texting over and over again. I was really worried about them for a lot of the trip. I told Olivia before we left that I would take her Froggie with me on our trip and take pictures of him enjoying the vacation. She LOVED getting the pictures. I think it helped with the homesickness a little.

Well that's our vacation in a nutshell! It was a great trip. Ben and I haven't been on a real vacation our entire marriage, except Zions and Yellowstone. This trip was long overdo and so much fun.