a quick trip

At the end of October, my sister Blendy, her friend Janelle, and I made a quick trip to Indiana to see Val. (Well, Janelle went to see her boyfriend, but she saw Val, too.) Once we got home, I hit the ground running with book reviews, homework assignments, and Singing Christmas Tree practices, so I'm just getting around to blogging about it. And since I'm feeling kind of lazy, I'm not even going to write any more—I'll just direct you to my facebook album! So go here to see what we did ...

pricelining: days 3 & 4

We were without internet access at our last hotel, so I wrote this on Friday but didn't have the opportunity to post until tonight.

For what we did on day three, see Blendy’s blog!

This morning, we got up at 9 and readied ourselves to leave. I booked our hotel—$48 for a room at the Extended Stay America in Copley, Ohio. This was our worst deal yet, as regular price is $70. Also, this is our worst hotel yet, but I’ll get to that later.

After filling the car and driving through Krsipy Kreme, we headed off for Butler, Pennsylvania, the location of the nearest Ross store. Val and I visited Ross in Oregon last summer, and I was looking forward to more great clothing deals. Unfortunately … we never found the store! Google Maps let us down :-(. So we continued on our way to Copley (which is near Akron).

As we pulled up to the hotel, I thought, “Uh, oh.” It just looked, well, not very nice. My hesitation continued as we stepped into the lobby and were greeted by the scent of cigarette smoke. We checked in, headed to the car, and lugged our stuff up to the second floor. We entered our room—and realized it hadn’t been cleaned yet! I called the front desk, and the girl asked us to return for a new room. So we lugged all our stuff downstairs and then back up again. In retrospect, I should have checked out the room before bringing everything in. To top it all off, internet access costs $5—so we decided to pass on that for the night. The room itself isn’t so bad—we have lots more space than we had at the Microtel in Erie—but I’m just pretty unimpressed with the whole experience so far.

We had a double bed ... but I enjoyed sitting in the recliner.

The room had a kitchenette ... it would have been perfect for a longer stay.

Tonight, we got together with my college friend, Holly. Our hotel just happened to be literally two minutes from her apartment! We went our for supper at Swensons, a drive-in restaurant. This was—by far—the highlight of my day! You know how at Sonic the car-hops sometimes wear skates? Well, at Swensons, the car-hops RUN. As in, when they see your lights on (which is how you signal you need help), they run towards your car, full steam ahead. It was absolutely hilarious watching them!

Holly drove us by LeBron James' house.

Holly and me. We hadn't seen each other in six years!

Now we’re back at the hotel. I’m trying to steal the wi-fi signal from the Raddison across the street so we can watch some Veronica Mars, but it’s not working very well. We’ll need to leave for the wedding around 10:30—I’m looking forward to sleeping in!

pricelining: day 2

"Life doesn't always turn out the way you plan." While You Were Sleeping

Today certainly didn't turn out the way I planned. First of all, I didn't get up on time ... a fact that Blendy so kindly recorded on her blog. Then I had a few issues reserving our hotel room. Namely, I didn't want to pay what it was going to cost to stay in Canada ... so we changed our plans and booked a room in Erie, Pennsylvania. (A little different than Canada; I know!) Turns out that while we both wanted to see Niagara Falls and say we'd been through Canada, we were okay with staying in the good old USA. We have our room for two nights, and tomorrow we'll just explore the area. We'll definitely go to New York, as I've never been there before, and it's not so far from Erie. Don't know what we'll do there, but I've never been in New York before, so we can't be this close and not go!

Our trip was quite uneventful--which is good! Five hours and one crazy-expensive Ohio toll road later we arrived in Erie. Tonight's price: $50. Regular price: $89. So this deal isn't quite as good as last night's. Also, our room reminds us of a hospital. It's the Pepto-Bismol pink decor.

Unfortunately, we only have one bed.

My favorite part of the room--a window seat!

We decided to order pizza from Papa John's, and on our way there, we saw a discount movie theater that we might hit tomorrow night. Now we're watching Psych, and then we'll plan our day. I'm really glad we won't have to move tomorrow!

Steph enjoys the Papa John's pizza--we can't get it at home.

pricelining: day 1

Blendy and I are Pricelining our way out East. What that means is we're reserving all our hotels using Priceline.com's "Name Your Own Price" feature. Today's deal: $35 for a room at the Baymont Inn & Suites in Kalamazoo, Michigan. Regular price: $84.15.

Our trip began at 8 a.m. with a stop at our local coffee shop. It was all smooth sailing until we were about 40 miles from Kalamazoo. Then I glanced down and saw the low tire light was on ... dun, Dun, DUN! (I was going to link to last year's Oregon Trail blogs, as we had tire troubles then, too ... but after rereading all of them, I see that I didn't mention our leaky tire at all! Oh, well ... here's the link, anyway.) We pulled off at a closed rest area and checked the tires. They all seemed fine and had the appropriate amount of pressure, so we continued on our way. I'm very thankful that didn't happen as we were flying through the Chicago area!

After arriving at our hotel, we relaxed, watched a couple episodes of Veronica Mars, and headed to bed--we each had our own queen bed!

Our plan is to head to Canada tomorrow, visit Niagara Falls on Thursday, and end up in Akron, Ohio, on Friday. Then Saturday we'll go to college roommate Jodi's wedding and end up at college roommate Jen's apartment on Saturday night.

Blendy has also been blogging about this trip ... so you should check it out!

off the oregon trail: thoughts after returning home

• I’m so glad I took Wednesday off—it would have stunk to get home at midnight and then be at work by 8.

• While in Bozeman, we couldn’t use any hair products because Sarah’s sister is allergic to scents. My hair behaved reasonably well, so I thought I might try going without any hair products for the rest of the trip. I changed my mind when we arrived in Cannon Beach and my hair went crazy. Duh! Bozeman’s low humidity is what allowed my hair to behave without artificial help.

• I think Steph and Nate would be perfectly happy to never, ever hear “Don’t Stop Believing” again in their entire lives. It was our unofficial trip song, and I had to belt it out every time I heard it! (Not the original Journey version—which I do enjoy—but the Glee version.)

• Looking back on the trip, it’s so amazing that we were all able to go on it together. What a gift!

• If I ever move to the mountains (Montana???), I’ll need a new car. My baby would never survive!

• I wish Nebraska had good hiking trails. Hiking is fun, but we don’t really have anywhere to hike around here. At least nowhere I'm aware of . . .
  

• Can I get a job reading maps? I think I would really enjoy it.

• It’s surprising how well my sisters did with each other on the trip. I’m not sure that they ever really fought. Surprisingly, Val and I were the ones with the issues on the way home.

• After all the coffee I had on the trip, I’m going to go through some serious caffeine withdrawals as I go back to my regular one caffeinated drink per day routine.

• I forgot to mention the coffee we had in Portland. It came from Stumptown Coffee Roasters, and it was some of the best coffee I had on the trip. Look for a massive coffee/restaurant review post in the next few days.

on the oregon trail: day 14

We slept in a bit on Tuesday . . . at least until Mom started calling! We hadn’t told her we’d be sleeping in, so she thought calling at 8 would be fine; I think she was a bit confused when I answered my phone with my sleepy voice.

We had coffee at Wild Boar Coffee, just off the Colorado State campus. I really liked my coffee; Val thought hers was good but not great. It was the last coffee we had on our trip.

When Val looked up the Salt Lake City Starbucks, she also looked up a Panera Bread in Denver. Again, she didn’t find directions; she just looked at a map and tried to figure it out. That would have been OK, except that many downtown Denver streets are one-way. Once again, I pulled out the trusty atlas and got us there.

Stephanie had never been to Panera before, so the guy at the counter gave her a free cookie. We enjoyed our wonderful soup and bread and headed off toward Colorado Springs.

Steph loves Panera!

When I started planning this trip, I decided we should definitely visit Focus on the Family. The visitors center was interesting, but the Whit’s End/Odyssey portion was slightly disappointing. It would have been great for an 8-year-old (or for a young family), but we weren’t all that thrilled. Don’t get me wrong—there were lots of interesting things to see—but I had high expectations that weren’t quite met.

After Focus, we went to The Garden of the Gods. Spectacular! We only spent about 45 minutes there, but we could have spent hours!

The formations at The Garden of the Gods were breathtaking!

Steph was wearing a KU shirt yesterday; while we were walking down one of the trails at The Garden of the Gods, we passed two college age guys who started chanting, “Rock Chalk! Rock Chalk! Rock Chalk!” It was hilarious.

We found a Chick-fil-A for supper! We don't have them, so this was a real treat :-)

Finally late in the evening, we crossed into Nebraska! We got Blizzards in North Platte, stopped at one last rest stop, and then drove like mad to get home, arriving at midnight.

At our last rest stop, Val & Steph show their elation at being back in Nebraska.

on the oregon trail: day 13

Monday morning, we headed off to Salt Lake City. Val had looked up a Starbucks location, but she hadn’t looked up driving directions—she just looked at a map and tried to figure it out. As we approached Salt Lake, I was driving, and she was navigating. I got off on the road she said . . . which turned out to be the right road, just 10 miles or so north of where we wanted to be; however, I spotted a Starbucks in a strip mall, and we were in business. We decided that, rather than taking I-70 to Denver as I wanted to, we would take I-80 through Wyoming and then drop down into Colorado. My car (Uncle Tommy named it “Toad” before we left, but I can’t call it that because I think of it as a girl, and “Toad” is a terrible name for a girl) didn’t like the mountains at all, and we figured 80 would be less mountainous than 70. All this to say, we looked for a hotel in the Fort Collins area. This time, Priceline gave me the option of looking for a 3-1/2 star hotel, so I did, putting in $50 as my price. I didn’t think any hotel would accept it, but The Hilton did. THE HILTON!

After securing out hotel, we made our way to Temple Square. At this point, Val began driving, while I navigated with my trusty atlas. (I adore maps. I could spend hours looking at them, and I understand them, so we decided that perhaps it would be a better plan to have Val drive and me navigate.) Because of the time (it was after noon, and we still had a good eight hours of driving left), we didn’t stop, but we did drive around, and we saw the Mormon Temple and Tabernacle . . . sort of.

The Mormon Temple . . . what we saw of it!

As we were leaving Salt Lake City, my car got really angry. It got very hot, and lights started flashing, and I was honestly afraid something serious was happening. We began driving in the truck lane, very slowly, with the hazards flashing, and we stopped at the next town for lunch and to let my car cool down. We called Dad, and he said to drive in direct in the mountains, which helped immensely.

We stopped at Coco’s in Rawlins for supper—partially because we knew Nate would be jealous! I didn’t say much about Coco’s before because I intended to dedicate a whole post to it, but that didn’t happen, obviously! Coco’s is in the historic Blake house in downtown Rawlins. (I don’t know what makes the house historic; I just know that it is because of the sign out front!) For the past two years, it has been run by an Asian couple; apparently it’s been several different restaurants in the past 20 years. The cuisine is quite varied—sandwiches, steaks, seafood, pastas, and Asian dishes. The first time we went, I had a French dip sandwich, and Monday night I had chicken fried steak. It was phenomenal! The service is excellent, the atmosphere is cool, and the food is wonderful. So if you’re ever driving through Wyoming on I-80, consider a stop at Coco’s!

Three very satisfied Coco's customers.

We got to Fort Collins around 9:30 p.m., and as we drove through Old Town, we were amazed at how many people were still out and about. The Old Town area looks really cool—it would be fun to explore sometime. Val and Steph had been talking about getting ice cream, so when I checked in at the Hilton, I asked the guy at the front desk where we could find ice cream. He gave me directions to Coldstone and a local place in Old Town; what I hadn’t realized was that Val and Steph really wanted Dairy Queen! I wasn’t about to go back in and ask—I already felt horribly underdressed in my t-shirt and yoga pants. So we drove around for a while without ever finding a Dairy Queen. We did find a Sonic and a McDonald’s, though.

We really did stay here!

The Hilton was amazing. I’m used to Super 8’s and Days Inns—the Hilton was a huge step up! We rode up to our room in a glass elevator. The room itself was awesome. It was decorated beautifully, had a huge TV, a comfy chair, and a nice desk, and overall was just really nice. We definitely enjoyed our stay!

We love our room!

on the oregon trail: day 12

This was the day we had to say goodbye to both Beth and Nate. We went to Bagels by the Sea for breakfast, and then we waved goodbye to Beth and headed for the Portland airport so Nate could catch his flight back to Nebraska. (He is currently on a mission trip in South Dakota.)

Our last picture all together!

Val let him take her phone so he could call if he ran into any trouble. Just as we were passing the tree farm that so fascinated Nate on our way out, he texted to say he was in Salt Lake City waiting for his plane to Lincoln to take off. A couple hours later, he texted again to tell us he was on the ground in Lincoln. At that point, we were still in Oregon! It truly felt like we would never get out of Oregon . . .

When we got to Boise, we needed to find a wireless connection so that we could use Priceline’s name your own price to find a hotel for the night. We were sure that Boise would have at least one Starbucks, but we didn’t know where to find one, so we began our drive around the city. Val pulled out her computer, and we drove slowly to see where she could pick up wireless. We finally pulled into the parking lot of a Red Lion Hotel and “borrowed” their connection. It was very weak, and we didn’t get very far with Priceline, but we were able to find the address for a Starbucks nearby. When we got there, we discovered the connection was only free if you had a registered Starbucks card that had been used in the past 30 days. I have one, but I haven’t used it in ages—in fact, I don’t think it even has a balance. I was about to add money to it when I saw that there was an option to log on with another wireless service. I suddenly remembered a postcard I got from Qwest a few weeks ago, saying that they were proud to announce they had partnered with thousands of coffee shops around the nation to provide free wireless to their customers. At the time, I thought scoffed because I thought that most coffee shops offered truly free wireless; however, I was very glad for that info on Sunday! I entered my Qwest login info, and we were on our way to finding a Priceline deal. I never would have thought of trying Priceline, but right before we left on the trip, a friend showed me the ins-and-outs of getting a great deal. Anyway, my price was accepted at a Red Lion in Twin Falls, Idaho. We thought that was really funny, considering we’d been using a Red Lion connection earlier!

Our “eat locally” mantra fell by the wayside on our trip home—we didn’t want to take any extra time finding places to eat. We pulled off at some exit between Boise and Twin Falls, and we each went to a different fast food place. I got a spicy chicken sandwich at a Jack in the Box. I went there because we don’t have them in Nebraska, so I wanted to try it out. I need to find out what drink normally comes with a combo meal because I was charged an extra dollar-ish for substituting a Diet Coke. I noticed that coffee comes with the breakfast combos. I was amazed at their menu—burgers, chicken, Asian, and Mexican.

Our hotel, which Priceline called 3-star, was basically a glorified Super 8. Not that there’s anything wrong with that! (And the price I paid was considerably less than I paid for either Super 8 on the way to Oregon.) I just looked up the Red Lion website, and I think that we were in one of the shabbier ones . . . I intended to blog, but instead we watched last week’s episode of The Bachelorette, where we saw Jillian finally come to her senses regarding Wes!

Steph & Val relax in our hotel room.

on the oregon trail: day 11

We spent Saturday in Portland. Beth had to work again, so it was a good day to go. It was also good because our cousin Kim and her husband Rob had the day off and were able to meet us downtown. We met at the Saturday Market, which would have been lots of fun to browse through if we were shoppers. But I’m certainly not (with some notable exceptions), and neither is Val. I think Steph would have liked to spend more time looking around there than we did.

Waiting for Kim & Rob in Portland. Check out how beautiful the wind made my hair!

We spent most of our time at Powell’s Books. It takes up a full city block and has 9 rooms of books. Nate didn’t buy anything, but Val, Steph, and I all stimulated the Portland economy. A glimpse into our bags—guess who bought what: 1) Mere Christianity, The Case For Christ, Northanger Abbey, Persuasion, Sense & Sensibility, Betty Crocker Cookbook, The Hiding Place. 2) Mrs. Frisby & the Rats of NIMH, The Watsons Go to Birmingham, Lost in Austen: Create Your Own Jane Austen Adventure, The Tale of Despereaux. 3) The Picture of Dorian Gray, Great American Short Stories: From Hawthorne to Hemingway. In a few days, I’ll post the correct answers.

The cousins outside of Powell's: Val, Kim, Rob, Me, Steph.

After Powell’s, we went in search of food. After briefly considering a Thai place, we ended up at a pub that I can't remember the name of. Then we went back to Powell’s, where Kim & Rob left us. Val wanted to keep looking for books, so Nate, Steph, and I walked back to the car to drop off our things; then we went in search of dessert because Nate wanted ice cream. We ended up at a place right across the street from Powell’s: Mio Gelato. This was my first gelato experience, and it was awesome. I saw a sign in the shop saying it had been voted one of the best places to get dessert in Portland, and I believe it!

Nate & I enjoy our gelato. Mine is tiramisu; his is cinnamon.

We thought about going to Forest Park on our way out of Portland, but it was already approaching 5 p.m., and I wanted to be back in Seaside well before dark. We met Beth at Safeway, where we bought necessary items for our journey home and brownie sundae makings. Beth had picked up a pizza from Pizza a’Fetta—it was supposed to be half pepperoni and half something fancier, but they messed up the order and didn’t do the pepperoni half, so they also gave us three slices of pepperoni. We also had awesome cheese covered breadsticks.

Nate enjoys his pizza--with all the "extras" off my piece.

After supper, we packed up all our stuff; then we had brownie sudaes (with Tillamook ice cream!) while watching Hancock. Hmmm . . . not sure what I think about that movie. It was not what I was expecting, and I'm not sure it even knew what it was trying to be--comedy, drama, romance, or superhero movie--it had elements of all of them.

on the oregon trail: day 10

Friday. It seems so long ago now, but I'll do my best to remember the important details of the day!

Our morning began with a lovely French toast breakfast cooked by Nate. Steph had pancakes because she got it into her head that she doesn't like French toast, due to some soggy, nasty stuff Val and a friend made like 8 years ago. We then went for coffee at The Sleepy Monk. Val thought hers was some of the best we've had; I couldn't drink much of mine--it was too heavy and intense.

Beth had to work (boo!), so we decided to go to the Tillamook Cheese Factory while she was working. Here's the thing I don't enjoy about Oregon roads (and probably mountain roads in general)--Tillamook is 41 miles from Cannon Beach, but it took us 65 minutes to get there. In Nebraska (outside of town), 41 miles = 41 minutes or less. Anyway, we greatly enjoyed Tillamook. I was astounded at the number of people who were touring the factory while we were. We had to park in the RV parking because we couldn't find a space in the car parking lot! We sampled delicious cheeses, watched workers package blocks of cheese, and ate some amazing ice cream. Did you know that Tillamook has the second most popular chunk cheddar in the United States? I can't recall hearing of it before this trip, but it sure seems to be popular in the

Northwest!

After Tillamook, we headed back to Cannon Beach. After dropping Nate and Steph off to shop and hang out on the beach, Val and I drove to Warrenton to go to Ross. (Warrenton is like 15-20 miles north of Seaside, but it took us 40 minutes to get there.) Val had heard about Ross from some college friends, who said it had cheap clothes. We spent probably an hour there, and I found a new work outfit, shoes, and capris. I think Ross can best be compared to TJ Maxx or Marshall’s. We have a TJ Maxx in GI, but I’ve never looked for clothes there. I think I should.

We then went back to Cannon Beach in search of coffee and a wireless connection. We went to Bella Espresso (which Steph says has the best hot chocolate she’s ever tasted), but it was very busy, so we decided to go elsewhere. Val wanted to try the Waves of Grain Bakery, where we’d gotten coffee the day before. Unfortunately, we couldn’t remember exactly where the bakery was. So after wandering around—on foot—for a while and having a bit of an argument about who had a better idea of where the bakery was, we headed back to Bella, which had cleared out. We had more great coffee—caramel lattes—and I blogged about Thursday.

We had another campfire on Friday night; this time we hiked down to a beach that was supposedly “no access.” We parked Beth’s car outside of Ecola State Park and then hiked down a half mile-ish trail. Val, Beth, and Nate skimboarded. Nate was really intense—he even “swam”—even though the water was freezing.

Nate instructing Val on the principles of skimboarding.

She's got it!

Shortly after we arrived at the beach, it started raining. It sprinkled off and on for a while, then it picked up. I was pretty soaked by the time we decided to call it a night. But before that . . . I had my first hot dog in years! I really despise hot dogs, but that was my only option for supper, and I was hungry.

This is how I feel about my hot dog . . .

Once we got back to Beth’s, we watched Don’t Say A Word. More accurately, they watched it, and dozed through the middle 40 minutes. What is it with me sleeping through movies on this trip?

on the oregon trail: day 9

Yesterday was a hiking/walking/nature day.

We ventured out quite early in order to see the tide pools around Haystack Rock at low tide. It was well worth our early getting up time. Steph took hundreds of pictures of the starfish, crabs, clam shells, barnacles, and sea anemones. (Well, it wasn't really hundreds . . .)

Haystack Rock. (Not in the morning, but I thought you'd like to see it.)

Starfish.

Then we went to Beth's bakery (Cannon Beach Bakery) for delicious breakfast items and Waves of Grain Bakery for coffee. We then drove to Hug Point, which is under water during high tide. We were able to walk around on the beach and on this rock roadway that people used to drive on before there were other roads around.

Then we went to Falcon Point and hiked a 2.5 mile trail. Along the way, we saw slugs, snakes, and lots of bees. It was fairly easy hike, but it was long. However, we all survived!

What we saw when we came out of the brush at the end of our hike.

Nate & Beth at the Falcon Point trail head.

We went to Seasons Cafe & Deli for lunch. Beth and Nate shared a sandwich, Steph had a French dip, and Val and I both had bagels w/ cream cheese. Then we went to Bella Espresso so I could blog.

We spent most of the afternoon in Ecola State Park. First, we drove out to Indian Beach, where portions of Twilight were filmed. Then we went to another area of the park where we found a picnic table to sit at, and read, slept, and chatted for a while.

The Twilight Beach. Even I recognized it, and I don't remember much about the movie except that I couldn't wait for it to end.

Around 8 p.m., we drove out to Camp 18 for supper. It's modeled after a logging camp, and the food was spectacular. (Have we had any food that hasn't been spectacular? I don't think so . . .) Val said something complimentary about it, and then she said, "And you can quote me on that!" but we can't remember exactly what she said. It was along the lines of: "I wish I lived closer to this delightful establishment so I could come here every day." We were all very tired, and something set us off while we were waiting for our food--Beth and I were laughing so hard we were crying!

When we got back to Beth's, Nate baked cookies for Beth while watching Muppet Treasure Island. Then we crashed for the night . . .

Nate had to be as close to the TV as possible while still working in the kitchen . . . he couldn't miss any of the movie!

We're spending tomorrow in Portland with our cousin Kim, so I probably won't have time to blog about today, tomorrow, and Sunday until Sunday night, provided our hotel (which we're going to get through Priceline sometime along the road on Sunday) has wireless.

About the coffee rating system (which my dear brother asked about) . . . it was a nice, though highly mockable, idea, but with the lack of internet access we've had, I haven't taken the time to do it. Perhaps when we get home I'll catch up???

on the oregon trail: days 7 & 8

We’ve had an eventful two days! We left Spokane at 9 a.m. on Tuesday. But before we left, I took plenty of pictures of Sharon’s yard and living room for Mom to see. What a good daughter I am!

We stopped for gas and coffee about an hour into our journey. The Starbucks we stopped at was connected to a Mexican fast food restaurant, which gravely concerned Val. She felt better when I pointed out the two places just shared a building—it wasn’t like they made the coffee and the tacos in the same area! My coffee was OK, but Val compared hers to McDonald’s coffee . . . and she doesn’t have a high opinion of McDonald’s coffee!

We stopped at a Walmart for supplies, and then we went to McDonald’s for lunch. There, Nate and I got our first taste of Tillamook ice cream—delicious! We’ll be going to the Tillamook Cheese Factory while Beth works on Friday.

Many people warned us about the road between Spokane and Portland. I came away from each conversation thinking “barren wasteland” . . . but that really wasn’t the case. Sure, the drive wasn’t as breathtakingly beautiful as much of our drive has been, but it wasn’t so bad. Part of Washington actually reminded me and Val of Kansas.

Our drive became more interesting once we hit Oregon. We followed the Columbia River, and the view was, at times, spectacular. We stopped at Multnomah Falls, which I’ve wanted to see ever since I read the Robin Jones Gunn book Echoes in high school. (Should I even admit that? Anyway, part of the story—which I recounted in great detail for my fellow travelers—takes place at Multnomah Falls.) It was not what I was expecting. Beautiful, yes, but I think the Hidden Falls has it beat.

Multnomah Falls

We finally got to Cannon Beach around 7. Beth met us at the park, and we walked over to Pizza a Feta for supper. It was the cheapest meal we’ve had yet—we each ordered one piece of pizza, and our breadsticks were free because they were out of the “real” ones and had to substitute—and it was delicious. Then we went to see Haystack Rock, rented a movie, and went to Beth’s apartment.

We're finally with Beth . . . and we're cold!

I slept through most of the movie—Inkheart starring Brendan Frasier. I can’t remember the last time I slept through I movie I hadn’t seen before, but I was suddenly exhausted! Val slept through some of it, too.

Following the movie, we all crashed . . . me and Val on a foam mattress, Steph on a loveseat, and Nate on an air mattress. Poor Nate got the shaft everywhere else, even sleeping on the floor in our motel rooms, so we decided to be nice to him at Beth’s ☺

This morning, we slept in—a wonderful thing! Then we headed to Astoria, where we had brunch. We went to Coffee Girl, and we were all quite impressed. I had a bagel sandwich—cheddar cheese bagel, cream cheese, turkey, and cheddar—and a latte. Both were excellent! Nate, Steph, and Beth all had paninis, and Val had yogurt with fruit and granola.

After Coffee Girl, Beth took us to see the sea lions, only they were nowhere to be found! Then we went to the Astoria Column. I think it has some sort of historical significance, but I don’t know what! It’s a very tall tower that you can climb to the top of. For me, coming down was a lot harder than going up. The staircase was spiral, and I got really dizzy going down. Beth bought Val and Nate little airplanes to fly from the top. Nate’s won, though Val’s also flew a very impressive distance!

Next, we crossed the Astoria Bridge, which doesn’t go underwater as Nate thought his mother had said. The Astoria Bridge connects Oregon and Washington. Once in Washington, we went to Cape Disappointment State Park. Surprisingly (at least for this Nebraskan), the park was free for day users. We hiked to two lighthouses, saw Waikiki Beach, and visited a General Store. Evidently, the Cape Disappointment lighthouse is the oldest lighthouse still in use in the United States.

I was pretty tired after the park, so I was glad for the 45 minute car ride back to Seaside. Once back in Seaside, we went to this store that sells sweatshirts for $12.99. I was amazed at the selection! Val, Steph, and I all bought sweatshirts.

The sisters in our cheap hoodies. Val said we should "look like we were from the 1800's."

We wore the sweatshirts tonight when we went to Cannon Beach. We ate at Bill’s Tavern. Steph and I got the homemade root beer. I must not have very sophisticated tastes because I’d take a good Sam’s Choice root beer over Bill’s any day of the week! All of us save Beth had burgers . . . and they were really tasty.

Nate wanted to run on the beach, so he did that while we girls got coffee, this time at Bella Espresso (which is where I’m posting this blog from). Steph thought the hot chocolate she got there was some of the best she’d ever had.

We met Nate at Haystack Rock, then we built a fire on the beach. We made s’mores and Jiffy Pop, sang songs, talked, and laughed. It was a great way to end the day!

Beth starting our fire. A mother and daughter bought us lighter fluid in exchange for watching their wood while they went to buy lighter fluid for themselves.

Nate making our Jiffy Pop. The instructions specifically said, "Do not use over an open fire."

on the oregon trail: day 6

I. LOVE. MONTANA.

That's what I've decided after spending parts of five days in that lovely state. I guess we should only count four of those days, though, because the first was just an overnight in Cooke City, and that "city" definitely didn't make Montana look good!

We left Sarah's at 10 this morning. Our first stop was, you guessed it, coffee! This time, we went to City Brew. Decent, but The Leaf & Bean is still the best coffee we've had on this trip.

Our first real stop was at Wheat Montana. We all got great cinnamon rolls for breakfast.

Nate & his cinnamon roll.

We ate lunch in Missoula. My friend Camilla used to live in Missoula, and she told us about some places to eat downtown . . . except I must have taken a wrong turn, as we never ended up downtown! Instead, we got sandwiches from Quizno's and ate on the road. Camilla had also told me about a breathtaking view along Highway 93 about half an hour north of Missoula. We braved the road construction (seriously, road construction has been everywhere on this trip!) and made our way north. We reached the observation point and saw . . . that it was too overcast to see much. All was not lost, though, as our subsequent drive back to I-90 along highways 200 and 135 was, in my opinion, the prettiest drive so far. We ran parallel to a river most of the time, and the view was simply gorgeous.

Google Maps, which has lied to me several times on this trip, gave us really odd directions to my mom's cousin's house in Spokane. At one point, it wanted us to drive down a dirt path! Nevertheless, we made it just before 6 p.m. After dinner, Sharon and her family took us on a walk around the neighborhood. They've been so hospitable--we had a wonderful evening!

As I write this, Steph's sleeping, and the rest of us are watching a movie. We'll leave (relatively) early tomorrow morning . . . soon we'll be with Beth!

on the oregon trail: days 4 & 5

I was having too much fun in Bozeman with Sarah to take the time out to blog, so here's the recap of our 4th of July weekend. (Sarah, you may need to make corrections!)

We slept in slightly on Saturday, then we embarked on our amazing hike. We stopped off first at Wheat Montana to get sandwiches, then we went over to The Leaf & Bean for coffee. My Big Sky Latte (caramel, chocolate, and espresso--like a Milky Way) was good, but not as good as the one I'd had at the other Leaf & Bean in town the day before.

We went hiking at Highlight(?). It was a mile-ish trail up to a waterfall, and we were able to walk right up to the falls.

Me and Sarah by the falls.

After returning to Sarah's house, we just hung out for a few hours. One of my favorite things about vacation is how time seems to slow down--in a good way! The afternoon seemed very long and very refreshing. We watched Transformers, which wasn't as stupid as I was expecting, and I halfheartedly blogged (see my last post--that's why I had Steph take over!).

In the evening, we went to Big Sky to see a free concert. I can't remember the band's name, but I really liked them. (Val would like you to know that she "danced" in the front row.) We had to walk across a field to get from the parking lot to the pavilion, and I promptly stepped in a (hidden) mud puddle. So my shoe was wet and muddy all night. Actually, it's still muddy, as I forgot to wash it off when we got back to Sarah's!

We left Big Sky before the concert ended so we could watch the Bozeman fireworks. We ended up watching most of them from the road and got to the fairgrounds just in time for the finale. After a late-night Wendy's run (yes, I know--not local food), we all crashed.

On Sunday, we went to Sarah's church in Belgrade. Afterwards, we went to lunch at La Parrilla. They serve massive burritos, among other things. While Nate only ate 3/4 of his, Val polished hers off in record time!

On our way to Sarah's church.

We spent several hours being lazy--sleeping, reading, talking on the phone. I read the latest Karen Kingsbury book, which I loved. (But then, what Karen Kingsbury book don't I love?) We then ventured out to another coffee place--Wild Joe's. It was good, though not quite as good as The Leaf & Bean. Then we drove around Bozeman, seeing the sights.

On our way back to Sarah's house, her sister called to invite us to watch as she and her kids shot off fireworks. Nate & Steph stayed back to that Steph could work on her college class and Nate could work on his Rubik's cube. We watched some great fireworks and ate some great (local!) ice cream sandwiches. Then Sarah, Kristin, and the four of us sat around in the living room talking and laughing for a long time--I think we were very tired, because everything seemed funny :-)

on the oregon trail: day 3

We left our motel in Cooke City at 10 a.m. After filling up with exorbitantly costly gas, we headed back into Yellowstone. (While I think Nate and Steph were just fine with going back--and perhaps even wanted to see some stuff, Val and I would have been more than happy to kiss Yellowstone goodbye for good. However, only one road goes through Cooke City, and our options were Yellowstone or a long, windy road that would have added a few hours to our trip.)

Yellowstone in the day is certainly a lot better than Yellowstone at night! We decided to skip Old Faithful as it was four hours away from Cooke City, but we thought about going to Norris Geyser, which was sort of but not quite on our way. However, it started absolutely pouring, and we decided the sooner we were off the crazy windy mountain roads, the better.

We had planned to meet college friend Sarah at Chico Hot Springs, but because of the rain, we just headed to Bozeman. We stopped for lunch in Livingston, at the Rib & Chop House, at Sarah's recommendation. Once again, it was great food.

And now Steph will take over to tell you about the rest of our day . . .

Once we arrived at Bozeman we met the lovely Sarah Sporleder who as I remembered was quite tall. We unloaded the car and were reminded of how Becky (probably for the first time ever) over packed even Val. It's true people. Becky packed 4 bags including her purse. 4! I made it with 3 including my purse but I had to pack my college class stuff so I don't think that a backpack should count. Anyway we then sat and chatted for a little bit and Nate decided to take a nap. I believe he had a food enduced coma since he ate enough food for 3 people at breakfast and then had a decent sized lunch. The rest of us went on an adventure through Bozeman to find me a hoodie. We were unsuccessful but I did get to see an Old Navy, Target, and a sporting goods store. Then we picked Nate up and headed to a movie.

We saw The Proposal. It was the second time for Becky, Val, & me, but it was Sarah's first time & I think her sister's as well. And in case you were wondering ...yes Nathan Mark Ritta saw the chick flick with us. I about died as I watched him ask for a ticket and again when we sat down. It truely was the highlight of my yesterday.

After the movie we went to MacKenzie River Pizza Co. to have two very delicious pizzas. We got the Rancher and the Cottonwood. I had to pick off a couple of things like peppers and tomatoes but Nate gladly took them. We almost finished the pizzas but still had to take some home.

Then we had to find some coffee for Val & Becky. We went to the Leaf & Bean which was Becky's favorite so far and Val's as well (I think). Nate said his was good but it wasn't his favorite. Upon receiving the cups of coffee we walked a little ways down Main. There were so many cute shops- I really hope we can go in some. We reached our cars and came back to Sarah's.

I worked on my class a little bit and Nate went for a run. We called mom and then Sarah and Becky went for a walk. Then ever so slowly people droppped off to bed. The last ones up were Sarah, Nate, & me. We were watching Stardust. Sadly, Sarah left as well a little before half way through. Nate & I finished it and went to bed...or should i say couch.

And that, dear readers, was our day. Peace OUT.

on the oregon trail: day 2

No internet access last night--we stayed in the middle of nowhere, so here's the update on yesterday's activities:

We decided to sleep in a bit, since our trip the day before took 13 hours. After a quick trip to Walmart and a drive through Starbucks, we headed out toward the Grand Tetons. The drive to the Grand Tetons was spectacular. The drive up Highway 191 from Rock Springs to the Grand Tetons was one of the prettiest drives I've ever been on.

We stopped for lunch in Jackson Hole at Jedediah's House of Sourdough (I think--the picture we took just says "Jedediah's.") We girls had breakfast food, and Nate had a massive burger that he forced himself to finish. (Nate said that burger was giving the best burger he ever ate--at a restaurant in Cannon Beach--a run for its money.) We ate out on the patio--it was a beautiful afternoon and a beautiful setting. Of course, we got coffee on our way out of town. (And I could have spent a lot more time in Jackson. Very touristy, but very cute.)

At the visitor's center at the entrance of the Grand Tetons, we heard about the Hidden Falls. Using our handy map, Nate determined that it would take us 15 minutes to hike to the falls. Nate's 30-minute round trip hike turned into 2 hours and 30 minutes! So perhaps Nate isn't so good at judging distances . . . Nevertheless, the hike was beautiful, and the falls were stunningly gorgeous! I will definitely post pictures of them later.

We got back on the road at 5:50. At that point, we thought we might go to Old Faithful before going to our hotel. A couple hours later, after going through lots of road construction, we decided just to head for the hotel. Finally, at 11 p.m., after hours of scary mountain driving (which Val handled masterfully!), we pulled in to the Super 8 at Cooke City. I was mistakenly under the impression that if a town was big enough to have a Super 8, it must also have fast food. Not so. Cooke City was TINY. It mainly consisted of motels and bars. So, we had granola bars and crackers for supper at 11:30.

Of the two parks (Grand Tetons and Yellowstone), the Grand Tetons was definitely my favorite. There's not much to do in Yellowstone other than drive and take pictures of wildlife. We did have a herd of bison cross the road right in front of us--that was pretty cool.

coffee across the country: day 1

Val and I love coffee, and we both agree that Barista's (where she works) serves some of the best coffee we've ever tasted. One of our goals on this trip is to find truly great coffee. All the coffee we taste will be compared to Barista's--is it better, just as good, or worse?

Rating system: (devised by Val, in terms an ice cream lover can understand. Why not coffee terms? Good question!)
*****--freshly baked fudgy brownie covered in Breyer's vanilla ice cream and my great-grandma's amazing homemade fudge sauce
****--a ColdStone Creamery favorite
***--your favorite DQ Blizzard
**--an ice cream bar
*--sugar free, fat free, freezer-burned vanilla ice cream

Our first coffee stop was at Barista's, and the coffee was, of course, excellent.
Overall rating: **** (only because we can have it all the time--and we need to leave room in case something better comes along!)

Our second coffee stop was in Laramie, Wyoming, at Turtle Rock Coffee, Etc. The atmosphere was great--we loved the decor--but the coffee wasn't in the same bracket as Barista's. My Irish Cream Latte was comparable to what I can get in Central City--which is to say it's good, not great. Steph's smoothie was "pretty good," and Nate really enjoyed his Cappuccino/Espresso Bean gelato. They also have an extensive sandwich menu (and, as you can see from the picture, pasta!). It's located just off the interstate on the west side of Laramie, and while the coffee itself wasn't anything to brag about, I'd still say it's worth a stop.Overall Rating:
** (Val: "The atmosphere was cute, but the flavor was not good.")
*** (Becky: see comments above)
*** (Steph: "My smoothie was good.")
??? (Nate: he went to sleep while we were discussing this)

on the oregon trail: day 1

This morning, my two sisters, cousin Nate, and I embarked on our great cross-country adventure. We'll be traveling to the Oregon coast to visit Nate's sister Beth.

Before we could leave, though, my car needed to be fixed. On Sunday, the cable that allows my driver's side window to roll up and down broke . . . with the window completely down! My dad took my car to a body shop on Monday, and Gary (whom I would recommend!) had it fixed by 7:30 last night.

I'd told Nate that we would meet at my parents' house at 7:15 a.m. I knew that we wouldn't actually leave by 7:15, but I had no idea we wouldn't make it until 8:15!

In our quest for great coffee, we made our first stop at Barista's in Grand Island. We knew the coffee would be great, so I guess we weren't really searching for great coffee at that point!

We met up with recently married friend Sydney for lunch in Ogallala. This was hopefully one of our only fast food stops on the trip--we want to eat at local places as much as possible.

I had no idea how beautiful Wyoming is! The topography changed practically the instant we crossed the border. I won't post all the pictures here, but I'll put some up on facebook. I said, "Look at how beautiful that is!" about 25 times today.

We had supper in Rawlins, and I'll do a separate post about that later. It was amazing.

Now we're at our hotel, and I'm pretty impressed. Definitely one of the better Super 8s I've stayed in, and the front desk people are really nice. Val was thrilled to discover there's a Starbucks next door.

Tomorrow we'll head to Yellowstone!

a week in whitewater

I’ve just returned from a week in Kansas. I anticipated a very relaxing week, and parts of the week were great. But other parts? Terrifying!

I arrived at my grandma's house on Sunday night and hooked up the digital converter box I'd picked up at Wal-Mart. The house is close to Wichita, so I figured I'd pick up lots of channels. Not so. I got the NBC, ABC, FOX, and CW stations. The next morning, I also got the CBS channels (one regular and one weather) and MyNetworkTV, but very rarely could I get all the stations at once. With the digital signal, "fuzzy" stations don't come in--you either get it well or not at all. I'm thinking my parents, who don't live that close to any stations, are in trouble.

Grandma lives in a nursing home near her farm. She hasn't really felt like getting out much lately, so I hoped that I'd be able to convince her to go out some. She seemed really good on Monday, but she didn't want to go anywhere. I mentioned that I'd like to get some ice cream at Braum's, and I thought we could go on Tuesday. Then I called her Tuesday morning. She said she wasn't feeling well . . . and each morning for the rest of my trip was the same. On Thursday, we talked about going out for lunch on Friday. She actually sounded excited about it. Then Friday morning rolled around. I called her at 10, and she wondered if I would get there soon. I took this as a good sign. When I arrived, we kept talking about where we could go for lunch. But when it was actually time for lunch, she decided we should eat at the home. Can we say disgusting? We had chicken nuggets, mac & cheese, green beans, and yellow cake. The nuggets were edible but not good; the mac & cheese was mushy and fakey (and not in a good Kraft Mac-N-Cheese way—for some reason, I love that stuff!); the cake itself was fine, but the frosting tasted like Lemon Pledge; the green beans were the best part of the meal, and I generally wouldn’t choose to eat a green bean unless forced! (I should note that I used to work in dietary at this nursing home; I remember serving really good meals—perhaps this was just an off day!)

Now for the relaxing part of the week. I made a trip to Wichita to go to Borders (where I picked up the Singin’ In The Rain soundtrack and a tobyMac cd with a gift certificate) and meet up with a cousin. Once a year or so, she goes through her family’s closets and gives us a bunch of hand-me-downs. Pretty much all the Rittas have access to this stuff. None of the clothes work for me, but we do have the same size feet, and she buys some really cool shoes :-) I also made cookies and bread, played the piano, cross stitched, drank lots of coffee with Tiramisu CoffeeMate, and watched tons of What I Like About You. I brought lots of movies and a season of Lost, and What I Like About You is the only thing I watched. I started with season two, and it was like I just couldn’t stop! Season two? Check. Season three? Check. Season four? Check. Pathetic, I know! (For all you Full House fans—Scott Weinger, who played Steve, has a bit part in season four. Sadly, he has not aged well!) I taped the episodes a couple summers ago, just as the WB and UPN were about to form the CW. Remember the annoying CW song? If you don’t, count yourself lucky. “Get ready, ‘cause here we come!”

Besides relaxing, I also dealt with some fears—one that I knew about, and one that I didn’t. I’ve never been afraid of being alone at night before, but being out here by myself at night kind of freaked me out. No matter what time it was, I was OK if I was up doing something. But the second I’d try going to sleep, I’d hear noises and picture ways that a prowler might break in. Then I’d plot out ways to escape if someone did break in. It was pretty much terrible. Plus, I had to deal with that other fear . . .

SPIDERS! I’m so glad I never watched Arachnophobia. I saw about five minutes of it once, and that was enough to give me a nightmare. Last week, I was living that nightmare. Grandma’s house has had a spider problem for as long as I can remember. I can’t remember the problem being this bad, though. In the first 24 hours, I killed 3 spiders. It was all downhill from there. I think I’m becoming a little obsessed with this blog: I took pics of almost all the spiders so I could post them and you all could know how brave I am to have resided in the same house with them and, in most cases, killed them. The first spider was on the wall by the grandfather clock. I tried to kill it, but when I whacked at it, it jumped behind the clock. I think I hit it, but I don’t think it died. Then, I went back to the bedroom I was staying in, flipped on the light, and looked directly at the spider’s twin brother! This one, I did kill. And I switched rooms. The next spider (spider #2 in the slide show) was literally inches away from my foot. I glanced down from my cross-stitching, and there it was! (For reference, the little squares are 1-½ inches, and the big squares are 3 inches.) Then the last one. This was the creepiest one. On Friday, I vacuumed the entire house to get rid of all the bug carcasses. I started in the basement, which we’ve long considered “no man’s land” as the spider problem has always been worst down there. I opened the closet in the bedroom and saw this “little” guy. Now here’s where my sanity left me—I actually hollered, “STAY RIGHT THERE!” and sprinted upstairs to get my camera. You know what? The spider listened. But after I took the picture, I wasn’t sure what to do—what if I tried to hit it, missed, and it escaped? Fortunately, there was some spider spray in the basement, so I sprayed the living daylights out of the sucker! I also encountered two other nasty bugs—one was large, red, and cricketlike, and the other was gray and looked like a spider with cricket legs. Ewwwww!!! I also killed several wasps and little, black, fuzzy spiders outside. I am SOOOOOOOOOO thankful my apartment doesn’t have a spider problem!

the land of oz

Late tomorrow afternoon, I'll be heading off for a week in Kansas. I've really been looking forward to this ever since I decided to do it a few weeks ago. I'm planning to spend lots of time with my grandma, and I hope I can be a real encouragement to her while I'm there. I won't have any internet access, so I'll be commencing radio silence. Have a wonderful week--I'm sure I will!