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06/12/2010 (Saturday) - Philadelphia, PA

Today we drove into Philadelphia, driving through some of the roughest and run down neighboorhoods we've seen throughout the country.  Fortunately the tourist areas were pretty nice.  We got lucky and found a parking space right near our destination. We've seen that show "Parking Wars" about the Philadelphia parking authority and were prepared.  Our space on the street had a 2 hour parking limit, but within minutes of parking and while I was at the kiosk getting a parking slip parking enforcement scoped out the MH and verified that it belonged to me...we would have gotten a ticket within 5 minutes of parking.  We picked up our tickets to tour Independance Hall and visited the liberty bell on our way there. 

After our tour we had to walk back to the MH to pay for another 2 hours of parking, and within 5 minutes there was another parking enforcement officer scoping out the MH...but alas...foiled again.  We then took a carriage ride and learned some interesting facts about the city.  We may not have opted to take a carriage ride but decided to take the advice of those that have gone before us...it was worth it.

After the carriage ride we found some lunch nearby and then proceeded to the cemetary to see Ben Franklin's gravesite.  We walked around for awhile but it was getting really warm outside, so we moved on to our next destination....

  Eastern State Penitentiary closed in 1971 and has been the location for some of the creapy, ghost hunting shows that Kylie enjoys.  She wanted to see it but was a little disappointed at first that the nighttime tours and haunted tours were not available during our visit...but we took the tour anyway and the place is really cool...it certainly doesn't fit the surroundings.  Kylie really liked it and she wants to return for a haunted tour when they start in the fall.

  
 
  
  SEE ADDITIONAL PICS OF OUR TRIP TO PHILADELPHIA IN THE PHOTO ALBUM SECTION!!!

06/10/2010 (Thursday) - Hershey Park, Hershey, PA

   So Kylie and I left Eric at the campground early this morning and we took the shuttle over to Hershey Park.  Because we were staying at a Hershey property, we got to enter the park 1 hour before opening.  We didn't find out until the shuttle ride over that although we got to enter the park, only the 1st section was open during that hour which included some kiddie rides and The Comet, one of the roller coasters.  Kylie made me ride the Comet with her 3 times before the park even opened....then it was off into the park.  We rode on "The Claw" next and Kylie met Julie, we ended up tagging along with Julie and her family for the day, until we left the park around 6:30 and headed back to the campground.  I think Eric thought we would return in the early afternoon but that didn't happen.  He enjoyed his quiet day though I am sure of it.

Kylie w/ the Reese's character shortly after entering the park.  Kylie didn't really want her picture taken today so consequently we didn't get many...that and the fact that Eric was not with us meant that I needed to carry a small camera that could get wet just in case we ended up on a water ride.

This is Kylie, Hershey kiss dude, Julie and her brother Kyle.  They got to ride almost all the rides all day with very little wait time, with the exception of the newest roller coaster "fahrenheit" which had over an hour wait for most of the day.  Most rides though had little to no lines which allowed for consecutive rides...which would just make me dizzy but they enjoyed it.

This is our site at the Hershey Highmeadow Campground where Eric spent his day.  He finally got to take the chairs off the back and actually sit in them...we are usually moving so fast with so little time between stops that most of the time they are just decorations riding on the back.  He didn't admit it but I think he really missed us while we were gone...towards the end of the day he was checking in often to see where we were...then he played basketball with Kylie while I prepared dinner (well, I dialed the phone number for pizza delivery)...I was tired...then we hunkered down to watch the Celtics/Lakers game...I couldn't make it to the end of the game...I fell asleep.  But I did hear this morning that they won and Kylie was able to make it all the way through and see the end of the game.

06/08/2010 (Tuesday) - Lancaster County, PA

Lancaster County Pennsylvania (Amish Country).  Today we took a tour of the beautiful countryside, lots of farmland, lots of horses and buggy units driving around and lots good weather.  I've always wanted to visit but until now haven't had the chance. 

We took a buggy ride/tour of the surrounding area and took a tour of a local farm.  It was very informative.  We spent the next few hours learning all about the Amish people and their beliefs and customs, why they don't use electricity.  Kylie was interested to learn that they send their children to school in a one room schoolhouse where there is one teacher that teaches grades 1-8.  The kids go to school the same number of days as public school, but they attend from August - May and they only have formal education through 8th grade, because the kids have to go to work. 

Kylie learned all about the farm, what the cows eat, how much they eat and how often.  Even though the Amish don't use electricity per se, they do use diesel generators and propane to help them operate their farms and to cool the milk before Land-O-Lakes picks it up for processing.

 

 

 

During our tour the grandson of the tour guide met the group to try to sell homemade cookies, trinkets and painted horseshoes.  Samuel (the boy) was only 5 years old but he had a job to do.  I watched him as he took money from customers, processed the transaction and then replenished his supplies before heading back inside to play.  I was very impressed the work ethic that the Amish instill in their youth, everyone has a job and there they can play only after their work is complete. 

06/05/2010 - AAU Basketball Game Scare

So it was Saturday afternoon and the girls' 2nd game of the day.  We had heard that there was a tornado watch in the area.  The building the girls were playing in was one of those blow up air buildings that smelled like a plastic floatie that the little kids wear (except a lot stronger becuase of the size of this massive building.  Well about 1/2 way through the game the lights went out and the thunder and lightning outside kicked up and it started raining really hard.  The building started to sway in the wind and the hanging lights were moving back and forth.  The fans had gone out and we were sitting inside this seemingly flimsy building as the storm raged outside.  It was both cool and a little scary at the same time.  Luckily Eric had scoped out the building and had some engineering insights for the parents so we could be certain when the building colapsed it wouldn't completely colapse but would b held up by steel sections and steel wires strung from end to end.  Like I said...very interesting...but it wasn't long that the storm blew over and the light turned back on so the girls could continue their game.

10/8/2009 - Day 34 (Thursday) - New Orleans, LA (last stop)

We walked into the french quarter from the RV park.  It was still very humid outside.  I wanted to do a segway tour but I pulled a muscle in my back in San Antonio and it was difficult enough to walk, never mind trying to balance on a segway (maybe next time). 

 

 

We ended up taking a bus tour through the entire city which included the areas hardest hit by Hurricane Katrina.  There is still a lot of buildings that remain untouched, destroyed and not yet rebuilt.  I found this photo particularly interesting because of the Room for Rent sign on the pole in front of the house . 

We visited a voodoo shop and Kylie had her past lives reading done.  The woman said she was a nurse/teacher in a past life.  Kylie thought it was cool, I was a bit skeptical of the entire experience but that's just my nature I suppose.  Eric found something to do...actually he was across the street at Pat O'Brien's ordering us one of those famous hurricanes to share.  It was still very hot and humid and getting late in the day so the streets were starting to get busier with people. 

 

 

 

 

 

We visited one of the above ground cemetaries which was really neat (but I like that kind of stuff anyway).  There was a lot of construction going on and the damage of Hurricane Katrina was still evident around the city but I was very glad that we stopped and took in the sights for the day.   After this stop we're heading home for the winter...we'll be off again in the Spring!!!

 

 

10/7/2009 - Day 33 (Wednesday) - East to New Orleans, LA

So today we travelled all day from San Antonio to New Orleans (this was our bonus stop because we cut the Balloon Festival short).  I found an RV park online that is right in downtown New Orleans, Eric was skeptical because he's been before and couldn't imagine that there was an RV park there.  Well here's the photo.  The story is the RV park is new since Hurricane Katrina.  It's in back of this store that was destroyed during the hurricane, the RV park is enclosed by an wrought iron fence and gate and has 24 hour security.  It's not in the best part of town so they don't recommend being outside the park after dark but the park itself was very nice and clean and generally a pleasant surprise.  We didn't arrive until after dark so we bedded down for the night.  Tomorrow we'll walk into the french quarter to explore. 

10/6/2009 - Day 32 (Tuesday) - San Antonio, TX

Today we travelled to the Alamo.  It is still very hot and humid outside, but it was nice and cool inside.  Sorry no photos allowed so I couldn't take any pictures of the inside, but the Courtyard was really beautiful.

 

 

 

We took in all the sights and lingered around the grounds for awhile before taking a walk around town.  We walked a few blocks away to the Riverwalk.  It was really cool, hidden in the middle of the city.

 

We walked along the Riverwalk and ate at the Salt Grass Steakhouse.  Lunch was really good and it was nice to get out of the heat and into the air conditioning for awhile.   Then we walked around a bit more before heading back to the MH and heading back to the campground for the evening.  San Antonio was a very nice city, we enjoyed our stay.

10/5/2009 - Day 31 (Monday) - Southeast to San Antonio, TX

 So we decided to leave the Balloon Festival early to try to squeeze a few more stops in before we have to head home.  We spent the night in the parking lot of what is probably the oldest Walmart in the Country...somewhere in Texas. Well we don't know what happened but as soon as we entered Texas it seemed that the humidity increased by 1000%...

We arrived in San Antonio in the evening and scoped out the campground we were scheduled to stay at.  We didn't really like the area so we searched for another campground and found a nice place near Seaworld.  Tomorrow we're heading to the Alamo!

10/4/2009 - Day 30 (Sunday) - Albuquerque, NM

  It was really neat to be able to walk right onto the field amidst all the balloons and watch them inflate and then take off into the air.  After awhile you start to see all the grassy spaces disappear as the balloons inflate next to each other and close off the empty spaces betten them. 

There were a lot of balloons but not as many took off today because it was still pretty windy.  The balloons were also not able to hover over the field as long and ended up flying away upon takeoff instead.  Because of that a lot of the balloons ended up inflating and then deflating and not taking off at all.  It was still a really cool experience to walk across the field and watch them inflate.

 I made Kylie wake up this morning and come with us on the field (yesterday she slept in and missed the best day).  She was still sleepy but she liked all the different balloons.

 

 

She liked the dead cat balloon (see photo) and the giant pepsi can (special shapes).  We all had a good time but since the weather turned we figured we'd already seen the best day of the festival (morning 1) so we decided to head out towards San Antonio earlier than originally planned.  We're leaving this afternoon.

Eric must be thinking of the long drive he has ahead of him.

 

Check out the photo album for more Balloon Festival photos!!

10/3/2009 - Day 29 (Saturday) - Albuquerque, NM

 

Today we woke up early and went out onto the field to watch the morning glow and mass assention.  Everyone should visit the annual Albuquerque International Balloon Festival once in their lifetime. 

 

It was pretty cold out early in the morning and it took many tries to finally get a good picture with the low lights. 

 

 

 

The mass assention was really cool.  All of the balloons managed to go up and we learned that the festival is held in Albuquerque because of the unique wind pattern of the area.  The balloons were able to hover over the field for a long time by assending and decending to change direction.  It was really a sight to see! 

We ventured back to the RV (see how close we were to the field?) and decided to drive around Albuquerque for awhile.  When we returned we went back down to the field to watch the afternoon activities but the wind kicked up pretty hard and the gas balloons (nor any other balloons) took off because of the high winds.  Tomorrow's another day.

10/2/2009 - Day 28 (Friday) - Holloman AFB, NM

 We spent most of the day on base hanging with Nikki and Matt.  Took some pictures of the nice planes and bought them a few bar stools for their kitchen.  We detoured our trip so we could see them so we only had one day there.  Next time maybe we'll stay longer and visit awhile.   We headed out mid-afternoon to head to Albequerque, NM to the International Balloon Festival to get to Albequerque you need to go completely around the White Sands Missle Testing Facility, we even saw a few test going on during our drive that day!  Thankfully Kylie is feeling a lot better!  We had reservations to camp next to the field that the balloons take off from and we needed to check in by dark.  We made it Albequerque with only 10 minutes to spare and got a great spot on the end of a section next to the exit/enterance.

 

10/1/2009 - Day 27 (Thursday) - East to Holloman AFB, NM

Today we made our way from Las Cruces to Holloman AFB to visit Nikki & Matt.  We were surprised that we had to go through Customs to get there.  We spent the day with Nikki until Matt came home from work.

 

 

We got to see their base housing which is very nice and big and we went for dinner.  We were lucky enough to stay on base in the campground for the night (Kylie stayed at Nikki's house). 

 

9/30/2008 - Day 26 (Wednesday) - Southeast to Las Cruces, NM

Today was another travel day which turned out to be a good thing, Kylie needed a day of rest for her antibiotics to kick in and she was living on cough medicine.

we drove around Tuscon, AZ for awhile looking for coffee k-cups for the coffee maker (when I say around we must have driven in circles 3 times while we tried to find a place, until we finally ended up at a mall.  Then we drove around some more looking for someplace to stop for lunch.  We ate at someplace that claimed they were voted Tuscon's best...I hope that wasn't true...it wasn't that good.

We ended up in Las Cruces, NM where we stayed in a Walmart parking lot for the night.

 

 

We enjoyed our short stay in Las Cruces (all roads lead to Las Cruces)....but after a good nights sleep we are on our way to to Alamogordo to see Nikki and Matt.

9/29/2008 - Day 25 (Tuesday) - Southeast to Phoenix, AZ

 Today was a travel day, so we made our way from Williams, AZ to Flagstaff, where we ate lunch at the Tinderbox Cafe.  Kylie learned what a hostel was and Eric and I took a stroll downtown (Kylie wasn't feeling well so she stayed back in the MH to rest).  We then made our way south towards Phoenix, stopping at Slide Rock along the way.

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For those not familiar with slide rock, it's a natural waterslide just north of Sedona, AZ.   The water was so very cold that I couldn't stand to keep my feet in for very long before they started to actually hurt.  Believe it or not there were people actually sliding down the rock (I think on purpose but who knows it was very slippery).  Kylie was running a fever and we thought the cool water would help bring her fever down.  She wanted to go swimming but by the time we hiked back up to the MH so she could change clothes she was too tired to go back and gave up on the idea.  We made our way south and the views as we got closer to Sedona were absolutely beautiful.  We stopped in Sedona to get out and walk around (Kylie wasn't up to it)

 

We continued on south until we reached Phoenix.  We checked into the campground and made our way to the hospital to get Kylie some antibiotics. 

 

 

She had progressively gotten worse as the vacation wore on and by this time was running a pretty good fever and feeling pretty bad.  So we spent the night in the ER and then filling her prescription. 

9/28/2009 - Day 24 (Monday) - Williams & Grand Canyon, AZ

 
We arrived in William's Arizona on Sunday night and took a tour of the town.  

It's a historic town on Rte. 66.  We stayed the Grand Canyon Railway campground within walking distance of downtown.
On Monday morning we boarded the train bound for the Grand Canyon.

Where Kylie met some friends....

We were only scheduled to be at the Canyon for the day, so we ate lunch at a restaurant on the rim and then took a walk along the path taking in the sights for the day.

  

On our train trip back to Williams, the train was overtaken by train robbers...

When we arrived back in Williams, we walked into town and ate dinner at a Route 66 diner. 

It was a beautiful day and the weather was really warm, but when the sun went down while we were eating dinner, it got very cold very quickly. 

 

 

9/27/2010 - Day 23 (Sunday) - Hoover Dam, NV

We arrived back in Las Vegas on Saturday afternoon and spent the night in the MH.  Even after being away for a few months it felt like we never interrupted our vacation.  It didn't take long to get back into the swing of things again.  We had time enough to eat breakfast at the Bellagio on Sunday morning (my favorite breakfast buffet) and then headed towards Arizona.  On our way we stopped at the Hoover Dam and took the underground tour.

 

We have been to the the dam before and the last time we were here we thought on our next visit we would no longer be able to drive over the dam.  We were surprised to see the bypass bridge was not yet completed and as you can see in the photo (left) the road still goes right over the dam and we drove over again.  In the photo below you can see the new bypass bridge construction underway in the backgroud (look up!)

 

7/28/2009 - 7/31/2009 - Days 19-22 (Tuesday - Friday) - Las Vegas, NV

So we decided that we would spend a few days at hotels while we were in Vegas after living full time in the RV for over 2 weeks.  We stayed a few nights at Green Valley Ranch and then at Red Rock Hotel/Casino which was wonderful!  Kylie loved the bathroom...see her here chillin' in the tub while talking on the phone and watching TV.   She especially loved the pool area which was very nice.  I wish we had stayed the whole time at Red Rock instead...next time we go out there we will definately stay there again.

   

So it's the end of the 1st leg of our cross country vacation.  We parked the MH at a campground in Las Vegas.  The photo on the right is a the resting spot for the View.  It will wait here patiently for us to return at the end of September to drive the southern states on our way back home. 

Note the ending mileage (below).  We travelled a total of 5555 miles so far, the temperature on the day we left Las Vegas was 109F.  Can't wait to resume our vacation in a few months.

7/27/2009 - Day 18 (Monday) - Southeast to Las Vegas

 

Today we drove around Los Angeles.  We drove to Griffith Park and up to the Observatory which overlooks Los Angeles but we didn't stop because we had a hard time finding parking for the RV.  In LA style, we did a drive by.

After LA we were on our way to Las Vegas to our pit stop for this leg of the trip. 

7/26/2009 - Day 17 (Sunday) - Santa Monica, CA

Today we travelled down the Coast to Santa Monica.  I arranged for Kylie to take a surfing lesson on the beach.  We parked at the Santa Monica Pier and walked to meet the surfer dudes (trying to pick up the lingo at Lifeguard Tower #18.  It was very warm out already and walking in the sand is not as easy as it looks on TV (lol)...but we made it. 

They were set up under this USA canopy, so we got to get out of the sun for a few minutes. 

Here's Kylie getting her dry land lesson on how to stand up on the surf board.

Kylie started off slow...she couldn't quite stand up on the board before she crashed into the water.

But then she finally managed to stand up...yeah!

 

 

 

Afterwards we walked a few blocks to Palasades Park and the 3rd Street Promenade, a pedestrian shopping area where we found lunch and saw many interesting people.  I took this picture in Palasades Park, which i've named "The Birdman"

 

 

 

 

 

We then walked back to the Santa Monica Pier. Can you see the MH in the parking lot?

Eric on the Pier... he's thinking about learning how to fish.  It was a long day and I managed to get a little sunburn on my shoulders...I guess i'm just not used to light not eminating from my computer.

7/25/2009 - Day 16 (Saturday) - Malibu, CA

Today we travelled from San Francisco area to Malibu.  The weather when we left SF was in the high 50's, as soon as moved away from the coast the fog cleared and the sun was shining and it became noticabilly warmer outside.  Most of the day was spent travelling, and the temperatures were warmer than we had experienced throughout the trip, near 100 degrees.  We originally were only scheduled to stay in Malibu for 1 night but this picture shows the weather and view when we arrived and we all immediately decided to stay an extra night. The RV park is directly across the PCH (Pacific Coast Highway) from the beach and within walking distance of a beachfront seafood restaurant.  It was a definate change from the RV park in San Francisco and a lot nicer with a lot more room to spread out.  We arrived in the early evening and relaxed for the rest of the day...took a walk to get dinner and look at the ocean.

7/24/2009 - Day 15 (Friday) - San Francisco, CA

 

 

Fort Point - San Francisco was our destination today.  The fort was there before the Golden Gate Bridge was built right over it.  The fort itself was very interesting...and very windy and cold too in some places.  The fort was built to protect the coast from attack.  From the top there is a great view of Alcatraz Island (photo below right), the Golden Gate Bridge and the San Francisco skyline.  Kylie thought the fort looked like the shining because of the hall of doors (in the picture below left).

 

Alcatrez Island (above) is visable from Fort Point and the Golden Gate Bridge.  We didn't take the tour although we would have but they were sold out while we were in San Francisco.

 

Here's a picture of Kylie in front of the Golden Gate Bridge (Right) and Eric and I in front of the Bridge (Below).

 

7/23/2009 - Day 14 (Thursday) - San Francisco, CA

We are scheduled to have two full days in San Francisco.  The RV "resort" is a parking lot packed tight with RV's, our site was along the cliff with an ocean view, located just outside SF in Pacifica.  The photo shown was taken during the only short span of sunlight during the course of the 2 days.  Most of the time you couldn't see anything except the fog...but we could hear the ocean waves crashing below us through the night which was nice.  On our first full day in SF we got a late start, then drove into the city towards Fisherman's Wharf and other city attractions. 

We drove down to the waterfront but couldn't find any parking.  It was a very busy area so we decided to trek on to find a few other famous SF places...Note to self...driving a MH through the hills of SF probably not a great idea...very scary!!!  This picture shows one of the hills going down...it was a lot scarier in person.  The best hill was coming up Lombard Street, the hill coming up to the crooked part (shown in the picture below) was so steep we didn't want to stop the MH at the stop sign at the top for fear we wouldn't make it over the crest of the hill if we did.

The streets of SF are full of one ways and steep hills, no parking...the traffic wasn't bad but there is no place to pull over (especially in a large vehicle)...parking enforcement was all over the place and there are a lot of people walking and riding bicycles that you also have to watch out for.  We determined rather quickly that we wanted to make our way out of the city and go visit some further away places.  Unfortunately we couldn't get tickets to see Alcatraz because they were sold out but it was still on the rather cool side and I imagine very windy on the island itself.  We made our way (as quickly as we could) towards Golden Gate Park where we visited the Dutch Windmill.

This 1902 restored Windmill was built ami sand dunes and barren land to supply the 75 acre Golden Gate park with water to create a landscape where things could grow.  It cost $16,000 to complete and today sits on the West end of Golden Gate Park amid a beautiful garden.  It pumped water to the area until electricity replaced it as a source of water distribution.  It's a beautiful little alcove in the city just a block from the ocean. 

We decided that we could go by the mall on the way back to the campground for some shopping and a quick bite to eat and then we called it a day.  We dropped the tire off at a local tire shop to try to repair (no luck...had to order a new tire...ouch!) then we headed back to the campground and hung around for the rest of the night.  This was the first low key day we've had so far during the trip.  We're hoping for better weather tomorrow so we can venture to the Golden Gate Bridge. 

Note to self:  To really see the sights of San Francisco you need to take a tour, unfortunately all the tours seem to leave from Fisherman's Wharf and it's even a chore to get there with limited parking, even less for a MH...our only shot at a tour would be to park in a remote location and take some other sort of transportation in (BART, MUNI or a FERRY).

7/22/2009 - Day 13 (Wednesday) - Redwood Forest & Ferndale, CA

Shortly after we were granted admittance to CA we found our way to Jedediah Smith Redwood SP where we had reservations for the night.  It was late and dark when we arrived so we didn't get a chance to see the redwoods before calling it a night.  In the morning however we found ourselves in the middle of some rather big trees (at least we thought they were big at the time...)

That was until we drove a few miles up the road and found a place where we could pull over and take a walk along a trail...that's when we came across some very big trees.  The picture on the right shows Kylie, me and Eric in front of one of them (yes that is only one tree).  Kylie had a really good time walking through the forest and took the opportunity to climb every tree she could. Can you see Kylie in this picture? 

Then we continued on towards San Francisco.  The plan was to arrive in SF by the afternoon but you know how plans get changed...first we took a detour to Ferndale, CA..which is about 5 miles off the highway and is this little picturesque town that gives the appearance (in part) of times past.

 

We took a walk down Main Street and visited a Merchantile Store (which Kylie described as "creepy")...Eric found this abandoned place with some pretty interesting things inside, including the old gas pump below.

It was sometime after this that everything went haywire...a few more hours down the road we were driving along when we were iinformed we had a flat tire...so we pulled into the first place we could...

 

We lost track of time but it had to be about 2 or 2.5 hours before the tire was finallychanged out...seemed somehow there was a 4 inch scissor blade that managed to puncture the tire....all and all things turned out amazingly well...we got a free roadside assistance from Campers World when we signed up as a member and we used that to get help...but not before Eric had to do some damage repair after the helpful firefighters tried to assist.  Because of this setback we didn't arrive into San Francisco until after dark and we couldn't even see the Golden Gate Bridge when we crossed it because of the fog.  So far California hasn't been all that it promises in their solicitations...it's been cool and foggy (at least along the coast).

7/21/2009 - Day 12 (Tuesday) - South to California

We continued driving down the Oregon Coast today (today is a travel day...making our way to California).  The weather is cool, in the 50's and 60's for the most part and it was very foggy so we couldn't see much of anything.  It probably would have been a great scenic ride otherwise.  Can you see the lighthouse in this picture?  Yeah...we could barely see it either but every so often we could see the light come around.  This picture was taken from inside the Sea Lion Caves which was one of our scheduled stops.

Sea Lion Caves is a privately owned attraction along Route 101 in Oregon.  You pay admission and ride an elevator down several hundred feet to this cave where you can see hundreds and hundreds of Sea Lions laying on the rocks with the ocean waves crashing in.  It was very interesting watching the Sea Lions kick each other off of the rocks to get a good laying spot.  One note if you are ever planning on visiting...it doesn't smell good.  In fact, as you get closer to the viewing point you will become overwhelmed with the strong pungent smell of what can only be described as fishy (yuk!)...

outside there is another viewing point where you can see the Sea Lions sitting on the rocks outside the cave area.  They were a lot easier to see than the Sea Lions inside the Cave...

 

We continued South towards California, and then something amazing happened...after several hours of driving the sun cam out!  The coast highway looks a lot different when you can actually see the coast! 

 

As you can probably tell by the picture, it was close to the end of the day by this time...shortly after taking this picture we found ourselves crossing the California border.  If anyone has ever driven to California from any other state you probably already know that California has inspection stations (for agriculture) to make sure that nobody imports pests into their state.  Because we drove from New Hampshire we were required to be inspected for "gypsy moths"...I can't remember the last time I saw a gypsy moth...so the inspector crawled under the MH to look for signs of insects...she didn't even find a spider.  We are thinking about stopping at the inspection station on the way out of the State to have them make sure we are not unintentionally exporting pests from this state.  I made sure I captured the moment.  WELCOME TO CALIFORNIA! 

7/20/2009 - Day 11 (Monday) - South to Cannon Beach, OR

We then travelled South to the Oregon Coast which was beautiful spots overlooking the coastline.  We stopped at Sea Ranch Stables for horseback riding on Cannon Beach. 

 

Eric stayed behind (something about being sorry in the morning...i'll let you know).  It was a lot of fun and Kylie made fun of my trotting ability.  Kylie's horse was named "Bart" and my horse was named "Gordita". 

Just a few more miles south down the coast was our scheduled stop for the night at Nehalem Bay State Park.  It was really nice and clean and just over the dunes from the ocean.  We cooked out at the campsite tonight and Eric left the grill on to burn off the grease...didn't get a photo but the grill caught fire and we both thought we'd have to go for the fire extinguisher but Eric managed to put the fire out without it.  We took a walk to the beach and then bedded down for the night. 

The weather has been very nice throughout the trip so far with warm days and cool nights...it's a little cooler on the coast unless you are actually on the sand, and then it's a bit warmer.  Tomorrow we will continue to make our way down the Oregon Coast and take many more photos.