Road trip 2016: Washington to Oregon

Only 2 days!!! Look at that! It's great to have some down time to be able to write a post.
Continuation of Day 8- We finally left McDonalds after 5 hours of waiting for the traffic to continue. Even after we got on the road it was a long drive over the pass, and we finally stopped near Mount Rainier National Park for the night.

Day 9- Waking up early, Susan and I decided to head into the park. It was so beautiful!!!

We drove into the park through the south western entrance and drove along the southern part to the inn. There is also a visitor center and a coffee place, we got lattes and sat outside on a bench looking at Mount Rainier and reading the Bible. 

Then we went up the eastern side of the park and had so many great views of the mountain. 

After leaving the park we headed to Seattle for a bit. We were going to meet my friend Melanie in Seattle but traffic was pretty rough. So we ended up going to Shoreline, WA and Susan and I sat on Richmond Park Beach for a bit, then Melanie showed up. It was so good to see her again! We all sat on the beach just talking and watching the water. 

We got Mexican for dinner and had a really great time! I really missed this girl! Thanks so much for meeting us to hang out! Love you!!! 

Day 10- Susan and I had some errands to run and then finally made it to Portland. We met up with my friend Katelyn from Saginaw. She's going to school in Portland now. It's been a while since I've seen her and it was a good time. We went to Powell's and got coffee and then to Buffalo Exchange where we looked around at all the stuff there. 

Jenny flew into the Portland airport and Susan and I picked her up and headed to the house all the bridesmaids are staying in Salem. So great to see all these girls again! It has been a great day and a half with all these lovely people. 

We all went swimming in the river and then to Trina's parents' house for dinner and we played pictophone and catch phrase. It was a good time. I missed my adopted family! 

Day 11- Today Kailie and I went to get some last minute things before the wedding. We got back to the house and watched some Gilmore Girls. It was a good time. Then a bunch of us went to Portland, I got chicken curry at a food truck, and we all went to Pioneer Square and Blue Star Donuts. Some of Matt's family met us in Portland and we met his niece, Cici, she had a great time playing with Eddie and Milo. 

We finally made it back to the house after sitting in traffic for an hour and a half and we sat out in the backyard for a bit. I set my hammock up and it was so nice to relax for a while. Matt's family all came over for dinner and so did Trina's family and we all talked for a bit and played cornhole. It was a great night. Everyone left and now only a couple of us are still up, watching more Gilmore Girls. Tomorrow is Bachelor/Bachelorette Party day!!! Whooooo!!!!! See you all later!!! 

Road trip 2016: Our first week

Wow! So sorry everyone that this post has taken so long to write. This trip has just been very busy, loads of fun, and catching up with old friends and family.
Day 1- We didn't leave my house until 9:30, since it was Father's Day we made my Dad breakfast. It was pretty nice to just relax a little before we had to head off on our crazy trip. Since we weren't sure if Susan was allowed to drive in America yet, I did all the driving this day. We did stop in Baroda at Sam's house to take a break. His Mom was so great and they even fed us! We like anyone who gives us food! Drove through Chicago and on into Iowa. We took I-80 because when you drive through Iowa for the first time you have to stop and see the biggest truck stop, a definite must! That first night we stayed in our car at a rest area that we found.

Day 2- I did most of the driving this day too. We drove to Sioux Falls, SD and saw the falls, Mitchell, SD and saw the corn palace. I am very blessed in a travel buddy who isn't too interested in stopping at all the tourist traps. We were able to just look at the outside of the corn palace and say, "That looks nice." Take a picture or two and be on our way. 

Of course we had to stop at Mount Rushmore, and I have always wanted to try the ice cream they have there, so we did that too. Watched the video and walked through the museum pretty quickly. Next, we figured we should probably go to Keystone, SD and check it out. We just walked around a little bit to stretch our legs before continuing our driving. 

Our next stop was Devil's Tower in Wyoming, I was texting Calvin and he told us it was a must, and it did not disappoint. Many of you may recognize this tower from Close Encounters of the Third Kind, that was the movie that was played every night at the KOA where we stayed the night.

Day 3- We woke up early, around 5 AM, which seemed to be pretty normal for this trip so far. Packed up the car and left for Yellowstone National Park. Susan loved Wyoming, definitely her favorite state thus far. She kept saying that she wanted to go visit some of the ranchers and hang out with them. We finally made it to Yellowstone and drove through it. It is a very pretty part of the country, so different than other places with the geysers, the mountains, the lakes, and the plains. Sadly, the only wildlife that we saw were elk and marmots. We didn't stop at many geysers except Old Faithful, the geyser had just gone off and it was going to take another hour and a half before anything cool was going to happen.

 So we chose to continue on and get to Bozeman, MT before it got too late. It was so good to see Anthony and Jenn when we got there. I really missed them, so we sat and caught up for a long time and finally decided to head off to bed.

Day 4- It was so nice to sleep in an actual bed again! Thank you Anthony and Jenn for opening your home up to us! We decided to stop at Coldsmoke Coffee, in Bozeman before we headed north. Turns out I have a couple of friends who work there! It was so good to see Eli and Kelly again! And we even met up with Robert who happened to be in town from Washington! So good to catch up with old friends! We headed up to Montana Wilderness School of the Bible near Augusta, MT, next. I lived there as a staff kid for a few years growing up, and when I graduated high school I attended Mdub. Everything is so different there because all of the staff has changed in the last few years and they have remodeled some of the buildings. I'm not a very sentimental person, but that visit brought back so many great memories and a wish for the days of the past. Then we headed back into Augusta to visit Terry. She invited us to join her for some tea and we had a great talk, so nice to catch up with her too! Finally, we headed back to Helena where we were to stay with my family for the night. My Aunt Cathy had pizza and breadsticks waiting for us, and it was so nice to just watch a movie and relax for a bit. We had gotten peopled out and just wanted to not have to socialize. My family did come and talk to us for a while until it was an acceptable time for us to go to bed.
Day 5- After waking up at 5 and being on the road by 6 it was nice to sleep in until 7 and get going by 8:30. We had coffee and some breakfast and headed out to Missoula, MT. I have a friend who lives there so we went to see Olivia at work. We only stayed for a few minutes but it was so good to see her! Our ultimate goal for the day was to get to Walla Walla, WA to stay with Calvin. We finally got to his place and relaxed. Then he took us cherry picking, it was really fun! We picked 30 pounds of cherries, sweet cherries and Rainier cherries.

Back at his place we pitted some of the cherries and froze them, Calvin called it his "squirrel mode," gotta store them for the winter. We had dinner and met the guy that is staying with Calvin, David, and we all played Carcassone. It was late so we all finally went to bed.
Day 6- This day was the day of our hiking trip with Calvin, so to prepare Susan and I went to Walmart to get some snacks for the road trip and some food for dinner that night. Also stopped at a laundromat and met the nicest lady. She asked us if we were traveling and why, we told her that we are coming from Michigan and are headed to Oregon for a wedding. Turns out she is from Illinois and came to Washington because of her husband, "The things we do for love," she said. There are worse things than moving to Washington. Back at Calvin's place, we made up the sandwiches and packed our backpacks for the hike. Calvin had invited a kid from his church to come with us and it was good that Levi came because he was our source of entertainment, not that it would've been boring without him, it was just a lot more funny with him there. When Calvin got home from work he packed his stuff and we headed off to the Eagle Cap Wilderness.

Our plan was to hike to Mirror Lake and stay the night there. The hike wasn't very long but it was a lot of climbing, and we didn't even make it all the way to the lake. There was a meadow that we stayed in about 4 miles from the lake, we think. There was still some snow on the trail, not much just patches here and there, but the view of the mountains was amazing! We set up our tents, Levi strung up his hammock, built a fire and ate our sandwiches, French dips for dinner was the best idea ever. Way to go, Calvin! It was a nice night, but pretty chilly. The stars weren't out until later because of the clouds, but it was still fun to sit by the fire and talk late into the night.
Day 7- I didn't sleep very well because my feet were freezing all night long. But I really shouldn't be complaining because poor Levi was so cold he had to crawl into Calvin's tent around 4 AM. Thankfully, Calvin had brought a 4 man tent and they had just enough room for the 2 of them. When we all decided it was acceptable to wake up we had breakfast and coffee by the fire. The guys decided to keep heading up the trail to see if they could find Mirror Lake, while Susan and I took our time going back to the truck.

It was so much easier going down than up and we made the 4 mile hike in an hour and 15 minutes, we even stopped along the way to take pictures. We waited for the guys for about an hour and a half when they finally showed up. Calvin told us about Wallowa Lake in Joseph, OR and we all decided to go there to check it out. The lake was beautiful, kinda chilly but great to skip rocks on, if you could find any good skipping rocks.

We were all pretty hungry and decided on Heavenly's Burger in Lostine, OR. After our burgers and shakes we dropped Levi off at home and we were glad to get back to Calvin's to take showers. We were all pretty tired but wanted to do something for our last night together, we decided to go see Finding Dory. I can't believe Finding Nemo came out 13 years ago, when I was only a little girl of 11. How crazy is that?
Day 8- Calvin made us biscuits and gravy before church this morning, so very sweet of him and they were really great! We met him at church, Calvary Chapel in Walla Walla, and were able to meet some of the people we had heard so much about. Really great to go to church, because between work and our road trip I hadn't been able to go for the last couple of weeks. I miss the fellowship of Christians when I don't go every week. After church we said our goodbyes and Susan and I were off again.

Currently we are sitting in a McDonalds about 3 hours from Walla Walla. The weekend traffic going over the Snoqualmie Pass is so bad, and there are accidents that make it even worse. We are waiting for the weather to cool down and hopefully the traffic will get a little bit better. We want to try to make it to Mount Rainier National Park tonight. So we shall see how that goes.
Thanks for sticking with me on this super long post. In the future I will try to post more often so they aren't this wordy.
   

Susan is here!!!!!!

Susan is a very dear friend from New Zealand. She arrived here in Michigan on June 2!!! It was so exciting to pick her up from the airport!!! I first met this great girl when I was in New Zealand with Trina, over 3 years ago! But that is another story, to read it you have to go to our blog here. 

We have had lots of adventures in the two weeks that Susan has been here. We started small, our first stop was Dow Gardens. 

 

Such a beautiful place to walk around and enjoy God's creation. Every year they do a different theme and this year was Dr. Seuss. 

There were statues of his characters all over the gardens and it was fun to find all the different ones. Milo and Eddie took some pictures with them. 

We decided to go into the Midland Center for the Arts after walking in the gardens and it turns out there is a museum in there. We enjoyed that for a bit and even sang some karaoke. They had some original drawings from Theodor Seuss Geisel himself, pretty interesting to see. Turns out he drew more than the Cat in the Hat and Horton. We walked around downtown Midland, ate some Cherry Berry, and walked around by the Tridge, a three-way bridge.

Sadly, the next few days I had to work so, poor Susan, was stuck at home with my parents all day. She is a trooper though. Thanks, Susan, for putting up with last week! 

We were able to hang out and explore the area after I got out of work. We explored Bay City one day and I introduced Susan to garlic knots from Brooklyn Boyz. If you've never had these garlic knots, you are really missing out. The pizza is great too, but the garlic knots are definitely the reason I keep going back. We walked down by the river and saw the beautiful sunset through the Ring of Friendship and we tried to memorize the flags to the different countries that are included in this friendship. 

We also went to Frankenmuth. Of course, I took her to Bronner's and we walked around reveling in the Christmas spirit. Apparently, Christmas is not as big in New Zealand as it is here in America so Susan was amazed at all of the different ornaments, trees, and other decorations. Then we walked around downtown and had to try some fudge and visit the Cheese Haus. 

My parents are very sweet and they offered to take us to Cedar Point or Mackinac Island. Susan chose the island and it turned out to be an amazing choice. We were blessed with amazing weather and minimal bugs. We took the ferry to the island from St. Ignace so we had to cross the Mackinac Bridge first. 

This day just so happened to be the last day of the Lilac Festival on the island, and while we were waiting for our ferry, we heard a bagpipe band walking down the road to where we were. It turned out that they were headed to the island too, for the parade that was going to happen later that day.  

Susan really loves how patriotic we are here in America, so I had to get a picture of the bridge with the American flag.

The water was a little choppy on our way to the island but we were still able to take the ferry underneath the bridge. The experience is definitely worth it if you ever take the ferry to the island. 

We walked around for a bit and then decided to check out the fort. It was pretty cool because they do demonstrations all day long, we were able to be there to see them shoot the cannon and a couple of rifles the soldiers used back in the 1800's. Still walking around we found what we were told, is the largest lilac tree on the island. It was so tall that in the picture we took with it you can't even see the top or any of the flowers! 

We walked around by the Grand Hotel but were not going to pay the $10 it cost to go on the porch, the gardens were pretty enough. For lunch, we went to this little place called the Chuck Wagon, my mom used to work on the island when she was in her teens and she told us she used to eat breakfast there all the time. This place had amazing burgers on pretzel buns and the service was almost better than the food. We sat down, ordered, and the waitress brought our food in less than 5 minutes, for all 4 of us! Incredible! After lunch we walked around some more and ended up sitting in the green listening to a few different bands play before the parade began. After the parade we rented bikes and biked the 8 miles around the island, stopping to climb up the 207 steps to Arch Rock. It was definitely worth the climb, although my legs were like Jell-O at the top. 

The water was beautiful that day and our bike ride was amazing. We were even able to help a little baby squirrel cross the road. So cute! 

Before we left for the mainland, we had to get some fudge, so we stopped at May's, where my mom used to work, and got a few slices of fudge. Mackinac Island fudge is the best! 

That night we tented at the Straits State Park. After setting up our tents and changing into warmer clothes, we decided to walk to the lake. We never made it, we ended up finding a really great lookout over the bridge and headed back to the campsite to go to bed, it was a long day. 

 

The next day we headed back south. Stopping at Mama Mia's Pizzeria and Mackinac Bridge Museum to show Susan how the bridge was built back in the 1950's. My father, of course, had to get some pizza for the road because it smelled so good. The next town was Petoskey, where we toured the Kilwin's Chocolate Factory, got to wear hairnets, and eat some delicious samples. 

Then on to Traverse City, Cherry Republic and Susan and I were having coffee withdrawals so we stopped to get our fix. 

Sleeping Bear Sand Dunes was next on the agenda, we stopped there to hike up the dunes and run back down. Such a cool view from the top. We didn't make it all the way to Lake Michigan because it's a 2-3 mile hike through loose sand and we were definitely not prepared for that! But we did drive through the Sleeping Bear Dunes Park, and even saw some wildlife, deer and a raccoon. Such a good time! 

We have also been hanging out closer to home. On Tuesday night, the young adults group that I attend at church had our first block party of the season and Susan and I went. It was a great time of fellowship, playing volleyball and bubble soccer, and eating. I am going to miss all you great people from Aftershock this summer! 

Tonight my parents took us to a Loon's baseball game in Midland. It was Susan's first experience with baseball. They lost the game, but it was still pretty fun. We just so happened to go on family night as well, they had $1 hot dogs, chips, pop, and ice cream sandwiches, we are cheap dates. The sunset was beautiful and the weather couldn't have been much better. 

I am really looking forward to exploring the rest of America with Susan. I know God will bless our time together. I hope you all love reading about our experiences and come along with us on our journey.