(All times in these entries are based on Pacific Daylight Time [PDT])

This excursion began about 6:00am when my folks picked me up from my residence in Tustin — in a fully-loaded 2011 Dodge Grand Caravan with all the bells and whistles you could think of. Sweet deal.

We used SR 55, SR 91, and I-15 as conduits for the star highway of the day, US Route 395. We have driven short sections of this route in previous roadtrips, but never the scenic parts. That was to change today.

From Hesperia, we started north up 395. Desolate stretches of the Mojave Desert soon transformed into the Scenic Byways of the Sierra Nevada mountains. Whoa, this is some good stuff... jagged high cliffs as far as the earth's curve allowed us to see. The high points of Mt. Whitney and surrounding peaks came into view as we approached Lone Pine, CA. Leftover snow from the previous winter season still clung to high portions above the tree lines. And a waning gibbous moon conveniently setting above the peaks made nice backdrops for the constant snapping of photos.

We made a brief detour and headed on Hwy 158, aka the June Lake Loop. There's a lot of picture-perfect country on this road, not surprising since the location inherits from the Sierra Nevada family. In addition to snapping some photos of streams and lakes, we hit up the Silver Lake café (by said lake) for lunch, bought souvenirs and then continued up the rest of the loop. The final and largest Grant Lake, surrounded by bare mountains, made the whole area feel very extra-terrestrial.

Back to Hwy 395... we remember viewing some tufa columns at Mono Lake before, so we thought we'd take a quick gander again, but that must have been on the south end of the lake (off Hwy 120) because the Mono Lake Scenic Area Visitor Center we found on 395 only had vistas and trails, interesting stuff for sure if you have the time to look. Onward...

We soon left the panoramic views of 395's Scenic Byway behind as we approached the state border to Nevada by Topaz Lake. A short time later we arrived at our hotel in Minden, NV around 3:45pm.

The day wasn't over yet. After a quick rest to re-energize, we headed 10 further up 395 to Nevada's capital, Carson City, and made a bee-line for the capitol building around 6:45pm. Took pics of that as well as the grounds, found a quick bite to eat and headed back to the hotel.

We're trying to decide if we can squeeze in a visit to Virginia City, NV, 45 minutes from here. Our next overnighter is only 166 away so if the view points of Lake Tahoe look like they won't take up too much time, then we may go see what the little town has to offer, despite the increasing number of closed attractions thanks to the end of summertime.

Really long day. Hoping we can get some of our wind back with the short driving distances tomorrow...

Today was one of our lightest driving days so we were able to spend quite a few hours at one place. I thought that was going to be the surrounding areas of Lake Tahoe and its panoramic views. But some last minute considerations changed the game plan.

After several recommendations from different branches, we decided to head northeast from Carson City and drive up Hwy 341/342 to the Historical Landmark town of Virginia City, NV, arriving at 9:45am. At the main visitor's center, a discount combo pass granted us access to both the V&T Railroad and the Trolley Tour. We took the 35-minute train tour that weaved its way through the various mines and through a tunnel to the edge of Gold Hill to the south, where they let us walk around for a few minutes before reversing course and heading back to the starting point. Twenty minutes later came the twenty-minute trolley tour that took us around the different blocks of town showing various points of interest. Way too much history to try and take in 3 hours, but it was a great history lesson and the folks enjoyed it.

After souvenir shopping, we decided to drive over to the cemetery mentioned during the Trolley Tour and look around some of the markers. Interesting to see the various ages, from unnamed infants on the same day of birth, to the late 80s... impressive for back in those days.

With the time going past 1:00pm we decided to continue on. Instead of doubling back, we kept north on the 341 all the way to Mt. Rose Highway (431), crossing our old friend SR 395 to get there. Nothing but miles of forest until we reach one of the famous vista points of North Lake Tahoe. This would be my first time setting eyes on the largest alpine lake on the continent.

Since it was getting late, we decided not to circle all the way around the lake, and just traverse the north side until we turned off Hwy 89 that headed towards Truckee. Even though it was September, the hordes of people in both the north ends of Tahoe and old downtown Truckee would make you think this was the middle of summer. (I'm sure our trek through here on a Saturday didn't help though).

We stayed on Hwy 89 all the way up until we hit our destination of Chester, CA. Found Maria Walker's Mexican restaurant with good food and a mean Margarita.

Two National landmarks to check out tomorrow. 231 of fun coming our way...

Today was completely nature's turn.

We left Chester, CA at 8:30am and headed straight to the entrance of the first item of the day, Lassen Volcanic National Park, arriving at the Visitor's Center shortly after they opened. We watched the 20-minute spiel about the park, and bought the standard shotglass/magnet/postcard combo before heading up Hwy 89 through the park.

We barely got started when we came across the first feature named Sulphur Works, which had several steam vents spewing into the air, along with a boiling mud pit conveniently just off the sidewalk. It definitely lived up to its name, as the whole place wreaked of sulfur. Also in this area you could view the 4 peaks that remained of the once-super volcano. We were going to try an hike Bumpass Hell but the parents decided 3 was just a little too long and strenuous for them. Probably just as well because it would have taken too much time for what we had left of the day. We made up for it by getting up close and personal with raging streams, the primary Lassen Peak, and the remaining snow that still hung around the summit lakes.

Three hours later, we left the park through the north entrance and used Hwy 299 (seeing a great view of Mt. Shasta on the way) and a shortcut using the Lookout road to view our next natural wonder, Lava Beds National Monument. This area is somewhat remote and not visited by a lot of people due to its location, which is a shame because it has a lot to offer, primarily the plethora of lava tube caves. Some are casual, while others are for the hard-core enthusiast cavers. Coming from the south meant stopping at the visitor center first and getting the lowdown on what we can do for the next two hours. There is one cave called Mushpot, which is easy walking distance from the Visitor Center and has lighted paths and exhibits. It goes about 200 down and there's many low ceilings you must duck to continue on (and unlike us, you may want to bring a flashlight for good measure). This is the only one suitable for most visitors.

We then took the cave loop, and although didn't descend into any (half of them were closed because of bats) we did walk to a few caved-in pits with scores of lava rock. Great stuff. We continued north, and just before exiting the monument, drove by one of the lava flows called Devil's Homestead, long stretches of lava rock from thousands of years ago. The panorama was quite a sight to take in.

All right, time to book it. We headed north into the final miles of California and straddled the state line using Hwy 161 west until we found the "Welcome to Oregon" sign on Hwy 97. A short time later we reach our hotel in Klamath Falls.

More nature stuff tomorrow as we cross the entire state of Oregon. Wish us luck!

The day began much like before: Getting up reasonably early, having a continental breakfast, and heading out the door and hitting the pavement by 8:30am. It's a good routine we've established.

First stop of the day was about an hour's drive, and that was the next National Park of Crater Lake. I've heard of people coming here disappointed because the fog and clouds obstructed their view, but luckily we didn't have to worry about any of that today. Despite three nearby natural fires, the lake was crystal clear and all surrounding features looked crisp. Coming from the south entrance, we headed east on the Rim Drive and stopped at just about every point established for sight-seeing folk. Every angle had something different to offer. I think I'd live on Wizard Island if such a feat was possible.

We would have exited out the north entrance earlier but I misjudged how much gas our minivan was guzzling, and despite our dash saying 105 range, we had hardly gone 50 before the gas light gave us warning. *sigh* Freakin' uphill roads! So we had to backtrack to Mazama Village by the south entrance and fill up (US$50 limit FYI). Then back up to Rim Village to buy our souvenirs before heading up and out the north entrance to Hwy 138, and back to SR 97.

From here it was a long drive up the entire middle section of Oregon. Our next destination came into view over 80 away, but it would be a few more hours before we reached the base of Mt. Hood, and the National Historic Landmark of Timberline Lodge. We arrived after 5:00pm and there seemed to be a lot of people from some group or convention, so we retreated to the Ramshead Bar on the 3rd floor and treated my folks to a hearty meal.

We caught some pics of the sunset reflecting off Mt. Hood, and then headed west to the little town of Troutdale. Tomorrow it's back east we go, hitting more nature along the way.

Today, a lot less touring and a whole lot more driving...

We left our Troutdale, OR hotel at 9:00am and headed a short distance east on I-84 before immediately getting back off again and using the former Hwy 30, or the Historic Columbia River Highway as they like to call it today. First stop was the Vista House with panoramic views of the Columbia River, friendly rangers to provide you with maps and advice on the upcoming falls, and you could go down below to the gift shop, gallery and restrooms. Great starting point, and I didn't even know that it was here! Good thing our curiosity stopped us.

Not long after leaving the Vista House, we came upon our first site, the Latourell Falls. I walked 0.25 down the path to the base and got in some great shots. As it was only 10:00am and the sun had not come over the ridge yet, it was perfect lighting.

We continued on to the other falls of Bridal Veil, Wahkeena, and Horsetail, where each was unique in its own right. Of course, what waterfall excursion wouldn't be complete without seeing the grand-daddy of them all, the Multnomah Falls. Of course being the grandest, it's also the one most commercialized and populated. Unless you get here at the crack of dawn, be prepared to deal with a horde of tourists. I ascended the 0.25 hike to the bridge and got in some good shots.

I also took today's opportunity to practice manual shooting with the SLR (full control of aperture and shutter speed) to attain the "silky smooth" flow of the water. I think I did OK. I'll post shots of what I achieved, when I return, of course.

After 3 hours of driving only 20, we needed to book it. I-84 was our friend for the next 2½ hours as we paralleled the Columbia River Gorge, taking in the sights of the river, the locks, the trains, and the wind turbines. We then went transitioned to I-82, and met up once again with our old friend SR 395 in tandem with crossing over into Washington. We spent the next 2½ hours staring at harvested wheat fields — miles and miles of it — before coming into contact with I-90 and finishing the rest of our route up to Spokane, WA.

Here we are visiting with our cousin for a full day. We'll spend tomorrow trotting about downtown Spokane, and then it's off to the races again on Thursday. So much fun yet to come.

Today, a lot less driving and a whole lot more touring. Keeping balance is fun!

Time to roll into downtown Spokane. We headed off to the Riverfront Park first, and glanced inside the Flour Mill right there. Next we crossed a bridge expecting the Spokane River to be displaying their famous Spokane Falls, except it was dammed off and the only things to see were puddles of water and construction crews cleaning up and renovating the whole area. Drat.

Oh, and I guess it was National Hug Day today, at least in Spokane. Got quite a few hugs from some cuties.

Ahem, OK where was I? We went and visited the famous horse carousel housed there, built in 1909 with all the original figures (repaired when broken, and all renovated once a year). Good stuff. After that came walking a few blocks through downtown to the Davenport Hotel, built in the early 1900s and had massive lobbies, dining rooms, ballrooms, and all those kind of things you would experienced had you lived in that era. So nice to see that kind of stuff preserved.

We ate lunch at Madeliene's not too far from there, then headed out of downtown and to Manito Park. Here they had several gardens with hundreds of yards of flower displays, roses, dahlias, and a japanese garden with the trademark bridges, ponds with Koi fish, and pagodas. I used the macro lens quite a bit for some artistic flora displays.

Our feet announced their retirement for the day so we headed back and rested up before going to Luigi's restaurant later in the evening for delish Italian food. Can't ever go wrong there...

My cousin and her husband are fabulous hosts. Thank you guys for your hospitality!

Early to bed, early to rise, and off across central Washington we go...

Across the Evergreen state we go.

We said our goodbyes to the family and exited Spokane, WA shortly before 8:30am. We transitioned from I-90 to US Route 2, then took a series of routes: Hwy 174 featuring Coulee and Chief Joseph dams, US Route 97/Hwy 17/Hwy 153 featuring miles of apple tree farms (even stopped at a fruit stand to pick up some delicious stuff, including hybrid plumcots which I never knew existed until now) and then finally boarded Hwy 20 that carried us to our primary destination of the day, North Cascades National Park.

This park was unique in that there was no formal entry fee, and there are actually towns within the borders. Traveling east to west, we hit the main features long before the visitor center. Unfortunately the clouds decided to make an appearance and hid the tallest of the cascade peaks. But we still got to see many of the geological features of valleys, gorges, waterfalls, and lakes. We continued west until we reached the town of Mt. Vernon.

Tomorrow begins our trek to our Canadian friends up north, although we won't be advancing any farther in latitude, since Victoria is actually below the Washington state border with Canada. We have to be up at 5:45am in order to get ready and make the ferry in Anacortes, so that means I'm going to bed... now. Good night!

It was still dark when we all woke up and packed our bags to leave. The WS-DOT ferry departure time was 8:25am and since this was our first experience with such vehicle transportation we wanted to be sure we were on the right track. We took Hwy 20 all the way past Anacortes, WA and reached the terminal around 7:15am.

We loaded onto the 3-level ferry about an hour later, and ascended to the 3rd level where all the other passengers hung out. The ferry made a pit stop at Friday Harbor on the San Juan Islands. Ten minutes later it was headed out again, crossing the international border and finally coming to rest in Sydney, BC, Canada. The overall journey took a little less than 3 hours.

We weren't quite done yet. We used Canada Hwy 17 southward to finish up the route into destination #1: Victoria. Our hotel was 1 block away from the parliament (capitol) and harbor. Perfect location if you ask me.

After settling in, we decided to walk up and down a few blocks of downtown to see what was up. It's also rather fun people-watching and filtering out the tourists from the locals. Good stuff, eh?

We're here for a few days, and it sounds like rain might invade on Sunday, so we're planning outdoor activities Saturday and indoor activities Sunday. Let's hope it works out.

Time to put our feet to the test.

Minimal driving today. We headed north on the Canadian highways to the prime obligatory tourist trap destination, the Butchard Gardens in Brentwood Bay, BC. It is a little on the expensive side (CAD$29.00 per adult, but that's before 12% tax, and no senior discounts or coupons) but when you start walking through the different areas of the garden, you can see why. You'll be hard-pressed to find one dead or sick plant throughout the entire 55 acres. Various displays from the Sunken to the Japanese to the Italian gardens are all overwhelming sights to take in. A leisurely stroll will last you about 2 hours. There's also options for boat tours, which we declined.

We picked up a few souvenirs and headed back down to Victoria. After a quick snack and nap, we decided to leave the minivan in the garage and walked over to the south end of the island, for a jaunt around Beacon Hill park. We didn't quite make it to the overlook but did catch a lot of the ponds and fountains, flora, ducks, peacocks in trees, and overall serenity (aside from the kids in the playground and putting green).

That's all our feet could take. We'll be keeping it simple since the rain is supposed to move in soon. We're half-way through the show!

Our second full day in Victoria started with a short walk 2 blocks west to the Royal BC Museum and 6-story IMAX theater. I figured it would probably get busy during the day so we bought tickets the moment they opened the doors at 9:45am. Thanks to a 20% coupon I found online, we all bought combo passes to both an IMAX showing and the 2 floors of the museum. Hardly anyone was there to start. The educational IMAX film "Sea Rex" was pretty good, although a little cheezy explaining the different periods of the Mesozoic. Glad we got this 10:00am showing out of the way, as when we exited the theater the ticket line was extremely long!

Next was the upper 2 floors showcasing the "Natural History" and "First Peoples" gallery. They also temporarily set up a feature for the famous Victorian artist Emily Carr. All the exhibits were excellent. You can easily spend hours in there if those types of things interest you.

I don't think our feet are adjusting much to all this walking we're still doing, so we headed back to the hotel and napped again, which is good timing because we got our first big rain of the trip, but the storm passed quickly and it cleared up just hours later. The mom and I used this window to head out for another short walk, picking up the last round of souvenirs and scoping out a place for dinner. Luckily parking is free on Sunday so we drove close to our last hurrah and ate dinner at the Sticky Wicket pub.

Our ferry back to the states leaves at 10:30am, so we have organizing to do in the morning. Thanks Canada, it's been fun.

It looks like the weather finally stopped cooperating with us. It was pouring as we left our hotel and drove the entire 2 blocks to the Victoria Terminal at 9:00am, a full 90 minutes before our ferry was to depart. That's just enough time to go through the entire customs process on the Canada side. Once boarded, we crossed the Juan de Fuca Strait to Port Angeles, WA, USA and ended our reign in Canada for the trip.

After going through the 2nd round of customs on the US side, it was only 3 to the visitor center of our primary feature of the day, Olympic National Park. This place was HUGE, and no way could you see it all in one day, much less in the relentless storm that was blowing through. I almost decided just to pass it over on the east side and forgo the park, but the ranger convinced us that there may be some golden nuggets yet to salvage for the day.

Over the north and down the westward side on US 101 we flew, following the endless sight of dark grey skies and fog-covered hillsides. After miles of forest we couldn't believe when we reached the west coast that there was actually an ocean out here. Our first stop was Ruby Beach, and the rain let up just enough for us to walk the trail all the way down to the sand and driftwood. The rocks jutting out from the sea made for some great pictures. Just as we were finishing, the rainstorm began its second wind and started drenching us. We were soaked to the skin by the time we got back to the car.

We then decided to hit one more area, the north shore of the Quinault Rain Forest. With the continued downpour there wasn't much to see, so after a few pics here and there we turned back and headed out and away from the park, using the rest of the 101, then US 12, Hwy 8, and finally good 'ol Interstate-5 to get us to the State Capitol in Olympia, WA by 7:00pm, with enough daylight left for twilight photos. Another 30 minutes farther west got us to our end destination of Tacoma, WA.

If the clouds get out of here, then we'll be able to enjoy Rainier and St. Helens on the way down to the Oregon border. We will make the proposed route, rain or shine.

It has stopped raining for the most part, but the trademark clouds of the NorthWest still persisted. We left our hotel in Tacoma and used Hwy&mbsp;7 to get to our first stop of the day, Mt. Rainier National Park...

...except for one thing. The highway was completely closed off with construction due to recent washouts (and will continue to be for the next 2 years) and the nearest detour was 100 around the park.

Umm, yeah no. Forget that. We wouldn't have made our end destination before sunset, so we decided to forfeit Rainier completely. The low-ceiling clouds were still hanging around so it's not like we would have seen much of the main feature anyway. I had checked for closed roads earlier online, but they only mentioned the east side of the park, which didn't affect us. But they didn't mention Hwy 7 at all. I was peeved, not that I was missing a National Park, but because we actually had to turn around and go back (making us lose a good chunk of time).

OK, so now we've detoured west to I-5 south and on to our 2nd planned stop, Mt. Saint Helens National Volcanic Monument. We turned off to Hwy 504 and headed the 40 due east to the end of the road. As we neared the terminus, we could see viewpoints of the adjacent valley below, with the lava flow from the 1980 blast still prevalent on the floor, with the snow-melt river carving through it.

The Johnston Ridge Observatory and Visitor Center greeted us at the end of Hwy 504, so we spent the next hour or so viewing the exhibits and catching their 16-minute film inside their huge movie theater room. The star of the show unfortunately stayed veiled in mists of gray, so we could only see a few glaciers sticking out from underneath the cloud cover. Oh well, them's the breaks.

Leaving and getting back to I-5, we exited a few minutes later to Hwy 432/433 and used the Lewis and Clark Bridge to cross over into Oregon. From there the familiar SR 30 was used to drive westward into the famous town of Astoria, OR.

There was still sunlight left so we used this to our advantage and ascended the hills and up to the Astoria Column. Here we took in astounding views of the harbor town, the surrounding communities, the Columbia River, the hills of Washington State, and of course the Pacific Ocean. It was even better when Dad and I ascended the 164 steps of the column to gain an extra 125 in elevation. That made for some great shots indeed. We headed back down and found our choice of dining, Stephanie's Cabin restaurant. Excellent food there and the waitress was super nice and gave us some tips for the next day.

Dad wants to see some Lewis and Clark stuff while we're here so we take some of the morning to do that, then it's off to see as many lighthouses as the day will allow. We'll see how far south we can wander... it's spontaneous lodging from here on out!

We forgot that it's illegal to pump your own gas in Oregon [and New Jersey]. They should tell the other 48 states that self-serve is "dangerous" and should be outlawed. Way to go, Oregon. Way to go.

Anyway, the first part of our day was dedicated to stepping into the shoes of Lewis and Clark.

First thing's first... we headed over the Astoria bridge to Washington state, because come on, you can't just come around to Astoria and not cross that thing at least once. We used the endpoint of Lewis and Clark's Dismal Nitch to loop around and cross it again back into Oregon.

With that out of the way, we went straight for Fort Clatsop at the Lewis and Clark National Historical Park. Dad's read a lot of books pertaining to this era so he enjoyed seeing the fort replica and the surrounding areas. After the 30-minute movie, we turned southward on to the 101, and began our long trek down the famous rugged coast of Oregon.

Before long, the first lighthouse of the day for us was Cape Meares off of Hwy 131. It wasn't a big lighthouse, and took a bit of walking to get to it, but there was a gift shop inside and volunteers to show you a video and give a little information. (The stairs to the top were still closed due to recent vandalism.)

I thought it would be wise to continue using Hwy 131 along the coast and get dumped back on to Mr. 101. "Oh no, that's too easy" says the construction man. They closed the road off right after passing the town of Oceanside, giving us no choice but to turn around and go back the way we came, making us waste 30 minutes. I would detail my reaction but this thread would quickly become R-rated. So let's just skip onward, shall we?

We've decided (well I already decided, and the parents agree) that the Oregon coastline gets the blue ribbon. We found several places (whether it be a secluded overlook or a town viewpoint) to take in the view, the ocean scent, and the crashing waves. Can't get enough of it!

Anyway, the next lighthouse: it's the biggie... Yaquina Head, which is inside the Yaquina Outstanding Natural Park. Luckily it was national-based, which means Dad's senior park pass was good for free admission. (Sweet!) Their visitor center was huge with exhibits and interpretation areas, but unfortunately we got there too late to be able to go up into the lighthouse itself (Curse you road closure!)

On southward... I saw the sun quickly setting so I dashed as fast as the speed limits would allow in order to get the third and final lighthouse of the day, the Umpqua Lighthouse. I had 6 minutes until the sun would start setting so I grabbed my appropriate lenses and shot for about 10 minutes from one of the viewpoints.

As the sun dipped below the horizon, that was our cue to finish up and get to Coos Bay. After a pizza dinner, we are preparing to enter back into our home state tomorrow. I'm glad I have that extra cushion day because I don't know what I was thinking for these last few legs (shhh, not a word from any of you).

As lovely as our Coos Bay hotel room turned out, we still had to leave pretty early in order to catch everything on our extremely full plate.

There were still 2 more lighthouses on the Oregon shore to see. The first was Cape Blanco lighthouse, although our lovely GPS had us turn down the wrong road to a dead-end and waste another 15 minutes. I'm really starting to hate those things. We did find it, but we only stopped for a few minutes to take pictures and then get out. The 2nd and final lighthouse was Pelican Bay Lighthouse, found in the port harbor of Brookings. It's actually part of a private residence and built in 1999. We took pictures of it on the cliff from below after mom found her "Oregon Coast" t-shirt she absolutely had to have. (Spectacular views of the coastline will do that to you. Beware!)

A few miles later, we crossed back into our home state of California, but since we live on the southern end, there's still a long way to go. The primary item of the day started in Crescent City, CA, where we stopped on 2nd street at the Information Center for the Redwood National and State Parks. Since we didn't arrive until 1:00pm we had to make haste with our viapoints.

The first part was the north end of the Redwoods, AKA Jebediah Smith State Park. We took the dirt road 10 through, to the Stout Grove loop trail. The folks had never seen these tall trees before, and of course were in awe. This is the kind of stuff you just can't capture on camera. Even with a 17mm wide angle lens you can't get the entire 300 of enormosity. Even the scale is hard to decipher unless you place someone at the trunk.

After an hour of walking around the groves, we finished up the rest of the dirt road to Route 199, looping back through to 101 and Crescent City again. We continued on to the next part, which is not actually part of the park, the Trees of Mystery. This is a fun little attraction that feature unique types of the redwoods that have grown a little funky over the years. After paying the US$14 (US$11 senior) entry fee, we headed up the marked path to see the types of trees featured on Ripley's Believe it or Notshow, then reached the famous Sky Train gondola ride, which takes you along the high tops of the Redwoods, a mile up the mountain to a viewpoint where you can see both the ocean on one side and the forest mountain ranges on the other.

My folks' walking abilities were spent at this point, so upon taking the gondola back down the hill, we had a shuttle waiting for us to come take us back to the museum/gift shop. I picked up a bunch of souvenirs here, and then off again we headed south.

The last stop was extremely brief, the "Big Tree" off of the Newton B. Drury Scenic drive off the main Hwy 101. I had visited this tree in 2005 during my first roadtrip, and wanted to return with the better camera for more pictures. We only stayed 5 minutes, but that was enough for a few shots. We continued south and almost made it out of the area when we found some elk grazing... a male bull watching over his harem of about 20 cows feeding in the grasslands. Luckily I have a 300mm to capture the details. I'm just glad we finally found some elk after all the signs we've come across.

Done and done. We continued a little bit farther to the town of Eureka, CA. There's not much left on the to-do list, so we'll be wrapping it up soon.

Heavy driving today, as there were no landmarks or attractions on the roster for this leg. We left Eureka and used the 101 to race down the state of California.

However we did stop in Napa, CA to visit one of mom's childhood friends (from 70 years ago!). He and his wife own a winery and we last visited them on Roadtrip #2 five years ago. We met them at the Olive Tree Inn for a few hours to catch up on life.

We did try and stop at the Bale Grist Mill State Park off Hwy 29 before reaching Napa, just to take pics of the mill, but unfortunately it was one of the many parks that had fallen victim to the state's budget cuts and has been closed indefinitely. Poops.

We left the restaurant just after 4:00pm, and looking at the map I knew we were in trouble. Being a Friday afternoon there was no doubt we'd hit some traffic. I-680 was our best bet for avoiding Silicon Valley, but we still got delayed a good 30-45 minutes hitting pockets of brake lights. Even detouring on Hwy 12 to start us off did no good. And I thought SoCal was bad...

We are in Hollister, CA tonight. Good thing we reserved 12 hours earlier, because this place was sold out due to local events starting up. We may finish up and be home by tomorrow evening, but if my proposed plan takes up a lot of time, we may bunk one more night. Playing it by ear to the very end...

Today turned out to be a little more fulfilling than anticipated, but it was a worthy experience.

From our hotel in Hollister, CA, we continued off southward using Hwy 25 for about 45 minutes until we hit our final hurrah, Pinnacles National Monument.

I honestly didn't know what to expect from this particular excursion. I knew it was popular with hikers, climbers, campers, and cavers, but I really didn't know if it was a worthwhile experience to bring my folks here. The shortest trail was a 1.8 loop and it was a moderate (read for seniors: strenuous) pace with a 500 elevation gain.

After waiting a few minutes for the Visitor's Center to open at 9:30am, I saw that the 1.8 loop was going to be the only thing worth doing. *sigh* OK then, we drove to the very end where the trailhead began, and decided we'll go as far as everyone could stand.

Well color me surprised, my folks were real troopers, despite their ages, with accompanied aches and pains, they ascended the steep trails, maneuvered their way over an abundance of rocks of all shapes and sizes, rounded the massive boulders, and traversed through the lower caves of Bear Gulch with only a single flashlight to help guide our way. There were a couple challenging areas, and by the end our feet/ankles/hips/knees/[insert weak body part here] were depleted, but overall it was an excellent hike. If you're ever in the central valley south of San Francisco, stop here. We happened to hit the caves when they were completely open (they have a schedule of being open/closed depending on if the Townsend big-eared bats are hanging out there, March and October is your best bet for going through all of it).

We left close to 1:00pm and continued south on Hwy 25 and found a shortcut road that led back to the 101, which we would use for the rest of the day. We were thinking of finding a place to stay near Solvang, CA, but being a Saturday, and at the last minute, our choice of hotels were either booked or too expensive. After several failed attempts, we decided just to blow through Solvang (buying some candy in the process) and continue on...to home. We fueled up once more and had our final dinner in Calabasas, CA.

A few hours later, we arrived in San Juan Capistrano, CA at 8:55pm. Sitting down in a sofa chair never felt so good.

And since I've got that Cushion Day we never used, so that'll be my time to re-organize. What a trip. :)

Well, taking a break from roadtripping for 2 years definitely gives you that "catch up" feeling. Excluding the 48-state journey in 2005, this was the longest roadtrip I've taken, and certainly the parent's as well. I had planned on around 3,400 miles total, but even with staying in one place for 4 out of the 16 days, we broke the 4,000 mark and spent nearly 100 hours in the van. We managed to squeeze in some extra destinations, but unfortunately had a few busts to offset the gains. The trip overall, however, was excellent. Definitely more full than in roadtrips past, but still satisfying.

Behind the desert southwest, this stretch of the country is one of my favorite places to visit. Between the mountain ranges and rocky ocean beaches, you can just feel the slowed pace of life around you, compared to the hustle bustle in the big cities and urban areas. If my career wasn't so focused on technology and web development, I'd definitely leave SoCal behind and hit up something more relaxed. But who knows what will happen in the distant future...

Favorite Places: There wasn't really any one thing that stood out in my mind. Most of it was quality stuff. I appreciated the long and towering stretches of the Eastern Sierra Nevada and of course the 101's Oregon Coastline. Driving the Columbia Gorge and visiting the Redwoods were also top-notch, but I had done both of these before. I'm sure I would have enjoyed Olympic National Park more had it not been for the rain (but luckily the only day out of the entire trip that interfered with our plans, not bad at all for the northwest).

Least desirables: The only thing that really stands out in my mind is the blasted road closures. I can understand 1-lane highways (and we had plenty of those) but to close the entire roads... GRRR! There weren't that many, and it's most likely caused by Mother Nature, but having no other option but to turn around and go back the way you came really irks me like nothing else. It stunk because there were multiple roads to get into southern Mount Rainier NP, but only one was available, and too far out of the way to keep on our schedule. Same with the lighthouse trek. I wouldn't have even visited the first lighthouse had I known we couldn't drive through, and could have saved extra time. The delay caused us to miss climbing to the top of Yaquina Head Lighthouse. I'm still seeing red when I see the orange construction signs.

Also, as nice as Victoria was, it's just a little too touristy for me. It's also very expensive. (CAD$50 for a 15-minute horse ride? Really???) There may be some hidden gems we missed, but for those just wanting a taste of the capitol city, Butchard Gardens and the Royal Museum should satisfy you.

Statistics:

Total Stops: 31
States Visited: California, Nevada, Oregon, Washington
National Parks Visited: Lassen Volcanic, Crater Lake, North Cascades, Olympic, Redwoods
National Monuments Visited: 3 Lava Beds, Mt. Saint Helens Volcanic, Pinnacles

Rental vehicle: 2011 Dodge Grand Caravan (fully loaded!)
Efficiency: 22.45

Total cost of trip: US$1,650 (includes my share of lodging, rental, gas, and food, as well as entry fees and souvenirs)