Day 14/15 - Viva Las Vegas

 Day 14: Las Vegas, NV

We started out the day by heading to the Lighthouse District in San Diego for lunch at Hodad's - something Hayden found on "Diners, Drive-ins, and Dives". According to the kids, best burgers they've ever had. And they've had a LOT of burgers.

After lunch we walked to the beach to check it out.

There were a lot of people surfing, so we sat and watched for awhile. And after watching the people who probably do this on a regular basis, I was thinking it was a good thing that we decided not to do surf lessons (which was part of the plan). I don't want to be 3/3 on injured children for this trip.

We said good-bye to the Pacific and made our way to Vegas. In traffic for hours: from San Diego to Victorville was heavy, consistent traffic the entire way.

I debated having the kids watch "Oceans 11" (they have already seen it) or "Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas" on the way there, but then decided I don't need to encourage the criminal mind and debauchery when headed to Sin City...

So "My Favorite Murder" podcast was better? 

Landed in Vegas - an amazing room (thank you again Aunt Mel!) at the Park MGM.

Our view:

We went to Gallagher's Steakhouse at NYNY for a fancy meal, and got all dressed up for it:

Not too bad for 14 days on the road! It was still over 100 degrees when we walked over there for dinner at night. And the temp peaked to 118 in about Baker, CA for the day. Thought the engine might overheat a couple of times - the needle was heading toward H, but thankfully we had just gotten an oil change in San Diego, so I was less worried.

Today's Totals:

325 miles

$520- almost all of that was food 😟

Today's Lessons:

1. Apparently I hyped up Vegas as terrible, but "It's not that bad, Mom". Yes, it was a Thursday and you went to dinner with your mom. Might have overheard some bachelor party convo at the table next to us, but that was about it.

2. Hayden started house hunting in San Diego: 2.1 million for a 4BR/4B, 1700 sq ft about a mile off the beach. Keep dreamin kid.

Day 15: Full Circle

So basically we just ate for the last 24 hrs. We checked out (that was a nightmare), and headed to Hard Rock Vegas for lunch. After giving Hayden a hard time about all of the extras for his nachos, he ended up getting them for free because they came later than the rest of the food. Stuck it to me, naturally. 

We also walked over to the M&M store and found this amazing sight:

That's about 1/2 of the wall of M&M dispensers. 

Yum.

And that wrapped up Vegas for us! Kids wanted to hit the road to head back to Utah for more time with the cousins, so we did not do Red Rock or the Hoover Dam.

But we are staying in the travel trailer for camping at Lagoon Amusement Park tonight!

Today's Totals:

$170

436 miles

Today's Lessons:

1. Vegas during the day can definitely include a guy taking a pic of his significant other between the cheeks of 2 burlesque girls. I'll let you figure out which cheeks.

2. Hayden did a nice job of cruising through the southern Utah mountains today!

3. Smoke hit SLC really hard today - we looked it up and it has the worst air quality in the world, currently. So I was definitely not opposed to sleeping inside instead of setting up a tent.

We will be heading to the amusement park, camping here again, then making our way back home.

Time to enjoy one last day!

🎈

Day 12/13 San Fran to San Diego

 Day 12: California 1

What started out as an 8 hour trip turned into almost a 12 hour trip. We did look at the Winchester home and Hearst castle - from a distance.
This was the only picture I took:

Today's Totals:
525 miles

$210

Today's Lessons:

1. Get food while there is food to be had.

2. No boats, no beach goers, just ocean coastline. For miles.

3. People bike this - I can barely drive it without white knuckling it.

Day 13: San Diego Zoo

Today we spent 7 hours touring the San Diego Zoo. 7 hours.

We did everything there was to do there, but one of the exhibits we really wanted to see was closed (pandas). So if I'm being honest and doing a comparison, Milwaukee Zoo is better. San Diego is larger. And WAY more expensive all around.

We headed back to our hotel and ordered take-out, and called it a night. 

Today's Totals:

7 miles

$608

Today's Lessons:

1. Cheetah's have emotional support dogs. Miles told me this before we got there, but we actually saw one in the cage with the cheetah.

(It's not dead, it's sleeping)

2. Make sure restaurants are open before you travel across the park to go eat there. Hayden.

3. Charlie's new profession is potentially a zoologist. Although she might try and feed her brothers to the tigers...

Tomorrow we are headed to Vegas - AND we got a huge surprise tonight from my Aunt Mel, who called and hooked us up with a sweet room for Vegas tomorrow night!! 

Glad I don't book anything in advance 🙃

Now we need to make sure we don't look like we've been on the road for 13 days...

🎈

Day 11: Alcatraz

 San Francisco, CA

Definitely got in my steps AND my incline today...

Our hotel was right near everything we wanted to go to, so one day without the car felt pretty good.

The hotel had hot breakfast to go, which was thankfully included in the price - perhaps that is part of the resort fee? Those things are annoying.

We made the short walk to Pier 33 and got on our boat to Alcatraz. Definitely worth it! 

After Alcatraz, we headed to Pier 39 to wander around and get lunch. And a nice pic of the island.

Then we went to Fisherman's Wharf, but mostly so Hayden could go to the "It's Sugar" store. Which is nothing but candy. That was $30 well spent. 

Then we headed back to the hotel to relax, for the night as it turned out. After 6 hours of walking around, we were all a little spent.

But we hit the top things to do in San Fran:

✅ Dinner from Chinatown

✅ Golden Gate Bridge (Hayden has a cool video of us crossing it)

✅ Alcatraz Island

✅ Fisherman's Wharf

Muir Woods was definitely on our to do list, and so was Palace of the Arts, but we might have to save it for next time.

Today's Totals:

0 miles on the car! But, what I didn't pay in gas, I made up for it in lodging...

$704

Today's Lessons:

1. California requires you to have a bag when purchasing, and if you don't have a bag, they charge you anywhere from .10-.25 (that I saw) to get a bag. We were just able to use our food bag for everything, which was free, so that worked out I guess.

2. Alcatraz definitely had some Shawshank vibes - nice call Gretchen! In the part of the tour that showed the break out rooms, I was looking for the poster that covered the hole.

3. First big city that we've been to that I felt super comfortable walking around in. Great people watching.

4. Alcatraz has been taken over by the birds. White spatters all around...

Next stop, San Diego. It will be a LONG day in the car, hopefully with some cool views of the ocean - we will be taking the Cali 1 for some of the hike down there. 

🎈

Days 9/10 - Eugene to San Francisco

Day 9: Redwoods National and State Parks 

Lack of cell service and excessive driving have preventing posting.

We drove from Eugene to the Oregon dunes and found Sun Buggy Rentals. These guys were hilarious and awesome. We were able to rent, did the safety briefing, and they gave us an hour and a half for the price of an hour. 

We did not get stuck, but apparently I drive like an old lady.

Hayden still had to find the "oh shit" handle a couple of times, so I couldn't have been too slow.

From there, we continued down the coast. Amazing drive.

(Natural Bridges)

We landed in Redwoods NP with just enough daylight to set up the tent.

And it was an early night. And a cold night. But, no bears in the camp, so that's a win.

Day 9 Totals:

369 miles

$358

Day 9 Lessons:

1. When Little Caesar's is right next to a place called "Sticks and Stoned"... makes for an entertaining wait for pizza. 

2.  Tempers were short today. Looking forward to not being in the car all day when we get to San Francisco!

3. The Oregon coastline is something I would like to hike.

Day 10: Are we going to San Francisco?

More campsite pics from Mill Creek Campground, in the daylight:

Today we did the shortest hike possible to check out the Big Tree as part of the Redwoods Parks (a whopping 0.1 miles):

And then we also stopped by the Big Lagoon:

Popped in for some lunch:

And then finally landed in San Francisco:

It was a long day of driving.

Today's Totals:

$475

Around 425 miles, I'll have to double check.

Today's Lessons:

1. Don't take the California 1 starting in Leggett. There was maybe a mile total that wasn't curved. Miles and I almost got carsick from the weaving. When it finally broke onto the coast, it was a little better, but holy dangerous roads. No way Hayden was driving that.

2. Found the cheapest gas at $4.11. Better than the $4.75 when we entered into Cali...

We will be heading to Alcatraz, and touring the city - I wish we had more time here, I forgot how much I love it.

🎈

Day 8 - Goonies and Eating Sand

 Eugene, OR

Today started out behind... and we missed the donuts as a result. They were sold out. So a quick run to Dutch Bros covered us for coffee and such, and then we headed to Astoria.

The kids absolutely indulged me in the Goonies tour, and I went full nerd.

First stop: Oregon Film Museum:

(Bullet holes)

Second stop: The Walsh House

Third Stop: Cannon Beach

We then toured the coastline on the 101 stopping to eat all of the cheese in Tillamook:

And then heading to Pacific City to do some sand boarding.

Sand. Everywhere. And I mean everywhere. It was a fight to the shower when we got to our hotel.

Hayden ate it pretty good on his last run, and has been paying for it ever since. To be fair, we all ate it, just not quite as hard as he did. Thankfully, the sand is more forgiving then water (Charlie is much better from her fall).

We made a quick stop in Salem to check out the capital building:

Today's Totals:

370 miles

$183

1 Capital Building

Today's Lessons:

1. Turns out Miles really doesn't like sand.

2. If I have to call the doc's office again on this trip for the kids, they are going to make me come home.

3. TRU by Hilton is a COOL hotel: pool table, board games, 24/7 beer/wine sales. But most importantly, they had laundry services, so I was able to get some laundry done!

4. We might have to spend some more time out of the car than in it. LOTS of driving, I think we are hitting the breaking point for pleasant temperaments. 

We are heading back to the coast, hopefully getting a chance to rent a dune buggy, and making our way down the 101 into California for camping in the Redwood Parks. But, we will see where the day actually takes us!

🎈