The Vacation Recap!
As almost everyone knows, I took a relaxing vacation (which isn’t QUITE over, but I’m home now…). I figured I’d give you all the details in one mega-post… :-)
Day 1
Mom and I left at 11:00 AM, setting out for Williams, California. Drive was uneventful, although I noticed that Gas, for whatever reason, is more expensive in California than it is in Oregon. This doesn’t make sense to me, because Californians a) pump their own gas, and b) have refineries in California. Oregon has attendants to pump their gas and the closest refineries are in, where else? California. How does it happen that the gas is cheaper where it travels farther to and has more things cutting into the profit (like a high minimum wage)? It baffles me…
Oh yeah, in Eugene I lost my desire to ever eat at IHOP again after two dirty forks, something in my mother’s water glass, and food that was cold, save for my hash browns.
Day 2
Made a beeline for Sacramento. Today is the day that I’m supposed to meet a good friend I’ve known for 4 years as a result of Star Wars Galaxies (I’m a nerd, I know…) in Sacramento. My mom and I make it into Sacramento around noon, go to the hotel to check in and… discover they use some highly perfumed deodorizing spray that doesn’t agree with my mother. We wander the area to other hotels to try and find someplace else (Motel 6 was cheapest, but it’s no good if mom has to sleep in the car). Wound up at La Quinta, where the general manager actually gave us the 2 room suite for the price of a single king. Not bad at all, we were livin’ large for the night there.
Unfortunately, things with my good friend didn’t work out (long story), and we weren’t even sure if our other possible day was going to work out, so everything was up in the air at this point. I was saddened by all of this, but I pressed on to…
Day 3
Took off and made our way to Lake Tahoe. The road went ever on and on, down from the door where it began and around some bends (lots of bends) doubleback curves (SHARP curves) and near cliffs over rapids. I spent half the trip from highway 49 to highway 50 wondering why in God’s name I didn’t take motion sickness pills before we left. Once we got to Tahoe, though… It was beautiful. Blue sky, a good 85 degrees, and no worries for almost three days. Did a wee bit of wandering down at Caesar’s Palace (not as impressive as what I was expecting, but it wasn’t the Vegas one so… yeah), and around the different little shopping areas and casinos down there. What was funny was how they have the casinos build (literally) ON the state line between California and Nevada, one side of the street it’s illegal to gamble, on the other side you have four Casinos in a row. Go figure. Wound up at Carrows for dinner. Lost any desire to ever eat at carrows again (much like IHOP on day 1).
Day 4
Full day at Tahoe. Spent the morning exploring, spent the afternoon exploring. Went to the casinos in the evening, hit the buffet at Caesars (which was incredible, I wish I could eat like that for 15 bucks everywhere…) and then I gambled away five dollars on a slot machine in Harvey’s (after which I turned to my mother and said “Remind me… Why does that appeal to people again?”). Considered playing blackjack, but it’s kind of weird walking up to a minimum 5.00 bet table and asking for 20.00 in chips. Maybe next time.
Day 5
Today, we make the trek back to Sacramento via Carson City and Reno. Before leaving tahoe, I took a lot of pictures, including pictures of two baby squirrels. They were all over the place at the park down on the lake, it was awesome. No more than an hour after we left the lush green forests of Lake Tahoe, we were in the desolate Nevada dessert. An hour after that, and we were back in the forests again. Weird. Also wound up in Carson City during 108 degree heat. I stuck my hand out the window to see if it really was 108, and I had black char broiling marks on my hand when I pulled it back in the car. Yep, it really WAS that hot… Get back to Sacramento, got to the hotel, then proceeded to do some wandering around Sacramento area attractions (namely, a mall). The mall was about twice the size of Washington Square, but had half the stores, it seemed. It also had the single-largest JC Penney’s store I’ve ever seen, the first floor alone seemed to be about the size of both levels at Washington square. Aside from that, not particular impressive. Did see Palm trees, though. That was interesting. And, tomorrow Ellia (StarlightDancer from the Bar Wars) and I are supposed to meet. So far as I know, everything going to go as planned, but things didn’t work out last time, so there’s always the possibility that things won’t work out. Anxious about it, but hopeful.
Day 6
Today we make the trek back towards Oregon via Eureka so that we can see the redwoods. Of course, this isn’t until after one stop to meet Ellia, my 4-years friend from SWG. My mom and I wound up getting there early (Checkout was at noon, meeting at 1:00, I was too nervous to eat, sooo… yeah) and just wandering the park for almost an hour. Lots more pictures of squirrels, as well as some deer and wild turkeys. Finally, time rolled around and I got to meet my good friend face-to-face. It was fun, although my mother talked more in the 45 minutes we hung out than I did. She excused herself twice so that I could get a word in edgewise. It was fun stuff, although afterwards we agreed that 45 minutes wasn’t nearly enough time (unfortunately, as she had to work and I needed to get on the road, we didn’t have much of a choice). Mom and I then hit the road and headed out to the coast highway. Wound up in Eureka for the night, and for the first night I hadn’t made reservations in advance (which was a really bad idea, as apparently all the decent hotels in Eureka fill up rather fast in the summer). Wound up in a Super 8, which wasn’t horrible, but I had better sleeping conditions on the trip.
Day 7
Today we set out for the Redwood forest and, from there, home. Discovered that Microsoft’s a lousy judge of distance, as they that the drive from Eureka to Portland should be 6 hours. We left at 9:00 AM, stopped a few times for a combined stop time of probably less than an hour and a half, and yet it took us until almost 7:00 to get home. Thank you, Microsoft, for doing such a fine job checking your facts. Got some great pictures of some birds, some large trees, some elk, AND Paul Bunyan with Babe the blue ox. After a long drive home, we arrived back in Oregon, and I’m now relaxing for the last few days before returning to the grind.
(Pictures will be added to this later, but for now… Here it is. :-))
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