Roadtripping to Seattle!

As many of you know, I recently returned from a super fantastic trip to Alaska.  We did a lot of things, so there will be multiple posts chronicling our many adventures.

The cruise ship started in Seattle, Washington.  That meant that if we wanted to be on that ship, we needed to be in Seattle.  Unfortunately, my house is in Lehi, Utah.  A little known fact about Utah is that it's not in Washington.  In fact, my house is a little under 1,000 miles away from the port where our ship would be leaving from.

Several members of my family were going on the cruise with us.  They are all normal.  So, they all took the normal form of transportation when you need to go 1,000 miles.  They all flew on an airplane.  (Airplanes, rather.  They weren't all on the same plane.)

Robyn and I are not normal.  In fact, I really like road trips.  Plus we figured we didn't want to buy plane tickets twice this year, and we want to go to California for Christmas.  We prefer to drive in summer rather .than winter.  So we decided to drive to Seattle.

The key to a good road trip is making stops on the way.  To make this possible, we did our road trip in 2 days.  That gave us the time to stop and enjoy a few places on the way.

I worked a full day on Wednesday, July 3rd, and then we hopped in the car and headed to Twin Falls, Idaho that evening.

I love Twin Falls.  There is a beautiful canyon just outside of town.  It totally sneaks up on you, and you don't see it until a few hundred yards away.  But it is fantastic.

We spent the night in Twin Falls.  Of course, we stayed in a La Quinta, because I love their breakfast.  It's super good.  The me of a year ago would have eaten about 5 of their waffles plus loads of other stuff.  The new me splurged a little and had one waffle with some eggs and sausage on the side.  I was full when I was done.  The new me is a strange creature.

After Twin Falls we headed back out on the road.  That's when the real road tripping began.  The reason I love road trips is because Robyn and I are stuck in a car together, just the two of us.  There are no distractions, all we can do is talk.  It's super good quality time.  We talked about everything we could think of.  Then we talked about more stuff, without thinking.

Then it was time to turn on some tunes and sing our hearts out.

"Bye bye Miss American Pie!"

Eventually we made it out of Idaho into Oregon.  Oregon took about 1000 years to get through, because their speed limit is ridiculously slow.  Apparently Oregonians are unable to control their vehicles at 75 mph on perfectly straight roads, so they have to keep it at 60.  Also, Oregonians are unable to pump their own gas.  I got to experience someone else pumping my gas for the first time.  I only had to pay an extra $.50 per gallon to enjoy the privilege of waiting 5 minutes for the girl to make it over to my car to begin pumping.

Lest you think I didn't enjoy my time in Oregon, let me share with you the Dusty Spur Cafe.

As we passed La Grande, Oregon it was time for lunch.  We asked Foursquare to suggest a good place to eat.  The Dusty Spur sounded like an adventure.

When we first pulled up we were skeptical.  But who wouldn't want to eat in a barn?  So we went inside.

On the inside, it was actually a really cute little restaurant with a rustic feel to it.

Even if we were the only ones there

Not to mention I got to sit with a really cute girl.

Sorry it's blurry.  Apparently I couldn't hold still to take this picture.

The food was really good as well.  It was a pleasant surprise.

After the Dusty Spur we got back in our car and exited the state as fast as we could.

Once in Washington, we decided to take a little detour from the highway and hit up Snoqualmie Falls.  It's a beautiful waterfall.  So, naturally we took a beautiful selfie.

I should have worn sunglasses

Clearly, I had to take an animation of it.

After Snoqualmie Falls we finally made it into Seattle.  We checked into our hotel and called my mom.  We met the family for dinner in a little seafood restaurant near Pike's Place Market.  After that it was bed time.

The next day we got on the ship.  Stay tuned for more posts about the rest of the trip.