Now THAT Was a Long Day!

Well, we decided to plow our way home today rather than spend another night in a motel. We were up and out of the Hampton Inn in Fairmont, Minnesota by 7:30AM ready for the long drive. We stopped once for gas, twice for snacks, twice for pictures, and twice to pee. That was it. The boys held it together pretty good. We rolled in to Livonia after driving 727 miles in 12 hours. It's new Patrick family record! Everyone is glad to be sleeping in their own bed tonight. Over the past 16 days we drove 5,831 miles through 15 states. We saw the Rocky Mountains, the Grand Canyon, Legoland & Magic Mountain, San Francisco, Mount Rushmore, and a million other things...

Final tally: Justin and Joshua spotted License Plates from 47 states, the District of Columbia, Guam, 6 Canadian provinces, and 3 Mexican provinces. Good job, boys!

Michigan!

Home Sweet Home...almost.

Almost...

Chicago, Illinois

Mouse House, Windsor, Wisconsin

Rapid City, South Dakota to Fairmont, Minnesota

Are we home yet? No? Darn. Another day of driving with not a lot to see. We were lazy getting up and didn't get to our complimentary breakfast at the Comfort Inn in Rapid City, South Dakota until 9:15AM. Back on I-90, the only highlights were stops at Wall Drug in Wall, South Dakota and the Corn Palace in Mitchell. Basically, two tourist traps. Oh well, at least we got out of the car for a bit. Driving by the Badlands was pretty nice. Jennifer thinks she spotted a couple buffalo's grazing on the side of the road. Hmm. We've definitely left the mountains behind now. In fact, it's flat and boring again. At least it didn't rain. We stopped for dinner at Perkin's, then tried unsuccessfully to find the state of Iowa. They must have moved it. This gave John another headache so he moped for the last hour or so. Once we checked into the Hampton Inn in Fairmont, Minnesota we headed for the pool as usual. It was nice and warm, but way too crowded. We swam for 45 minutes or so and called it a night. Only 2 more days and we'll be back in Michigan...or maybe we'll be home tomorrow.

License Plates: Georgia, Rhode Island, Mississippi, Guam, Manitoba Canada

Corn Palace, Mitchell, South Dakota

Wall Drug, Wall, South Dakota

Rawlins, Wyoming to Rapid City, South Dakota

We found a couple real cool things on the road today. Most of our travels were on secondary roads so we got to see sights that you miss on the Interstates. we started with an excellent breakfast at the Hampton Inn in Rawlins, Wyoming. This was the best motel on our trip...maybe the best we've ever had on any trip...so we were all sad to say goodbye. We started driving at 9:30AM and our first stop was at Independence Rock a couple hours north of Rawlins. We had never heard of this place before but it was real cool. We did a fair bit of hiking to climb to the top and check out all the names that were carved into the rock. Justin carved our names, we took a bunch of pictures and we were on our way. From there we started east until we reached Ayers Bridge, a natural stone archway carved by a river. We had packed a lunch in the morning and we stopped at the bridge to eat. Very cool. Lots of kids tubing on the river. Back on the road we hit some more rain. Not as bad as yesterday, but the van got a bit of a bath. Speaking of the van...I got a little too close to a highway cone and broke the side mirror. Darn. I'll have it fixed in Rapid City tomorrow morning before we leave town. We stopped at the South Dakota border for a photo and before too long we were at Mount Rushmore. Everyone enjoyed our visit, even Joshua. We took a ton of pictures, had dinner and did some more hiking. The drive from Mount Rushmore to our motel in Rapid City was short. We checked in to the Comfort Inn and headed for the pool. Cool and crowded. We swam for 45 minutes or so and headed back to the room for bed. Not a whole lot more to see on our vacation...just the highway taking us home.

License Plates: Connecticut, North Dakota, South Carolina, Washington D.C., Saskatchewan Canada

Mount Rushmore, Rapid City, South Dakota

Independence Rock, Wyoming

This was the midway point on the Oregon Trail. Settlers that made it here by July 4th would usually be able to make it to the West before winter. As they passed this landmark, many carved their names into the rock. we spotted names and dates from back to 1850!

Elko, Nevada to Rawlins, Wyoming

Today was a better day. We drove all day just like yesterday...and saw nothing just like yesterday. The boys were much better and that made all the difference in the world. We left Elko after a quick complimentary continental breakfast. Once again our only stops were for gas and food. Seriously, the sooner someone puts a Six Flags in the middle of the great plains, the better. We drove through Salt Lake City passing by the Bonneville Salt Flats where they broke the land speed record. We also passed through Park City where they held the Winter Olympics in 2002. We stopped there for lunch and a couple photos of the ski jumping hills. The rest of Utah was flat and pretty boring. We stopped briefly for a death-defying photo at the Wyoming state line. From there we drove into rain. It was heavy at times, but never so bad that we had to stop. We pulled into Rawlins, Wyoming at around 6:00PM to find that our Hampton Inn had no power! They checked us in anyway and before we had unpacked, the lights were back on. We headed for the beautiful indoor swimming pool and swam for an hour before heading out for some KFC. Our motel room here is amazing! Easily the best we've ever had. It's huge, like a small apartment. I have to double-check that they didn't over-charge us. Nope, they didn't. Tomorrow we get off the Interstate and head north towards Rapid City, South Dakota and Mount Rushmore.

Somewhere In Wyoming...

Gas, Munchies, Flying J, Salt Lake City, Utah

San Francisco, California to Elko, Nevada

Not much to report today. We all felt like truck drivers. We drove all day and there wasn't much to see, so the boys decided to fight instead. They drove us nuts. We started with breakfast at the Hampton Inn in San Francisco. We were in the van by 9:15AM. It was too foggy to visit the Golden Gate Bridge yesterday so we waited until today. Well, it was even foggier this morning...so no Golden Gate Bridge photos this vacation. Traffic out of town wasn't too bad and we made good time. The views through the Donner Pass that John had been looking forward to were marred by construction. We didn't get to enjoy the view because of all the orange barrels. We even missed a photo at the Nevada border, so hopefully we'll get one at the Nevada/Utah border tomorrow. Our only stops were for lunch, snacks and gas. That left plenty of time for Joshua to kick Justin and Justin to poke Joshua with a pencil. We finally made it to Elko, Nevada after 8 hours on the road. We're at a Comfort Inn tonight surrounded by casinos and other motels. Sadly, we learned immediately that we were NOT the guests of the day as we were at the Hampton Inn. Bummer. After checking in and hauling all of our luggage up to the second floor (no elevator) we had dinner at a place called Machi's in downtown Elko. It was O.K., nothing too special. We skipped the pool due to the aformentioned lousy behavior and are headed to an early bed. Tomorrow looks to be just as boring, so hopefully we can find someplace cool to stop at along the way so one of the boys doesn't end up in the E.R.

License Plates: Alabama, Alberta Canada

Flying J, Winnemucca, Nevada

Lunch in Reno, Nevada

The Streets of San Francisco

We just finished a long day sightseeing in San Francisco. The day started early with breakfast and a quick swim in the cool (and oddly salty) indoor pool. We hopped in the van for the short ride downtown. Traffic wasn't bad and we made it to our first stop pretty quick. We parked the van near Haight/Ashbury and walked around for an hour or so. John shopped at Amoeba Records and then took a bunch of pictures of the neighborhood. We checked out a few odd stores and then headed for Fisherman's Wharf. The Wharf was packed with tourists, street performers, and loads of strange people. There were jazz guitarists, steel drummers, guys painted silver, guys painted gold, a guy playing drums on buckets, painters, jewelry makers, piano players, a giant skeleton guy, homeless people, people selling seafood, tour groups, and a million other freaks. That's our kind of town! We had fish and chips for lunch and ice cream for dessert before checking out the sea lions at Pier 39. Very cool. They boys picked out a couple souvenirs and we were on our way. On our way back to the motel we drove down twisty Lombard Street and through Chinatown. Back at the motel it's laundry, dinner and early to bed. We make the turn towards home tomorrow...

San Simeon to San Francisco, California

Not many miles driven today, but we still didn't make it to San Francisico until 7:00PM. Our motel is actually in Daly City, which is right next to San Francisico. We started driving this morning at 9:00AM after grabbing some donuts at a store near our motel. It was real foggy most of the morning, so a lot of the scenic views along the coast didn't amount to much more than winding roads through the clouds. The fog broke a few times and we were able to get some nice pictures eventually. By the time we got to Carmel it was mostly sunny and beautiful. We stopped for photos 5 or 6 times. The road was quite twisty in places, so we took it easy. We also stopped at Santa Cruz to visit the famous boardwalk and ride a few rides. Traffic and parking were horrible, especially for a Sunday. We rode the new Haunted Castle, The Giant Dipper Roller Coaster, The Swing Ride and the Hurricane Coaster. Santa Cruz Boardwalk is an old style oceanside amusement park that they've kept in great shape. It seems to be very popular with families and was very crowded today. After leaving Santa Cruz we headed for our motel near San Francisco. Traffic was terrible. I'm not sure what the problem was, but it took a couple hours to go around 60 miles. We checked in to our rooms to find out they had chosen us as the guests of the day. Woo Hoo! They even had a sign posted in the lobby with our name on it. That's a first for us. We'll be here 2 nights so we skipped the pool and had dinner at Outback. We'll be up early tomorrow to swim and sightsee.

Santa Cruz Boardwalk

Headed to Big Sur

Valencia to San Simeon, California

Not a lot of driving today. We left the motel in Valencia at 8:15AM. After getting slightly lost for a few minutes we started towards the Pacific Ocean. Route 126 had us winding through valleys of farms and vineyards. Besides grapes we saw orange and avacado groves. Very cool. We reached the ocean at Ventura. That's where we stopped for breakfast at Denny's. Yummy. From Ventura it was US101 North through Santa Barbara and San Lius Obispo. Our view of the ocean came and went all morning. By the time we reached San Simeon the view was spectacular. We arrived at the Best Western Cavalier Oceanfront Resort too early to check in, so we walked down to the beach. It's very windy here today, and chilly (68). That didn't stop us from swimming right after we finally checked in to our room. The pool was nice and warm and we had it all to ourselves. It was funny seeing people walk by bundled up in their winter coats while we were splashing in the pool. By the time we got out it had warmed up to 75, which was very nice. After relaxing in the room for a couple hours we drove 7 miles North to Piedras Blancas. This is the beach that the giant Elephant Seals sun themselves on. There were 2 groups that we saw. About 20 were right by the edge of the beach and another 30 or so were farther down. They mostly lay around and sleep, then wake up and flip sand on their backs, then start grunting and fighting with each other. They got pretty loud. After we left the beach we stopped for some sunset photos then headed for dinner in a small town named Cambria. Very nice. We ended up eating pizza at a place called The Round Up. The food was excellent and everyone was happy. From there it was ice cream for dessert and back to the motel. Before bed we spent a few minutes on the beach at the fire pit. Toasty warm and quite peaceful. Tomorrow we head towards San Francisco...

Elephant Seals

This is the beach where all the coolest Elephant Seals hang out...

San Simeon, California

This is on the beach behind our motel.

Santa Barbara, California

Rest Stop along US101.

Great Day at Six Flags

We took a shuttle from our motel across to Magic Mountain. They dropped us at the front gate at 9:30AM...an hour before the gates opened. That was a bummer. Everyone was getting antsy waiting. It was starting to rain and get pretty warm when they finally opened at 10:30. John and Justin headed to the Revolution roller coaster first. A classic! This was the first modern looping coaster. John has wanted to ride it for 34 years and reports that it was worth the wait. Fortunately, it stopped raining early and the park wasn't crowded at all today. Every ride we went on had no wait to speak of. That was great because it was 100 degrees here and a lot more humid than San Diego was. Throughout the day we managed to ride The Jetstream (John and Justin), The Gold Rusher (Everyone), Ninja (Justin and Jennifer), Riddler's Revenge (John), The Scrambler (Joshua, Justin and John), Colossus (Justin and John), Terminator: Salvation (Justin and John), Goliath (Justin and John), The Swing Ride (Joshua, Justin and John), and a second trip on the Revolution to close the day (Justin and John). That's a lot of rides for us! Everyone was tired by 3:30 when the shuttle bus picked us up for the ride back to the motel. We headed straight for a nice swim at the pool and some relaxing. After that we walked next door for dinner at a place called Marie Callendar's. The food was OK but the service stunk. Oh well. Back in our room we're relaxing and thinking about tomorrow. It's back in the van and time to head to the ocean.

Goliath

Swinging

Coasters, Lots of Coasters

Six Flags Magic Mountain

C'mon, open the gates!

San Diego, California to Legoland

We had a nice time at Legoland in Carlsbad, California today. It's our 15th wedding Anniversary so Legoland made perfect sense(!?). After a quick breakfast we drove the 30 miles to the park. It was a lot better than I think we figured it would be. there were quite few rides and tons of huge Lego displays to check out. Joshua was in heaven. He managed to hold out until 2:00PM before he started begging us to hit the gift shop. Before that we rode the boat ride, a couple roller coasters (John and Justin only), a lost kingdom shoot 'em up ride, and several playscapes and slides. The park wasn't too crowded and it was only around 90. Not too bad. After surrendering our wallets at the gift shop we left Legoland and started towards our next motel, the Hilton Garden Inn in Valencia. The only stop we made was in Hollywood so John could shop at one of the world's biggest record stores, Amoeba Records on Sunset Blvd. He spent an hour shopping for vinyl while the boys shopped for DVD's. We all left happy and further in debt. Traffic around L.A. was incredible. Everyone drives like idiots and the motorcyclists ride like they have a death wish. We were fortunate to make it in one piece. At the motel we swam for an hour or so. The pool wasn't as warm or nice as the last one, but we still enjoyed it. Joshua is becoming quite a swimmer! Tomorrow...Six Flags Magic Mountain.

btw: no earthquakes yet.

License Plates: New York, Montana, West Virginia, Hawaii, Sonora Mexico, Chihuahua Mexico

Legoland, Carlsbad, California

Wow.

Happy Birthday to Joshua!

What an interesting day. John started the day with a horrible migraine so he slept in late while Jennifer and the boys had breakfast at the hotel. We finally hit the road at 11:00AM and headed to California. We passed through the very-cool town of Flagstaff, Arizona then headed south to Phoenix. We've never been to Phoenix and didn't really know what to expect. What we found were giant cacti and temperatures over 115 degrees! It really was like an oven when we stepped out of the van to take pictures. Once to Phoenix we headed west through Yuma, Arizona and finally to California. It's always exciting when you hit the California border. We stopped for quick pictures (standing in the shade!) and pressed on. We saw some amazing things on the road to San Diego. We passed 2 Border Patrol checkpoints. They were looking for illegal aliens. They guards took one look at the whitebread in our minivan and waved us on. The terrain we passed by was incredible. From snow in the mountains, to sandy desert to red rocky mountains, we saw a little of everything. We finally pulled in to our motel in San Diego at around 7:00PM. Another Best Western. Very nice pool, the warmest yet. We had the thing to ourselves and swam for an hour. After Josh swallowed his 3rd gallon of pool water, we headed for an Olive Garden dinner. Everyone was tired so we crashed as soon as we got back to the hotel, but not before singing happy birthday to Joshua and opening a few presents.

License Plates: Massachusetts, New Jersey, Baja California Mexico

Dude, Where's My Camel?

Woo Hoo!

Headed to Phoenix

It's 103 degrees at lunch time.

Durango, Colorado to Grand Canyon, Arizona

The Best Western in Durango was pretty nice. We ended up with a 2-bedroom suite (sort of). 1 of the bedrooms was basically just a closet with a bed. A little stuffy, but it worked. Breakfast was compliments of Best Western. It was the usual. We were on the road by 9:00AM. Before long (and after a slight detour) we hit the New Mexico border for a picture. It was in the middle of the desert and pretty nice. We had hoped to visit the Four Corners Monument...but it was closed for remodeling! I sure hope Wallyworld is open when we get to California. Slightly disappointed, we pressed ahead. The trip was mostly 2-lane highway through high desert plains. Josh preferred the desert to the mountains and we stopped several times for photos. It was just too beautiful not to. By 3:30PM we were at the Grand Canyon. It was open for business! Every view was spectacular, each better than the last. We shot over 100 pictures in 2 hours. Josh even managed to open his eyes and smile for a couple of them. In case you were concerned, we encountered no snakes, no tarantulas and no scorpions (although we did hear a couple Scorpions songs on the radio). Once we checked in to the hotel we had a cold swim in the pool. Dinner at the Yipee-ei-O was mixed. The boys loved the pasta but the steaks weren't so good. Next time we stick to Outback. After dinner we spotted a couple giant elk grazing in a field across the street from the restaurant. I bet their grass was better than our steaks. We're watching the All Star game right now and getting ready for bed. Another long drive tomorrow.

License Plates: Alaska, Louisiana, British Columbia Canada

Grand Canyon, Desert View

Yippee-ei-o!

Found this roadhouse place near our hotel. Steak and pasta!

Kayenta, Arizona

Lunch. Burger King for Jennifer and the boys, Subway for John...

Colorado in our rear-view window...

Sorry to have to leave, but Arizona is looking cool.

Glenwood Springs to Durango

We had a really spectacular drive today. The day started early once again with a quick breakfast at the Hampton Inn in Glenwood Springs. We all loved the hotel and town and hated to leave it behind...but the mountains were calling. We headed south from Glenwood Springs past Mount Sopris through the McClure Pass. We quickly climbed over 9,000 ft. past Snowmass and on to the small town of Delta. Lunch was at Sonic, which everyone enjoyed. Joshua was grumpy all day and refused to smile at any of the photo stops...especially after he slipped on a rock and scraped his knee. After lunch we continued south through the town of Ouray and on to the Million Dollar Highway. I've read a lot about this 23 mile stretch of road and it didn't disappoint. The roadway twisted like a pretzel in every direction and we climbed to over 10,000 ft. within a few miles. For the first half of the trip we were on the outside lane. With 8-10,000 ft. drops and no guardrails it was quite an exciting drive. After a few minutes of that nonsense Jennifer was ready to stop. We ended up stopping many times for pictures of waterfalls, valleys, and anything else that looked interesting. The 23 mile stretch took us about 2 hours and by 5:00PM we rolled in to Durango, Colorado. Tonight we're staying at the Best Western Durango Inn and Suites. It's a nice place. Clean, nice pool, not far from downtown. After an hour in the pool and dinner at Pizza Hut, everyone is tired. Tomorrow we're in the desert (making Josh happy) and, sadly, we say goodbye to Colorado...

They have Pizza Hut here!

The Patrick family can really tear up a pizza...

Best Western, Durango, Colorado

Nice town, nice hotel, nice pool...

As Advertised

Stunning views mile after mile...

Ouray, Colorado

Entrance to the Million Dollar Highway...

Rocky Mountain High

On our way to the Million Dollar Highway. It can't get any better than this, can it?

What a View!

Today was much better than yesterday. After another Hampton Inn complimentary breakfast we returned to I-80 around 8:00AM. Before too long we were in Colorado. Sadly, eastern Colorado looks a lot like Nebraska...which looked a lot like Iowa and most of Illinois. We stopped for a ho-hum lunch at McDonald's and continued on our way via I-76. 50 miles outside of Denver, things started to get interesting fast. As we approached Denver it started clouding up, but we could still see the outline of the snow-capped Rockie Mountains through the clouds. The closer we got the more excited we got. As soon as we left Denver the road started twisting back and forth. It was very cool. We stopped to check out Vail, but unfortunately it was raining pretty hard. It looked like a great place to visit, but we didn't stay long. Maybe next time. Further down the road we entered the Glenwood Canyon. This may have been the most stunning stretch of highway we've ever seen. The elevated road snaked alongside the Colorado River for 50 miles, through tunnels and over bridges. On the opposite side of the river were railroad tracks used by Amtrak's California Zephyr. Looks like a great trip to try sometime. At 5:00PM we found our hotel in Glenwood Springs. What a great little town! The town is apparently known for it's world-famous hot springs swimming pool. For reasons not clear to any of us, we skipped the beautiful hot springs pool and instead spent 30 teeth-chattering minutes in our hotel's tiny pool. Bummer. After the swim we checked out the nearby Glenwood Springs Adventure Park. We rode an aerial tram up the mountain right next to our hotel. At the top we all rode an Alpine Coaster, which was really fun. It was on a track just like a regular roller coaster, but you can control how fast you car goes. Everyone loved it, especially Josh. Afterwards it was dinner at a place called The Village Inn. Meh. Tomorrow should be another stunning drive. we're heading south down the Million Dollar Highway. 10,000 ft., 2 lanes, no guardrail...woo hoo!

License Plates: Kansas, Oregon