For as long as I can remember, it has been a dream to be able to explore the Pacific Northwest and California. The drive out there always seemed to be impossibly long and there was no way we'd be able to fit that into a week of vacation. After a successful trip last year, we learned that it is possible to fly with all of our stuff, rent a car, and road trip that way. It comes with a few challenges, but we make it work!
This year, we flew into Portland. We had hoped to cross over into Washington to grab lunch and check another state off of our list, but the traffic was terrible, so we just skipped that part. We drove out to see Multnomah Falls, only to learn that there was a permit needed to park in the parking lot (and none were available for that afternoon). We were bummed but at least we could see the waterfall from across the street! We decided to venture clear across Portland and all the way to the coast to see Cannon Beach instead. It was a long drive, but worth it to have the kids see the Pacific Ocean for the first time. We drove down along the coast for awhile as we headed back to Eugene for the night. There were so many adorable coastal towns and the drive was quite scenic.
The next morning, we made a quick stop to see the state of the art sports facilities at the University of Oregon. It was a very pretty campus! After that, we headed off to visit Crater Lake National Park. The drive there was absolutely beautiful and we learned that Oregon is truly one of the most scenic states we've ever been to. Crater Lake was breathtaking and majestic. It was worth the long drive for sure! That night we stayed at an adorable AirBnB in Grants Pass.
We got up early the next morning and headed south to cross into California. The day was spent exploring Redwood National Park, which included the most amazing, lush forests and some cool ocean areas. The kids loved exploring in the tide pools and hiking amongst the gigantic trees! Our drive to the hotel in Petaluma that night was quite long, but very scenic. It started with redwoods and plenty of mountains, but ended in the hills and valleys of wine country.
The following day was spent exploring San Francisco, which definitely made the list of one of our favorite cities. It was so unique and seemed to have so much to do. We visited the Painted Ladies (a Full House landmark), Lombard Street, Fisherman's Wharf, Pier 39, Alcatraz, and (of course) the Golden Gate Bridge. We could've easily spent several more days there, but we enjoyed the small taste we got of this awesome city!
After leaving San Francisco, we spent the night not too far outside of Yosemite in an AirBnB. We were able to get up bright and early and made it into the park before it got too crowded. Yosemite was absolutely amazing and the scenery was like nothing we've ever seen. We enjoyed exploring various parts of the park throughout the day, but definitely know that it would be worth coming back to see more! We left that evening and spent another night at the same AirBnB before heading off to the next park.
The next day took us WAY up high into the mountains to see Kings Canyon and Sequoia National Park. The drive in and out were both scenic and terrifying, but it was worth it to see the amazing sequoias. We thought the redwoods seemed huge, but these trees were gigantic! We didn't get to do too many hikes since most of the hikes in the park were quite long and would've been impossible to squeeze into the limited time we had there. On the way down to our hotel in Bakersfield that evening, we made a quick pit stop in McFarland (thanks to a Disney movie called McFarland USA - about a legendary cross country team from the town). Joel was quite happy about that detour!
The following day was dedicated to exploring Los Angeles. We spent most of our time in Hollywood and then headed to the coast to see Venice Beach. LA was definitely congested and busy and a shock to our system after several days in the serenity of the national parks. We also got stuck in horrible traffic leaving LA and heading to our AirBnB in San Diego, so our overall opinion of LA wasn't the best, but we enjoyed a decent amount of it!
On our final morning, we spent time exploring San Diego. We started with a walk through La Jolla, which was awesome. We got to see some seriously amazing surfers and came super close to some adorable marine life (seals and sea lions). We left La Jolla and headed into the city to walk along the harbor. We loved seeing the giant military ships and enjoyed browsing the cute shops. The day was cut short because we had to make it to the airport for our flight home. The icing on the cake of this fantastic trip was flying home on July 4th and seeing fireworks from the sky. It was something we will never forget!
