A recap of day’s one through six of the 2004 Summer Vacation:

Day One: I was shooting to leave around 9:00 a.m. so we finally got out of the house at 10:30 (see earlier reference to night owls). We made it all the way to Vacaville (1.5 hours) before we had to stop for lunch. To start off what is becoming the fast food trip of the year (ugh) we had In and Out Burger. Yumm. Then, over six hours later, a few potty stops and a dinner stop (KFC – yuck) we made it to Roseburg, OR. Husband has a cousin there with an amazing piece of property: about 4 acres fronting the river. The lower part of their property is flood plain that they’ve got an amazing garden, fruit trees and a bunch of lawn so it looks very plantation like. They were kind enough to put us up that night.

Day Two: After a leisure morning where the kids and husband went out in a paddle boat with his cousin we headed to Portland. We decided to go to the Chinese Garden just because it was something different and after about an hour of trying to get into downtown Portland (those silly bridges and a wrong turn….took me forever to get us back on track) we finally made it. The prince and I had a great time taking pictures in that garden and some came out really good (when I’m back, I’ll fire up the fotolog and post some). After about an hour there, we headed to Powell’s because really, how can you be blocks from Powell’s and not go!. We spent several hours just moseying around and got out of there for $100 for the four of us. It would have been much less except when husband saw that I had four books (all used and cheap), princess had two and prince has one, he felt the need to throw two books into the mix but his were new hardbacks. Blew my averages.

Anyway, after dinner we headed back up the road to Kelso, WA for the night.

Day Three: We were up and out. Not early, mind you but up and out anyway. Today was the day to see Mt. St. Helen’s. After three visitor’s centers, a short hike and many view points, we can now say we’ve seen the ripped apart volcano. I had to admit it was impressive to see and still see all that damage though we were hearing how great the surrounding area looked now after 20 some odd years. But it still looked pretty desolate to me.

After leaving St. Helen’s we headed up to Seattle and got to sit in lots of rush hour traffic. It is city from Olympia on so we got three major metropolitan’s rush hours…that was fun. After we got to the hotel, I called Mary and she came and rescued me from my family (the kids were nuts from being in the car so long) and fed me and gave me wine. Good friends are priceless.

Day Four: After meeting up at Mary’s house sometime after 10:00 we were off to our camping extravaganza somewhere in the Eastern Cascades! It was a pleasant drive because we made a bunch of stops. The lunch stop was at this very cool café right by the river and it was such a nice day to eat out side. The kids were bonding by this point so her daughter Emily went in our car and the prince went in their car and this was the driving arrangement for the rest of the weekend. This was great for husband and I because Emily is a crack up … she has an amazing vocabulary and the funniest outlook and expressions. This arrangement was less great for Mary and her husband because they got to explain (or attempt to explain) fellatio to a car full of teen/preteen boys (see below).

After a few more scenic stops we got to a wonderful campsite right by a river. They set up their new fancy trailer and husband set up out tent…I’m thinking a new fancy trailer would make camping something I’d do much more often.

Day Five: Mary’s husband and I were the first ones up (yeah, another early bird) and he tried to coach me in making pancakes on a campstove. That must have been positively frustrating for him as I burned a few batches of pancakes and ruined the finish on my husband’s grill. Those propane stoves get hot quickly, oops. We finally got everyone fed so we were off for the hike of the day. The road to the first choice was closed so we found another place to hike and off we went.

Ahem, where was I? Oh yes, day five.

The Saturday Hike. Someone thought it would be a good idea to do a 3 mile hike with a 2000 ft incline…sure it was over 3 miles but we were starting at 6000 feet. It was beautiful but exhausting for some of us (me of the bad lungs). The princess, Mary’s son Danny and I didn’t quite make it to the top which was too bad because from the pictures it was beautiful. Ah well.

So it was back to camp where Mary cooked dinner in a down pour, I poured the wine and obtained the status of delicate flower, and my husband apologized for not being around when the rain started (?) (actually, it was to help get things moved and it was no big deal because those folks are pacific northwest experienced unlike us Californian’s who wimp out at the first sign of rain).

Day Six: After a night filled with a bunch of rain storms and even some thunder and lightening, the weather gods decided to give us a break so we could eat breakfast and break camp. We were going to do another small hike around a lake but it was just too rainy for this Californian so we did a few stops to look at a waterfall, have lunch and go through a visitor’s center. We said our goodbyes and headed up to Vancouver via the scenic route and luckily made it into the country. I was a bit worried because I didn’t have a birth certificate for the princess but after threatening the kids with their lives if they so much as said a word going over the border (my kids would be the ones volunteering too much information) we made it in the country just fine. After commenting on the meter signs and adjusting to kilometers we drove on into town. Husband was reading the tour book and found a place to try and we were successful in locating a hotel in the city that wasn’t too much money. Yeah us. Pizza was our unexciting dinner and I spent the night watching the Olympics.

And now because of the delay in posting this, I’m adding days seven and eight.

Day Seven: Since it was drizzly and rainy we decided to go to the Aquarium. So did everyone else in Vancouver. We still had a great time watching the dolphin show, seeing the beluga whales and looking all around at the various fish. We then walked back to the hotel from Stanley Park and it was a beautiful sunny evening. As luck would have it, my camera battery was dead or I’d have wonderful pictures of the city. We were all tired when we got back to the hotel so after dinner in the hotel restaurant, all we managed to do was watch the Olympics. What a bunch of bums we are but in our defense, we didn’t get back to the hotel until after 7:30.

Day Eight: It was extremely rainy today but we headed out anyway. Took an water bus over to Granville Island. The rain let up for most of the day so we could brouse the shops and gallery’s without getting too wet. The highlight was the Market Place…wow! Amazing displays of every kind of food imaginable. When the rain got too heavy (stormy vs drizzly, honest) we headed back and that is where we are now. The princess is napping right next to me after having a horrible experience with soap in her eyes. Husband and son are playing ping pong at the hotel workout room. I’m sneaking online (in just a minute to post this). Something for everyone in this group, apparently.

If you’ve read this long, you’re amazing. I mostly put it all down so I’d have a travelogue for my own reference.