Honeymoon Road Trip: Day 3

Even though Vince and I got married almost a year ago in September, we are just now taking our honeymoon. Between school full time and work full time, it just hasn't been able to happen until now! To celebrate, we are taking a 15 day road trip from Flagstaff up to Seattle, then slowly down the coast. I will post about each day, though not necessarily on that day! I feel like breaking it up will be the only way I'll actually post about the trip because it's a lot less daunting. Some pictures are taken with the iPhone and the other with my Canon Rebel T2i. To read about previous days, click here.


The third day of traveling was just a quick 2 1/2 hour drive along the beautiful Columbia River after leaving our camp site at Hat Rock Campground and a quick trip to Hat Rock Lake.


That's supposed to be a hat rock.


I wasn't feeling well still (as evidenced by the awful look on my face above) so Vince drove part of the way while our friend Charlie followed along with his dog Roger in his truck. It was so pretty and we started to get into more greenery. Along the way, we happened to see an airplane that was doing crop-dusting which was SO COOL. Vince and I had never seen it before and we were just amazed to see how close it got to the ground. It was even going between the power lines which was super sketchy!! I wish I were able to get a picture of it. I was feeling so off and I didn't want to look for my camera and end up getting car sick as well. It was amazing, though.

I ended up driving for the last hour which was when we ended up passing an awesome dam. Vince managed to get some pictures of it flowing.





When we got into Hood River, we brought our stuff into the bed & breakfast we were staying in, The Villa Columbia.


It was a super cute place and we stayed in the Wind Room. Sadly, these are the only 3 pictures I took of it and they're from my iPhone! (Except a few bathtub pictures) Oh, well. My most favorite part was the bathtub, though! Just like every other girl in this world, the old bathtubs are so romanticized in my mind and I always think it'd be heaven to own one. While I still don't own was, I was able to soak in one and was actually able to fit my entire body in the water. I'm so tall so it usually never happens!

After getting a little settled in, we went to the downtown area and walked around. We went to Tace Del Mar, which was EXACTLY like Black Bean, a restaurant I used to work at where I met Vince. The food tasted identical!

After a few brewskis drank by the boys, Charlie went to camp and Vince and I meandered through the neighborhood before heading back to the B&B to finally relax after having driven 20+ hours in 2 days.


I must say, the houses were all amazingly cute. Even when I walked a couple miles from downtown they stayed cute!


We ended up going to sleep pretty early that night because the next night was my 'power hour' for my 21st and we also had to get up at 8:30 for breakfast! And yes, I chose the 8:30am time instead of the 10am time because I wanted to get the most out of our days!

Honeymoon Road Trip: Day 2

Even though Vince and I got married almost a year ago in September, we are just now taking our honeymoon. Between school full time and work full time, it just hasn't been able to happen until now! To celebrate, we are taking a 15 day road trip from Flagstaff up to Seattle, then slowly down the coast. I will post about each day, though not necessarily on that day! I feel like breaking it up will be the only way I'll actually post about the trip because it's a lot less daunting. Some pictures are taken with the iPhone and the other with my Canon Rebel T2i. To read previous days, click here and scroll down.

Day 2 was one heck of a day. We were due to drive 12.5 hours, but with all the stops we needed to take along the way, it was about a 16 hour drive. We woke up around 7:30am at the Hitch & Post and quickly packed up the tent. 

We wanted to hit the road as soon as we could. I took a shower before we left, as well as toasted a bagel. What, not everyone bring  toaster with them on a road trip?


Well, I must say it is SO much easier for me to eat gluten free when I bring a toaster. My gluten free bread is kept frozen (or on ice) to keep it tasting good and it tastes odd if it's not toasted. By bringing a toaster, I know that I'll have a filling breakfast/snack wherever I am. I highly recommend it if you are gluten free! The toaster is small and was $7 at Target.

So once we got on the road, we stopped many places, most of which I didn't take pictures of because they weren't exciting...mainly gas stations! 




One of the gas stations was strange, though, because it had a dentists office and a chiropractor above it. We're guessing it was mainly for truck drivers on the road that needed an easy stop.

Another strange thing to see was an area where a fire burned. At first we thought they did a prescribed burn until I realized they have no reason to do prescribed burns in the middle of a desert. So we assumed there was a fire because it went on for miles and over a couple hills. It was crazy to see where it stopped at the road! Some parts it crossed over, though. 

One place that I was excited to stop at was Salt Lake City. We ate at In & Out and it was amazing. I was so hungry and I knew there was one there so I was holding out for it. Despite only being 3 hours into the drive that day, we wanted to take a little walk break so we walked around the mall for 15 minutes before eating. While there, we took silly photos in the photo booth! They're somewhere in the car a few block away so I'll have to post the photo later.

When we were driving through town again, I noticed the train/public transport and was in awe of it. 

I've never been on that kind of transportation and it's so cool that it goes on the main roads! We were stopped at a red light and one pulled up super fast and stopped next to us and it scared me so bad I thought I was going to throw up. I didn't know what it was! If I had time in Salt Lake City, I'd totally ride it though.

The next big city we stopped in was Boise, Idaho. Neither Vince nor I had any opinions on Idaho because we've never been there and never think about it, so it was interesting to see what was actually there. I did learn that it should be known as the cow state instead of the potato state because holy heck, there were so many cows and the entire 5 hour drive through there smelled like cow dung. Seriously. 

The downtown area was great though and reminded us of a clean Tempe, and they have a huge football stadium so they definitely take pride in their college team! 

We got PF Chang's to go because I was about to have a major hunger meltdown and the hostess told us it was a 45 minute wait time, which we didn't have. Fortunately the coffee shop catty corner to us let us eat on their patio since we were getting coffee, which was nice because it was perfect outside and we didn't want to eat in the car.




One thing that really threw us off was how late the sun set. We left Boise around 10pm and it was still bright! This was taken before we got in the car, around 9:50pm.

The sun finally set around 10:30, which was so weird. It was nice for driving though because it meant less time in the dark.

Finally, around 1am, we arrived at our campsite at Hat Rock Campground in Hermiston, OR. We were meeting a friend named Charlie there who lives in Montana who was also going to Hood River with us, so it was good seeing him. I wasn't feeling very well, I think from the coffee since I never drink it, so I went to lay down early. Vince and Charlie ended up going down to Hat Rock Lake and watching the thunder and lightning while I watched it from the tent. I have never seen so much lightning before and it was so bright! I wish I was feeling well and could have taken photos of it, but with the rain pitter pattering on our tent, I stayed in my sleeping bag and went to sleep.

Honeymoon Road Trip: Day 1

Even though Vince and I got married almost a year ago in September, we are just now taking our honeymoon. Between school full time and work full time, it just hasn't been able to happen until now! To celebrate, we are taking a 15 day road trip from Flagstaff up to Seattle, then slowly down the coast. I will post about each day, though not necessarily on that day! I feel like breaking it up will be the only way I'll actually post about the trip because it's a lot less daunting. Some pictures are taken with the iPhone and the other with my Canon Rebel T2i.

Vince and I somehow survived NINETEEN HOURS together in a car and didn't get into a single fight. For real. That never happens on long drives! He usually tells me a wrong direction, I call him stupid, and we both panic because we're going 80 miles per hour and I'm yelling at him. This time I accepted the fact that I would get wrong directions but we would still arrive at our destination. I'm kind of turning into a grown-up. Unsurprisingly, it made the trip much more pleasant and easy.

On Thursday morning after I had my final for my statistics class, I came home to clean the house for the wonderful people watching the dog/fish/house (thanks Melissa and Zach!) and finish packing. I was running around all crazy but somehow managed to get everything we needed done. I even decorated the car with window crayons!


We left town around 2:30 and hit the road for what we thought was going to be our camp at Yuba Lake State Park. Shortly into the drive it started raining and was wonderful.



I've driven through the reservation many times and while I think it's beautiful, it's only beautiful for so long. This time, though, it was breathtaking. I couldn't believe it could be so gorgeous. The clouds were so richly colored and there was lightning everywhere. The sand/dirt is usually a light pink, but since it was wet it was a deep rich red. Needless to say, I fell in love with rain in the desert. (Vince took these pictures on my phone, by the way, I was driving!)

I wanted to make the drive fun and relaxing, so we made frequent stops. The main exciting place was The Glen Canyon Dam, which made Vince nervous because of the height!




We drove across the 'new' bridge for the first time as well. For those of you who don't know, you used to drive across the dam, but because of national security and the fear of someone blowing it up, they built a fancy new bridge. It's such an odd thing for me because I've always driven over the dam and it's sad to think my kids won't get that kind of experience!

Since Vince had never been before, we also went in the visitors center.



When we got to Zion National Park, which I thought our campground was close to, I told Vince I'd drive another 10 miles before I stopped at a gas station to ask if our camp was close because I felt like we should have been there by then. After not finding it, I asked a lady that worked at a gas station if Yuba Lake was close and she said, "If you think 3 hours is close, then yes." I almost started crying. Vince and I were both really hungry and expected our drive to only be 4 1/2 hours so we could set up camp before dark. We ended up calling my dad (instead of using our phones...doh!) and he said we were indeed 3 hours away from where we wanted to be. So instead of driving the 3 hours, we drove an hour to the next camp site in Panguitch, Utah.

We got to the Hitch & Post around 9 and set up camp in the dark and made some dinner of pork, bell peppers, onions, spinach and a salad.

We were both so excited to be able to be out of the car! I was also extremely excited to use the lantern and stove that we had bought. I grew up using these exact styles when we camped, so it was crazy to see that the design hasn't changed in years. Needless to say, I love them and Vince does now, too. We also enjoyed some gin and tonics that I got for an early birthday present (thanks Lynn and Kyle!) before we got ready for bed.

As I was setting up the lantern mantles, I hit them which made parts of it fall apart, causing a creepy smiley face!

Shortly after eating,  we got ready for bed and it started pouring again, but luckily we were cozy and in sleeping bags! If you are ever driving through Utah and need to camp around Panguitch, I highly recommend this place! The owner, Randy, was extremely nice and accommodating for us to show up so late (it was 10pm Utah time) and at the last minute. It was a great and quiet little camp spot!