Back to Cali

Saturday we made the drive from Oregon to California. We took I-5 to Grant's Pass, Oregon, then caught route 199, also known as the Redwood Highway, and decented into California to the coast where it met highway 101 at Crescent City and we took that all the way to Eureka. Being the longest either of us have ever been out of the state, we were never so happy to see the "Welcome to California" sign, not to mention all the towering redwood trees and the pacific ocean. I can honestly that day of driving and the scenery we saw was my favorite from our whole trip. Nothing does it for me more than the giant redwoods.Visiting the towns of Arcada and Eureka were a treat as well, both exuding the mello California vibe that I missed so much. We got a hotel room for our last night on the road in Eureka because the forecast called for rain, then Sunday morning we headed south for our last 4 hours in the van on this fantastic journey. We arrived in Healdsburg, to our new home, and were greeted with the friendly faces of Gianna, Gabriel and Lisa. Gianna is one of my best friends from high school, and was one of my bridesmaids. Her and her husband Gabriel recently purchased the house that we will be renting from them and they live in the house behind it, so they will not only be our landlords, but also our next door neighbors - and we couldn't be happier about the arrangement. Lisa is a good friend of ours who grew up in Healdsburg and happened to be in town. She greeted us with a reusable grocery bag full of locally made sourdough bread, goat cheese, gourmet olives, champagne, strawberries, blueberries, pineapple and a tall boy of Coors Light special for Kyle. That night Gianna and Gabriel invited us, by way of an extended invitation, to their friend's house, Katlin and Zach, for our first dinner in Healdsburg as residents. Katlin and Zach have an extensive garden, as well as chickens and made us homemade chicken pot pie from a chicken they slaughtered earlier that day. The flavor was out of this world. We felt the love from everyone and appreciate our friends more than they know.

Southern Oregon

Officially back in California!

Yes, I am bowing to the sign

Driving through the redwoods

Back at the Pacific

Kyle's last drive

You can really see the scale of the trees with the car below,

and with the tree line of the other trees that they tower over.

Wine Country!

Our new home in Healdsburg, California

Heading Home

We've been so excited this whole trip to see new sites, but nothing compares to the excitement of returning home. Thursday night we camped in Montana near the Idaho boarder off of I-90. We got a great site the national forest right on the Clark Fork river. Friday we woke and made our longest drive yet on this trip from where we were camped in Montana through the Bitterroot Mountain range into the Idaho panhandle, through Spokane Washington where we headed south into Oregon. We ended the day south of Eugene, Oregon at a little RV park right off I-5. All the signs were telling us we had made the right decision to start heading home. We even saw a sign for "Finley, Washington", which made us think of our 3 year old niece, Finley, who has apparently been asking Kyle's sister Amy every day when are Uncle Kyle and Auntie Jen coming to visit... which means to us it's been too long! We were more than excited to get back into Pacific standard time zone, which doesn't sound like it would be exciting but for some reason gave us the comfort of home. West Coast... it's good to be back! We have another day of driving, and plan to visit and stay in Eureka tonight and should be back in Healdsburg, California to our new home by tomorrow!

One of Kyle's jobs...hammering in the tent stakes

Our site in the National Forest in Montana near Idaho

 Driving through the Bitterroot Mountain Range in Montaina/Idaho

A long line of train cars in Washington

Finley! Finley, Washington that is...

Do you like how they use a silhouette of George Washington's head for their state highway sign?

Columbia River in Oregon

Columbia River, a few hours outside of Portland

Lake Tahoe of Montana

Tuesday we drove about 2 hours north of Missoula, which is also about an hour and a half south of the Canadian boarder to Flathead Lake. I guess it's only natural to associate places we visit with places we know from home, but this lake reminded us a lot of Lake Tahoe. It's a huge lake that is longer than it is wide and it's got all kinds of little towns and communities along it's shores. The water is cold and crystal clear, obviously snow run off and the back drop are stunning snow capped mountains. We got a camp site at the second place we tried. The first spot was completely full and the place we ended up, West Shore State Park, only had a spot for 2 nights, but was completely reserved for the weekend starting on Thursday. So we stayed Tuesday and Wednesday and enjoyed the tall pine trees and the noisy squirrels that lived in them, the trails from our site to the water and went into the nearest town, Lakeside, and walked around for a bit. Thursday we tried our luck at a few other campgrounds near by, as well as, visited the towns of Whitefish and Columbia Falls, and after being turned away twice for full capacity we decided to head back south and in the direction of California.

Our camp site at Flathead Lake

Flathead Lake

Heading back south towards Missoula from Flathead Lake

This truck stopped at the gas station at the same time as us...

Check out the stained glass back window - bad ass!

Missoula On My Mind

Since Yellowstone was way too crowded for our tastes we high tailed it to Missoula, Montana where our good friend & one of the bridesmaids from our wedding, Jennifer McBride, lives and is going to school getting a Masters in Environmental Science with a  focus in water rights. She is an avid outdoorsmen and beer drinker and when we arrived she was like a puppy greeting you after being gone all day – super excited and full of energy. We did a bike tour of Missoula, went to a brewery, ate Pizza then hung out with her roommates who were having a BBQ at the house. Saturday we went to the farmer’s market, went to a different brewery, then a winery and ended the day fairly early. Sunday we went for a hike in the Bitterroot Mountains which are south of Missoula, then went to a brewery (are you seeing a pattern?) that had a blonde ale which was my favorite of all the beers I tasted in the area and ended the day playing pool at one of Jennifer’s favorite bars. Jennifer’s job this summer requires her to stay at a ranch about an hour east of Missoula from Monday through Thursday, so Sunday evening we parted ways for the week and made plans to meet her near Glacier National Park on Friday morning, then camp with her over the next weekend. Our plan as of right now is to head home to California after that, which we are more than excited and ready for!

Me and Jennifer when we arrived in Missoula

Big Creek Valley in the Bitterroot Mountains, MT

Jennifer's dog, Cody

At the top in the middle you can (barely) see a natural arch formation

Kyle and Jennifer at Blacksmith Brewing Company in Stevensville, MT

Me behind some empty pints

Yellowstone

Yellowstone is a beautiful park with so many wonderous sites to see, so I will let the photos do the talking... 

We watched this group of birds feed in the Snake River by our campsite in the national forest between Grand Tetons & Yellowstone National Parks.

Old Faithful

This geyser shot so much water out it blew onto the walk way.

yellow wild flowers covering a hillside

A black bear mama with her 2 cubs.

You can see one of the cubs next to the log behind the mama.

We watched the cubs wrestle with each other as the mama grazed on the grass.

A herd of about 30 (mostly young) elk were walking through the Manmmoth Lodge area as we were driving through. 

We couldn't find camping in Yellowstone so we headed to BLM land north of the park and found this awesome spot right on the Yellowstone river that we were able to camp at for free and it was totally private.

We were surrounded by mountains and nothing but the sound of the river beside us.

We also got to watch a very colorful sunset.