Continued from last week
Day 11
We slept in a little bit, since this was just a travel day. Breakfast, clean up, pack the van, then go.
We drove for a while to our first destination – lunch at The Notorious P.I.G.
It was a good BBQ, but even better is they had a serve-yourself drink station. They kids were able to mix and match pop and lemonade and iced tea to their hearts’ content. Plus they got to fill up before getting back on the road so they couldn’t complain about being thirsty in the van. Due to that, we made extra sure everyone used the bathroom.
As far as the food goes, it was good. There was some sort of a package that got us a better deal than individual meals. I did not like the brisket as it was too fatty. But they had squeeze bottles of BBQ sauce on each table, along with rolls of paper towels, so it qualified as a standard BBQ joint.
If you do go looking for it, it is a bit off the freeway, more into the heart of downtown. But it’s not too bad to get there. And much better than any fast food that can be found right at the freeway.
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Continued from last week
Day 9
We awoke rather cold, and early. I took a couple of the kids back to the lounge car so we could sit with the huge windows and see the scenery. The problem with the large windows is that there is not as much between you and the weather, so that car was even colder.
The conductor came through the car and made sure we knew our stop was coming up soon, so we gathered our things and made sure everyone was packed up and ready to go. Whitefish was a slightly longer stop, as they had to unload not only our checked bags but others’ as well. But the conductor treats every stop the same – be ready to go or they’ll leave with you (or if you’ve stepped out for fresh air, they’ll leave without you).
Here our first foray onto Montanan soil. Whitefish, MT, in particular.
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Continued from last week
Day 8
This was a day of more travel. We started out with a good breakfast at the hotel. Then we had to pack and make sure we got everything. Then it was the 6 of us with all our luggage off to the street behind the hotel to catch the bus to downtown. Our first destination was the train station.
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Continued from last week
Day 6
This was a day of more bus rides. We started out with a good breakfast at the hotel, albeit very crowded. Then off to the street behind the hotel to catch the bus out to Ballard. We hopped on, rode for a bit, made a transfer, rode for a little while more, and ended up at the entrance to the Ballard Locks and Botanical Garden.
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Continued from last week
We drove from Santa Cruz, CA to Monterey, CA. It was a little over an hour, if I remember correctly. Not much to see, other than farm fields and the occasional glimpse of the ocean. We made it to our hotel in Monterey without any incident.
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Continued from last week
We flew from Phoenix, AZ to San Jose, CA. It was a quick simple flight, but a little later at night. We arrived in the evening, got another rental Dodge minivan, and headed out to Santa Cruz. Since our hotel was to have a fridge, we stopped at the grocery store on the way. Probably about 9pm, so I stayed in the minivan with one sleeping kid and one not-wanting-to-walk-around kid while the others went shopping for the next couple days worth of snacks and lunches. I’m sure I stood out as a non-local, because I was not driving those hilly curvy roads as fast as the other vehicles.
We checked into the Seaway Inn around 10pm. On the plus side, their front office is open 24/7 so check-in was not a problem. On the minus side, they have a small parking lot, so we had to unload and then I had to park around the corner.
In the morning, I took the younger two kids down to breakfast. We were there just after they opened, because we weren’t quite on Pacific time yet. We then went back up to our room, told the others we were going to the ocean, and left.
This is the view from our window: across the street was another hotel, and beyond that hotel was the ocean.
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We took a longer vacation this year, so there are a lot of photos. I won’t share all of them, but it should be enough for you to get a feeling for how it went.
First off, a flight to Phoenix. The plan was to have all carry-on luggage, nothing checked. So everyone had one large (carry-on size) bag and one small (personal item size) bag.
The fun started at the airport parking. Because we were going to be gone for about two weeks, I parked offsite. So we parked and then had to get in the shuttle – 6 people and 12 bags. The kids obliged the driver and gave him a number of bags to load in the back, which meant I had to give him a number of dollars for a tip. I saw that as a learning opportunity for the kids – one of the many new experiences they would have.
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This is Alpha, the first-born, when he was 2YO.
This is Beta, the second-born, when he was about 2YO.
This is Gamma, the third-born, when he was about 18MO.
