Sunday was an interesting day to say the least! We left Lincoln City in the late morning. We saw that there was an A&W coming up right around lunch time, so decided to stop there, thinking we would be able to enjoy Mozza burgers. Nope. This was a weird A&W - a drive up with a weird menu - the only A&W like thing they had was a Papa Burger and root beer! We had to eat in our van, and they couldn't even take our garbage because of "Covid". It was a most bizarre experience. Moving on!
We had decided that morning to try renting a dune buggy type vehicle and try driving on the Oregon sand dunes - fun experience, right?? Well, we got a six seater and Adam was ready to go as soon as we got there. He was anxious because he didn't know what this experience would be, but he did seem like he was eager to give it a go. The guys at the rental place were wonderful and tried to get us going as quickly as possible, but as you can imagine there was a lot of paperwork and Brian had to watch a safety video etc. We weren't able to actually get driving for a half hour. By the time we got going, Adam was very worked up - waiting is NOT his strong suit! I was pretty worried this whole experience was going to be ruined, and 15 minutes into our little ride it looked like I was not far off. We got to this big open sand dune area, and Brian starts driving up this hill. Adam is screaming about being done, but NATHAN was also screaming about being terrified! I was in the back with Nathan, trying to reassure him to trust Dad (although I did find out later that Brian wasn't as confident in that moment as I thought he was lol!). It was just a big gong show. We pulled over after this incident and tried to collect ourselves before deciding what to do. Adam and Nathan both wanted to go back to the van, Lynsey appeared indifferent, and I really wanted to keep going to try and stretch Adam, and show Nathan that this kind of thing can be fun. We decided to head back to the entrance of the sand dunes and see where everyone was at. When we got there, there was a path to this beach. No more big hills, just a sandy road to the beach. We decided to give it a try! Nathan actually settled down and liked this part, not more big hills, just little rolling hills the whole way. Adam still wasn't loving it, but the screaming toned down to a steady rant. We got to the beach, took a quick selfie, and back we went! In the end we did end up staying out for a whole hour, so we got our money's worth haha! You never know until you try, right?? Brian had fun, and Nathan enjoyed part of it, and who knows what Lynsey thought of it (she wasn't divulging). I was just glad we survived! Hopefully Adam ended up with some good memories, he did calm down immediately when we got back, so he wasn't escalated to high heaven at least.
After our dune buggy adventure, we made our way to Crescent City for our next hotel stop. We had a huge room - two queen beds in the main suite part, and then two more queen beds in the attached bedroom! The pool at this hotel was indoors, and not restricted. This was the only location we have found anywhere that was both of those things, and probably with good reason to be honest. It was a bit of a madhouse in the pool, but Brian and I are pretty much fully immune at this point and we're not too worried about the kids, so I didn't stress about it too much:-). Brian took both boys in the morning again, and they had the whole pool to the themselves so that was nice!
Our next stop was Fern Canyon, home of a few scenes from Jurassic Park 2! That wasn't the main draw for me, it sounded like an interesting thing to see so we went for it. It wasn't that big of a detour in miles, but the road was very narrow and windy. We get to this booth when there was only about 3 miles left, and there was an actual ranger in the booth collecting money, so we're thinking this is a fairly major park, should be relatively accessible, right? It was about a hundred meters after this booth that the potholes started. So bad! And THEN we come across this big puddle of water on the road - now what! We were pulled over, thinking about what we should do, when this Prius comes up behind us, takes a quick look, and zooms on through. We thought if he can do it, so can we! When we finally got to the parking lot, we couldn't believe how many cars were in it - it was pretty dicey getting through even with our minivan! We get out and walk to the canyon, only to find out that there was a lot of water to walk through. Nathan and I took our socks and shoes off and walked through parts of it, but it was cold and the rocks were sharp, kind of a pain. Adam was okay with walking on his bare feet for parts of it, but he got tired of it as well. Lynsey was the only one that got herself a walking stick and managed to do the entire walk without getting her feet wet! This was actually a really good stop even if just for the reason that it seemed like Lynsey really enjoyed the challenge of trying to get through it without getting her feet wet. The way back, Brian ended up carrying both boys a lot of the way - no easy task! Adam was pretty stressed by the time we got back to the path, but all in all it was worth doing in my estimation:-). The scenery was beautiful, we saw Lynsey come to life a little, and yet another imperfect situation where Adam had a chance to adapt to a new plan. Building those muscles one problem at a time haha!
On the road again! With no more planned stops, it was time to get to our hotel in Eureka. When we got there, the check in experience was a bit tense. The parking lot was very cramped and there were big groups of people standing outside the entrance - it had a big time Spring Break-y vibe. Not good for us. I had to sign so many things saying we weren't going to have parties and that we wouldn't be bringing any unregistered guests to the pool (they had a heated outdoor pool and hot tub). It was not a great first impression. Thankfully, when we got to our room, we started to settle in and our stay there was perfectly fine. They had a big hot tub and they had heated the water in the pool enough that the boys could swim in it. It was a really nice setting, too - the palm trees and music made you feel like you were in a tropical place, even though we clearly were not! We got some Indian food for dinner, and watched The Matrix as a family - even Nathan was pretty interested until the end (which is not something to take for granted!).
Tuesday, we had another hot tub/pool session in the morning and got back on the road - destination Redding! It wasn't a very long drive, but it was very mountainous and with lots of sharp turns. Adam kept asking about making a stop to go on a walk, so Brian found a waterfall not too far off the highway that we stopped at. It was a perfect stop! Short walk, beautiful weather, beautiful waterfall, just what we need to make it the rest of the way. When we got to our hotel, we got settled and checked out the pool (outdoor again, but it was warm in Redding so I thought it would be fine). Unfortunately, this hotel did not heat their pool as well as the last place did. At around 5pm there wasn't much sun left, and Adam wasn't impressed with the temperature of the water and pretty much went straight to the hot tub. We decided to try again the next day right when the sun was the warmest and hope for the best. We got some Italian take out, watched some Great British Bakeoff as a family, and called it a night! In our ADJOINING ROOMS for the first time ever! Can I just ask, how, after you have experienced adjoining rooms, can you ever go back to one room?? I'm only partly joking! It was the best set up - the rooms were really nice to begin with, and having that extra bathroom was so nice. Quite a lovely treat!
On Wednesday morning, we made our way over to Lake Shasta Caverns. I was so nervous about this outing, there was no way of knowing how Adam would do. We tried our best to explain what was going to happen, that it wouldn't be dark, that he would be with Dad, but still it was a total crapshoot! Everything was very smooth when we got there, we got our boarding passes for the boat and walked right down to the dock area. The boat driver was great, answered all of Nathan's questions. Adam seemed really happy about the boat ride! The bus ride up to the cave was also perfectly fine, no stress at all. When we got to the cave entrance, we had to wait a little bit for our tour to start but it wasn't too bad. I was pretty anxious to see how Adam would do, and he really impressed me at the start of the tour - even smiled a bit! I could see it wasn't his favorite thing, but he really did seem to be trying! He had some moments where he started to get a bit elevated, but somehow he managed to recover each time - Brian didn't even have to take the halfway point exit with him! He was doing well at that point, so he decided to forge ahead! They made it all the way to the Cathedral room right at the end, and then they had to exit. Thankfully the guide was really understanding and let them leave before the group. It was an awesome cave and at least Nathan really enjoyed the tour (again, hard to say what Lynsey thought of it).
We got some lunch before heading back to the hotel, Nathan and I wanted In and Out burgers, but Adam had it in his head that he wanted a hot dog, so Brian, Lynsey and Adam got some food from Costco. Then we went back to the hotel for some mid-day swimming. Much warmer outside, but the water was still a bit colder than was comfortable. Adam had a much better time this time, though - he tolerated the water this time! It was a nice afternoon at the pool, even Lynsey got in on the fun!
We decided to go to Red Robin for dinner, and actually ate INSIDE the restaurant - I think this was the second time we had eaten inside a restaurant as a family since the pandemic started. Adam was very happy about it!
Thursday morning, it was time to head back towards home! Before we left Redding, I made Brian stop at Bethel Church, just because:-D. The trip was okay, we had a long delay on the highway because of a big semi truck accident. Adam was not happy about it. It was a stressful 50 minutes for sure! Once we got through that, things settled down thankfully. We got to Eugene around 5:30 and had a swim time set up for 6. The kids had a lot of fun in this pool! It was indoors, we were in there by ourselves, and the water was nice and warm:-). We got some delicious Italian food from a local place (Brian and I got salads because we just felt like our bodies needed it!), watched some more Great British Bakeoff and off to bed! Last night of vacation!
Friday morning, Lynsey and I drove to downtown Eugene to get some Voodoo Donuts (Lynsey really wanted them!). Then we checked out of the hotel and had some brunch at Denny's (Nathan's choice!) before getting back on the road. The drive back was okay, some spots of slow traffic were a bit stressful for Adam but we got through it. What a trip! All in all, a really fun vacation! Now we get back to real life, with lots of activities and more in-person school starting up again soon.
No comments:
Post a Comment