End of Summer Vacation!!!

Margo has been a trooper going to school all summer long, and now she'll again putting her nose to the grindstone as she goes right into Fall semester. To give her a break, I promised that we'd go on a vacation at the end of the summer, before we had to go back to school. It also worked out great because we had a friends getting married in Portland and he needed to get his truck there, but didn't want to drive it. We offered to drive it there for him and then we could fly back. We started the trip going across Nevada. Along the way Margo made be a sandwich. Just to be funny I asked for 3/4 of a sandwich. To my surprise... and just to be funny... she made just that, as you can see from the picture.

Margo and I have always enjoyed stopping and seeing LDS Temples whenever we're on the road and so we made a point to do it while on this trip. Our first temple stop was at the Reno NV Temple. It's a smaller Temple, but still pretty cool. Instead on being adjacent to a Stake Center is located on the top of a hill overlooking the city. I thought the site was fabulous. As we neared the California border we were a little leery. Half way across Nevada I remembered that you can't take fresh produce into California and Margo had packed a cooler full of fresh produce. So the entire day were both eating cherries, grapes, apples, and all kinds of vegetables. We even stopped in to see my brother Eric in Elko to give him a bunch of stuff. By the time we got to California we had ridded our vehicle of everything but half a head of lettuce. When we got to the border they asked us if we had any fresh fruits or vegetables, to which I answered "We have half a wed of hettuce." The inspector dude didn't say anything and just flagged us on by. We both burst out laughing. It was pretty funny.

We forged ahead making a quick stop at the Sacramento CA Temple. Again, this temple is set up on a beautiful hill. I really like the architecture of this temple. The portico and grounds are exquisite. We actually saw a herd of turkeys walking around the grounds. We continued on, stopping in Stockton to see my brother Nathan. He treated us to dinner at a great restaurant called Dave Wong's. We really enjoyed it and it had been a long time since we spent time with Nathan. That night we stayed at a Motel 6 in Livermore. Awful experience. We'll know not to do that again. We got up early the next morning to attend a session at the Oakland CA Temple. I had been there once before and was very excited to show it to Margo. It sits on a beautiful hill overlooking the entire Bay area.

After the Temple we spent the day in San Francisco. Highlights included The California Academy of the Sciences, the shopping district which included a stop at Anthropology (Margo's favorite clothing store), and the main event: tickets to see the show Wicked at the Orpheum Theater. We absolutely loved seeing Wicked. There's nothing that beats seeing a live show, performed at its best. Overall, San Francisco is a great city to visit because there is so much to do and see. It's truly an amazing city.

That night we drove north after the show and just pulled over and found a nice residential area where we could stop and sleep. In the morning when I got out to stand up I found that the night before I had spilled a package of junior mint candies on the seat and had sat on them all night. That was a little mess to clean up. Sorry Chase! We gradually worked our way over to the coast where we traveled all the way up to Yachats, Oregon, where Megan and Perry were vacationing with Perry's family. The drive was absolutely beautiful. We passed through an area with giant redwood trees. They were amazing.

Driving along the coast was slow but definitely worth it. That night we spent some time with Megan and Perry and stayed at a nice motel that was pretty close to the beach. The next morning we went for a walk down the beach.

The next day we traveled into Portland. We both really liked the feel of a city in a forest. We looked around the sites in Portland which included the riverfront, where we tried steamed mussels and shark for lunch, and the famous Powell's Bookstore. We bought an old copy of the Wizard of Oz and the book Wicked in memory of the trip. That night we stayed at a beautiful bed and breakfast called the Briar Rose just across the river to the north in
Vancouver Washington. We stayed in
the Hemingway Room.



The next day we attended our friends wedding at the Portland Temple and their reception that evening. It was a great trip. We both saw so many new and exciting things, most of which we'd never seen before. It was just what we needs before starting a very busy semester.