The Oregon/Washington trip summary post.....

Yeah, I got distracted, by what I don't know because it's not like my days were not mostly my own, but time got away from me and I stopped blogging after Astoria, so what came next?

We left Astoria and set off for Enumclaw, a few hours away and the home of a friend who offered their driveway for a weekend visit.  Lot's of fun times, a darling little town and a day trip to Mt. Rainier which was amazing!

Next a short drive to Woodinville where we hung out for a week with another driveway friend.  We've been before and it's a great spot.

Unrelated to travel but my brilliant husband made this to replace the white plastic one....I'm not a big fan of white plastic so it was much appreciated.  An Ikea cutting board cut round.

Our Woodinville home for a week.  Great weather and a couple of outings, one to Leavenworth, which we didn't even know was a Bavarian town....very touristy but fun enough.  Mark was in search of a particular winery to acquire a poster that he had seen and loved in Enumclaw.  Turned out to be a nice day.  We also did an outing to Edmonds and one to Bellevue where there just happens to be a glassy baby store.

Breeze had been released THAT day, how lucky was I do have been able to pick out my own?  and the second teal one is gratitude of which I have much.

Next driveway, Sequim Washington and the beach house of a friend....our driveway luck has been very very good!

We left Sequim and took many many a windy road back through Astoria and stopping once again at Rudy's roadside grill for the best burger and the absolutely best brussel sprouts ever.  Then off to Manzanita.

I'm a scaredy cat plain and simple, I don't like windy roads with sheer drops.  Every now and then I meet someone who is the same and we lament over the fact that if you don't have that particular fear, you just don't get it.  Well all the way to Seattle, no scary roads, all was good.  Almost all the way to Manzanita was good and then came THE MOUNTAIN, sheer drop to the ocean.....I willed myself to breathe and it was a short span, but it terrified me and got me fearing the rest of our coastal plans.  However....it would take backtracking to go back to the 5, where Eugene was 109 degrees and there were fires.....so that was not practical.....So we carried on the next morning and I was fine, nothing scary.  We made it to Bannon by the Sea and from there a little more south and we cut over to Garberville.  The giant redwoods were awesome!

I like to change up the table decor.  This was the view at  Nehalem State park which was near Manzanita Oregon

After a night in Garberville and an excellent dinner at the recommended Benbow historic inn we headed to Santa Cruz for a visit with the kids.  Santa Cruz RV redwoods is like coming home to us.  We stay there often and adore being in the trees and near family.  I also got to eat at Shogun my favorite Sushi in downtown Santa Cruz and meet my friend Rachel for hummus and bagels at the bagelry.

One final night and I decided to treat ourselves to an ocean view site in Malibu.....It was magical, expensive but magical and I can see doing it again!

So that sums up the rest of our West Coast trip this year.  I had to do it so I could move on to the next trip, the Albuquerque Balloon Festival!  Absolutely cannot wait, have wanted to do this forever!