Day 9

We left whatever little town in Washington we spent the night in and headed for Bellingham after a good night’s sleep.

It turned out that we’d driven further than originally planned on Day 8, so instead of having two or three hours of driving to Bellingham, we had less than one. Hurray! It was much less stressful this way, not having to worry about whether or not we would be on time to catch the ferry.

Just outside of the city we stopped at Blanchard Mountain Coffee company for coffee. Actually we stopped for gas and a bathroom break, but this is Washington, after all, so no one was surprised to see a drive through espresso shop. I got an Americano, which is always a little bit of a risk, but it is incredible. Although I just found out there are three shots of espresso in it instead of my usual two shots. That could have something to do with it…

When we arrived in Bellingham, it looked much like I’d remembered. It’s a cute little town built on the hillside with lots of adorable shops downtown within walking distance of the ferry terminal. It was all a little too “hipster” for John, but I really enjoyed it.

One of my friends I met on an online pastor’s wives forum, Kelsey, drove down from Canada with her family to hang out with us. It was so fun to meet her in person and get to meet her kids and husband too! They spent a lot of the day with us and helped the time pass by much more quickly. Any guesses as to how easy it is to keep two active boys contained and quiet in one building for hours?

Haha. Yeah.

We got in our truck to be ready to drive on at three and were about twenty minutes early. We eventually discovered, however, that the ferry people have you ready way before it’s actually time. Part of the reason we waited so long may have been because of where we are getting off—they seemed to have organized the cars somewhat by destination, which makes logical sense. Sometime after five—five thirty, maybe? Maybe a little before—we drove onto the ferry, grabbed the kids and our luggage, and headed up the stairs.

(Above is the view from our cabin window. It's the center of the boat--cool, huh?)

(Do you see this tent? That's how some people sleep on the ferry. On the deck. In a tent.

I love Alaska.

John loved the first night on the ferry. Josh was excited to board but once we got on he wanted to go back to the dock. And me? If you know me you know that I’m really not good at trying new things (even new-ish—since I’ve done this before) without being nervous about something, so I struggled with that the first day. We had a delicious 4^th of July dinner in the dining room here (which is super nice!!) and then put the boys (and me) to bed.

Day 8

Leaving Fruitland on the morning of Day 8 was bittersweet. We are headed to Alaska, which is more exciting than I can express, so driving away put us closer to that goal. But I wished we could have stayed longer with the extended Foss family. We really all just need to live in the same place again.

The drive was gorgeous on Day 8. Well, gorgeous in between the parts that were utterly brown and unremarkable. The streams in Oregon reminded me of the streams and rivers in Alaska, with shallow, clear water glittering over the rocks. I could definitely live in Oregon.

 

We stopped for coffee in Ellensberg, Washington. Are you sensing a theme with our stops yet? It was good, although nothing has compared to Laramie, Wyoming yet as far as coffee. The coffee here was good…It was a fairly light espresso roast, it tasted like, with a hint of nuttiness. Maybe more than a hint since John is allergic to nuts and showed some signs of a possible small allergic reaction after drinking it.

We saw Mt. Rainier in the distance from far away. There was another big mountain in the middle of nowhere, so it took us a little while to figure out for sure which one was Mt. Rainier. It was huge, still snowcovered, and kind of….loomed in the distance. It’s hard to describe how it looked…but it almost looked like it knew it was a big deal. Like it demanded respect in a quiet, seemingly-peaceful way.

Clearly I need more coffee this morning…

 We stopped on the summit of Snoqualmie Pass and it was adorable. I could live here too. The mountain views, the coffee shops everywhere…I’m pretty sure God designed me for the Pac Northwest.

 We stopped for the night past our original goal. We’d meant to stop in Snoqualmie, but couldn’t find an RV park. So we got a hotel in Marysville instead.

Day 7

We spent Day 7 in Idaho with friends. From my friend Rachael’s house, we took a “quick” walk to Walmart. It was a mile there and a mile back, which reminded me that they’re from Alaska. Haha. Don’t get me wrong, it actually was fun walk, and not too long. It was just longer than I expected. People where I’m from in Georgia don’t really walk anywhere. At least no one I know really walks to get anywhere. We may take walks, but most of the people I know take a car if they have a destination in mind. I don’t know if it’s the heat/humidity or just the lifestyle in general, but people out here walk more (and further). So that was fun, but just a reminder that mindsets are so different.

In other news, I am planning to do some fun blog posts after our trip with what I’m calling my “Vacation Induced Resolutions.” When we drove to Alaska in 2011 I made a list in the RV on the way home of things I had decided I wanted to do differently because of our trip. Some of these were things that the people we stayed with did, and some were things from Alaska in general. For instance, there are so  many pretty flowers around the city, so I decided that despite my black thumb, I wanted to have some pretty flowers at my house. I did plant pansies earlier this year, so it only took me three. Haha. But things like that. This year one I’ve already made a note of is the toy storage at Rachael’s house—the toys were cleaned up so fast there! And in my house it takes so much longer, so I think there’s something I can do to make that better…anyway, I’m planning to make a huge list and share it in August, probably. I’m liking this whole blogging thing, so I think keeping up with it will be on my list too.

From Rachael’s, we drove to her parents’ house in Fruitland, Idaho. The Fosses have been our friends for fourteen years, which is a long time especially when you consider how often my family has moved. Being with them was like being with family—it didn’t matter that a decade and a half had passed since we spent time together regularly. We all just fell back into our normal routines, although some things have changed with time. Rachael’s siblings have all grown up and now the little kids running around were our kids. We had a fabulous time just being together, swimming, eating incredible homemade icecream, drinking insane amounts of coffee (one of the things that cements our friendship), and playing Apples to Apples until way too late into the night.

I was too busy having fun to get many pictures on this day--but I think there may be some on my Facebook if Rachael tagged me in them? 

Day 6

 We left Evanston, Wyoming and headed to Boise on the morning of Day 6! It was exciting to be closer to seeing our friends, but the RV park from this night was probably my favorite so far. It was just shaded and natural enough to feel like camping, but nice enough with nice facilities to not feel like we were roughing it.

The thing about roughing it, lest all of my outdoorsy friends think I’ve sold out, is that it’s really fun short term. And it’s really fun if you’re an adult. But when you’re camping semi-long term with two small kids, some aminities are nice. My favorite one at this RV park was the playground. I’m such a mom, right? The funny thing about the playground is that it was metal. Now y’all who had kids a long time ago or who don’t have kids yet might not pay much attention to playgrounds these days, but let me tell you…if they are metal at all (and that’s a big if), they’re coated metal. Most parts of them are plastic.

This playground was just straight up silver colored metal.

The slide was plastic, but the drop off was kind of like the slide of doom, so that made up for it. The moral of the story is that nothing about this playground was safe. It looked like the ones I grew up with, where you could use your imagination and play and be just a little bit unsafe. I hadn’t realized how tame playgrounds were these days…

Our drive took us into Utah very quickly and the interstate went into the mountains. The rocks on the mountains were red, and they contrasted with the green trees. It was all at once desolate and beautiful, and utterly isolated wilderness in places. The interesting thing out here is that it sometimes seems arbitrary where the towns are. It’s just wilderness and then all of the sudden there’s a town.

We drove fairly close to the Great Salt Lake. We may have seen part of it? We’re not really sure. But we did enjoy looking at the faded, hazy desert mountains in the distance. It’s so interesting to me how the mountains all have different colors.

In Mountain Home, Idaho we stopped for coffee at a drive through stand (why can’t we have more of those in Georgia???), and then through Boise to Nampa, Idaho where my friend Rachael lives. We spent the night at her adorable house with her and her family. That was one of the highlights in the trip since it had been six years since we’d seen each other, and we’ve each had two kids since then. The boys got along well, our husbands had fun talking theology, and we enjoyed catching up and getting to talk in person, instead of on the phone while we fold laundry.

Day 5

We started today in Sidney, Nebraska. Not too far out of town we saw a random coyote in a field, which was fun. That’s the second I’ve seen this trip (I think I forgot to mention the one in Kansas). The landscape around this part of Nebraska is beautiful in a rugged way. Very “out west” feeling. We saw a lot of trains, which Josh loved, of course.

This part of the west and the plains make me think of the trip John and I took to Montana in 2008 to interview at a church there. We didn’t take the job because we didn’t feel like that was the church for us (nor were we the couple they needed), but still…I love this part of the country and so does John, and we loved the people at that church, so everytime I’m somewhere that looks like Eastern Montana I feel this weird combination of excitement at what it would be like to move out there, maybe a hint of regret that we didn’t when we had the chance, and eventually the knowledge that God intentionally didn’t send us out there, so it’s okay we aren’t there. It is beautiful country, though.

I made a note in my notebook that we’d seen six antelope, but honestly, we’ve seen at least thirty more since then, so I’m not going to keep an exact antelope count anymore. Haha. I did see one with antlers, standing on the top of a hill looking very “king of the mountain.”

The landscape out here is made of rough, tufty grass, low bushes, and grey rock. Something about uninviting, rugged land looks like home to me. Maybe it’s my love for Alaska, which is gorgeous, breathtaking, and inhospitable all at the same time?

The tall grass here really did look like ocean waves. I followed the wind while it blew through the tops of the grass and it waved in the sun. It was really cool looking. It’s just something I’m sure I’ve heard described, but I didn’t realize how accurate the description was before and I certainly didn’t realize something so mundane as grass could be so beautiful.

I’d like to tell you that the way I was able to enjoy the sight of that waving grass was an indication that I was a happy traveler this morning, but honestly I was started to get a bit grumpy at our lack of progress. One particular stretch that should have taken an hour and a half took us two  and a half hours, and while I know that traveling is different with kids, we’ve traveled with them before, so this just seemed extreme to me. Even though we can’t catch the ferry until a certain date, I just somehow felt the need to hurry.

I feel that a lot, I’ve realized.

When we saw a sign for “the best coffee you’ve ever tasted” I think we took it as a bit of a challenge. Like, we had to try this coffee and see if they were anywhere close to correct in their boasting. We needed gas anyway, so we pulled off the road in Laramie, Wyoming. The coffee shop wasn’t near the interstate, which made me cringe a little because we just don’t explore towns. We pull over, we get what we need, we leave. The end. But my dad drove to the coffee shop, Coal Creek Coffee Company. Downtown Laramie was adorable. ADORABLE. I’m not sure how to describe it. For one thing, it had a beautiful view of the mountains, which were still dotted with snow. It was also clean and alive looking. Think classic western town, but with murals on some of the buildings (cute ones), and a hint of the culture of Savannah, Anchorage, or Asheville. Somehow the vibe was familiar to me, and it was just civilized enough and just frontier enough to make me feel at home. The coffee shop itself was a combination of industrial and cozy, with the kind of atmosphere that made you want to sit in a table by the window and read a book. Or maybe write. Oh, the books I could write there…It reminded me very much of Gallery Espresso in Savannah, which is one of my favorite coffee shops.

That stop made me remember that if we’d wanted to go fast, we would have flown. Driving isn’t just about avoiding being 35,000 feet above the ground (although I appreciate that part of it). It’s about enjoying the journey.

So I sipped my French roast coffee, sat back in my seat in the car, and watched the dark blue and snowy mountains and the rolling Wyoming landscape pass by outside of my window.

And I enjoyed the journey.

I’ve decided I’m moving to Laramie, Wyoming. In case anyone wants to visit…

Not far west of Laramie we passed two would-be hitchhikers. One had a guitar and one had a drum, so if you ever want to pick up musical hitchhikers, apparently this is the place to do it.

We also stopped at a rest stop near Elk Mountain. The wind there was intense. We read on a sign that it can get up to 70mph there. It wasn’t that bad today, but it was enough that we held onto the kids tightly. Haha. We ate lunch there, then got the boys to go to sleep, and continued across Wyoming on I-80.

We made it all the way to end of Wyoming, Evanston, and the entire drive through Wyoming was gorgeous. The mountain views, the wide expanses (although I don't think the sky is as big as Montana's...)...This was a great day.