Going Home...Slowly

We woke up, got dressed, and got some breakfast Saturday morning.  We were not in a big hurry, but we did want to get on the road.  So after breakfast we packed the car and then checked out of our hotel.
Our plan was to drive up the coast and stop at whatever town and/or little shop we wanted to.  It is hard to do that with four young kids so we wanted to take advantage of the fact that we were kid free.
We stopped at a few different stores along the way but didn't find anything we liked until we got to the Sea Lion Caves.  They had a sea turtle necklace that included a canned clam that had a pearl inside the shell.  I thought that would be a fun gift and something the girls would enjoy wearing.

When we went through Florence we found that they had a lots of fun shops to go through.  So we stopped and walked up and down their streets and even looked at their farmers market (which was the lamest market we had ever been to).  We didn't find anything we couldn't live without, so we just continued on our journey.
We then found a fun wood shop that had tons of really cool wood carvings.  We found a really neat turtle for Tyler and Dolphin for Josh.  Tony found a really big dolphin that he would have loved, but it was $400.  Maybe next year.
We got all the way to Newport before we stopped for lunch.  We ended up at a diner that had burgers and shakes.  I got a sandwich and Tony got Halibut.  He said it was really good and my sandwich was ok.  We didn't get any shakes because our next stop was the Tillamook cheese factory.
It was about an hour and half away, just enough time for us to be ready for ice cream.  They are rebuilding some of the factory so they just have a temporary visitors center, but it did not disappoint.
We got our cheese samples and then we got our ice cream.  We stayed for a few minutes while eating our ice cream and checking out our route to our hotel.  Then we went and got into our car.  On our way out of the parking lot we saw two sister missionaries.  We said hello and they said they were going to eat dinner there since they didn't have a dinner appointment.  We wanted to help them out so we gave them some money to help pay for their dinner.  It is always nice to help the missionaries outside of Utah because they aren't used to getting spoiled (like Utah missionaries).  After that we got back on the road and drove to our hotel outside of Portland.
The next morning we got to sleep in again, it was so nice.  After getting dressed and packed we went down and ate some breakfast.  It was okay food.  Then we checked out and got on the road toward Boise.  Their was a large mountain fire that shut down the road that we needed to take so we had to cross the bridge and take the road on the Washington side of the river.  It added some time onto our drive but it was better then taking the long road around the mountain.
When we drove past the mountain that was on fire we could totally see all the smoke coming off the mountain.  We could see a large tree on fire and another spot that had flames.  It was a crazy site to see and super smokey.  I was glad that we were not on that road close to the fire.

It was a long drive but we made it safe in Boise about 5:00 Sunday night.  We gassed up the car, got some dinner and then called it a night.
We set the alarm and woke up early Monday morning so that we could get home by 1:00 pm to get Allie so that Margie could leave to St. George.
We didn't want breakfast yet so we just checkout and started our drive home.  Once again it was nice to drive in the dark and watch the sunrise.  We stopped in Burley for breakfast at a nice restaurant.  It was good food and we were glad we stopped.
After that it was a straight drive to Ogden to pick up the van from Tony's work.  He then went to pick up Allie and I went home to unpack the car.  It was a fast trip to Oregon with lots of miles driven in a short amount of time, but I am so glad that Tony and I could do it.  Super thankful to Margie for taking such good care of our kiddos and making this trip possible.  She really is the best.  I love my grandpa and he will be missed, but I know that he is in a better place and that I will see him again!