Yes, a lengthy title for a post that will likely also be lengthy, though that may be in visual more so than my writing. To sum up the last two days, we’ve been on the road. Mom and I left Seattle on Sunday, after having brunch with Shane, Mike and their families. It was there that we also parted ways with Lindsay and Paul, at least until early next week when I head to Minnesota to meet them. They headed for Mt. Ranier, and we are San Diego bound to stay with a friend, and then visit my aunt Cindy and cousin Laura.

But I’m starting a little too late in the story. Back to brunch. It was altogether uneventful, but it was a lovely way to spend out last morning in Seattle. Originally we hadn’t planned on staying, but it seemed right, and it was nice to get to spend a little bit more time with friends we don’t see very often. The brunch itself was great – just bagels, lox and the like but you really can’t beat that!

Then we were on the road, headed for Oregon, with three planned stops. The first was in Astoria, to see the house where the Goonies was filmed (and, I believe, Kindergarten Cop took place in the same town as well). It had a really familiar feel to it.

From Astoria, we made the drive over to Cannon Beach. There was some traffic getting there, and we almost decided to skip it, but I’m glad we got there. It’s a lovely little seaside town and I’d love to spend more time there the next time I’m out on the west coast. It’d be a great place to rent a house and just spend a few days.

The biggest landmark was Haystack Rock, which is SO much bigger than it looks in pictures!

Unfortunately, we didn’t stay in Cannon Beach for long, as we had to make it about five more hours down Oregon. Even though it was late in the day, we managed to reach our destination – Grant’s Pass – around midnight.

A view from the road a little earlier in the evening (I didn’t even realize you could make jerky from all of those things):

After a quick morning stop for coffee, we were off from Grant’s Pass, Oregon, with our destination being the Redwood Forest, and then San Francisco. Driving along the scenic Redwood Highway was amazing. One of the fastest ways to feel tiny is to stand next to a gigantic redwood tree!

It took much longer to get down the coast than anticipated, but it was completely worth the trip. The views along the entire road were beautiful – mountains, walls of trees, rivers, and the ocean even made an appearance, even though it was incredibly foggy along the coast.

At the end of the day, we finally reached San Francisco. It was also really foggy. So much so that I thought it would be difficult to see the Golden Gate Bridge, but it suddenly appeared through the mist – even though I could only see half of it.

Unfortunately, we didn’t have much time to do a lot in San Francisco, but it was really cool to see the bridge – and drive over it! Tomorrow morning we’ll hopefully have some time to do a little driving tour of the city before heading down to San Diego, where we actually get to stay for a couple days!