Coffee and Google and Cars, OH MY.

So.... yesterday I uploaded this photo:

And I think it about describes the amount of coffee I need for each leg of this roadtrip. Today was not a good coffee day. It started with the the in-room coffee at La Quinta -- Maxwell House, which I made with 3 cups instead of 4 to make it stronger (sadly, that was my best coffee of the morning); then the breakfast bar served some barely-drinkable swill (which I drank) and then I stupidly followed that up with McCafe(TM) on the road. I think I finally found a Starbucks at around 3:00 which I followed at the next Starbucks with a mediocre iced coffee. Ugh.

At least today's travel was (mostly) less taxing than yesterday -- wide straight stretches and, once we left the I-5, almost no transport trucks to jockey around. We made our way to Mountain View, to see the Google campus. Alas, though we pulled into the visitor parking, the lobby was closed today . We did poke around the outside of the main buildings, though, and I was very pleased to see a row of containers full of herbs and edible flowers growing around the patio adjacent to the cafe.

Back on the road after Google, we headed for the hotel. All was going fine until our GPS told us to turn left and we ended up one lane over -- I thought it was two lanes that both went left. Unfortunately, one went sharp left (where we wanted to go) and one went on to the Bay Bridge. We had no choice but to drive allllllll the way across and back -- in rush hour -- paying the toll in the process and adding an hour (to go on a 16 km round trip) to the travel when, had I actually not misjudged the lane we could have been at the hotel in about a minute's time. I tell ya, that GPS narrowly avoided a watery grave. It was saved only by our being sandwiched in the centre lane between many, many other cars.

Sigh.

However, once we arrived at the hotel, handed the keys to the valet, and checked in, things started looking up. We called Kiddo (we miss her SO much) and went for dinner (Thai food, including a very tasty curried fried rice (with pineapple, chicken, shrimp and cashews... mmmmm) and tofu with a sweet and sour dipping sauce. Now 4 hours (and most of an in-room movie) later, I feel much, much less tense.

And then, there's the view, too:

Cars everywhere

There was an odd symmetry yesterday as we listened to the audio book of Superfreakonomics; we were listening to the section where they discuss traffic fatalities and the introduction of the seat belt as we were winding through the mountain passes that lead up to and away from Siskiyou Summit, passing truck after truck and being passed by faster cars driven by people obviously more familiar with the series of corners than we were.

As it turns out, that summit is the highest point on the I-5 at 4310 ft. Now, I have trouble with pressure in my ears driving the Malahat-- the summit of which is only 1155 ft so by the time we were back down to about 500 ft above sea level in Redding, my ears were shot. Hubby's too. It doesn't help that we both are still suffering the latter part of head colds.

This morning, my ears are still ringing but I can hear clearly. It may have been a blessing last night, because when we rolled into Redding, we landed in the midst of a huge car festival -- Hilltop Avenue looked like the Vegas Strip, jammed with flashy cars, playing loud music, and the street lined with people watching, walking, and drinking. Turns out we arrived only an hour after the street had been closed for a two hour "cruise":

Normally, I'd have been happy to take photos but all I wanted to do last night was check in, call Kiddo, then go eat. It took us about 15 minutes to push through the traffic and turn into the hotel. By the time we got back from dinner an hour later (at Cattlemen's -- a restaurant that is almost certainly the inspiration for the Montana's chain), the roads had mostly cleared so there is hope that this morning will be calmer. After breakfast, we head further south, with a goal of hitting some landmarks in Silicon Valley before we loop back up to the hotel in San Francisco.

Return and departure

Remember Hubby's Cthulhu sculpture? We had shipped him out of the patio when it was time to show the townhouse and tucked him away in a (very patient) friend's back yard. He finally returned home today -- this time however, we hired professional movers so as not to break anyone's back (well no one who wasn't insured).

All things considered, he weathered the elements pretty well. Aside from a missing toenail and broken ... er... beak thing, he's in tact, too. We shuffled him into the back yard and there he will sit until Hubby has time to restore him then try to find a "forever home" for the Old One.

***

I've been sick all week, coughing, snorting, generally feeling like hell, and, aside from a half day on Monday, have been at home. Naturally, I am procrastinating further by blogging when I should be packing. We leave tomorrow for a road trip across the border again -- but this time without Kiddo. It'll be a long 9 days for that reason alone, but we've set up plans and counter plans for her care and for the cats and house. Luckily there is not too much going on garden wise so I haven't actually asked anyone to water things (in the unlikely event of a 9 day drought). We also set up Skype on a computer for her and one that is coming with us.

Our trip should take us through Portland and San Francisco (plus a detour to Silicon Valley) but the stops in between may be determined by any of the following: good food, convenient hotel, too damn tired, or coin toss. I can't promise regular updates but there will definitely be an overview on the other side.

Your input is requested....

We are plotting a potential road trip from here to Cupertino, California and back by way of Portland, Oregon. Along the way we are pondering stops in Eureka, Eugene and Redding. Is there any reason we should avoid any of those stops? If so, can you suggest an alternate option?

Is there anything we should try to see on the way there or back? We won't have a lot of room for detours because we are trying to do the whole trip inside a week. We will have a full day in Portland, though it will be a Sunday.

Thoughts?

exhausted

Our trip up-Island netted no free lawn ornaments but Micro-She (the GPS) did get us into one gargantuan argument (just fantastic as we had both Kiddo and my Mother in the van with us) as it sent us on a long trip along Shawnigan Lake road for no good reason and then tried to send us all the way around the lake -- another 20 km!! In fact, Hubby decided at only the last minute not to throw it out the window at high speed. Aside from that useless detour, the day was enjoyable. And we did get lawn ornaments at JYSK ($7 each; just a little over the $5 ceiling Hubby was hoping for).

At home, I tidied and vacuumed the basement, did lots of laundry, and started the cleaning upstairs. Today was more cleaning, tidying, furniture moving and all that. Hubby's birthday party went well, but in the midst of dinner I realized I hadn't bought or made him a cake (oops -- I made up for it by going out to grab Dairy Queen sundaes later). There were lots of kids around though most were old enough not to be underfoot. We had the decks cleared and ready for people but it ended up being cool enough that most wanted to eat indoors. Otherwise, I think everyone mostly enjoyed themselves.

This week I don't think there is anything major on our books... which is good. I plan to settle in to garden planning and planting (I picked up some great pamphlets which include lots of info on companion gardening), and maybe get back to some crafting or writing.

Trip Highlights

By the numbers:

In the 6 days we were "on the road" we visited 11 communities: Mill Bay, Parksville, Courtenay, Cambell River, Sayward, Port McNeill, Port Alice, Port Hardy, Woss, Quadra Island, and Nanaimo. We stayed in1 campground (in Parksville) and 4 hotels (in Courtenay, Campbell River (2 different hotels) and Port McNeill (2 nights)). We did end up taking 2 ferry rides (round trip to and from Quadra Island) and drove about 1050 kilometres (650 miles) -- though Hubby did the bulk of the driving; I drove about 150 kilometres (95 miles) of the return trip, roughly from Courtenay to Duncan.

Surprises and disappointments:

I was surprised by Sayward. It was a little detour we took to break the distance from Campbell River to Port McNeill and it was lovely. There was a public campground in the centre of town -- only $10 a night! -- and the houses looked well-cared for. We also had a great lunch at the Cable Cookhouse Cafe.

I was disappointed by Port Alice. Yes, the waterfront was beautiful, but getting there was really challenging. The road (Highway 30) was hilly and winding, plus it was being repaired so there were construction delays. But when we got there, something about the town felt odd. I think because a lot of the homes were strata townhouses, the "playgrounds" were run down (a couple of rusted swing-sets was all we could find), and there was graffiti in a town of 800, it just felt like a few square blocks of the Burnside-Gorge area had been transplanted there.

However, I was pleasantly surprised by both Port Hardy and Port McNeill. Port Hardy is home to about 5200 people; Port McNeill, to about 3,000. The only thing that freaked me out a little about Port McNeill were the many signs denoting the Tsunami Evacuation Route. Still, I could probably live there quite happily.

Campbell River felt comfortable to me but Hubby didn't like it. On the other hand, Courtenay felt uncomfortable this time around -- when we visited both places about 8 years ago, my opinions were reversed. The exception to this was the Courtenay Museum and Palaeontology Centre which was a welcome detour.

We also detoured to Quadra Island on a whim -- it's a 10 minute ferry ride from downtown Campbell River -- and I wish we had planned a longer stay. I actually do want to go back; there is a campground adjacent to Rebecca Spit Marine Park where you can camp right along the water, looking out into the bay.

Overall, it was a very nice trip and I was happy to have seen that much more of our island.

Rrrrrrroadtrip!

Saturday we will set off for a week's vacation -- no ferries, no airports, no borders to cross, just a whole lot of Island exploring.

While there were a number of reasons we chose to do this trip this year, I feel really good about keeping our tourism dollars on the Island. Many of the places we will be visiting are mill-towns that are gradually losing their mills. News stories are full of woes from the tourism industry in BC, finding it difficult to attract American tourists (usually the region's mainstay) in the current climate of economic uncertainty and with the hassles of crossing even our "friendly" border.

At any rate, we are going to be spending a fair bit of cash on food, gas, and lodging over the next week. Our route will take us up to the top of Vancouver Island, staying in Parksville, Courtenay, Campbell River, and Port McNeill but also visiting Comox, Port Alice, Port Hardy, Nanaimo, and anywhere else we choose to stop the van.

We are taking the EEE and should have some opportunities for web-access along the way, so I will likely blog en route or at least upload photos to Flickr.

Mini-vacation begins...

I'm off work for a few days for a combo of getting stuff done (today and tomorrow), seeing family (Saturday-Monday), and celebrating my birthday (officially it's Monday, but we're going for brunch Sunday). And then there is the "bonus" day off Tuesday, Canada Day.

Today was getting stuff done; check off: book hotels for next month's road-trip (actually I did that last night), renew my driver's license, clean bedroom, clean bathroom, do laundry, vacuum carpets, drop off and pick up Kiddo for last day of first grade, go to ArtEVO opening.

The highlight of my day was definitely watching Kiddo marching along the street and later around the living room while she sung the Imperial March from Star Wars. The low point was surprisingly not cleaning the toilet -- that, at least, felt satisfying. No, the low point was the ArtEVO opening.

I signed up for the "preview opening" online with the promise of a free gift (this turned out to be a rather monochrome print of a nude with a violin -- definitely not to my taste). The gallery, while it looks kind of swish, is nothing spectacular. Only slightly interesting is that it seems to be a bricks and mortar outlet for its online store; in the centre of the store are two kiosks where buyers can search the full range of available art. Unfortunately, the art is average, at best, in Victoria's market which is so rich with local artists. I wish them luck.

I also had fun booking all the hotels along our route up-island this summer. We decided to go pretty much to the top of Vancouver Island -- the full route we are taking is a little over a thousand kilometres, round trip and will take us about a week. We are camping the first night, then staying in hotels the rest of the way. I tried looking for Bed and Breakfast places, but I only found one that was suitable for families. (If we ever open a B&B it will definitely have at least one family-friendly suite.)

Tomorrow will be more cleaning and some decluttering around the house plus some craft time with Kiddo.

Busy Week!

Wow, this last few days just flew by. Here's the rundown: craziness at work (renovations are now starting to impact our work area, and there is much confusion about timelines and available space for our reorganized area); hubby's birthday (mellow celebration, just family); prearation for our roadtrip (we leave early tomorrow morning).

I'm looking forward to the trip to Naramata. We are going to try taking the Crowsnest route(Highway 3) there and then the Coquihalla on the way back [check out BC Highway webcams, if you're curious]. It's been a long time (at least 15 years) since I've travelled that direction.

The Naramata Centre (where I'll be taking a CUPE course/workshop) is described as "rustic but comfortable" -- i.e. indoor plumbing, but no television -- so, while I am taking my laptop, I don't know whether I will have internet access over the next week. If I do have access, I don't know if I will have time to blog; likely my priorities will be checking email and posting to Flickr.

See you in a week!