The Road to Oregon

Saying goodbye to one of my cockatiels

On Wednesday, June 24th, we embarked on what would be a 15 hour drive to Rockaway Beach, Oregon for Tony's family reunion with his parents, siblings, nieces and nephews. Our first destination though was Klamath Falls, Oregon. About 10 hours from where we live. I feel like our max for driving is around 12 hours and really wanted to break up the trip a bit so this was a good option. I don't know anyone in this town but I do know people near we probably could have stayed with but because of the pandemic, we ended up getting a room at a Travelodge.

Memorial Day Weekend Adventures

Right before we were going to head out of town, we got this package of the paint we ordered for our teardrop camper from Monsta Liner. This project would have to wait though until after the trip.

Valley of Fire State Park

 

WE FINALLY MADE IT TO VALLEY OF FIRE!

Yes, I'm shouting. Yes, I'm that excited about checking this place off my bucket list.

Bucket List Check: The Broad Museum

Driving around downtown LA is both frustrating and magical. Magical because there is so many cool things to see. Frustrating because parking, one way streets and traffic is a beast. But we managed to find a garage where it was $9 for the day (I'm sure there was cheaper) but after driving around and wondering about all the posts of rules on the street poles for parking, we decided to play it safe and grab a spot close to where we were starting to give up but also close to the Broad Museum.

Murray Family Farms

Yes, gas is really that price right now in California unfortunately. Anyways! Like the url of the blog, I still love cherries and when I heard the Murray Family Farms was doing a cherry festival on Saturday, we managed to fit it on on our way into Bakersfield. 

GO KINGS! vs Lakers Game

Sunday morning after the flower fields we drove to L.A. to attend our first NBA game since living in California. We did not become Lakers fans living down here - Kings fans forever and that's who was coming to play the Lakers and Tony was able to get us tickets to go to the game. I was pretty stoked! Such a fun anniversary surprise. 

Anniversary Weekend First Stop

We decided to leave early (6:15am!) on Saturday morning to head out to San Diego to kick off celebrating our anniversary weekend. Married 7 years this year!  

Flower Fields, Pt.2

This post is all from photos taken with my Pixel phone. I think a lot of them turned out fairly well, maybe the lighting isnt the best in some but there are some good pictures here that explain some pictures in my previous flower post.

Arizona Weekend Fun

 

Welcome to Arizona? La Mesa RV was on fire (service center area) when we got in to Phoenix. As we were leaving CA, it was pouring rain. Too bad it was not raining in Arizona when we got there, esp at the RV lot. Whoops!

Death Valley Hike

After the Pahrump balloon festival we were able to stop a bit in Death Valley NP on our way back to Ridgecrest. 

We found a one way dirt road to explore...

and views for miles

Taking a panoram

You can really see in the picture on the left how narrow the walk area was.

Chilly but sunny and not terribly windy

Passing through Devil's Cornfield before we got to sand dunes and other fun areas. 

More fun times ahead!

Miramar Park - Redondo Beach

The sky was quite overcast on Saturday when we were in the area but we decided to stop by the beach - we were so close anyways! - after we had finished our business at Armstrong Gardens (nursery). 

Tewinkle Park Nature Walk

I found Tewinkle Park on Yelp when I was searching for easy hikes in the area. This one caught my eye because the name was catchy and there was water. I love a hike with water for some reason. This park was really quite neat!

Dunkin Donuts Breakfast

Thanks to T-Mobile Tuesdays last year when they were giving out anywhere from $2-5 gift card codes for Dunkin Donuts, I collected them all, got the app and we had $25 to spend here. Since there is not one in Ridgecrest we have to look for opportunities to use it when we travel. Luckily on Friday night I remembered I had this gift card and when I looked up the locations, found one just a few miles away from where we were staying. Score!

California Scenario

I found another hidden gem in the area and it was really close to that crazy expensive mall. 

Weirdest Mall I've Ever Been To

When you are on the road you use the bathroom where you can. I had drank a lot of water at lunch and we were on our way to finding another 'hidden gem' in the area'ish and saw this mall. We knew it was going to be different when we parked and inside we saw a sign for 'money exchange.' What? Who exchanges money at a mall?

Tio's Tacos in Riverside Pt. 2

Finally we got super hungry and it was time to go inside and order our food. Oh my, the menu is big! Luckily we had a little bit of waiting in line to study in the menu so we knew what we wanted when we go to the register. 

Tio's Tacos in Riverside Pt. 1

This restaurant had so much wow factor that it deserved it's own blog post instead of sticking it on my food tab. For reals. We were there at least 45 min to an hour just exploring and taking pictures before we even went to order our food. Check it out!

Last Day in Arizona

After the morning balloon flights were done and everything put away, we went back to my sister's place where Tony spent some time jumping on the trampoline with my niece and nephew and playing ball in the street. They definitely kept him busy!

Monument Valley WOW

 Monument Valley. Oh my...it's been quite a long time since we have come here! I'd say...2012 was the last time we were able to come. We had just picked up our teardrop camper in New Mexico and were hitting up some camping and sights on the way back to Salt Lake. We came here and I was blown away. It is a stunning place!

Meridian, ID

After the family reunion we rolled out of the campsite around 11am or so on Labor Day. We headed to Meridian where my parents live and met my dad for lunch at Which Wich. I got the chicken parmesan sandwich and it sure was good. We went to the house and dropped off our stuff because we were staying the night and left again after awhile to do some errands.