We recently got back from a 9-day road trip. Phew. It was A LOT of driving, but we got to see 9 states and several national parks, along with a visit with Aaron's 85-year-old grandpa. Aaron's younger brother, Scott, joined us for the journey. I am a major planner and spent tons of time reviewing our routes, looking for things the kids could do and just plain mulling over what to bring with us. The drive alone was going to be about 50ish hours, without any exploring so I was really trying hard to have things to keep the kids entertained. We have a tablet that we sometimes let them watch downloaded netflix shows if we drive at night, however it never really seemed to work in our car for this trip, weird. But several Dollar Store toys, LOTS of stickers and snacks galore did the trick.
We started early Friday morning and headed north.
All of us in the van
Day 1, all smiles
We made a quick, unplanned stop in Old Town Sacramento for lunch.
This kid adores anything trains and really loved getting to see Old Town. We will have to come back for a real visit and hit up the Train Museum.
The kids at the Tower Bridge
The California State Capital building.
I got these circle stickers at the Dollar Store and the kids were obsessed with them. It was a good hour straight of playing with these in the car.
The Sundial Bridge in Redding. I love it. Aaron and I had been there once before on a road trip with friends. (Here, Here, Here)
The Sacramento River
The Sundial Bridge does actually tell time! One day a year- just a few days after our visit, bummer-it tells actual time.
The Sundial Bridge at Turtle Bay is a great place to visit. You can explore the grounds, visit the museum, catch a show, grab a snack and more!
A little further north, we ran across Mount Shasta. What a beautiful view. We only stopped at a viewpoint as the kids were getting hungry and we had a bit more ground to cover.
We made it to our hotel in Chemult, OR by about 9:15. We walked in our room, and all collapsed to sleep.
The next morning, we headed to Idaho. Luke was still loving his circle stickers, but Chloe wasn't quite sure why we were back in the car again so early.
We stopped to eat in Moro, OR at a cute little park with a playground. We brought supplies for easy PB&Js for our lunches. Eating out every meal gets old and expensive. The sandwiches worked out great and the kids loved our picnics.
As we crossed the Columbia River :
Scenery in Washington
We stopped at Columbia Park in Tri-Cities and found this:
And, of course, another playground
Beautiful fields
We stopped for dinner at Zip's!
And FINALLY made it into Idaho.
The kids, looking our their grand grandpa's (Papa's) living room window. Quite the view.
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