In the morning we said goodbye to cousin Emma’s family, then abducted Grandma Susie to take her up the California coast.

As usual, the kids have perfect timing on when they need to go to the bathroom. It is much more adventurous to choose points in our travel where there is no sign of civilization 100 miles in any direction, of course   Among other bathroom luck- one stop we were supposed to pay for bathroom use, but both doors were open: the Women’s had water constantly flowing out of the toilet and the Men’s had cockroaches. This time we were in the middle civilization (L.A.), but we struck out – gas stations without ice and employee-only bathrooms without toilet paper. We were saved by a grocery store.

Onto the more pleasant parts of our day: the California Coast. We weathered typical L.A. traffic to make it to Carpenteria where we visited Dustin’s aunt who was renting a house for a month. We checked out a nearby farmer’s market with beautiful plump local avocados and strawberries, then picked up some delicious tacos (and sampled the amazingly diverse salsa bar). The weather was cooler than Seattle’s, which meant no beach fun, but the park was super cool:

Then we headed up a mountain to view the Chumash Painted Cave. The drive up was a little hairy: a steep, skinny road with sharp turns & locals who whipped around the corners much too fast, nearly for the their last time had we plowed them off the cliff. We emerged above the clouds to get to the cave:

The cave was easy to find as it was heavily protected by iron bars:

Being paintings on rock, they are technically pictographs, as we learned on our last road trip. Some say these were inspired by a solar eclipse.

Finally, we drove up to Atascadero for a late night check-in, once again. Our average check-in time thus far is 9:30pm.

Finally a break from driving. We packed a few days worth of waiting in lines into one day at Disneyland. We joined cousin Emma and her parents, plus Grandma Susie. Big thanks to Uncle Scott who used his Disney powers to get us in for free!

Aniya & Grandma both wore Disney birthday buttons which triggered trained “Happy Birthday” responses from a full range of Disney workers.

We rediscovered route 66, this time from the Cars movie.

Finally on the 6th day of our trip, the kids get ice cream–at the Cozy Cone, no less!

The lines were long due to it being Spring break for some. The one ride the boys wanted to go on was a 3-hour wait (which only dropped down to a 2.5 hour wait by 9pm – fast passes were all taken for the day before we even entered the park).

Here’s a few more pics from the day, including Aven’s favorite store in the world (LEGO).

We drove back to Vegas, and this time the city was all lit up. Turns out on Saturday it went partially dark for Earth Hour. We spent the night at the Excalibur for a whopping $25 a night. In the morning we played a few games, gambled & lost $0.45, went to the Bodies Exhibit, then headed to California for a day at Disneyland.

The kids tried to look into the sun for a shot in front of the Castle. You can’t gamble long w/ kids around before an angry waitress kicks you out. So much for teaching Aven odds via gambling.

Four-way competitive Pacman where you can eat each other – fun!

We took advantage of the Luxor hosting the Bodies Exhibit. We’ve been kicking ourselves for a couple years after we missed the exhibit when it was in Seattle. Aven & Katie were in human anatomy heaven. Aniya was kind enough to point out the penises on each display to other patrons in case they didn’t notice them.

Next stop: Disneyland (California Adventure)

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We explored the much-anticipated Upper Antelope Canyon on the Navajo Nation reservation in northern Arizona! The beauty we discovered was completely unmatched. Our minds were officially blown.

It seemed other-worldly as we navigated the narrow slot canyon, created from thousands of years of flash floods. Treading on the fine orange-hued sand below, we peered upward to the cracks of the bright sky- over 200 feet deep and only 2 feet wide in some areas!

We explored the canyon purposely at noon so that we could experience the sun beams poking through, illuminating the colorful textured walls beautifully.

Next we ventured northwest into Utah to explore Zion National Park!

We took in the enormity of the towering peaks and amazing stone monoliths. We sighted many deer as the shadows lengthened, and let the kids hike deer (and dropping, much to their delight) tracks through the hills.

We’re starting to get used to everything seeming larger than life! Perfect end of a perfect day.

Some road trip fun facts:

Percent of days Aniya naps in car – 100%

Level of caffeine necessary for Dustin to drive so far – moderate

Emergency travel potty uses so far – 2 (1 false alarm)

We started off our road trip with our longest day of travel. Apologies for the short writeup, but we literally have been off the grid and only have a few precious minutes with Internet access before heading out again.

First stop was Hoover Dam which we drove over twice.

First inspired by Route 66 from the Cars movie, we couldn’t help but take a little extra time on the slower route to the Grand Canyon.

We saw some fun sites on the Route 66, including Tow Mater, Red, and Herbie!

Then, we finally made it to the Grand Canyon just before sunset:

We kick off our 2nd major road trip by flying to Vegas and renting a car that will grace the Grand Canyon, Disneyland, the California & Oregon coasts, the Redwoods, and possibly the Ape caves near Mt. St. Helens. Here’s a map of the trip.

They almost let Aven and Aniya fly the plane:

We arrived late at night and drove through the Strip, which wasn’t nearly lit up as we remembered – the Luxor didn’t have the famous beam, and few of the hotels were lit up much. We think there might have been a power outage and they were running on generators. We’ll have to confirm this when we pass through Vegas after visiting the Grand Canyon.

“Earth and sky, woods and fields, rivers and seas, mountains and caves are excellent schoolmasters, and teach us more than we can ever learn from books.” ― John Lubbock

Our last day of this journey began with a short stop in downtown Spokane, to the iconic wagon. The kids shrunk again and had a great time sliding down its handle.

We hit the road heading west of Spokane, enjoying our last hours (for now) of the dry, hot Eastern WA climate. The serene sea of sagebrush against the bare rock walls bring about such a sense of space and peace. It is amazing how far our eyes are drawn into the distance, without the obstructions we usually have in front of us. It can make you just stare out, without specific focus, and turn the mind into itself for reflection. This is the greatest journey. But enough deep philosophy!

Maybe more amazing was the dedication of the graffiti artists to risk their lives to decorate this rock structure with a mile-drop below. How could this talent be channeled into something more useful??

We crossed the Cascade range finally – and saw our old familiar mountain peaks and trees, but with new eyes. Has it always been this green and lush? The sunshine continued all the way to our house back in Lake Stevens, 6 hours from Spokane.

We made it home.

The journey was incredible. The desire to explore our surrounding states did not disappoint. Thankfully no animals were harmed during the making of our journey, but we can’t say the same for the thousands, maybe millions, of bugs who met an abrupt unfortunate end and were baked onto our front bumper.

The first thing the kids wanted to do was flop in the overgrown grass of the front yard. We made it almost 3500 miles. It was so far and yet almost seems like we never left.

We realized early in the trip that something very strange was going on. The kids were getting along amazingly well. All cooped up for hours a day with hardly anything to do but sit, and they weren’t fighting. At. All. We had feared the opposite. This phenomenon continued the entire 10 days, with hardly the slightest hint of disagreement. Could even more time together than we already get actually be beneficial?? Or was it a fluke of distraction and wouldn’t have lasted much longer? Guess we’ll have to take a longer road trip to find out. Just gotta save up more gas money, and we’re off!

Road Trip Stats:

• Total Miles: 3,426 miles
• States traveled through in 10 days: 8 (Washington, Oregon, Idaho, Nevada, Utah, Colorado, Wyoming, and Montana)
• Gallons of water drank: at least 15
• Days until the kids resorted to a burping contest while driving: 6
• Best calculated gas mileage our truck got: 18 mpg
• Estimated gas costs: $650
• Estimated cost to fly our family to the same major destinations: $10,000
• # of Lewis and Clark Undaunted Courage cd’s we made it through: 15