Monday, May 16, 2016

Early Stages of Planning

It's time!!!  I finally get to start planning...ish....  Since we need to wait for the house to sell, I don't really have dates, though I do have a date in September where we need to be back in this area.  So I have an end date for the first leg of our trip, and an area of the country to visit.  Since that's all I have for now, let's just start daydreaming.

In my ideal world, we leave this area mid-June, so let's start there.  From here we probably head to my parents' house for a day or two to collect ourselves, and then head on over to South Dakota.  That's non-negotiable for the end of June since the older two have scout camp there.  But I want to visit the Pacific Northwest.  In order to get there, we have to go through Wyoming.  Devils Tower.  LOVE IT.  We've been twice already.  Once a couple years ago just for about three hours, and the other time was four years ago for a few days.  This year may be camping there, may be a short stop on our way to another campground, who knows?  I don't want to spend a lot of time in this area, cuz I want to get to Idaho, Washington, Oregon, and northern California.  Possibly a jaunt to Canada in there.  G wants to hit Alaska.  Gosh, I don't know how we do this.

Idaho...I just started researching it.  I don't know what's near each other, what's far away.  But there's a ton of stuff to do there.  Beautiful stuff.  I'm having a hard time narrowing it down.  I'm thinking a week in this state might not be enough, so I have to start carefully allocating our time.  I've had Craters of the Moon on my list for years.  We had to cut it from our big trip four years ago, which made me sad, but maybe this time we'll put that in.  The campground closes for renovations right around the time we'll be there, but a visit would still be nice.  I've been pinning things like mad on Pinterest, plus I have a stack of books with just snippets of best to do and see in areas.  Narrowing down is going to be hard.  Plus I have to figure out where exactly my uncle is so we can meet up with him.

Washington.  My sister and her family live here, so we'll work in time to visit them along with camping.  There's a lot to do in this state, too, and combined with spending time with my sister and her family, I think we're going to end up with two to three weeks there.  The 10 Best of Everything:  Families has a list of farmers markets and such in the northwest.  Oh, I'm so looking forward to getting fresh, regional food.  I want to hit National Parks, state parks, Mount St. Helens, and just spend some down time chasing my niece and trying to get my one nephew to acknowledge me and the other nephew to stop hugging so tightly.

Oregon...We have a family friend who gave us a HUGE list of things to do.  They sound amazing.  I haven't started researching this state myself, so I'm very grateful for the list she gave me!  The kids are so excited to see the ocean, though, they may never want to leave.  Bill's also got some family in this part of the world, so we'll try and meet up with them.  We haven't seen his aunt and uncle since 2010, so that'll be cool.  I guess we should tell them we're coming!

Northern California....Redwoods, sequoias, lava beds.  So much to see, so much to do, how do we fit it all in?  Since we have no one we want to meet up with in this state, I think we're good with just a week or so here.  I don't really know if we can get all the way there, but I'd love to stop in at the Lawrence Hall of Science, too.  I've been getting their emails for years, so actually seeing the museum would kick butt.

Now that this part of the trip is planned...ish, how to get back to CO?  And how much time do I need to allow for that?  A hotel room for all of us is about $100/night, so I think we have to rule that out and try to give ourselves a bit more time.  Or maybe we suck it up and pay for one night and just try to make it with one overnight.  More research is needed....

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