"Just being together...."

Favorite Vacation Moment

Oregon Coast

by Kary_Hanson March 21, 2008

Our favorite and recent vacation memory happened the summer of 2005. My husband and I didn't have a lot of money but needed to get away from the stress of daily routines, telephone and computer. We wanted to take our 7 year old daughter Bailey to Disneyland. With no set plans or reservations we took off for California. It was going to be fun to take a road trip and just be together, our daughter was so excited to see all the new places we were going to see, she asked so many questions. We played car games like the Alphabet game and trying to find as many different license plates as we could, sang camp songs and really enjoyed the drive down the Oregon Coast. August isn't really a time for seeing whales but we swore we saw some anyway swimming and playing in the ocean waters. There were families playing on the beach and flying kites of all different shapes and sizes. Everyone looked so happy. We had a picnic at a wayside before continuing on our way south.

The California Redwoods were next. What an awesome site those mamouth trees are, so close to the road. We pulled over to see them up close and it was the funniest thing, Bailey stood at the base of one huge tree and followed it all the way up to the top, she fell over laughing after losing her balance, we took pictures and collected pine cones (Redwood cones).

We traveled through the mountains of Southern Oregon and Northern California. They were so beautiful then coming down the Grapevine to the valley below we knew our next destination would be San Francisco, California. I had never experienced taking that road just north of the Golden Gate Bridge and driving up to the top to look out over the bay. WOW, now that was an incredible view. Everyone should do that. You can't appreciate the expansiveness of San Francisco and the bridges and the harbors without looking at them from that distance. Bailey had never seen such a big city and my husband Doug hadn't ever been there either. We must have all looked so funny standing there outside our minivan with our chins resting on the rock wall in front of us. We walked along Fisherman's Wharf and bought souveniers for the family, took a photo with Alcatraz prison in the background and watched some men fishing from the shore. What a great day it was just being together and people watching.

The rest of our trip was a lot of driving, Bailey had a good time watcing movies in the car and seeing all the big cities that all ran together and swimming in the Super 8's we stayed in along the way. She was such a good trooper. When we got to the LA area we made our way to the beach, Venice Beach. That was fun to see all the kids in bathing suits playing volleyball, riding bikes on the boardwalk and Muscle Beach, Bailey got to play at the park and in the sand, it is amazing how different California sand is from Oregon. My husband Doug really wanted to go to Tijuana, Mexico because it was one place he hadn't ever been. We found that if you park on the border you can take a bus across. That was a bonus. I was more than a little nervous, neither of us knew how to speak spanish. We went with 2 bus loads of people of all different nationalities. We took a family photo with Bailey sitting on the back of a stripped burro and us wearing funny hats. We bought more souveniers and took lots of pictures to remember Tijuana I wasn't sure I wanted to go there again. We even ate real authentic mexican food at a small diner, it was good but spicey just the way my husband liked it.

Finally it was time to go. Our vacation was coming to an end, it is always sad when you have to head back home again and anticipate all the messages and problems needing to be fixed when you got there. We, Doug, Bailey and I really enjoyed our trip home (until we got back to Oregon and had car troubles near Ashland. But there was a bright side to that also when we got an extra day away and to just be together, laughing and playing games and enjoying each others company.

Now this vacation will always be memorable, we didn't make it to Disneyland and I had a feeling we probably wouldn't, my husband suffered from social anxiety disfunction, he didn't like lots of people and new places. But he took Bailey and I on a wonderful trip. We thought he had lung cancer but his fear of doctors and not having medical insurance stopped him from confirming that. Doug died in December 2006 a year after our trip, I have pictures up all over the house of the places we visited and the things we saw. This vacation will always be mine and Bailey's most memorable time "just being together..." Our most memorable moments.

Thank you for letting me share those memories.