June 14, 2021 marked our 25th wedding anniversary. We started planning a couple of years ago. We had planned on going on an Alaskan cruise with our friends. And then....COVID. Needless to say, the cruise was canceled. Not knowing what would be open by the time June came around, we decided that it would be relatively safe to plan a road trip. So, after months of planning, we headed off on our three week adventure.
Our goal was to take the Pacific Coast Highway up through to Oregon, then over to Idaho, then Montana to see Glacier National Park, and over to Yellowstone, and then down to the Grand Teton National Park.
Day 1: Cambria California
Our first stop was in Cambria, California. It's a costal town north of LA and south of Monterey. We had made reservations at the Olallieberry Inn. We were greeted warmly in this historic bed and breakfast by the owner, who gave us refreshments on the patio when we arrived.
The view from the patio was so peaceful.
That evening, we walked to downtown Cambria, which was about a block up the road from where we were staying. It's a really cute, older historic town with a lot of arts and crafts as well as gift shops. The area is known for it's vineyards, so there are a lot of places to taste the local wine. Unfortunately, most things closed by 7 pm so we didn't get much chance to walk around and explore. I did get a sweatshirt right away, because apparently when I pack for a summer vacation while in Arizona, I forget that other places aren't as warm, and all I brought were Arizona weather-appropriate clothing. We found a restaurant that the owner of the BnB recommended called Lin's Restaurant. It was really good. Besides wine, Cambria is known for it's Olallieberries. I must say that I think it is now my favorite berry. It's similar to a raspberry, but not quite as tart. They served olallieberry in everything. We ended up buying some preserves from the restaurant to take home. Unfortunately, the only photo I took in downtown Cambria was of my Olallieberry lemonade I had with my dinner:
Being exhausted from our nine hour drive from Gilbert, we headed back to the BnB and slept very well. We woke up the next morning to a wonderful breakfast before we headed out along the coast:
Olallieberry yogurt, with really yummy homemade granola, fresh fruit, and a scone were the first course of the breakfast. It was followed by banana pancakes, with bacon and eggs:
Day 2: Point Arena, California
Our next stop was to be Point Arena, California, a town north of San Francisco. So, we set off up the coast. We had purchased an app called GyPSy, which uses GPS to locate where you are and tells about the area as you drive. It also recommends stops along the way. It was a great thing to have and we learned a lot about things that we might have just driven by.
Near San Simeon, these are elephant seals who like to spend their summer warming on the beach. We also saw a gray whale spout in the distance here.
It was really foggy pretty much the entire drive this day. I took this picture looking through the hole of a sculpture near Ragged Point Inn.
We finally made it to San Francisco. We had no intentions of stopping here. Stan and I visited SF a few years ago and it seemed to be so much worse this time around. It was so dirty. There was garbage everywhere and there was graffiti on everything. Rolling down the windows, the air smelled of marijuana. Traffic was so bad it seemed to take forever just to get through that stretch of the city. I only took a couple of photos through the truck window.
The motel was really cute and made up for the interesting dinner. It was called the Wildflower Motel and was recently renovated by the new owners. It was clean and decorated nicely. We showered and slept well, and woke up to some excellent homemade breakfast sandwiches, made by the owners, before we headed out again.
Day 3: Gold Beach Oregon
Our next destination was Gold Beach Oregon, a little town north of the California-Oregon border. We spent most of this day just driving. We wanted to reach our destination after all of the driving we had done for the past couple of days. It was a very beautiful drive, even though we had heavy fog most of the way.
Over $2 a gallon more than in Gilbert.
The redwood trees were very majestic. So green and so tall. You can see their height by comparing it to the size of the car in front of us.
Our room.
The gardens. Beautiful.
This is the common area, where you can sit and relax with a snack, and where they serve breakfast.
Views of Gold Beach and the bridge. The Bnb was up on the hill above the bridge.
Day 4: Vancouver, Washington
After a peaceful night, we had a gourmet breakfast, made with herbs and edible flowers from the garden. This is another place I hope to visit again. I highly recommend it.
Once again, we were on the road. This time our goal was to head inland towards Vancouver, WA.
We came across a cute creamery along the way, which made it's own cheese and ice cream. We stopped in to explore.
On the road again, we crossed so many bridges.
After another long day of driving, we arrived in Vancouver, Washington. We didn't stay any place exciting here, just a Best Western in Camas. But, I was able to meet up with some long-time family friends, whom we haven't seen in almost 40 years. It was so good to see the Wilkinson family and spend a few hours at dinner and exploring the area.
Days 5-7: Coeur D'Alene, Idaho
I must say, I love road trips, but after five days of driving all day and staying at different places, I was ready to stop for a bit. Thankfully, we were headed to Coeur D'Alene for a few days.
It was a beautiful drive across the Columbia River.
This time, we rented a house from Air Bnb. It was an older cottage style home that was super cute. It was located right up the road from the lake and downtown. While it had been chilly on the coast, it was quite warm in Idaho, around 90 during the day.
We rested, then headed downtown by the lake for dinner. It's quite a bustling town, although I think almost everyone was a tourist. It was a fun place to be.
The cute moose was found all around town.
While Olallieberries were the thing along the central coast of California, huckleberries were the thing in Idaho and Montana. Had to try the huckleberry martini. I wasn't a fan of the martini or huckleberries.
The next day, we took a drive, about 45 minutes north of Coeur D'Alene, to Sandpoint, Idaho. I think Sandpoint and Coeur D'Alene were probably some our favorites from our trip.
Downtown Sandpoint. So cute and clean.
We decided to do a lake tour a Lake Pend Oreille (pronounced Pon-door-ay)
So many beautiful homes along the lake.
We had seats at the bow of the ship. There was another couple sitting with us and they were also from Arizona! Turns out they are the parents of the owner/creator of Postinos, along with the new Gilbert place Air Guitar, as well as a few other upscale restaurants in the valley.
When we returned to the house, we heard what sounded like music in the distance. So after dinner, we decided to find out what was going on. We came across McEuen Park near the lake. There was a summer concert series going on and people were dancing and enjoying the live concert. So, we sat on the grass, and joined them. It was a beautiful evening.
We decided to walk around the park. They had a memorial for the armed forces.
And they had a cafe that served frozen cocktails, so we had Bahama Mama's and sat at the bar overlooking the lake.
There was a lot of activity near the lake. A lot of people were climbing the rocks and jumping in.
Callie, the resident cat greeted up when we got home that evening.
The next day, we ventured a little further north (we had hoped to go into Canada, but because of Covid, the borders were still closed) and ended up at Priest Lake. There was a resort there that we stopped at for lunch and to enjoy the lake. The resort was cute with a lot of families and dogs. It reminded me a little of the one from Dirty Dancing, with different activities.
We will definitely be back to Coeur D'Alene. I tell Stan I'd like a summer home here. I don't know if I could handle the winters, but summer is gorgeous and there is so much to do.
Days 8-11: Somers, Montana
We reluctantly said goodbye to Coeur D'Alene, but not before we had a good breakfast at a fun place.
This was on the table at the restaurant. It's kind of the attitude up in northern Idaho.
Our first view of Flathead lake. I didn't realize Montana had so many meadows.
We ate lunch at Tamarack Brewery in Lakeside, MT.
Dandelion Fluff was all around in Montana and Idaho.
Dipping my toes in the lake. The water was cool and clear.
We arrived at the next destination in Somers, Montana. We stayed at Outlook Inn Bed and Breakfast. Again, another highly recommended place and probably as good as Endicott Inn in Gold Beach. When we arrived, we were informed that they upgraded us to the Lake Room.
Needless to say, the room was amazing and the view even more so. My view from the bed.
This was the view from the deck.
And Maggie the resident lab kept us company.
That night, I was craving Mexican food. Kalispell had a Mexican restaurant that had good reviews and when we pulled up there was a wait for a table. We waited the 30 minutes or so. Let me just say this....Montana is not a place to eat "authentic" Mexican food. Literally was ground beef with taco seasoning you buy at the grocery store and a can of refried beans. We had a good laugh over it.
Our first morning here, we of course had a gourmet breakfast. Ham steak with eggs and asparagus.
Our main place to visit while here in northern Montana was Glacier National Park. So after a lovely breakfast, we left for the park, about 40 minutes from where we were staying.
One of the first places you see after you enter the park is this swiss style lodge called Lake McDonald Lodge. Of course it's on Lake McDonald.
What I liked about the lake is the clear water, which showed the colorful agate rocks. The day before, we had found out that Nikki went to the ER for a large embedded kidney stone. It put a little damper on the day since we couldn't be there for her. But one of the first things I saw was this heart made by a stone in the water. It made me smile.
Glacier is absolutely stunning. Words can't describe it. The only bad part is the number of people there. It was PACKED and most of the time there was no place to pull over to see things (most of the photos from Glacier were taken from inside the truck). If we learned one thing from our trip, go out at sunrise, as you will see from our other park visits.
Inside the lodge was beautiful too.
You can see the forest recovering from a previous fire. They typically let the fire burn if it was caused naturally (i.e. lightning) and it actually benefits the forest, thinning it out and allowing new growth.
We made it to one of the visitor centers and totally lucked out by having someone pull out of their parking place right in front of us. We walked around but none of the visitor centers were open in Glacier and only a partial gift shop was open, allowing only 5 masked people in at a time, so we skipped that.
It's hard to tell by the photo but I loved all of the fine, tiny pine needles on some of the varieties of trees there.
Glacier NP tour busses. They are from the 1930's.
This is Jackson Glacier. We learned that by 2030 they predict there will be no more glaciers in the park.
After a full day of exploring the park, we headed out to dinner. We found a restaurant called the Montana Lodge. It was a fun place with food that made up for the "Mexican" food we had the night before.
We got back to our room and noticed that our beautiful view wasn't there. The smoke from the forest fires nearby was so thick it was hard to see.
The next day, we were so excited to go on our White Water Rafting trip in Glacier Park. I didn't get photos because I didn't want to risk losing my phone or getting water in it. The river was pretty low, so other than a few rapids, it was more like a scenic float. Our guide was telling us they will probably end the rafting season by the end of August this year because the water is so low, about a month or so sooner than normal.
After the rafting, we had dinner along the river. It was so nice, just Stan, myself, and our guide.
I did screenshot the photos from the rafting website. I'm in the white shirt and Stan is in the blue shirt in front of me. Our guide was a nice young kid named Nick, who was celebrating his 22nd birthday and the three of us had a grilled steak dinner together along the river.
The skies were a little clearer the next evening.
Another gourmet breakfast. This was avocado toast. There actually is a "first course" of fruit or yogurt each day, I just forgot to take photos of it.
The next morning, our last in the Glacier area, we drove up to Whitefish. It's a skiing community north of where we were staying, about 30 minutes. It was another favorite of ours.
Whitefish Lake
We took the ski lift up to the top.
The ski resorts are big places for mountain bikers in the summer. They take the ski lifts up and go down on trails. It looks like a lot of fun.
From the top.
Looking down, there's still a lot of smoke, so the view isn't clear.
Whitefish Lake from above.
We had a really good lunch at a hole-in-the-wall place called Piggyback BBQ
Downtown Whitefish, much like Sandpoint
We were needing to do laundry, so that evening, we went to Bigfork, MT, where they had a laundromat. There was a small farmer's market going on with a band, so we walked around there.
I was surprised by how much of a Russian influence there is in Montana. There was even a Russian food truck. We should have tried something, but we didn't.
Our last breakfast first course was a fruit and yogurt "martini". I forgot to get a photo of the actual meal this time. I was so sad to leave our beautiful BnB.
Days 12-14: Island Park, Idaho
We headed back to Idaho, this time in the southeastern part.
The smoke was so bad, my lungs were burning. Good thing masks were a thing.
A little-known fact: I lived in Butte, Montana for a few years growing up. I hadn't been back since we left in 1980, so I thought it would be fun to drive through.
Butte is a blue collar mining town.
Took this photo from the truck 9(excuse the bugs on the windshield), not realizing I left out the 'E'... seemed appropriate though.
This is so I didn't offend my Butte friends.
Neat old building in downtown Butte. I remember there are a lot of immigrants that came to Butte during it's mining heyday in the late 1800's.
First stop...Pork Chop Johns. To this day, my dad talks about it and my mom tries to replicate their famous pork chop sandwiches.
It's a hole in the wall place. And I'm guessing health codes aren't the same in Butte as they are in Phoenix. Let's just say, ew.
But the sandwich was deep fried, so it should be safe, right? It was pretty tasty.
We visited the Berkeley Pit. I remember going on field trips here for school. It used to be an operating copper mine, but it has since closed.
Here's what it looks like now. It is filled with toxic water. They don't mention the toxicity in the displays, but a trolley tour guide was there telling us about it. They have alarms on the water so that birds won't land in the water. They are still mining over to the right of the pit, although it wasn't as big.
Of course I had to find my old house. They re-numbered the addresses. This is our former back yard, now front yard. They added a drive way. There were huge pine trees surround the house so you could barely see it (both front and back). I think my parents planted them, but 40 years later, they have grown.
The yards there don't typically have fences around them. But I remember my dad fencing in part of the back yard around the patio for the dog. It's still there (new fencing, but still the same area)
These are photos of the front of my house growing up. Hard to see because of the trees. Looks the same, though. We spent many summer evenings playing red rover and roller skating in that driveway.
This is Evel Knievel's house. He live down the street from me. He was a big deal in the 70's and I remember at the gate, there used to be a guard house. We would love to go there and the guard would give us the big candy bars for Halloween.
The Country Club. We were members of this and spent our summers swimming at the pool.
My elementary school 1st-4th grade. I wish I would have gone in.
That was it of our side tour of Butte. Honestly, it wasn't as nice as I had remembered it, but I still have some good memories from that time in my life.
After Butt(e), we drove to Island Park, Idaho. Our goal was to visit Yellowstone and we rented a trailer to stay in. We were not disappointed. Island Park is the perfect place to stay when visiting Yellowstone. Only about 25-30 minutes to the park, it is a beautiful area.
Our trailer
Hard to tell, but it's probably 9 pm in this photo. It didn't get dark out until late there.
Yellowstone is laid out like a figure 8, in two loops, so we thought we would do sunrise at the upper loop and the next day do sunset at the lower loop. What we learned from Glacier, is we need to get up before Sunrise to visit the park. We knew Yellowstone would be even more crowded, so we did just that. Left as the sun was rising and arrived at the park just after 6 am. It was perfect!
(excuse the bugs from the dirty windshield again) Sunrise looked like fire in the trees.
Gibbon Falls.
We took a hike to Artist's Paintpots. Again, this Arizona girl forgets that other places are cold, especially before the sun comes up. I was in shorts and flip flops and freezing for this!
Yellowstone has boardwalks around most of the areas of interest, so it is easy to walk around. This was called the "Norris Geyser Basin" and it was fascinating. It looked like we were on another planet (most of Yellowstone felt like that!)
Sunrise over the park
At the Mammoth Hot Springs entrance. The only elk we saw.
We did see this guy walking along the road.
At this point we were headed back to the trailer around noon, thankful we didn't wait. The opposite traffic was all people going into the park. It was backed up for miles.
Since we were waiting for sunset to go back to the park the next morning, Stan cooked breakfast outside.
Another buffalo wandering the park
It was busier at sunset than at sunrise, but better than the middle of the day (the miles long traffic exiting the park)
Fountain Paint Pots
Biscuit Basin
The sapphire pool. Such a pretty color.
Old Faithful Lodge. We stopped to watch Old Faithful here.
It looks really far away in this photo, but really we weren't. We had great seats on a bench away from the crowds.
Grand Prismatic. I really wanted to see this more than anything and we stopped on our way out of the park as the sun was setting. It was super windy and with no rails along the boardwalk, it was a bit scary, feeling like I would be blown off. There was also a storm approaching. It blew the steam so much it was hard to get a good photo.
Leaving the park at Sunset.
Day 15-17: Victor, Idaho
Staying in Idaho, but a couple of hours south, we drove to Victor, Idaho, with the goal of visiting the Grand Teton National Park.
On our drive, we took the scenic byway and stopped at Mesa Falls. So pretty.
Driving through Idaho, I didn't realize how much of Idaho was farm land. I guess I never thought about it.
Of course, potatoes
And hops farms are big there, too.
We made it to our yurt. Look up Broad Wing Yurt on airbnb. She books up a year in advance at least. It was probably the best airbnb that we've ever stayed out. The owner, Erin, is so hospitable and the yurt is amazing.
Sitting out in the back yard, you can see the Grand Teton mountains from there.
The neighbors. It was fun watching them. In the morning, we saw the rancher riding a segway to herd the cows to breakfast. It was funny watching them chase the segway.
96 and 100 were my favorites. They were the most curious.
Sunrise over the Tetons
We decided to do Grand Teton during sunrise and were not disappointed.
Jenny Lake. Gorgeous.
Sunrise is so beautiful. Peaceful. No crowds. Glassy water.
Mormon settlement
My Whack-A-Mole photo. Gophers were everywhere.
Visiting Jackson. Cute, touristy town. It was very crowded.
Smores by the fire.
The next morning, we decided to visit a place called Grand Traghee Resort. It was so pretty there. There were a ton of people mountain biking, and like White Fish, the bikers ride the ski lift up and go down on the trails. 
from the peak
This was at our yurt. This bird was one of a flock which I called "bully birds". They were small black birds who chirped a lot, and were very territorial. They picked on the other birds. You would frequently see the whole flock chasing a much bigger magpie.
Day 18: Home
Our plans originally involved stopping by Riverton, Utah for a couple of days to visit my sister and her family before heading home. However, Nikki was still trying to treat her kidney stone and had another procedure scheduled for the next day, so Stan and I decided to drive to Riverton, have lunch with Margie and Barry, then he would drop me off at the Provo airport so I could fly home to be with Nikki for her next hospital stay.
So, we had a nice lunch with Margie and Barry, and then visited my niece and her husband to see their new house. Unfortunately I didn't get any photos that day. I had Nikki on my mind.
Stan dropped me off at the Provo airport and I was home by dinner. He drove to St. George to stay the night then drove the next day to get home.
I did get the front row and nobody sat near me!
And home in time for my girl.
