8 States at 8 Weeks

Before Ben was born we didn't decide on extensive traveling during Traci's maternity leave. In fact, we planned on not planning anything. It's been great for the grandparents to see Ben at such an early stage of his life, but what about his great grandma? She deserves to see him more than anyone. No offense... none taken. With her living in California and Ben in Washington, somebody had to travel. Since Ben had never been to Nevada or California, he was anxious to see more states. So we packed up our stuff rented a Chrysler Town & Country and headed south towards the Big Rock Candy Mountains.

We left Walla Walla on Thursday evening and slept in the car at the rest area just past the Oregon and Idaho border. We arrived there a little bit before midnight and got back on the road by 5 am. Friday was the biggest killer drive ever as we made our way to Lancaster to visit our friend Amy and her two kids (Taya & Dillon), then drive 3 hours north to Fresno. We only spent about an hour in Lancaster but it was just enough time for Taya to teach me how to swim, see all of Dillon's new toys and eat spaghetti with cupcakes. So by the time we arrived in Fresno it was around 11:00pm.

The agenda for Saturday included much more driving. However with my grandma in the car, that meant Traci could take naps and I would have someone to talk to. So we left Fresno at 9 am and headed towards the Bay Area. Why? You may ask? Well, California is a state we rarely visit and we figured why not kill several stones with one Angry Bird. Since my family in the bay area wanted to see the new family member, why not make the detour? We spent almost two hours there before realizing that our reserved hotel room at Medford, OR was not getting any closer. We left my uncle's home around 3pm and arrived at Medford at around 10pm.

On Sunday morning after having breakfast we ended up at the local Toys R Us while being briefly lost. It was at the moment that I knew I couldn't let an opportunity like this go to waste and I bought two 1958 Plymouth Belvedere Hotwheels, one for Ben and one for me. Since this would be the first time Ben was traveling through Traci's stomping grounds, we made sure we would document the moment as we pulled to the side of the freeway and entered Douglas County. Further on our drive we figured why not visit my sister-in-law (Ashley) in Salem. She hadn't had the chance to hold Ben yet and we hadn't seen her since Ben was born. Although we didn't delayed ourselves too much on Sunday, we ended up getting back to our home around 9pm.

The Trip to California was tiresome. A lot of driving, visiting with friends and family and heavy eyelids. They say that what doesn't kill me makes me stronger, but I digress because I was hurting upon returning to work. Nevertheless, we got to see Lake Mono, enjoy a scenic drive on the eastern part of the Sierra Nevada and catch a 4 car Ferry across the Willamette River. On top of that, Ben can say that at 8 weeks old he had been to 8 states.