The road home... (long post and picture heavy)

We packed the car Monday morning August 13th and said some
very sad "good-byes"

to our family in Gig Harbor.  We'd had a good time.  The cousins had
collected shells and sand dollars from the bay shores of
Raft Island.

 

I knitted....

 

We rode the boat...

 

 ....collected fresh blackberries for a fresh baked cobbler, played video games,

watched movies.

 

There was lots of fun with music...singing in the car on the way to

lunch at Chinese Buffet.

Lots of laughs at home doing Karaoke...

   It was sad to leave.  But, some great memories have been deposited in
 our memory banks. 

My daughter-in-law had helped me to learn how to use the GPS in my car.

Thank YOU, Kelly!
...for having the patience to teach an old lady new tricks!

The GPS (which is now named, Daffy) was really quite useful in getting us off
of the island in Gig Harbor and onto the freeway headed south towards Portland. 
Sometimes, there are so many trees out in PNW's countryside, that it can seem
to a visitor  that the roads are like a corn maze.  =P

Next plan - to meet a friend in Portland a at a "really cool" yarn and fiber
 store called Pearl Fiber Arts.
 Daffy, my GPS, had given pretty good directions thus far. But, when we

 we actually got to downtown Portland,
Daffy wasn't able to pinpoint the exact place. 

One of the grandboys was using the iPad to get a better idea of the location and
 to get the phone number so that I could ask the stores exact spot.  As he was
reading the phone number to me,...he reads the store hours, which includes
"Closed Mondays".  (and yep, it's Monday)
 REALLY???
... oh!  sheeeeetahkeee (not the mushrooms).

By now, we are driving up and down one-way streets,
 (trying to go the right direction)
 looking for somewhere to eat...and, even more importantly, somewhere with
a public restroom.

AHHH (big sigh of relief, here), a McDonalds sat right on the corner.

I called my friend (who was somewhat lost too) and she met us there.

We had some food/drink and used the really (honest) clean bathrooms.
 

The next plan on the list was to go to Pendleton, Oregon's Woolen Mill.

I thought visiting the store and going thru the tour could be fun and

interesting for the boys and me.  We called a recommended hotel and booked
a room for that night . We arrived in time to have a bit of food at the hotel's

small coffee shop before going down to the pool to swim.  I surfed the Internet

 in a poolside chair while boy splashed in the pool for an hour or so. 
 

Day 2 - coming home, we got up ate at the hotel's breakfast buffet.
It totally won me over!!!  There was all you could eat BACON!
Packed up checked out and headed to the
 Pendleton Woolen Mill.

After a bit of shopping...we asked if we could take the short tour.

The employees informed us that the mill was closed that whole week
for cleaning and maintaining the machines.

REALLY?

...oh...sniff and...SHEEE-tahkee (again, not mushrooms).

I did, however get some really cool seconds on a merino wool blanket "run". 
And, several bags of selvages (will explain about these, hopefully in a later post)

The really cool Pendleton purchases caused my car to be  officially loaded to the
 GILLS with "cool" STUFF!!!

And ...we are on the road again...due to be home in about 9+ hours.

About an hour east of Pendleton, I hear a...

THUD...a really BIG THUD under the belly of my car and then, I see

something roll out onto the side of the freeway.  uh....NOT good.

...WHAT was that? Did something break/fall off of my car? 

Or did "someTHING" do something BAD to my car?

Question was answered within a few minutes I could feel a tire...limping,

flopping.  I spotted a weigh station just ahead and decided that would be

a safer place to pull off than just the side or the road.

AAA to the rescue!!! 

 How grateful am I for the Triple A man that came to

change the tire (after waiting for an hour in 93 degrees)? 
WAY GRATEFUL!! 
I'm sooo bummed that I don't have pictures of all the STUFF
I had to unload and loaded back to get the spare out to change! It
didn't even cross my mind to take pictures...=(

I was just counting my blessings that things didn't turn out worse. 
The stress of the tire mishap, the fact that it was already mid afternoon
... and there were still about 8+ more hours of driving to get home,
made me want to stay overnight in Boise.  So, we did!

It was a very nice hotel.  We got one of the last rooms for that night.
Whew!
We walked the distance of the parking lot to the Cracker Barrel
restaurant for early dinner.  Then, it was back to the room to change

to go to the pool.  The boys swam while I "surfed" (the Internet)



 

We got up leisurely Wednesday and arrived home SAFELY that evening about

5:30pm.  Grandpa had some yummy Chinese Porridge waiting for us to eat

along with some stir-fried Orange chicken. 

Our beds that night felt EXTRA comfy!

One more UNplanned part of the road trip. 
...I got sick a couple days after being back home!
UGH!
....sheeetahkee (yep, you guessed it! NOT mushrooms)

---------PS-----

I haven't fogotten about the "giveaway"...I will post winner soon!