....with my adult daughter, her 8-month-old baby, and her 13-year-old mini-dachshund. No, it was not entirely relaxing. Yes, I still managed to have a nice time.
Some trips just get off to a rough start, and this was one of them. We were barely two hours down the road when Daughter began to feel unwell. We found a tiny road to pull off on from the main highway just in time for her to throw up in the ditch. I drove the remaining three hours to the motel at The Dalles where we had reservations for the first night. It wasn't a fancy place, but it was clean and quiet and pet-friendly. That's good enough for me!
Daughter was up and down all night, and the baby woke up to eat a couple of times, so we weren't feeling very rested the next morning. Yet Daughter felt well enough to drive as far as Salem. Typically, it was very rainy and foggy through the mountainous part of the Columbia River Gorge, and also in the Portland area. She got to deal with the thick traffic on I-205 and I-5. I sure didn't want to!
Daughter wasn't feeling well, so I took over driving again. GPS sent me through Salem, all over the countryside to the west, and finally dumped us out into Newport. It was a lovely drive, and we even found a covered bridge!
Spring was much farther along in western Oregon than where we live in north Idaho. The fresh, young green leaves on the trees and bushes were encouraging to see. Many of the trees had moss hanging in them, something we don't see very often back home.
We arrived at our Airbnb at Yachats an hour before check-in time, but a quick text to the owner confirmed we could go on in. What a lovely house! It is situated up a hill, so we could look over the rooftops at the ocean below. We were far enough above the highway to barely hear traffic, and close enough to the ocean to barely hear the breakers.
We were relieved to reach our destination and get settled in to our temporary home. Baby had traveled quite well, but was happy to be out of her car seat and able to roll around on the floor. The dog was happy to be out of the pet carrier and have an entire house to sniff over.
Having brought along ingredients for two main dishes, supper was easily prepared, and bedtime didn't arrive any too soon.
I will continue the tale of our adventures in a subsequent post; it's too much to pack into one. Stay tuned!
