Road Trip!!!

On June 29, Brad and I set out for a 12 day road trip. We started by driving to Lake Havasu and staying the night there. We woke up on the 30th at 5am and headed to Durango Colorado. On our way we drove through Flagstaff (beautiful!) and 4 corners (Utah, Arizona, New Mexico, & Colorado). It was fun to take photos in 4 different states at one time! :) We made our final destination for the day in Durango Colorado to stay at his cousin Chrissi's house. They just moved into their beautiful home a week prior onto 20 acres of land. We went to dinner with them and went back to the house to hang out. We woke up early July 1 and headed northeast through Colorado...through Alamosa, Pagosa, and made our way to Colorado Springs to go to the National Fallen Firefighter Memorial. One of Brad's coworkers had a heart attack on duty almost two years ago and was put into the memorial recently. The memorial was very moving. We decided to take a slight detour to Breckenridge. We drove through Divide, Breckenridge, and Frisco. So glad we stopped. Those cities were so pretty. So wonder why Brad loves his boys snowboarding trip! After our detour we headed to Boulder for dinner at Mountain Sun Brewery. Very hippy! We drove a little further to our hotel in Loveland. We woke up early July 2 and headed east to Denver. We did a tour of Coors Field, where the Rockies play. Awesome field!! We drove just a couple miles north to Mile High Stadium (now called Sports Authority stadium) where the Broncos play. They don't do tours on Mondays so we just saw the outside. We decided to drive more north to Golden where we did the Coors Brewery tour. We had to wait outside in a line for the shuttle for over an hour but it was definitely worth the wait! We did the self guided tour with little cell phone things to listen to each station. Halfway through they gave us a small sample of either Coors Light or Coors Banquet. We both did the Banquet since we always have Coors Light. At the end of the tour we could choose 3 different beers. They were full size beers, it was awesome! After our tour we drove to his old captains house in Loveland. What a beautiful home and neighborhood! The next morning, July 3, 2012 we woke up very early to head northwest to Wyoming. We drove to southwest Wyoming and headed up north into Jackson and Jackson Hole WY. We entered the Grand Tetons, what amazing mountain ranges!! After the Tetons we entered Yellowstone National Park. Yellowstone was incredible!! We spent the day driving the southwest part of the park. We saw Old Faithful and watched her blow. Unreal!! We drove north to the north entrance and stayed at a hotel right outside the north entrance in Gardiner Montana. We woke up on the 4th very early to head into the park to see some animals out and about before it got too hot for them. After seeing the animals throughout the north part of the park we headed east to Cody WY. Cody was so cool! They had all the streets shut down for their 4th of July parade. We were able to eat at Prime Cut steakhouse. Delicious! We headed southwest into Yellowstone and drove through the northern part of the park. On July 5th we woke up at 4:30 to head west to Seattle. We drove through Montana (Bozeman, Butte, Missoula). We stopped in Ceour D'Alene Idaho for lunch. Ceour D'Alene was probably our least favorite place. Nothing special and people seemed to be kinda rude. We got back on the road and headed into Spokane WA and finally made our destination into Seattle. We went to Pike's Place Market while waiting for Mallory to finish a study session. We got a coffee from the first Starbucks ever and walked around a little bit. We then drove to Fremont and waited at Brouwers Brewery until Mallory joined us for dinner. We had a great time enjoying dinner and a beer. We took a walk around Fremont by the water and then headed to Fred Meyer (like a wanna-be Target) to get Brad some lounge shorts. We went back to Mallory's house and hung for a little then hit the sack! We finally were able to sleep in a little on July 6, I think we woke up at 8:45! We finally got around and headed to Milstead & Co (a really really good coffee place, Mallory knows the owner) in Fremont. After coffee we went to Portage Bay for breakfast near U-District (near University of WA). After breakfast we went to some wineries in Woodenville WA (about 30 minutes east of Seattle). We first went to Chateau Ste. Michelle and did a tasting, we weren't very impressed with their wine. We did 2 red and 2 white tastings. Supposedly they're known for their white wine and their Reisling. After that winery Mallory took us to JM Cellars just a few miles away. Its a small family owned/operated winery. When we arrived there was no one in their tasting room except for the lady who pours the tastings. She said to us that John (the owner) was doing a barrel tasting and we should jump in on it. She gave us glasses and we found John and he ciphened Malbec (Brad's favorite red wine) straight from the barrel! May have been the best Malbec we've ever tasted! We noticed John had a broken foot and we asked what happened. He said a barrel from the top fell and landed on his foot, crushing it like a grape. He had more than 30 breaks in his heel bone and now he's calling that barrel "My Left Foot." After the tasting we headed down a small walkway and down to a small pond and hung there for a little bit. After the winery we went to Whole Foods and got some dinner and took it to Greenlake to eat by the water. What a beautiful day, 80 degrees and clear skies! On July 7 we left Seattle at 6am and headed to Oregon. Once arriving in Portland we headed west and went to Tillamook Cheese Factory. We did a quick self guided tour, bought some cheese and then drive north to Cannon Beach, with the recommendation from my dad. After Cannon beach we drove east to the Hood River to go to Multnomah Falls, unreal!!!! After our stop there we drove south and made our final stop for the night in Bend Oregon. We ate at Bend Brewery and went to bed pretty early! We woke up on July 8 and drove south to Crater Lake. Crater Lake was breathtaking and probably the most amazing thing I've seen!! After Crater Lake we drove south into Weed, CA and Yreka CA. We then headed back up north to Ashland, OR for lunch. Ashland was such a cute little town! We stopped at Boot Barn to get Brad a belt in Medford Oregon. We arrived in Grants Pass for the night and ate at Wild River Brewing Co. July 9 we woke up early again and took the 199 south through Crescent City, Eureka, and through Redwood National Park. We took a slight detour off the main highway and drove through Ferndale. A cute old Victorian town. After Ferndale we drove through Avenue of the Giants. These redwood trees were unbelievable! HUGE!! Took some great photos and got back on the road. Once in Healdsburg we got off to do a tasting at Ferrari-Carano winery. Beautiful grounds & gardens but we didn't think the staff was too friendly. After the winery we drove south a little more to Santa Rosa and went to Russian River Brewery in downtown Santa Rosa. We enjoyed a few delicious beers while watching the Home Run Derby! At 8:30, Brad's friend John picked us up from our hotel and we went to see his new home and ate some food at Flipside Burger joint in downtown Santa Rosa. We stayed the night at the Hilton Sonoma Wine Country. July 10 we woke up and drove through San Francisco and headed home :( Our road trip was the best trip we've ever taken together! We had such a great time, laughing and now we have all kinds of inside jokes! 5,306 miles of memories! And an elbow to my cheek a mile from home! ;) "Creepin'...Kirsten's creepin'!" "Drink-a-mug-a-milk-a-meal"