Road Trip Day Eight: California to Nevada

We woke up and packed up. Then we had breakfast at our hotel.

We then got back on the road. As we were leaving town we saw a better looking beach on the side of the road. There were people gathering shells so we figured maybe this was the beach that had been recommended to us.
My dad pulled over and the girls and I ran down to the beach.
Almost immediately Abi found a sand dollar half buried in the sand!
After that we kept looking for them but didn't find anymore. We did collect a few shells though.

We then got back on the road. 

We were going to be heading East toward Nevada but the road we were going to take was closed because of a road slide due to weather. 

So we decided to go south to some more redwoods before going east. 

We came across these guys. 

The girls kept hiding under blankets.

Abi took a bit of a nap along the way. 

Then we found ourselves in another Redwoods forest. 

We stopped in at the visitor's center which was really nice. 

We grabbed a cool bookmark in the gift shop and then the girls took some time finding all of the listed animals in this display.

Then we drove to one of the drive-thru trees. It wasn't drive through at the moment because the road was broken behind it... but we walked through. 

Looking up from inside the tree...

The girls and I went back up to the car while my parents went through and I took this picture from above in the parking lot... my parents look so tiny! That is a big tree!

From here we continued our trek east toward Nevada. 

Soon we were crossing the mountain. It was snowy and as it got darker a little bit scary. 

Into Nevada..

It was so dark that I made the girls wait until we stopped in Reno for dinner to open their Nevada prizes.

After this we continued on to Fallon. 

We had reservations on the naval base there. 

We realized earlier in the day that we should call to check on the reservation so I did and everything was good. 

Then later we realized we should have told them about the credit card in case they tried to run it like the other naval base did. But when I called back I couldn't get through to them. 

So we just hoped everything would work out. 

By the time we got there it was really late, we were all exhausted. 

It took a long time to find the base in the dark and then to find a gate that was open. 

When we found it we asked the gate guard for our keys since they leave them there if you arrive after 4pm. They didn't have any keys left. 

So we had to drive back into Fallon and find a hotel. 

It was super stressful. 

Of course we realized this was our last snafu caused by the dumb jerk robbers... and I was especially grumpy as we made our way into the room but we ended up being able to have a pretty decent room and getting a good night sleep. Everything would feel better in the morning. 

Road Trip Day Seven: More Oregon, going into California

This day would be another fun one with a dream coming true for Madeline.
We started out with breakfast at our hotel.

After leaving town we stopped at another lighthouse and whale watching area... we did not see any whales. 

The weather was much better today. 

At our hotel I saw a brochure for a wildlife place where you could go in and pet baby animals. 

Madeline really wanted to go. 

We passed it on highway 101 so we pulled over and I took Madeline in. 

Abi wasn't really interested and neither were my parents and it was kind of pricey so I just took Maddy in and they waited in the car. 

When we first went in we were approached by a bunch of deer hoping for some food. We didn't buy any of the deer/ goat food though so we just walked right by them. The goats and deer actually kind of scared Maddy.

We were here for other reasons.
Thankfully, the bobcat was out right when we got in there so we hurried to the line.
It was a "baby", only a few months old but still pretty big.
As we waited in line for her turn to go in and pet it she was so excited.
She looked at me and said, "This is more exciting than Christmas!"

Madeline is our little animal lover, like I was as a kid. She especially loves all kinds of cats, big and small so this was amazing to her. 

On our turn we went in and she sat down and got to play with it for a few minutes. 

Then the handler had it stand on a stump and she got to pet it. 

She was so happy. 

After we left the area we noticed they had a baby black bear out at another area. 

We quickly got in this line and soon it was our turn. 

This little guy was so dang cute. 

I loved him.

I had such mixed feelings... hoping the animals are treated well here and still loving that we could experience it.
After petting the bear we went and looked at the other animals that were in their cages at the moment.

As we walked back past the experience area they had a baby snow leopard out. 

This one was even younger than the bobcat but was much bigger. They wouldn't let us in with it this time but we were able to watch it walk around and learn about it.

So pretty....

Maddy found a little friend...

Maddy wanted a stuffed animal when we were done. They didn't have one of a bobcat like she wanted so she picked out a cheetah. 

She also picked out this beanie boo for Abi and we got some candy for my parents to thank them for being willing to wait for us the entire time.

Next stop was another beautiful lighthouse...

Cape Blanco

Still didn't see any whales... but we spotted a whale shaped rock. 

Then more driving south on highway 101

We stopped at this beach and walked out to look for agates. It was a lot of fun.

More pictures along the way...

Pretty soon we were crossing into California. 

We were staying in Crescent City. 

They told us to bring all of our things into the hotel as the cars sometimes get broken into along the highway... so you didn't have to tell us twice. 

We emptied absolutely everything into our hotel.

Then we set out to see some Redwoods. 

My GPS took us a back way on a very treacherous road so we soon turned around and followed some road signs that we had seen on our way into town instead. 

The second area was much cooler with a spot to park and walk on a little trail to some huge trees. 

This was an area where they filmed some of the Star Wars movies. 

We then went back into our town and drove over to the lighthouse.

We were told that the beach in this town was a good place to find sand dollars, which Maddy really wanted, so we walked along the shore. It was a harder beach to get to and there wasn't anything. 

We went to a little restaurant close to our hotel that was rated well to have some fish and chips for dinner. 

Maddy was not a fan. 

I actually didn't get any. I wanted a salad. Maddy got a grilled cheese sandwich instead and just tried some of grandpa's. 

Once again, some great things were done this day!