Santa Barbara Road Trip Summer 2018

Two weeks ago the kids and I headed to Santa Barbara for the week.

One of my childhood best friends lives in Santa Barbara with her 3 kids. 

The last time we visited them was Spring Break last year when we did the first part of our California Missions Road Trip. Our kids had a blast together & she insisted that we come stay with them this summer, so we did! 

Santa Barbara is only a 5 hour drive for us, so that's nothing compared to the 12+ hours of our Oregon Road trip. 

We left mid-morning so that we could stop for a late lunch at one of my very favorite lunch spots that is 3 hours into the trip....San Luis Obispo....Firestone Grill!

They have THE BBQ BEST TRI TIP Sandwhich. It is the stuff dreams are made of :)

I get the Tri Tip & my kids get hamburgers (and fries!) 

A couple hours later we were in Santa Barbara! 

We did dinner at a park that night so the kids could get some energy out.

A park with a beautiful ocean view & sunset. Love it!

We spent the next day at the beach. 

My kids love the beach! I had to literally drag them off the beach.

We spent the day at Butterfly Beach.

After we left, the fog lifted and we walked around the Wharf & State Street.

After dinner, we had Ice Cream at McConnell's.

If you ever go to Santa Barbara, you must go there!

The next morning, we went to breakfast at Sambo's. 

This is one of our favorite breakfast spots in Santa Barbara.

I always get the California Eggs Benedict....SO GOOD!

After our breakfast we headed about 30 miles south to go to  Ventura for the afternoon. 

We headed to Ventura because we had to go see Mission San Buenaventura!

This was Mission #20 out of 21!!!! 

Woo-hoo!

One more to go after this!

Love all the flowers.

There is still a daily Mass that happens at this Mission.

The chapel was small, but pretty.

It’s a smaller Mission and the landscaping in the courtyard is beautifully done.

This Mission still has daily Mass services.

There was also a fountain in the courtyard.

After we checked out the Mission we went to the Ventura Pier & checked out downtown Ventura.

Drove back to Santa Barbara to enjoy rest of the day there.

Played on the beach.

Had dinner at one of our favorite spots on the beach....Shoreline Cafe.

The fish tacos are amazing!

Ended our time at the beach with a beautiful sunset.

The next morning we packed up and started our drive home and I knew I wanted to stop in Pismo Beach for Cinnamon Rolls! It's a little over an hour into the drive.

If you are ever in Pismo Beach or passing through (like we were) do yourself a favor and go to Old West Cinnamon Rolls. 

 The line was out the door. 

But when we got inside, we got to watch them make Cinnamon Rolls. 

 Cinnamon Rolls are our favorite.

We got here later than I planned, so this was lunch...gotta love road trips

Hands down, the best cinnamon rolls we’ve ever had.

We each had one and then I ordered 6 to go so we could have some at home. 

YUM!!!

Then we hit the road again and headed towards our next stop....the Carmel Mission!!!

In March of 2017 Kate was in 4th grade and came home from her field trip to Mission San Juan Bautista and told me it was the best field trip ever and that she wanted to visit all 21 California Missions. I’m always up for an adventure, so I said “Let’s do it!” 

I changed our Spring Break plans that year and 2 weeks later we went on a road trip to Santa Barbara and checked off 10 missions that week. Throughout the year we would go on day trips to and would squeeze in a Mission visit here and there. This Spring Break we drove to San Diego and saw more missions. We went to Harry Potter World & Disneyland in May and of course had to check off more Missions. 

So, when went to Santa Barbara on this trip, I made sure we went to Ventura since we didn’t do that one yet. That left us with 1 more Mission....one of the closest ones to our house...the Carmel Mission. 

I guess you could say we saved the one of the best for last. 

Kevin’s brother Jeff & our sister in law Cindy got married here 20 years ago. 

It didn’t disappoint, it’s absolutely stunning. And, there was a wedding rehearsal going on while we were there!

The perfect one to end on. 21 out of 21 California Missions for Kate. 

They even let her in for free because they were so impressed she had seen them all. 

Claire, Luke and I haven’t been to Mission San Juan Bautista yet. It’s a 4th grade field trip and Claire wants to wait to see it for her field trip, so even though we drove by it, we haven’t gone through it.

I’ve never been on one of their field trips because I’m teaching, but you better believe I’m volunteering to go on that one.

I can’t believe our Larson California Mission Adventures have come to an end. 

It’s been so much fun & we’ve learned a lot. 

We’ve seen so many cool places in California that we wouldn’t have seen if it weren’t for this adventure.

 

 I’m proud of Kate for her great idea and I’m proud of Claire & Luke for being good sports about being dragged along to all these Missions.

Now, we need to think of a new adventure, any ideas?!? 

Oregon Road Trip {Part 2} + A Winner

Are you ready for Part 2 of our Oregon Road Trip?
If you missed it, HERE is the link to Part 1 which covered the Oregon Coast.
Part 2 starts off in the morning where we drove 2 hours from the Beach house to drop Kevin off at the Portland Airport. He had to fly home for work, but since I am a teacher & on Summer Break, I decided to spend extra time adventuring around Oregon and do the 12 hour drive home with the kids over the course of a few days.

Before we dropped Kevin off at the airport, we had to stop by Voodoo Doughnut!

I've been wanting to try Voodoo for many years!

So many choices....

There were over 20 types of doughnuts.

It was hard to narrow down.

Look at that menu.

Wall to wall donut boxes:

These are the ones we chose:

Captain Crunch, Sprinkle, Fruit Loop, Oreo, Maple Bacon & Sugar.

We ate our donuts & then dropped Kevin off at the airport. On the way to the airport is when my dermatologist called me to let me know my nose biopsy came back as basal cell cancer and that I had to have surgery. But, I was determined to not let that get me down and I wanted to enjoy the rest of the trip.

After we dropped off Kevin at the Portland Airport, I drove the kids to Washington. It's just over the river from Portland, so I thought it would be fun for them to go to a new State.

We drove to Vancouver, Washington and checked out this cute park.

I really wanted to drive to Seattle, but it was 3 hours away, so that was going to add 6 hours round trip to my 12 hour drive home, so we just stuck to Vancouver.

Then, we drove back into Oregon so we could check out more of downtown Portland.

First up on the agenda....Powell's Books.

The kids were in HEAVEN!!!

We all love books & this was the biggest bookstore I have ever been to.

We stayed here for almost 2 hours. I couldn't get them to leave.

Each kid picked out a book to buy.

Claire got The Tales of Beattle & Bard (from Harry Potter), Kate got Fantastic Beasts (also from Harry Potter) & Luke picked out a Star Wars book.

We walked around the downtown for a little bit. I should have taken more photos, its a cute downtown. We went to the Food Truck area to find lunch.

It was a hot day in Portland (90 degrees!) so the kids decided they wanted to eat in a restraunt, not at a food truck. I don't blame them. My friend Emily told me about The Grilled Cheese Grill (it's a food truck, but they also have a reastraunt on the other side of town, so we decided to get back in the car and drive to the East side.
When we got back to my car, I had a Warning on it!!

I got a warning because I put my parking meter receipt in the center of my dashboard instead of on the curbside) Classic Portland!!!

I bet they saw my gas guzzling SUV with California plates and just looked for a reason to give me a warning ;) I'm just glad I didn't get a ticket.

The coolest part about The Grilled Cheese Grill is that it's a restaurant in an old school bus!

The food was AMAZING. Best grilled cheese of my life.

Luke had fun "driving" the school bus.

The whole neighborhood where we had lunch is very “Portlandia”. Conversation I overheard at the table behind us was a mom telling her kids they all had to share the same water cup because they weren’t going to waste more plastic. What an interesting city, we loved it. Keep Portland Weird.

Our next stop was Sun River, which was a 3.5 hour drive.
It was such a beautiful drive, I had to pull over at one point to take this photo of this beautiful caynon.

The picture doesn't even do it justice. 

We arrived in Sun River, checked into our room..this was the view from our deck.

We had dinner at Sun River Brewing Company, it's right in the Sun River Village.

We stayed at the Sun River Lodge which is walking distance from the Village.

Mt. Bachelor!

After dinner, the kids needed to burn off some energy, so we walked over to the pool.

The kids loved the slide.

So fun.

This pool was gorgeous.

Happy kids.

Watching the sunset from the pool

SO pretty!

Mt. Bachelor in the background.

There were several fire pits at the pool as well.

I wish we could have stayed longer in Sun River!

The next morning, we woke up & had breakfast on our deck with this beautiful view.

The last time I was in Sun River was when I was in middle school, it's so pretty. We will be back.

It was time to hit the road and drive 3 hours to Crater Lake!

Crater Lake is a thing of beauty.

My parents took us here over 25 years ago & I still remember how majestic it was (it’s a volcano that erupted over 7000 years ago & is now the deepest lake in the US).

 It rained, it hailed, we saw snow & then it was sunny & hot.

We experienced all 4 seasons driving the lake.

Absolutely gorgeous! 

Then, we headed to our next destination which was another 3 hours away...Grants Pass, Oregon.

Final stop on our Oregon Road Trip...Grants Pass!

My parents used to take us here in the summer. I have many fond memories of the Rouge River, so I knew this had to be a stop on our Road Trip.
 
 The hotel I grew up staying at was full, so the kids & I stayed at a hidden gem...The Weasku Inn.

It's an old Fishing Lodge that has been converted to an Inn.

 There is a Main Lodge & then by the river there are cabins.

 There are only 12 cabins, so it has a Bed & Breakfast feel to it.

It has a HUGE lawn area & tons of trees.

When we first arrived & walked around I felt like it was a setting for a mystery novel or show. 
I felt like I was on Murder, She Wrote and kept waiting for Angela Lansbury to appear. 
Don't worry, I felt safe there & we survived :)

The sign said No Vacancy, but we barely saw anyone else on the property.
 I was the youngest one there & no other kids around. 
We saw one group of ladies in their 60's and a couple in their 70's. 
This place was awesome. So quaint & quiet. 
They have happy hour each afternoon with appetizers and drinks. 
Happy hour was going on right when we arrived.

Look how cute our cabin was:

The room: Other side of the room:

 Back porch:

Overlooking the creek:

We went on a little walk down to the river, there was a path by the creek that turned into the river:

Just so pretty!

Grants Pass was also having a heat wave...it was 95 when we were there.

I have so many childhood memories playing in the Rogue River.

So peaceful.

I could have sat by the river for hours.

We ordered pizza and had it on our back deck. It was perfect.

Every evening the lodge has cookies & milk.

 We enjoyed them on the deck. I guess no one else wanted cookies & milk?!?

They also have S'mores in the evening.
  Of course the kids wanted S'mores also.
We were the only ones doing S'mores!!
   Everyone else was missing out :)

Perfect Smores marshmallows....lightly toasted.

YUM.

We had a nice, slow morning hanging out in our room reading & playing cards. I mean, look at the cool ceiling.

The lodge also provides breakfast....again...basically had the dining room to ourselves!

Do you see why I felt like I was on Murder, She Wrote? A booked lodge, but barely ever saw anyone else.

We all loved this place.

 I found out that after we left that Clarke Gable would stay here often (he even went on his honeymoon here) Walt Disney is another person who would come to this Lodge frequently.
After we checked out of the lodge, we did a jetboat tour of the Rouge River.
 
My parents took us on this as a kid and I wanted to take my kids on it. 
 
It was just as fun as I remembered & we learned a lot about the Rogue River Valley.

 We used Hellgate Jet Boats (this is the same one I went on as a kid) I highly recommend them!

It was a great way to end our Oregon Road Trip!

We had In N Out after our jet boat excursion & then headed straight home...we didn’t stop once. 
  They were troopers the last 5.5 hour stretch home from Grants Pass.
No one had to go to the bathroom until we were minutes from out house #hardcore


1,634 total miles driven during the Oregon Road Trip.
My kids didn’t kill each other & I didn’t kill them, so I call that a win.
But trust me...I had some moments where I was wishing that I flew home with Kevin on Tuesday. LOL.
The good outweighed the bad & we made some amazing memories in the beautiful state of Oregon.

Thankful for kids who adapt to my adventurous spirit & embrace my love of road trips. 
Between this Oregon trip & our spring break trip to San Diego, they have driven Highway 5 the entire length of California & Oregon. Plus another road trip to Disneyland in May.
All with a busted DVD player in the car #helpmejesus

This is the Summer of Road Trips...last week the kids and I road tripped to Santa Barbara, more on that next week! 

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A few reminders:

My Rodan + Fields team is having Christmas in July Specials all month long.

Now until July 24th, you get Lash Boost at MY COST!

 $25 lash cash (so lash boost at my cost) a free mini eye cream & a free mini facial. 

 If you become a consultant I will give you a FREE LASH Boost!

One tube of Lash Boost lasts 3-4 months. Like all our products, it comes with a 60 day, empty bottle 100% money back guarantee.

 Email me to place an order.

I am also happy to answer any questions you have.

This deal is good for new, current or former customers!

melissa_larson17@yahoo.com

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The winner of the $250 Nordstrom Gift Card is Aileen D.

Congratulations! Send me an email or leave me a comment!

The Sale is still going on for another week and a half.

Check out what I bought on this post.

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See you back here tomorrow for What's Up Wednesday!

The bonus question for this month is "What is your favorite Summer memory?"