Roadtrip!

This summer has been filled with trips. Some planned, some not.

From Austin, TX in May to
Utah and Southern Alberta, Canada, in June
Back to Utah in July
Newport Beach, CA in July and to
Whidbey Island, WA in August.

I don't know about you, but that's far more traveling than I'm used to. That's a lot of laundry and packing and keeping track of kids. I really don't think I ever unpacked.

The last trip of the summer though, brought the most anxiety.
Driving to Washington, and then the . . . Triathlon (more on that later!)

We went back and forth a lot on whether we should fly or drive to Washington. Flying would have been much more convenient and faster, but then buying 7 tickets and flying bikes up, everything added up really quickly.

The weekend before we were to leave, we decided to drive.
Drive.
Straight.
Through.
Six kids in the car for the estimated 22-23 hours sounds delightful,no?

Tuesday evening (Aug 2), after Ryan installed air bags - the leveling kit to support the bike rack loaded up with 4 bikes, and packing up the car, we started the trek up to Wyoming.



Ryan and I switched driving around 1am near the Utah border. He drove thru the corner of Utah and up to Boise, Idaho. I took on driving at 5am up to Oregon. Somewhere in Oregon we switched again and he drove us over the bridge to Washington.

Our first time in Oregon - through a bug splatted windshield

Over the bridge to Washington

Gorgeous Washington

getting closer!

We drove up thru Seattle and followed the sign to the ferry to Whidbey Island. (I have to admit I was a tad nervous driving onto the ferry with about a bazillion other cars, but of course, it went off without a hitch. Speaking of hitch though, driving off the ferry was the only time the hitch - with the bikes on them - hit the ground. Even when one of the airbags totally deflated.)

Again, thru a bug-y windshield, waiting in line for the ferry.

On the ferry passing another

The kids were fantastic. Seriously. I'm not sure what made the trip seem like it was going by so quickly, but it did not seem like 20 hours in the car. (Now, the 24 hours on the way home is a bit of a different story, but still okay.)

After 16 hours - not too shabby!

We made it to Whidbey Island!

Interestingly, once we reached Jason and Christina's I never pulled out my phone or the camera to take pictures . . .

I'm pretty sure that's a sign of a rockin good time!