Kevin got out of bed at 5am and headed across the street to the beach for some sunrise photography. I stayed in bed but couldn’t sleep much longer because my stomach was hurting and I was in desperate need of some Imodium AD. Maybe I had some bad cheese at the Tillamook factory. After Kevin returned from his photo session, I sent him on a mission to find some Imodium AD. He was back with the goods in a few minutes and within a short time it was working its magic! Although I didn’t feel really good, I was in good enough shape to be able to get on the road. To make up for the midnight fire alarm, the hotel management gave us a gift certificate for a free night. In spite of the fire alarm, it turned out to be a r
eally nice place, and since we have a free night’s stay coming, maybe we’ll return.Back in the car, our first stop was Starbucks and our second stop was the local casino! I had wanted to stop at one of the many casinos we had passed by throughout our trip and I was finally getting my chance. We visited the Chinook Winds Casino and Resort in Lincoln City, Oregon. My goal was to keep my spending to no more than $20 dollars. Kevin’s plan was to win big. I put my $20 dollars in the machine and he put in his $5 bucks. We both played video poker sitting side by side. I lost all my money and Kevin left with $1.35 more than he came in with. Not sure what he’ll do with all that money…I think
his daily Starbucks habit cost him $1.80. The casino was fun and I was happy to get that out of my system for a while.As we drove out of town, we stopped at a glassblowing shop where they allow people to participate in the glass blowing. We were able to watch and Kevin got some nice pictures of the process. Later, we walked across the street to the glass shop and I bought two beautiful pieces of hand blown glass. I love glass, so it was hard for me to keep the spending down to two items.
At this point our car was so loaded down with all our stuff that Kevin could no longer see out the back window (good thing I kept my purchases to a minimum).While driving down the coast we stopped twice to take photos of some more lighthouses. The lighthouses are hard to pass up and there a lot of them along the Oregon coast. Each
one is unique in its own way and you could spend several days seeing them and all the other beautiful sites along the Oregon coast. Along the way we were looking for a state park to camp in, but every single one we checked out had a full campground. The Oregonians really love their camping. Around 8pm we reached the California border. We were going to stop and take a picture of us hugging the “ Welcome to California” sign but we never found one. We finally knew we were in California when we saw a California Lottery sign. I was in urgent need of a bathroom break and asked Kevin to stop at an Indian casino on 101. He was sure I 
wanted to pull some more slots again, but I was in and out of there within minutes. Just as the sun was setting we managed to find a county park campground a few miles north of Cresent City, CA. We were tired from a long day and still had to set up camp. There wasn’t a level spot on the entire site so we had to sleep on a slight downhill slope. Kevin cooked dinner and I helped with the dishes. Tip saver: Be sure to bring lots of paper towels with you when you camp, as they are an excellent dish cleaner. Also, paper plates and plastic utensils are a must have item as well. Right before bed
, Kevin and I went on a short walk to find the garbage can. After walking the entire campground loop twice, Kevin asked a fellow camper if he knew where the garbage cans were kept. This guy told us they were near the restrooms, which happened to be right next to our campsite. So we walked back and found the garbage can disguised as a cut down tree trunk sitting about 10 yards from our place. Ugh!The campground was extremely quiet except for the sound of me scratching viciously at my ankles. Apparently, I
had gotten quite a few bug bites somewhere along the way and the itch was just kicking in. I was really wishing I had some Cortaid. Tip saver: Bring Cortaid!Eventually I fell asleep but morning came too soon. We woke before the sun came up, packed the car, and headed down the road. We both were ready to get home but we still had 350 miles to go. We ate breakfast in Eureka at a place called Christine’s. It was not a memorable breakfast but we managed to eat it anyway. Back on the road again, we detoured off highway 101 and drove through the “Avenue of the Giants”. After that we detoured again to take our car through the “drive through tree” tourist stop. We paid our $5 dollars, and as we approached the tree I got out with camera in hand while Kevin waited in
the car for his turn to drive through the tree. I shot pictures as he came through the big hole in the trunk (6 feet wide, 6 feet 9 inches high). He had to stop once because the bike rack got caught (good thing we didn’t have those bikes), but luckily he noticed right away and was able to adjust it and get the car through. Some vehicles were too large to fit through and had to go around. It was all pretty corny but fun to do. Back on the road, Kevin smelled something really bad and after about 10 miles of driving realized he had stepped in dog poop back
at the drive through tree. A quick stop to clean his shoe and we were back on the road. I took over the driving just outside of Santa Rosa. We drove over the San Rafael Bridge, happy to be back in the Bay Area and almost home. We spent the last hour of our trip talking about next summer’s vacation, but glad that this trip was coming to an end. We arrived home about 4:30pm, spent the first 10 minutes playing with our very happy dogs, Sophie and Zoe, and then unpacked the car. We called the kids to let them know we were back and decided to all go out for dinner. Jenn, James, and Ava came over to our house first and it was wonderful to see our granddaughter, at 17 months old, recognize us. As Jenn and James drove up, Ava was squirming to get out of her car seat and she put her little arms out and gave us a big welcome home smile. It was a fun trip and so nice to be home again! 
