The Peace Arch at the border between White Rock BC and Blaine Washington. Look at that long line of traffic we are sitting in to get to the border crossing. It took about 90 minutes to get through. It was a hot humid day. I chose to take the back seat with my youngest grand daughter and let my almost 16 year old grand daughter start the trip in the front passenger seat.
We are now on the American side of the arch. The flower bed is made to look like the American flag, though it is difficult to see from this angle. We are still not at the border crossing.
We stopped for a short time in Bellingham to buy my son a new pair of sandals, a white tank top for myself, and some lunch items including fruits and raw vegetables at a local Wal Mart. It was the only time we went shopping during the trip except for groceries and postcards. This first day was a particularly long drive because of the border delay and the traffic heading towards Seattle, which you can see in the photo above. It took approximately 9 and 1/2 hours. As you can see, we did not stop to take photos. My grand daughter and I grabbed whatever photos we could from the car windows. Because she was in the front seat, I relied upon her for most of these photos.
Mount Rainier in the distance. When I was the same age as my older grand daughter I went with my family to the top of this mountain. I don't remember much because I was quite ill and running a high fever that day.
Leaving Washington state as we come across this bridge at Astoria and we will begin the coastal route through Oregon. I am using a stock photo below to show you the sign on the bridge that indicates we were leaving one state and entering another.
We had reservations at a hotel in Seaside. We arrived at dusk and emptied the car before we looked for a family restaurant to eat. I did not take pictures of any of our accommodations on this trip because I was usually the last one through the door and the room was already looking messy before I could snap a photo. But we had some very nice places to stay....some with two rooms and some with a kitchenette. Every room had a fridge, coffee maker, micro wave oven and a continental breakfast. Early the next morning my grand daughter went out jogging and took these photos of the town of Seaside. It was too late in the evening to take pictures when we arrived. Since I had taken none myself, I bought a post card for my scrap book.
Look at that wonderful beach!
We had reservations at a hotel in Seaside. We arrived at dusk and emptied the car before we looked for a family restaurant to eat. I did not take pictures of any of our accommodations on this trip because I was usually the last one through the door and the room was already looking messy before I could snap a photo. But we had some very nice places to stay....some with two rooms and some with a kitchenette. Every room had a fridge, coffee maker, micro wave oven and a continental breakfast. Early the next morning my grand daughter went out jogging and took these photos of the town of Seaside. It was too late in the evening to take pictures when we arrived. Since I had taken none myself, I bought a post card for my scrap book. 
Oooh, thanks for sharing with us! That was a loooooong day. I just pulled up the route on Google Maps and it says it would take 5.5 hours if I left Burnaby now, so there must have been a lot of traffic on the roads that day! I can't believe how busy the border crossing was! Mount Rainier looks beautiful. I would like to go visit Seattle one day. Perhaps if Greg has another business trip there, I can accompany him for once.
ReplyDeleteI can't wait to read about the rest of your trip. Thanks to your GD for the pictures too!
Getting through the border took a very long time. I don't know why. It was a Monday. And we found throughout the trip that driving into any big city was long and slow because of traffic. It didn't seem to matter what time of day. You are right about Google. My son would announce at the beginning of the day how long the drive would take, and it always happened that it took hours longer. Of course we also made stops along the way for breaks, but not that many. We usually had drinks and snacks in the car.
DeleteThat was a long drive! What a long line of cars at the border, too! Glad you had a safe trip, though. And your granddaughter took some nice pictures!
ReplyDeleteIt was the longest day of driving going to our destination, but we had an even longer day coming back home. Although I offered, my son did ALL the driving. He said if he was going to sit in the car, he might as well be doing the driving. Besides that, his Prius was having trouble switching from "electric" to "gas" on some of the steep inclines. That made him nervous and he said he would rather be at the wheel when that happened. He is having that switch looked at now that he is back in Vancouver.
Delete