Destination California . . .

DAY ONE . . .

The Marsh family is on the move . . . for some summer fun and memory building. We are en route for a fun-filled two weeks in California . . . and we're driving. We started off with a bang . . . everyone was in the car and packed and ready to go at 9:30am . . . and our first stop was the rental car agency to pick up the car . .

This seemed, on paper, like the easy part . . . silly us - there will be no easy part!! The car intended for us that was supposed to be available at 10 was not there . . . so we came back at 10:40 at which point we realized there was a snafu . . . instead of putting a credit card on file, they wanted to hold the entire amount of the rental on the card for the whole two weeks we were going to be gone - not possible as we're sharing the rental fee with my fabulously generous in-laws . . . this hiccup caused more phone calls and paper work and time . . . at which point the oh so patient Marsh girls were feeling less than patient as we hadn't even left the city yet . . . Dad had a brilliant idea to run around the waterfront while we awaited the final confirmation . . . they ran around, climbed back in car seats and, armed with a snack, were ready to go . . .

We finally got the car and it is beautiful (picture to follow later) . . . it's a brand new red suburban with built in DVD players - a ton of excitement for the girls!! We had a rather un-eventful drive down to Albany, Oregon where we stayed with some wonderful family. They had a BBQ all ready for us complete with cousins to play with and great-Granny to hug. It was great to run around in a backyard and be with family to start our adventure . . . we spent the night in their beautiful home . . .

DAY TWO

It's Saturday and we are ready to go! We're all so excited to be together on vacation and be on our way to California . . . the drive was crazy - not from traffic but from the mountains we drove over . . . we had to stop for gas . . . and canolies?!

We got gas at a 76 station in Oregon and I loved how they pumped the gas for us! Old fashioned chivalry is so refreshing . . . and while we were awaiting the gas to be finished, Dad wandered into the organic/granola/Oregon bakery and picked up a homemade canoli with pistachios . . . I wanted to like it but . . . alas - not my favorite.

We drove . . . and drove . . . and drove . . . and drove . . . and the only consistent factor was the girls constant need to use and/or check out rest area potties . . . and of course, Dad entertained them between potty breaks with some rest area running . . .

Our goal for today was Sacramento enabling us to piece out the trip . . . after 8 some odd hours in the car, numerous driver switches, snacks and lunch eaten in the car (smart packing momma!) we entered Sacramento. Now began the search for the hotel - with a pool of course. . . this led itself to another adventure . . .the first hotel we tried had only one room left and an outdoor pool which was not heated . . . the second hotel had an indoor pool but the one room left had only one bed and no roll aways available . . . not possible for four of us . . . this lead us down more highways, up more byways and hungry tired children . . .

FINALLY - we found a hotel . . . and it had two beds . . . and it had an indoor pool . . . and it even had wifii (hence the blogging update!!) . . . the girls immediately hopped into their swimming suits and jumped on the bed until we'd take them to the pool . . .

And that leads us to now . . . 9:20pm with two crazy excited yet ridiculously tired girls . . . and two equally exhausted parents . . . attempting to sleep all together in a hotel room . . . pray for rest!!