We've arrived!

| Aug 11, 2008
Well, three nights ago, we arrived in Yorba Linda, California. Last time we were here was 14 months and more than 6,000 miles ago. It has been a fantastic year and we are so thankful for the opportunity to enjoy this amazing and beautiful country.

It's been fun writing this blog over the last 5 weeks or so. Tomorrow it is 6 weeks since we left Orlando and life has changed so much. We are in a different part of the country, we leave in one month for NZ, new Lake Hart Stinters have arrived and life goes on. Crazy, indeed!

Our road trip is over and now New Zealand beckons - one month to go!! edit

Almost over!

| Aug 8, 2008
After 5 weeks on the road, tonight is our last night before we arrive and settle in Southern California for a few weeks. It has been quite a journey full of amazing scenery, incredible history and special friends & family. Hard to believe our trip is almost over and we head back to NZ soon. Crazy!!

Today we headed out from Oakdale, California and drove about an hour and a half into Yosemite. We had to go up a REALLY steep road. Bryce said our car never got out of first gear the whole way. Yikes! Anyway, after that steep road and then lots of curvy driving, we got our first glimpse of Half Dome. It never fails to take my breath away!! It is one of the most amazing sights I have ever seen.

We drove down into Yosemite Valley. As always it was gorgeous. The last time I was there was 23 years ago and it looked even more beautiful. Unfortunately summer means no water in the Yosemite Falls which is sad as they are so stunning, but we had fun looking around. I really wanted to dip my feet in the Merced river as it isn't too deep, too rapidy or too cold. We found a spot and dipped our feet. The kids asked if they could go swimming, so after a quick change in the car, they were ready to swim. It was really fun watching them enjoy the water like we did all those years ago.

After the swim, we drove around a bit and then headed out to Mariposa Grove where there are Giant Sequoia trees. We went a short distance on the trail and enjoyed seeing the amazing trees!! It truly is an amazingly beautiful area. We arrived in the early evening at our hotel and got to enjoy the pool and just relaxing for a bit.

Tomorrow we head down through Fresno and Bakersfield and into Orange County eventually. It will be good to be settled for a week or so before we head to Texas in a week. I am excited about seeing my family too. The Olympics start tomorrow so I am SUPER STOKED!!! I love the Olympics. Go NZ, Go USA, Go Fiji....oh boy, too many countries to support....... edit

California Dreamin'

| Aug 7, 2008
Well, we finally made it back to California after 14 months. Kind of weird and feels like forever ago and then not so long ago either.

We had a great drive down from Oregon through the moutains and into the valley of Central California. Well, not quite central, but getting close. We are visiting Yosemite tomorrow which will be so cool! Hopefully there is water in the waterfalls and the river as August it can be pretty dry. The last time I was at Yosemite was in 1985 and it was with Bryce. We had been dating for about 6 months, but for 4 months of that I had been in the States. He came over to visit for three weeks at the end of our trip and we camped in Yosemite for 5 days. Lots of memories. So fun!! It will be cool to show the kids another part of our dating history. HA!

I said to Bryce today that the closer we get to So. California, the sadder I am getting as it means we are leaving the US. I am excited to see my friends and family in NZ again, but it is sad to say goodbye to friends and family here. So hard being torn between two countries now. Oh well, that is my life. Try not to think about it too much or it gets too sad. edit

Stunning Oregon

| Aug 6, 2008
Sunday we headed out of Seattle, Washington and drove down to Portland. We had a good friend from Stint that we wanted to catch up with. It was so great to catch up with Alex (unfortunately Sue wasn't there) and we had a great time with him. I know that Bryce is going to miss the times they hung out together in Orlando. We didn't see much of Portland, but we enjoyed what we did see.

Monday morning, we headed out of Portland for Redmond, Oregon. My cousin, Kelly lives there with her family and I hadn't seen her in 11 years or so. We were excited to reconnect. The drive was gorgeous as we drove through the Cascade mountains. I had been talking to Bryce how it would be fun to eat in some small town diners. Well, Detroit, Oregon had a small diner that we ate in. The food was excellent, but the prices were a little outrageous. Oh well!! It had character.

We arrived in the early afternoon at Kelly's home. She and her husband Terry live in a the country just outside the small town of Redmond. They have a gorgeious home there. It was so fun to meet my cousin Ashley as an adult. Last time I saw her she was 10. We had a great time chatting about life and where it has taken us over the years. We also enjoyed their two Weimariner dogs, Jackson and Gallon. Terry is a hunter and a real outdoors-man. Michael really enjoyed hanging out with him. Terry has this cool three wheeled bike and took the kids on it. Unfortunately there as a bit of a mishap as they were riding through the small pond and the bike flipped and they all ended up in the mud and water. It was rather funny, but could have been quite dangerous. Oh well!

Dinner ended up being quite late, but it was worth the wait. Delicious fresh salmon and yummy chicken as well as fresh corn, potatoes and salad. Yum!! For dessert we had s'mores. The kids had a blast making those. We all had a late night, but it was a terrific time.

This morning Terry made us an enormous breakfast. Bacon, eggs, waffles, fruit, donuts and it was delicious. Bryce, Terry and Shawn talked for a couple of hours outside, while Ashley, Kelly and I hung out inside and chatted. Ashley is a dancer and so we had fun talking about her future dreams. Cool!

We finally left Redmond around 1pm, a bit later than planned, but it was worth it. We really enjoyed our visit with Kelly & Terry. We headed to Crater Lake, Oregon. That was AMAZING!! It is the deepest lake in the USA at over 1900 feet deep and one of the deepest in the world. It was a volcanic crater filled with melted snow and ice and felt like it was at the top of the world. The water is so blue and it is truly stunning. Bryce said it was one of the most beautiful places he has seen in the US so that was high praise indeed. The rim road down was a little terrifying as it was quite narrow and no guiderails, but we made it down fine.

Tonight we are staying in Grants Pass, Oregon. My grandparents lived here for almost 30 years and I have many wonderful childhood memories of their home here so it was fun to drop by their house and see how it looks since I was last here 11 years ago. My grandparents are now with the Lord, so it was a bit emotional seeing their place when the last time I was here they were alive. It was fun to show Michael and Laura where their great-grandparents lived for so long.

Tomorrow we head to Yosemite in California. We've come full circle nearly. A bit emotional really!! I am feeling pretty sad about finishing our adventure, but know that good things are still to come as we head back to NZ. It has been an amazing trip and I can't wait to do it again! edit

Almost Canadians for life!

| Aug 3, 2008
It has been an eventful day in the life of the Staveleys.

It all started with an early morning wake up call from a friend in the US. I completely forgot that I was international so who knows how much that call will be. Oh well! We all dozed off for awhile so that was good, but that meant another late start. We're getting pretty bad at those.

Vancouver is a beautiful city, but unfortunately very cool and cloudy the days we were there. Not sure if we experienced the beauty of it all. After we checked out, we needed breakfast and finally found a Dennys and found parking. Unfortunately it was metered and we had no Canadian money, but we found that US money worked fine. YAY!

I had noticed though as we had driven around looking for parking and as we entered the restaurant that there were a lot of rainbow flags around. Turns out it was Pride Week in Vancouver and we were in the thick of it. That made for interesting conversation with Michael as we explained homosexuality to him.

After breakfast, we headed to Stanley Park which is beautiful. The woods there were gorgeous and so many redwood trees. We drove around the whole park and snapped a few pics of the totem poles and the harbour. It was cool!

We decided to head back to Seattle as we expected it would be a bit of a wait at the border crossing. We got going and then Michael needed to go to the bathroom. We had to get off the freeway and finally we found a bathroom. It was getting close to 12pm at this stage, but we were doing fine. We finally found our way back to the freeway and headed for the border. The sign said 8 miles to the border and at about 5 miles we hit the line that was at a complete standstill. We ummed and aahed for a bit and then decided to turn around and head the way we had come yesterday.

It was getting towards lunch time so we stopped for lunch and found our way back to the border crossing we came through yesterday. At the same time the day before, the line out of Canada was about 10 cars long, maybe less. Today it was easily a 100 cars. Fortunately it was a beautiful day so we rolled down the windows, turned off the car and read thinking it would be 45 minutes or so. Well, 2 hours later we FINALLY crossed the border. For awhile there we thought that we were going to be Canadians for life!

Well, unhappy events were not over for the Staveleys, NO they weren't. That would be too simple and easy. Unfortunately, we took the wrong freeway in Seattle and ended up going in the opposite direction that we wanted to. We finally got that sorted, but that was extremely frustrating as it was now 6:30pm and we were getting hungry. Well, the day wasn't finished with us yet. We decided to go to IHOP for dinner and set the GPS. For some reason "Daniel" got confused and we had to do three U-turns, but finally made it. Whew!! We are now resting and re-energising at our friends' house before we head to Portland tomorrow. What a day!
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It's been aboot a week!! We're in CANADA!

| Aug 2, 2008
We had a great week in Seattle. It was so nice to just stop for awile and enjoy hanging out with Brad, Amal and the boys and our friends. Our friends have a lovely home in a woodsy area so we felt like we were in the country, but weren't far from shops etc. It was pretty cool though. One day it was only 57 degrees at 11:30am. That was a big change from what we are used to.

Some of the fun things we did were:

  • Saw the new Batman movie which was excellent.
  • Went to Barnes and Noble for coffee a couple of times
  • Went to Pike Place Markets (big farmers market in Downtown Seattle)
  • Went to a very large Asian grocery store and ate yummy food.
  • Went geo-caching. That was interesting, but we never found the cache - more GPS issues :)
  • Hung out and chatted at the house while the kids played Wii or outside.
  • Went out for dinner to a fun Northwest cuisine restaurant.

This morning we got up and headed out the door for Vancouver, Canada. We decided we were only a couple of hours away from Vancouver so it seemed like a great idea to visit. We're only here for one night and half a day really, but we have been to Canada. It was really fun crossing the border into another country by car. That was a new experience for us all.

We had a fun drive into the city, which is very beautiful surrounded by mountains. However, our route took us through the less desirable part of the city which was a little nerve-wracking. We finally arrived at our hotel in a much nicer part of town which was great. We hung out in our room for awhile and then walked around the area close by to find a restaurant for dinner. It was interesting to see all the different eating places etc.

After we got home to our room, we watched a movie as a family and now it is bedtime. Not sure what fun things we will do tomorrow, but I know it will be great. Tomorrow we head back to Seattle for another night, then Portland, Redmond, Oregon, Grants Pass, Oregon, Yosemite, California and then on the 8th we arrive in Southern California. Hard to believe we are so far away from Orlando now! I am missing Florida already, but it will be nice to be back with family in California soon.

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Prosper, Texas, United States
I've been married for 32 years to the love of my life and we have two awesome adult kids and a fantastic son-in-law. Big new adventure moving to Texas from New Zealand in February 2021

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