'08 3G Family Vacation

What's 3G? Three generation! I wanted to take a road trip this summer and thought it would be great to invite Grandma & Grandpa along since they are both retired. We could rent a BIG RV, bring the D.O.G. (that's my nickname for Uno) and have fun on a leisurely week long vacation.

Duane was not thrilled with the idea, the girls couldn't imagine 6 people and a dog sleeping in the same vehicle and my Mom quickly put the kibosh on the idea because she thought I wanted my Dad to drive. So, I had to come up with an alternative plan. My proposal - fly to a city of our choice and take the Amtrak train back from there to Sacramento over the course of a week. This proposal was accepted by all (Dad by default since he just goes where he's told to go as long as he can be sure that Simon, the bull, will be cared for in his absence).

On July 12th we all flew to Seattle to begin our 3G vacation. Uno was left behind at Camp BowWow for the week. Our first two and half days in Seattle were fun - the weather was fantastic (mid-80's) and we were able to see the city via the free bus system in the downtown area and on foot. This was much to Kali's chagrin - "I do not like the bus!"

We had an amazing Sunday brunch while visiting with my former Grad. Asst. Melissa Sato (who now lives there and works at Microsoft) and her boyfriend. Kali and Melia ate countless pounds of mussels at this seafood brunch at Ivar's on the waterfront. I think they even got the kid's brunch price but surely ate more than I did!

Before we left Seattle on Monday afternoon I was able to sneak in a business meeting and check in on one of our MBA interns who was spending the summer at PwC working with the consulting group. Sean Davis' desk assignment for the day of my visit had the most unbelievable view of the Space Needle!

We hopped on Amtrak later that afternoon bound for Portland, OR and enjoyed a leisurely afternoon riding along, enjoying the scenery and playing cards. Much to Kali's delight we rented an SUV when we arrived in Portland (after taking the metro rail out to the airport to pick up our rental - haha - we might get her to appreciate public transportation yet).

Our Portland stay was three days and mostly fun! We took a drive out through the Columbia River Gorge to the Hood River Valley one day. We visited a lavender farm and got a great view of Mt. Hood and from that vantage point were able to capture pictures with the snow-capped mountain in the distance. We also stopped at a few local farms and bought fresh fruit and other goodies.

We spent one day exploring the International Rose Test Garden at Washington Park and touring the Portland Zoo. And one evening we stopped at a softball complex across the highway from our hotel and watched a couple of innings of a women's league game. That was an interesting experience - ask one of us about it sometime!

After three days we hopped back on Amtrak (after returning the rental car at the airport and making our way back to Amtrak via public transportation again!) and headed to Eugene. Since our train was delayed leaving Portland we didn't arrive in Eugene until mid-evening. Walked several blocks to our B&B Inn, unloaded our bags and ventured back out to find a place to eat. Eugene is a quiet little town when the college students are away for the summer. Our final day of vacationing was spent wandering around Eugene doing a little shopping and eating.

We reboarded Amtrak in the early evening on Friday for the final leg of our trip. This part of the train ride was the least fun. To start with we did not have assigned seats and the train did not originate at this stop, so we spent the first couple hours of the ride in the parlor car (I think that's what they called it). Nice for the view but we couldn't spend the entire ride here. Finally, after reminding the conductor that we still didn't have our assigned seats, they found six seats together for us in the last car where we would be sharing the car with a large group of boy scouts who were boarding the train at a stop high in the mountains as we crossed the border between OR and CA. We settled in for the night and tried to get some sleep as the train rattled and swayed through the mountains. At 5:45am we pulled into Sacramento, bleary eyed and glad to be almost home.