Thanksgiving West Coast Trip

David and I decided for our Thanksgiving vacation, we wanted to go see our good friend Wade. Some of you may know, but Wade is half the reason that David and I met and has since been a wonderful friend to both of us.  Wade lives in Bellingham, Washington which is about 30 minutes from Vancouver, Canada.  Being the travel enthusiasts we are, We decided to make the trip a full on adventure. 

We left Friday afternoon and headed to Flagstaff, AZ. It's a good thing we headed out when we did. Durango and Flagstaff got blasted with a winter storm. Saturday morning was an early one as we headed to Three Rivers, California. This day was mostly for driving. On Sunday we made it to Sequoia National Park and Yosemite National Park. Now really, you need much more than 2 hours in each park. There's so much to see and so many hikes to do. We just hit the highlights....this trip.  Seeing the sequoias is more than I could ever describe. It's just breath taking and hard to wrap your mind around. It's amazing to me that something so large could grow at that elevation (approximately 7000 ft). A good comparison listed in the park: a 6 foot person looking up at the sequoias, is like a mouse looking up at that 6 foot person.

At Yosemite, we saw tunnel view, half done, el capitan, and bridal veil falls. 

Yosemite: 

Sunday, we drove through Northern California and made it to Eugene, Oregon. On this trip, we stopped by Crater Lake in the Southern portion of Oregon.  This lake was created by volcano eruption and is one amazing site to see.  

California and Oregon are both so beautiful. When we first arrived in California, it still looked like dessert. Then it quickly changed to farmland in which we saw rows upon rows of citrus trees. As far as you could see, there were citrus trees.  Then we climbed elevation and saw the sequoias. Them we saw more mountains and snow in Lake Tahoe. So much diversity. You could easily live in Lake Tahoe, get tired of the snow one day, and drive the beach in a short trip.  Oregon is awesome too. For a while, you drive through a lot of farmland with surrounding hills. But you can quickly be in the mountains and snow. There's are so many forests around the area. The tree you see on the license plate, is exactly what you see lining the roads. Eugene was much bigger than we expected. We enjoyed a great dinner of tapas at Soriah downtown and then went in for the evening. Long days... But we love it so!

Tomorrow... Off to Bellingham!