Week 2 Vacation - Girls Roadtrip

Monday Aug 8th - Friday Aug 12th.  Susan, Karen, Meggan, and Rachel Oliver.

For those of you who follow Karen's blog, she can fill you in on the details here day to day.  I'm going to give you the highlights and Rachel-specific things.

Photos:
https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10150261633290894.329186.599030893&l=1e180dea7c&type=1

Crater Lake - beautiful!  I'd been before with my parents in 2005 but this time we drove around the lake and saw many of the viewpoints.  Also, there was still some snow this time and I enjoyed people play in snow like they have never seen it or touched it before.

Redwoods - I like trees.  These trees were very, very tall although not as wide as the Sequoias or the Carmanah Forest on Vancouver Island.  But it was beautiful and peaceful.  Rachel and I did 'pushups' here and I'll try to get the video from Karen to post.

Wildlife - I asked the moose and bears to come out and play almost everyday... and saw none.  But we did see deer, birds, sea lions, and pet dogs.  Rachel loves dogs.

Oregon Coast - I love how public the beaches are.  Thank you Oregon for continuing to keep nature beautiful.  The beaches remain relatively undeveloped and open for playing.  I enjoyed climbing up the sand dune with Rachel and watching people try to sand board on various kinds of boards.  

Lighthouses - I didn't get too excited about the lighthouses, but I also took Rachel duty during most of our lighthouse stops.  I did enjoy checking them off our list as we saw them.

Aquarium - the aquarium was cool.  I like animals.  Rachel was a bit sleepy during our visit but she liked watching the sea lions swim by.

The Cheese Factory - It was fun to try the samples and be able to share them with Rachel.  I'm sad I didn't get an ice cream like the other 1000 people that were there that day... but Rachel had also just had the most monstrous diaper of her life and I didn't really have an appetite!

Flying from Portland to Denver - Susan and Karen left early Friday morning and then Rachel and I managed to pack up all our things and get ourselves to the airport, on a plane, and on a bus from Denver to Boulder.  Jason met us at the bus station and we had one more short bus ride and a walk to our new place with all our things.  Overall, the trip was tiring but it went well.  Rachel hardly slept during the day and she is back now to being the Rachel that doesn't really nap.  But in terms of single parents who travel with a baby, it was a good day.  As usual, I'd love to thank SouthWest Airlines for being so awesome for travelers with kids.  I'd also like to thank the random lady who helped my load by bags on to the Boulder bus while I had Rachel in her carrier, as I don't know how I could have done that part by myself.

Travel with Rachel - I don't think in my life I've ever stayed in a motel/hotel more than 2 nights in a row except on a field hockey tour.  Personally, I found it luxurious and financially stressful.  I know camping wouldn't have worked given all the other stuff we've had going on in our life, so this was a good experience for me.  I'm pretty fast now at putting together and taking apart Rachel's travel crib.  We used disposable diapers for most of this trip because we weren't in any one place long enough to dry them except a couple of times.  Rachel did really well at sleeping in her car seat or in the stroller during nap time, and I think she managed to eat not too badly.  I am looking forward to cooking again, for both of us.  I think the hardest thing about this trip in terms of Rachel was sleeping at night.  She typically went to bed at about 7:30pm so for bedtime routine and the next 30 min after she goes to sleep, we needed to be absolutely quiet and find darkness.  The first week went quite well, I thought.  Before we left for the trip, Rachel went to bed easily and slept 10-11 hours straight with no night time wakings or nursing.  During the first week of the trip, I nursed her about once a night just to keep her quiet when she woke up and she went back down easily.  During the second week, she had a lot more trouble getting to sleep and she woke up often.  I had her in my bed with me (something I almost never do) more and more as the trip went on.  I felt badly for Karen and Susan that I constantly kept shhhh-ushing themin the evenings and I'm not sure they slept that well on the trip.  I know Rachel and I did not.  I hope when we get settled in Boulder we can get back to a better night time routine and general schedule so that we can all get better sleep!