Last Leg of the Trip

Where did the time go?!?!?  I've been back in Seattle for 2 weeks, and it seems like references to our trip-especially the earliest parts-are for a trip that happened years ago, not weeks ago.  Sigh.  I think real life has settled in again.

Before too much more time passes by, I want to get details down for the last leg of the trip.  In some ways, it was my favorite part of the trip, and fortunately, given the proximity of this area to Seattle, comprises the easiest places on the trip to pop back to for a weekend away from Seattle.

Stats since the last update
20 days.  2500 miles.  3 States.  Cities visited: Sedona, AZ; Scottsdale, AZ; Palm Springs, CA; Venice, CA; Santa Barbara, CA: Santa Cruz, CA; San Francisco, CA; Sonoma, CA; Eureka, CA; Gold Beach, OR; Newport, OR; Astoria, OR; Portland, OR.

Highlights...Sedona was a godsend-both the beauty of the scenery, and we stayed in an "AirBNB" type condo that had a kitchen-so, we got to cook!.  All of the Wineries we stopped at along the way were lovely-some better than others...Fess Parker was incredible, and our last winery (sadly, the name currently escapes me), was simple perfection in the setting and experience.  Astoria -and well, any of the Oregon Coast cities-are all hidden gems that I can't wait to return to during weekend trips from Seattle.

Lowlights...really just one...Santa Cruz. The one place on the trip that, hindsight 20/20, I wish we hadn't stayed in.  After booking the hotel, we were unfortunately 'locked in' for 2 days. The town is 'meh', and our hotel was..to be brutally honest (if not a bit kind...) was a shit hole.  Yes, a shit hole.  I've never used that phrase to refer to a hotel before.  Until now.  Santa Cruz is very expensive, but you'd think that for ~$150 a night, you'd get something in which you didn't feel the need to wear socks while walking on the carpet in your room.  Ew.  Oh well..now we know!

So, that's it.  That's the trip-a trip of a lifetime.  All told, we travelled 7700 miles across 13 States and 29 cities.  We started the trip Sunday, July 15 in Charleston, SC, and arrived in Seattle on Friday, August 31.  48 days.  Whew.

It's good to get settled in to Seattle (well, as settled as we can be without our stuff from London yet..), but I could have easily done another 2-3 weeks of the trip.  I start a new job on Monday, but hopefully in another 3-4 years, we'll have the opportunity to take some time off and do the northern route from Seattle to NYC!

I'm sorting thru pictures now.  Once we've been thru-and noted everything-I'll do a pictures post.  Should happen next weekend-it's Simon's task this week to tag the pictures. :)