The Ultimate USA West Coast Road Trip : Rewind

No it is not déjà vu, this time we are driving from Seattle and going down the entire coast, because if it is worth doing once, it is worth doing twice: twice the distance, twice the amount of adults, twice the budget but would it be twice better or worse?

The last trip we did in S$10,000, this time we have a teenier budget of $18,000 for five  adults and one child. That’s pushing my number crunching skills (and blood pressure) to the limit. Seriously, I am feeling more anxious than anything thinking about the long torturous plane journey and car journeys cram together with my grumpy father, short-tempered hubby, hyper daughter and stubborn mom. Basically, it is like being married again four times.

Sorry, I say it like it is. I know, I sound like a whiner. I should feel happy and blessed, so please send me all the happy thoughts, puppies, kittens, etc.

Aaaaaarrrrfffggghhhhh!!!

Okay here goes:

Day 1: Singapore – Seattle

Arrive in Seattle at 8am. Collected our car from Seattle airport. We start our trip immediately by visiting the Emerald state of Seattle. That afternoon we went up the Space Needle for a gorgeous sunset and also the Chihuly Garden and Glass.

Read the whole post: https://undersgsun.com/2017/09/emerald-city-attractions/

Day 2: Seattle

We visited the Museum of Flight and Pike Place Market.

Day 3: Seattle to Portland

After arriving in Portland in Oregon, we immediately embarked on shopping. Oregon is a shopper’s paradise as they have zero taxes on sales. When we arrive at Portland, we went straight to Washington Square for shopping.

Day 4: Portland to Prospect (near Crater Lake)

It is quite a drive to Prospect so we set off as early as possible.

However not before we spent a couple of hours at the Outlets in Oregon!

Day 5: Crater Lake to Klamath

Our hotel the Prospect Historic Hotel was pretty close to Crater Lake so we drove through the gorgeous snowy winter wonderland to reach the lake. Unfortunately it was a foggy day so we didn’t get to see any lake. Bummer.

After that it was a long tedious drive through the mountains to Crescent City which is along the coast.

Day 6: Crescent City to Fort Bragg – The Redwoods Route

We drove from Crescent City through the giant Redwoods and finally to Fort Brag. We passed through the famous Redwoods National Park and the Humboldt Redwood Forest and drove through a hollowed out giant Redwood tree!

Day 7: Fort Bragg to San Francisco

After a morning walk on the Glass Beach, the drive along the coast was long but we were rewarded with very amazing views of the Pacific Ocean. We also stopped by Point Arena, the tallest lighthouse in the USA West Coast.

Day 8: San Francisco to Anaheim

Back in SF again! This time we took some photos at the Palace of Fine Arts before embarking on what seemed to be an impossible drive to Anaheim. Glad we set off early as the pre-Christmas traffic coupled with an immense rainstorm that stretched hundreds of kilometres delayed our commute by over 3 hours.

Day 9-12: Anaheim

It was nice that we finally were in a place for more than one day. The rest of our trip would be in Anaheim.

Day 10: Anaheim Disneyland

On Christmas Day, we visited Disneyland! I do not recommend going during the super peak season due to the crowds but it is hard to be angry or frustrated at the happiest place on earth.

That’s about it! I will probably take another year to post up all the photos of our adventure and then update this summary again.