The last 24 hours have been fun and hectic to kick off this Oregon road trip extravaganza! Couple reasons why…

1. For anyone following the weather you know that Northern California has been getting hit hard with winter rain storms which has caused floods and a plethora of other lovely problems.
2. I have two people (my mom and one of my best friends from college) and a Lemonhead (my dog duh) joining me on this trip. And don’t get me wrong I am so happy they decided to join us but one flew in from Hawaii while the other flew in from Ohio..at different times..on different days.
3. Traveling with Lemon always adds another level of stress to any trip. She can’t pack for herself…she won’t know if we forgot her leash, harness, etc..and the oh so fun issue of her getting car sick. I get anxiety about traveling with Lemon but who the heck could leave that adorable face at home! Not I friendos…Not I!

So there has been a lot of finger crossing for the weather to get better, double checking Lemon is packed up, and a lot of shuttling to and from the airport. And now we are finally on the road!

We started the trek by waking up at 4:15am and getting out the door around 5am. Loaded the car with snacks, dog treats, and gallons of coffee to assist us on our travels. With two of us jet lagged and two of us (me and Lemon) being big freakin morning babies we managed to have positive attitudes about the day ahead of us.

For the first half of our trip we mainly just stopped to fill the rental up with gas. (For any of you that haven’t read my post on Planning A Successful Road Trip I recommend that you do now!) I always pack food, snacks, water, etc this helps to keep the stopping at a minimum so you can make great time.

So we drove pretty much straight through with minimal stopping until we got the fantastic treat of crossing over the Golden Gate Bridge! We decided to stop and take some pics. First, we stopped at the Golden Gate Lookout right after you cross over. Here you can get great views of the city, the bridge, and Alcatraz.

After the lookout we headed to Marin Headlands for the breathtaking full view of the bridge in all its magnificent glory.

After spending a bit too much time goofing off it was back to the road. We drove a couple more hours north and then decided falling asleep at the wheel was totally unacceptable and frowned upon so it was time to pull on over. We picked the Best Western in Fortuna because they are Lemon friendly. They even gave us treats and a toy for Lemon when we checked in.

Well it’s now time to hop into bed and rest before we continue on the road tomorrow. Nighty night peeps…adventure awaits!