Grazing Rites

Talking to Jon today after attending a career fair (holy high school field trip Batman!) there seemed to be a general consensus of feeling that recreating the roadtrip of 2002 is a high priority target for future vacations.

Jon brought it up, it’s been in the back of my mind, and lord knows Mindi would love it. So let’s explore the feasibility, shall we?

First, a timeline.

Day 1 – Portland is simply too short a distance for a full day of driving at 5 hours. We’ve all been to Seattle a lot and I’m still hoping to get down there for a minibreak this spring and Portland, while pretty and friendly, has nothing to do. What about Redding? Nothing there but a waterpark and a Motel 6 but at nearly 12 hours distant it’d make efficient use of a full day of driving. With 2 drivers stamina hopefully won’t be an issue. We could stop at the Izzy’s in Everett or the Rainforest Café in Seattle for lunch along the way. We’d want to get an early start on the day though; a 10am departure would mean essentially a 10pm arrival. Nothing much to do in Redding but sleep in the Motel 6 anyways as the waterpark probably won’t be open the time of year a trip is likely to occur. And the thing is, the more driving distance covered in Day One, the more time in San Francisco.

Day 2 – Redding to San Francisco is a scant 3 hour drive. We could hit the 6 Flags in Vallejo along the way if we timed it right and were so inclined.

Day 3 – To spend a whole day in San Francisco or keep your eyes on the prize of Anaheim and keep the trip as short and cheap as possible? Let’s say a full day at the Dock of the Bay this time; we shorted ourselves hard on this last time.

Day 4 – San Francisco to Anaheim. That drive is a bitch despite only taking 6 hours – best to assign a whole day to this, maybe hit the Hard Rock at Universal for dinner but trying to do any more than that is likely foolish.

Day 5 – Disneyland and Universal Studios, in that order. Sound stupid or impossible? Not in September.

Day 6 – Knott’s Berry Farm / 6 Flags

Day 7 – Anaheim to Redding – without the stop in San Francisco this only takes 8 hours and passes through Sacramento (further on there’s a reason I mention this).

Day 8 – Redding to Vancouver, another marathon drive but we could hit the food option we didn’t hit on the way down.

So there you have it – Vancouver to San Francisco to Anaheim to Vancouver in 8 days. There’s some flexibility there too, if we only get 7 days we can cut the day in San Francisco or the Knott’s Berry Farm / 6 Flags day. If we combine 2 weekends with a week off and leave the Friday night we could do a LOT more.  Make it to Seattle or maybe even Portland that night and then have 11 days for the rest of the trip – could add another day in San Francisco or a day trip to San Diego plus a couple Studio Tour / TV Show Taping days in Burbank.

So what would be required to make it happen? 5 vacation days per person, a share of accommodations (but staying at places like Motel 6 is pretty cheap and if Josh comes we get double occupancy in both rooms), gas money (split 3 or 4 ways), spending money, and 7 to 11 days of consecutive babysitting (although perhaps broken up between varies parties *cough*grandparents?*cough*). Oh yea and a vehicle but given that both Jon and our short to mid-term plans include buying cars, one is bound to be roadtrip capable. Right? Well, worst case there’s always a rental.

Seriously though, done smart this could be done on the cheap fairly well.

This idea also passes one fairly critical road trip test: How many Hard Rock Cafés can you hit along the way? This trip would have 4, possibly 5 if time permits:
-Seattle
-San Francisco
-Hollywood
-Sacramento
-San Diego (possible)
Wait, hold on, Seattle? That can’t be right. There’s no Hard Rock Café in Seattle is there? This blogger’s surely lost his mind. Oh no my friends, a brand new Hard Rock Café is opening in Seattle this summer so if this trip were to take place in, say, September then it will be open. Like James Darren in Vegas is this a sign from the Prophets that this trip is pre-ordained? I wonder.

Oh, and the theme song for such a trip? How about Miracles by Pet Shop Boys.

“Bluer sky, a brighter day…miracles happen”

This entry was posted on February 3, 2009 at 5:51 pm and is filed under Travel. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.