When we first started planning this roadtrip, DH had expressed serious interest in only three of the many, many odd ball attractions spread all over the U.S. and Canada: the Lucille Ball Museum in New York, the worlds largest perogy in Saskatchewan, and Springfield Oregon, world famous home of the cartoon Simpsons. Our first crack at her relatively short list wish list (mine sits at 1,857 and growing) was Springfield Oregon. Two TV shows make DH giggle like a te...

As we left California, we were worried that we might be leaving the eccentricities we had really enjoyed so far. Both Oregon and Washington have a more serious, straight-laced reputation.Oregon does host some of the most spectacular scenery along the Pacific Ocean Highway but when we (and when I say 'we', I mean me) heard that Oregon was the one state that was bombed from the air during WWII we knew there had to be a few more twists and turns to be found....

We're pretty sure that Bonnie D hasn't seen enough tree photos yet so we immediately headed for the Avenue of the Giants to get her a few more. The Avenue is surrounded by Humboldt Redwoods State Park, which has the largest remaining stand of virgin redwoods in the world, but many of these massive trees sit on private land so there is a fair bit cheesiness involved in some of the more well-known stops along this avenue. That said, you can still see the Im...

You can't leave California without hugging a Redwood and one of the best places to channel your inner Grizzly Adams is Muir Woods which sits just north of San Francisco. Because it sits just north of San Francisco, and is very popular with the granola eaters from the Bay area, you need to get there just as the park opens or you won't be getting any feelings of solitude as you bond with nature. We managed to get in before it was officially open so we had a...

We had stayed a day longer in Reno than planned and we were getting differing reports as to whether or not a recent dump of snow had melted to the point that the drive through the Sierra Nevada Mountains would be trouble-free. DH has been doing the vast majority of the driving and was not particularly motivated to drive on ice especially since our near term destination was somewhat underwhelming for us- the off-season wine country of Napa Valley (and neither one ...