Kerry and the kids were out late the night before as it was our last day at the park so we left quite late. 8:40a is a couple hours later than what we would typically want to start a drive especially since this drive was going to be 12+ hours. Although we tried to start the trip with limited baggage, somehow by the end of the trip we had run out of cargo space. We were loaded to the ceiling and Callie looked like she was living in a hoarder house in the front seat. She had bags pillows and blankets up to her waist. We stopped for lunch at In and Out Burger. It has a very limited menu and it works for them. They make fries and a couple forms of burgers as well as good milk shakes. Everything is fresh and there are always lots of cars in the line-up. We were trying to make good time so we ate in the car which didn't work out well for Carter. He had a bit of trouble keeping his meal together and Callie kept the tray that came with the meal. He was okay with the burger but felt the fries tasted like styrofoam. Out destination for day one was the Black Bear Diner in the parking lot of our hotel but it closed early so we stopped at the Black Bear Diner in Yreka.
We typically take two days to do this drive but we wanted to have time to do our test before going over the border so we stopped in Seattle for night two. This would mean a short drive across the border the next day. Our hotel was one Kerry had stayed at before. The Maxwell is pineapple themed and they try to trap you into extra purchases such as the cute dog that you can buy with proceeds going towards some charity. You can even by the sheets for $2,000+. Callie bought the dog. We did not buy the sheets. It was a very nice hotel but at $400 it was a bit of a splurge. We had hoped that by cancelling our two days extra in Disneyland we would balance out but we only saved about $260 on those two days.
We got into Seattle around 5:00p and wandered around downtown a bit. Seattle is more of a weekend summer city so Monday night was not very busy. Most business were closing at 6:00p and many of the restaurants weren't even open. We walked past the Space Noodle (as Carter used to refer to it as) down to the piers before heading back up to Pike Street Market. It was of course closed but we did stop in at the first Starbucks. It isn't very big so there was room for a lineup outside though it was just big enough for the people that were there. It too closed early. We added another 15,000 steps wandering around. I think we walked over 100km on our trip.
We woke up around 7:00a on Tuesday morning and got ready to take our Covid test. We decided the most convenient and most cost effective test we could take was via Zoom. Kerry and the kids had 12 tests from school between them and there is a service where someone watches you take the test and then records the results. For $40 we had a rapid test that was good for 24 hours. The process was pretty painless and took about 35 minutes. We ended up getting a PDF that included an image of our passport and the test result and we could upload it at the border. We had heard different opinions on how closely the border guards would look but ours diligently looked at each of our test results. The border itself was amazingly short. Only two lanes open in the mid afternoon and only three cars ahead of us. I'm sure that will change once testing is no longer mandatory as of April 1st. Our trip was a lot of fun and even though it was inconvenient to get tested we are still quite happy we took the leap and went. Only so many family vacations left with Callie in grade 11 this year.
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