The Drive Home

And a few pictures from the drive up.  I had these pictures of the snow in Yreka on my regular camera and couldn't blog them till we got home.  Our boys had never seen snow before so this was very exciting.  As soon as we arrived at our hotel in Yreka, the snow started falling.  The ground was too warm for it to stick, but the boys got to run around and let it fall on them.  

The next morning, we could still see some snow on the top of our car, so we took a picture.  I think you can see it a little bit.  

As we drove through Grants Pass, there was quite a bit of snow.  We really couldn't find a safe place to pull over so the boys could play, so that was a little disappointing, but it was really beautiful.

We hoped there would still be snow on our way back home, but it had all melted when we passed back through.  We drove as far as Red Bluff the first day of our return trip and everyone did well.  The next day, we made a stop in Sacramento.  The boys were really fidgety and wanted out of the car.  Who could blame them?  We needed some fun so we stopped at the train museum.  The boys LOVED it.  

The coolest part was that all of Old Town had been decorated for the holidays, including the museum.  All the trains looked like the Polar express.

Here's Jack yelling, "CHEESE," by a train car he desperately wanted to go inside.  They had decorated the inside of the passenger car for Christmas, including a tree.  Alas, all he could do was look in the window.

The boys with Daddy and a freight car.  

This train car was really cool.  It was a passenger/sleeper car from the 1940's (I think?  The boys were keeping me too busy to listen to the guide).  When we walked through it, it moved and swayed just like we were really moving down the tracks.

I loved the look of this steam locomotive so we asked a tour guide to take a picture of us with it.  I can't believe all four of us were looking the right direction for this one.

Phil took some cool pictures of a mail car 

Our last stop at the museum was the Thomas the train play area.  The museum had four large tables with Thomas the train toys.  The boys couldn't contain themselves.

They played here for quite some time, until we had to break their hearts and continue on the road.  We grabbed a bite to eat, and jumped in the car for the remainder of our trip.

We hit some major traffic on the way home that set us back quite a bit.  We were wondering if we would ever make it home.  As soon as we saw the Kern County sign, we cheered (which I never thought I would). After that many hours in a car, our home felt grand.  When Ryan got into his bed after sharing a bed with Jack for nine days, he just giggled.  We had a wonderful vacation, but it's so good to be home.