About a month ago Jacob got a promotion from Supervisor to Manager. His boss scheduled him to get training at their office in Tucson since it's a way larger office than the one here and that it would be a great idea to sit in several meetings and shadow other managers in his same position to gain some insight.
Jacob was set to be gone for three days. I really don't like to be apart from him let alone Riley so together we decided it would be nice if Riley and I tagged along.
This was our very first time to be away from Sydna and Nathan for a full five days AND on Halloween. We certainly felt bad for that.
We rented a van, one with a dvd player in it for Riley and our sake, lol. We were on the road by 4:30 am. It was raining and cold. We thought Riley would remain asleep that early but he was wide awake ... I guess with excitement but he was somewhat out of it.
We stopped at Pine State Biscuit in Portland for breakfast. So good. Then we got back on the road. Good thing I had made Riley two peanut butter & jelly sandwiches. That's what he ate for breakfast {one only}.
It began to rain as we got back on the freeway.
But thankful we got breaks from the rain often.
Once we drove into California we were out of the rain clouds. I really like Mt. Shasta.
We all had warm clothes on. I took Riley's sweatshirt off. I took off my cozy socks and wore my birkenstock sandals instead.
We stopped at several rest stops along the way. We wanted to make sure to stretch our legs and get a break from driving. Riley and Jacob did stretches and ran around the perimeter and also did a bit of rock climbing, lol.
The water level at Lake Shasta is still devastatingly low. Makes me sad to see it this low. When we drove through here three years ago during our move to WA the water level was high, so much water. Now look at it.
We made good time. Our goal was to take Riley trick or treating at a neighborhood near the hotel that we would be staying for the night. It was turning dusk. Riley put on his costume at our last stop before arriving to Land Park in Sacramento. He was so excited!
This neighborhood {Land Park} that we went trick or treating at has very charming houses. Some bigger than others but most of them had their charm. I guess it's a popular area because there were a lot of people out trick or treating.
Riley kept his distance from the scarier decorated homes. He didn't even want to look at them.
Several people said he made such a cute Iron Man. Surprisingly, we didn't see another Iron Man.
We walked quite a bit. This little guy got tired after walking for about twenty five minutes. We still had to walk back to the car. We skipped houses that were super busy since Riley was ready to leave but not before I got a picture with my cute super hero.
He was so sweaty from all that walking and wearing a mask and a hot costume. I believe the temperature was in the high 70's in Sacramento. By the time we got to our hotel room it was around 9:30 pm. Jacob took him a bath and he was ready for bed and frankly so where we. We had to wake up early again the following morning.
Riley liked pulling his suitcase. He looked cute doing it too.
After driving several hours we stopped for some breakfast. It was 6:00 am. I hadn't had breakfast this early in like forever, probably ever.
Riley was still doing pretty good in the car. We stopped at yet another rest stop. Jacob did more stretches and several push-ups.
Riley did a few jumping jacks. He was doing them so fast that his rhythm got messed up. We couldn't help but laugh.
He got this eyeball toy while trick or treating. He placed it infront of his eye. I cracked up as soon as I saw him.
Last rest stop before reaching Tucson. By this point Riley had gotten restless. Once you're past Sacramento and driving through the mountains it becomes quite dull. No nice scenery and lots of traffic.
There's not many things I like about the desert but the few things that I do like are the sunsets {and monsoons}.
It was nice seeing something familiar when we finally came across Avondale then Phoenix. As we got near Tucson we noticed a few changes. They've built outlets between Tangerine and Cortaro Road {about half an hour away from central Tucson}. They looked nice!
We arrived at our hotel kinda late but thankful that we made it to our destination safe and sound.
