What I Did On My Christmas Vacation - Episode Quatro

Driving to Oregon sucked. Let me get that off my chest. Why? Because of the 363 clear days of the calendar year Kymberli and I picked the 2 days where it snowed... and hard. A normal 5.5 hr trip from Napa took us 9 hours. This day I took no photos. I was too busy cursing out the fact that I had to put chains on the tires in order to cross from Cali into Oregon. At least we got a good nights rest when we finally arrived at our hotel.

Day 2 of traveling took us more than the average time, too, but mainly because... yep, it snowed AGAIN. Now I see why I wanted out of NY. This stuff is beautiful to look at but to drive in it takes some patience. About an hour into our trip we stopped a few times for some shots. I love landscapes and this was one that just had my jaw dropping. It doesn't do it justice though.




When we got to my brother and sister-in-laws it was late, but awesome. We had a great dinner of steak, taters and salad. Thanks to Brian for cooking up one of the best ribeyes I have had in a LOOOONG time. I am savoring one right now.

The next day we went shooting. Yes, shooting and it was awesome. Getting your hands on a .223 is fun, but when I got to shoot the .45 I had a blast. I tagged the target a few times that I think surprised everyone, including me. I knew how to aim, but I wasn't sure of the kick. I handled it well. Not much kick to those weapons. Here are 2 shots of Kymberli shooting a .22 pistol. She was doing awesome! I had better never cross her!




We had to shoot quick and get on to our wine tasting. Well, we couldn't do both at the same time! On our way, my brother-in-law mentioned that we could look for some bald eagles. We found a couple and here is one of the shots of a youngster. He is beautiful. I wish I had a longer zoom and had adjusted my ISO better, but I still love the shapes of this amazing bird.



We were surrounded by dogs all weekend and this is Brian and Jamie's dog Deegan. He was cool in my book. He followed me around and played quite a bit. Such a fun dog. He sure loved laying in front of the fire.



At the end of the day I took a walk up the hill with Eric and turned around and this is what I saw:


I may not have liked the drive, but I loved the scenery. It's too bad on our morning out that I got sick. I was nauseous the entire drive back to Oakland. Let's just say the drive was long and a big thank you to my wife for driving the entire way back. It was a long 7 hours and she was a trooper. We got an early flight back, too - which was nice. I was so sick though. It was a long flight for me to say the least. When we got back I crawled into bed and slept for hours.

Now I am all better and psyched for the weekend. Enjoy the photos and be prepared for some new ones soon! Peace.