{summer vacation, part XV, grants pass, portland!!!!!!!!!}

Day 8. Driving from Crescent City, CA to PORTLAND, OREGON!!!! My mood at this point was very excited. Why? Ever since I was about 16, I have had a feeling that I need to live in Portland. This was before the internet (yes, I'm old) so I couldn't just do a google search to find out about Portland. I basically knew hardly anything about Portland. But something inside me kept being totally fascinated by Portland. Weird, huh? So on this day 8 of our trip, I felt like bursting from excitement. I finally get to see Portland!

My sister's husband got all nauseated from the winding mountain roads. Thank goodness the road straightened out after a bit.

At 12.15 we were driving through Grants Pass, OR. We stopped at the red light and...

...our van went dead!

Yep, gotta have one of these experiences on your vacation, right?

Thank goodness it happened where it happened. We had to push the van just a few meters to a nearby gas station. Some very friendly guys came to give our van a boost.

Nothing.

Great.

We called AMA and started looking for a mechanic to fix our van. The problem was that it was Sunday. Nothing was open!

The AMA tow truck came and he said first too that nothing was open and that we'll probably have to wait until the next day to get the van fixed.

Right about this point I was panicking a bit as I'm thinking "what? i don't get to see portland today?!!!"

It would have screwed up our hotel bookings too. Double charges for hotels.

Then the AMA guy hears from his radio that there is ONE place open and he tows us there.

We leave the van to get fixed. We had a feeling the problem was the fuel pump, the only thing they didn't check before we left on our holiday, we were right, they had to replace it.

We went to this cute restaurant by the river for lunch and then went to enjoy the beautiful river park next to it. It was a nice, warm day and the break ended up being really nice. Good food at the restaurant, Sienna played at the play park, geese, Jay and I got to snuggle under these big trees and relax while Sienna's uncle watched her.

But we were happy to be on our way again after four and a half hours.

When we were almost to Portland city center, we saw the Portland temple. It was gorgeous!!! We just saw it driving by. Next time I will go and see it more closely. Go to a session and everything.

Our hotel in Portland was awesome. Jay had got a great deal on a more expensive hotel. Due to our mishap on the road, it was too late to do anything in Portland that night. And we only had a few hours there the next day too. But it was allright. I was in Portland!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! :)