Idaho, Oregon, Washington
We dropped Shauna off at the hotel where she will be staying for the final night of her Scentsy convention. We then took pictures of the Hoff Building for Rebecca. It is an art-deco office building built early in the last century that is one of the taller buildings in downtown Boise and located just a block west from the state capitol. We went inside the building and rode the elevator up as high as it would take us (11 floors). From the elevator we could see out two sides (west and north, I believe) of the Boise landscape. We then went to the main post office, which is just southwest of the capitol, to buy our postage stamps and have them hand cancelled in our travel books. The post office opened at 8:30, and by 8:45 or so we were on the road again.
We traveled west along I-84 past Meridian in Ada County and Nampa and Caldwell in Canyon County. I grew up in Nampa, from the spring of 1959 when I was nine years old until 1968 when I left on my mission to Brazil. My brothers Gene and Dale still live in Nampa.
The children were all asleep by the time we crossed the Snake River a final time and entered Oregon. Ontario, the first Oregon town we passed, was where I was born all those so many years ago. We continued along I-84 past Baker City, La Grande, and over the Blue Mountains to Pendleton. Along our way, which roughly follows the route of the Oregon Trail, we crossed into the Pacific Time Zone (and changed our clocks from 10:00 to 9:00) and crossed the 45th Parallel, the halfway point between the equator and the North Pole.
We stopped to eat in Pendleton. We stopped at a local place, Roosters restaurant. The food was good and reasonably priced. Most of us had some kind of breakfast fare, except Andrew, who had his obligatory mac and cheese. We also found the post office and bought more stamps and had them cancelled.
We continued further along I-84 until it intersected with I-82. We took that route north into Washington, crossing the Columbia River at Umatilla. We continued along I-82 past the Tri Cities, Yakima, and finally to Ellensberg, where the freeway joined I-90. Interstate 90 is the longest freeway in the United States, covering the 3,000+ miles from Boston, Massachusetts, to Seattle, Washington. We only traveled along the 100-mile stretch up and over the Cascade Range into the Seattle area, a beautiful ride by the way. When we reached the Seattle area, we turned north on I-405 and inched our way in rush-hour traffic toward Everett.
We were hoping to reach Everett before six o'clock so we could visit Camilla at her Great Harvest bakery store. We got there about fifteen or twenty minutes before closing time. Chris, Sam, and Chris's sister Kirsten came over and helped Camilla clean up and close the store. Chris gave us a little tour of his bakery. It was fun to see Sam again. He turned two last month.
We went to Chris and Camilla's apartment, which is only a block or so away from the bakery, and visited awhile and ate. Then we went to find our motel, the Best Western Navigator Inn, which was located on Evergreen, less than two miles from Camilla's house. Everyone was in agreement that it was way better than the Econo Lodge we stayed in in Boise. In this motel all six of us are able to stay in the same room. We checked in, and I went with Meghan, Caleb, Jacob, and Andrew to watch them swim during the final hour the swimming pool was open. It closed at ten o'clock.
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