We left Illinois behind and headed for St. Louis. Jeff's dad had the ingenuity to realize the reason the cigarette lighter and the horn didn't work was because we had blown that fuse. So we got a new fuse and hooked up the GPS and off we went.I was starting to get the fever/chills thing Jeff had and Jeff was still kind of sick. But we were feeling well enough to stop at the St. Louis Botanical Garden which is one of my favorite public gardens. I really wanted to do a horticulture internship there my Freshman year of college. Instead I got Chicago Botanic which wound up being my favorite of the four internships I did. Why did I want St. Louis more than Chicago? It has intern housing which would have been preferable to living with a host family. We wondered around the garden for a couple hours. They have a beautiful children's' garden and a top quality conservatory.
Then I started to get cold and shaky and we got back in the car and drove on. We came into Ames, Iowa about 7:30pm and I went straight to bed. It's good to be back and have my own bed.
Lloyd was selling these three lesser monsters for $50 a pop. They are the ultimate picnic melon. 
Jeff tried to haul off the biggest petrified log in the park, Old Faithful. It is 35 feet long and weighs an estimated 44 tons. He had it half way to the car when his conscience got the better of him. So we lawfully bought a chunk for $9 from the Curio shop.
Then we drove up to Grand Canyon Nation Park were the entry fee was $25 for one car. Unlike the Oregon Public Garden this was worth it. My family visited the Grand Canyon when I was a kid and I remember driving through and stopping at look out points. Now they have this big parking lot and you take their bus shuttle service along the rim. It was a very slick deal you don’t have to drive-park-drive, we took the bus then walked a bit then picked up the bus up again. 
I was enchanted with the Hermit’s Rest building. It has a great domed hearth made of local rock and a beautiful view of the Canyon. It was originally built in the early 1900’s as the end of a stagecoach tour of the canyon - a place for the tourist to warm themselves and have some refreshments before going back down.
Steve had a bike convention, so we met up with him and wandered around the strip. We ate dinner in Cesar’s Palace and checked out several galleries. Valdamire Kush Gallery and Nano Lopez were the most interesting. We walked our tootsies off to see the new Paris and Planet Hollywood (pH) casinos. Then we drove on out of there around nine.
So Jeff took some Benidryll and we watched Wall-e. Then everyone went to bed early.
The kids (and some of the grown-ups - Steve) flew kites. Huck got Wii Resort for his birthday so we got to try out all the little games. Huck’s favorite was fencing. It’s a good level for Huck. Some parts are more challenging and he can grow into them. A quick trip out got a second Wii Motion Plus so we could do the two player games. Jeff went with Steve’s work at Nierve where he designs packaging and look of their bicycles.
Milo and Huck are smiley, goofy, endearing little guys. We stopped at Trader Joe’s for lunch. Our third time there on this trip.Tomorrow is Huck’s third birthday. We spent some time getting things ready. For dinner we went down to Seal Beach and ate at Ruby’s a Diner on the pier.
Stunning dramatic views of steep cliffs and crashing waves. Lots of rocks and tight curves with little beach-lets. We saw fat grey elephant seals and a variety of other animals. 
We bought a big box of almost over ripe strawberries. Then we had lunch at a little beachside bar and grill.
Then we took more public transport out to Fisherman’s Warf and had sourdough bread bowls with clam chowder. We walked around a bit and saw Alcatraz and the golden gate bridge. There were a ton of characturer artists and people selling cheap beaded jewelry. We did find a gallery with well done sculptures by a Columbian artist called 
Then we drove into the Redwood National Forest and passed so close to the redwoods we could see the lichen on the bark.
Then we wound our way down through Humbolt State Park and drove the Avenue of Giants. We stopped off at Founder’s Cove and several other places to walk between the trees and inhale their Christmas scent. On the way out we saw the One Log House – a big log someone had hallowed out and made into a little house then hoisted it on a trailer and used it to tour around. We also bought an unfinished slab of redwood wood. The plan is to make it into a table top or some other interesting and useful piece of furniture for our future house.
Now we are heading down Highway 101 and should arrive at Sara Antion’s apartment in the suburbs of San Franscico around 10 tonight. San Franscico looks smoggy and sparkly.
Crater Lake was indeed as blue and clear as sapphires. It’s more panoramic and the saturated blue of the waters is something that can’t be appreciated in pictures. We drove the east side of the crater and learned that the color of the water is due to it’s depth and clarity. We also learned that Masuma was the volcano that blew up 700 years ago and sunk to make crater lake.
We'll start up at Steve and Jessica's in Seattle then work our way down the coast:
