All ready to dive!

On a “Liveaboard” vacation that’s all you do is dive, eat, sleep, have fun, and dive some more. My first experience was in June, 2009 aboard the boat called “The Conception” in the Channel Islands off the coast of Santa Barbara, California. The boat is owned by Truth Aquatics. They have two other boats called “The Truth” and “The Vision” you can charter.

We were spending three days aboard The Conception. We drove into Santa Barbara on Wednesday, had dinner on the pier then boarded the boat with dive gear and all. Wednesday evening we spent on the boat getting to know all the other divers. The trip organizer was Fisheye Scuba. We called it a night and when we awoke on Thursday morning we were in the Channel Islands at our first dive spot called Santa Cruz Island, Quail Rock.

Getting ready to dive the Channel Islands

This was my first cold water dive since getting my certification. I was eager but a little nervous. We dropped down to about 49 feet the visibility was around 20 feet and the water temperature was 63 degrees. We are swimming alongside the wall looking at all the beautiful colors and fish. Then all of sudden my regulator hose gets caught in the rock and is being sucked into it. It pulled my regulator out of my mouth and I started to panic. I am trying to grab my secondary for air at the same time I am pulling on my primary trying to release it from the coral. The only thing going through my mind was the movie “The Deep” when Jacqueline Bisset’s stick gets grabbed by an Eel and is slamming her into the rock. The whole ordeal only lasted less than a minute, but in my mind it was a big Eel that had a hold of my hose and wanted to eat me! As I got free, I thought I had punctured my hose so I made my way to the surface and flagged the boat. Immediately, one of the crew members dove in and swam out to get me. By the time I was back on the boat I was feeling a bit foolish. Of course, there was no hole in my regulator hose and Kate, the dive instructor and owner of Fisheye Scuba, thought I was insane. We had a good laugh about it during the rest of the trip.

We did another dive at Quail Rock on Thursday then moved over to Pelican Bay for a dive and a night dive. The visibility at Pelican Bay that day was only around 15 feet. The night dive was sweet though. Everyone grouped together and looked at all the rock formations.

I love to scuba!

Day two we dove at Diablo Anchorage and Dave’s Cove. Day three we did two dives at Ruby Rock. It was a nice relaxing spot. The visibility was more around 25 feet. The last night on the boat we had a party. It was a great time. The food was also very good. The cooks were two young girls, Rachael and Tasha. The captain’s name was Jerry. The first mate was Louie and the crew members were Jona and Chancy. They all made us feel very welcomed and at home. I can’t wait for my next “liveaboard” adventure.

1. Ask yourself, “How serious are you to be a diver?” Do you want to dive in warm waters a few times a year at some pricey resorts, or be a recreational diver, which limits you to a max depth of 130 feet, or are you interested in hardcore cold-water diving and exploring shipwrecks? It’s important to ask yourself such questions, because you can enjoy diving without becoming certified. If you vacation in popular diving spots like the Caribbean, Cozumel or the Florida Keys, you will easily find offers for “resort” dives. These are usually 1-day or weekend crash courses in diving that include a guided dive with a dive master. You do not get certified and cannot go unsupervised, but you are certainly allowed to enjoy the marine life in the area. Although often expensive, this type of introduction to diving is a wonderful way to decide if you want to pursue certification.
2. “How good of a swimmer are you?” You don’t have to master every type of stroke. Scuba certification only requires that you are able to swim about 200 yards using any stroke you want and to be able to float or tread on water for about 10 minutes.
3. “Are you in good general health?” If you are in good general health and are comfortable in the water, then you should be able to scuba dive without any problems.
4. Find a professional scuba dive center in your local area.  There are about 1,900 professional scuba dive centers in North America alone and your local ones should definitely be checked out. Most will run basic certification programs on a regular basis. These centers or shops should be listed in the yellow pages and you can also check with websites of some of the major scuba diving certification agencies such as PADI, SSI or NAUI as they will also have listings. If you live in the Sacramento, California area I recommend Fisheye Scuba in Folsom, CA. I am certified with PADI.
5. Talk to a certified scuba diver and do your research. A good way to know what you’re getting into is talking to someone who has been diving before. It’s better if you can find a dive instructor or a dive master to talk to, but even someone with a little dive experience should be able to help you out. Contact Peggy @ http://www.gogirl-travel.com/contact.php if you have any questions. I would be more than happy to talk to you.

GoGirl Tidbits:

SCUBA stands for “Self-Contained Underwater Breathing Apparatus.”

PADI stands for “Professional Association of Diving Instructors.”

Water Water in Cozumel

First, warm water – love it! The water where I dove, Cozumel in May, was 85 degrees. The visibility was unbelievable.  The blue water and colorful coral reefs were a sight to see. Not to mention all the colorful fish, which made the experience priceless.

What I like about warm water diving is the fact you do not need a hood and gloves like you do in cold water. When getting geared up for diving in cold water putting on the hood is somewhat of a pain. Once in the cold water though you are happy to have it on. Same goes for the gloves, it takes some getting used to when reaching for your dive equipment with the gloves on, but you are glad you have them on mid way through the dive.

Now as much as I like warm water diving I do have to say I still like cold water diving as much. And as soon as I get my dry suit I know my cold water dives will be just as good as the warm water ones because you don’t get wet in a dry suit. What a concept! Being able to be in water and not get wet.

You need to be just as safe in warm water as you do in cold water when it comes to hypothermia. Depending on your preference, you should wear at least a one to three mil wet suit when diving in warm water. Yes, I mean hypothermia in warm water! As stated in the NOAA Diving Manual: ”Divers also have to be wary of hypothermia in warm environments. A phenomenon called ‘warm water hypothermia’ can occur even in the tropics, especially during long dives and repetitive dives made without adequate re-warming between dives. In warm water hypothermia, long slow cooling can take place in water temperatures as warm as 82 degrees F – 91 degrees F. Although warm water hypothermia is not easily recognized as its cold water counterpart, it definitely warrants attention.”

Cold Water in Monterey

When I dive in cold water I can tell when I’m ready to get out of the water, I start to shiver. Not so much in warm water. I didn’t feel my body get cold. I only did two dives a day for five days in Cozumel, but if I would have dove more than twice a day I might have gotten cold in warm water.

In conclusion, since experiencing both cold and warm water my consensus is that I like both.

There are girls who make things better…simply by showing up.
There are girls who make things happen, girls who make their way.
There are girls who make a difference, girls who make us smile…
There are girls who do not make excuses, girls who cannot be replaced.
There are girls of wit and wisdom — with strength and courage — make it through.
There are girls who change the world every day by dreaming and then acting to accomplish their goals…GIRLS LIKE YOU.

Ashley Rice

As hard as it was leaving Cancun my boyfriend, Doug and I weren’t all that sad as the plane landed in Cozumel. We were starting the second half of our vacation. We were there to do some warm water diving! My first time in Cozumel and my first experience with warm water diving. It was going to be a great week.

We were staying at the Coral Princess Resort. As we pulled up to the hotel, we were told by a nice couple we met on the airport shuttle to request an ocean view room. The upgrade was only $20 a day. Let me tell you it was well worth it!

Ocean View from Room

Check out the view: http://www.facebook.com/video/video.php?v=1266958685631 The weather was warm and sunny and the ocean water was so blue. We had lunch at the pool bar and then decided to do some snorkeling from the resort’s ocean entrance. The water was so clear I couldn’t wait until the next day to go diving.

Snorkeling

The next day was Sunday and we awoke at 7 am to get ready to meet the dive boat at 8:30 am. We were diving with Pepe Scuba.  Pepe is the scuba shop in the Coral Princess hotel. The nice couple we met on the shuttle to the hotel were also divers, Barb and Ross. We were diving with them that day. Us four and our dive master Abdias were on the boat along with the boat driver Javier. The first dive spot was called Santa Rosa Wall. The water temperature was 85 degrees and the visibility was absolutely clear. This being my first warm water dive I couldn’t believe the visibility. In cold water the best visibility in Monterey is around 30 feet most of the time here in Cozumel it was 80-100 foot. And the water was so blue/green it was beautiful. There were so many colorful big and small fish I couldn’t count them all.

French Angelfish

The French Angelfish with its yellow dots and black body was my favorite. I also liked the Queen Angelfish with its pretty blue/green colors, and the Rainbow Parrotfish. Of course, the pretty pink Glasseye Snapper was another favorite.

Glasseye Snapper

All the fish were beautiful even the eels and sharks we saw. We eyed a Spotted Moray Eel in the Cora Reef with its head sticking out. The second dive spot was called Tormentos Reef.

Queen Angelfish

I was swimming along the reef looking at all the beautiful colors and I turned my head and see another Spotted Moray Eel coming out of the reef with its mouth open and teeth showing. It startled me! I backed up a few inches to look at it. I couldn’t get anyone else’s attention so I just admired it on my own. My first day of warm water diving was unforgettable.

Spotted Moray Eel

Our second day of diving the first spot was called Punta Dalila. We dove with 8 other divers including our friends Barb and Ross. We saw two big turtles, a nurse shark that was 8 feet long and weighed approximately 600 lbs. I loved just watching the fish swimming in and out of their little homes in the reef. The second dive spot was called Punta Tunich. I liked how we were able to get in and out of the dive boat. It was so much easier than on the bigger boats I experienced in Monterey or Santa Barbara Channel Islands. In the smaller boats all you need to do is sit on the edge of the boat with all your gear in place and fall backwards. But on a bigger boat you need to walk up to the very edge of the side of the boat while looking straight ahead.

Nurse Shark

At the time you take a giant step forward into the water, you have to hold your mask and regulator in place with one hand, and press your other equipment to your side with your other hand. When getting certified you first start out in a pool and this is one of the exercises you have to pass by doing it at the deep end of the pool. It’s a little intimating the first time you do it. But once you get the hang of it, it’s easy.

Our third day of diving took us to Palancar Gardens. We saw a Lionfish.

Lionfish

The schools of fish were quite a sight. We went through some awesome caves in and out of the big openings in the reef. Inside the caves were beautiful colors. We got some pictures but our flash didn’t go off each time and the pictures came out a little dark.

School of Fish

It’s a new camera and we were still figuring out how to use it. On the second dive we saw a green Morray Eel about 6 feet long. The dive master saw it first. He rang his bell and we all swam over to him, but by then it had gone inside a hole in the reef. Doug tried to get a picture as best he could.

The Big Eel

While we enjoyed the diving each morning, we enjoyed the pool bar after it! Each day we would take our dive equipment to the room and rinse it off in the shower put on our bathing suits and head down to the pool bar to have lunch.

Doug at the Pool Bar

After lunch we would hang out at the pool bar, or lounge by the ocean, or go snorkeling. One day we ventured into the small town of Cozumel and walked around to do some souvenir shopping. Then went to dinner.

In Town having a Cocktail

The 4^th day of diving was a challenge. We started out at Palancar Caves. Apparently, the weather made the current much stronger than the last few days. We went down and started swimming along and went in and out of some caves, and I noticed the sand on the bottom of the cave swirling around like a tornado. I found it harder and harder to move through the caves with ease, like the day before.  All of a sudden, as I came out of the cave I was swept away by the current. I tried so hard to swim against the current to reach Doug. He reached for my hand but I just couldn’t get to him. Finally, I had to stop swimming because I was starting to get exhausted and was using up too much air. As I stopped swimming the current took me. I was moving faster and faster away from Doug. Doug was trying to swim toward me to see if he could grab me, but I was gone. The visibility became murky and I couldn’t see him anymore. I caught my breath and relaxed my mind and let all my training kick in. I was keeping an eye on my computer gauge and checking overhead to see if there were any boats. I noticed some big fish swimming around me. One of them was a Barracuda!

Great Barracuda!

I was ascending slowly as I was moving with the current. When I hit 15 feet I did my safety stop for 3 minutes. I was feeling fine and just watched the fish swim around me as I thought, “I hope they don’t think I’m their lunch!” After my safety stop I checked for boats above and ascended the rest of the way up. When I got to the surface I used my safety sausage to get the attention of my dive boat. I was a few hundred yards away from Pepe’s boat but another boat in the area saw my safety sausage and headed toward me. They asked me what boat I was with and I told them Pepe Scuba. They know Pepe’s boat and said they would take me to it. After a few minutes I was back on my boat. Doug was already on board and was relieved to see me. We headed for another dive site after all the other divers were back on the boat. The dive master had to jump in a few times to check the current before we decided on Paso Del Cedral Reef.  The current was still moving but if you stayed close to the bottom it was a little better. Doug lost his weight pocket and weight and was having a hard time staying down. At one point I thought he lost the camera, but come to find out later it was his weight pocket. All in all the dive was good but I was glad to get out of the water. Once back on the boat we called it a day.

The last day of diving was great. The first dive spot was Columbia Shallows. We saw more big Turtles and Barracudas. I used the camera to take pictures and it was a bit tricky trying to steady myself in the current. Here are a few pictures I took. I need more practice. Our last dive spot was called Paradise Shallows. There was hardly any current. It was great to just swim slowly around looking at the fish and pretty reef colors. I had an incredible time diving in Cozumel.

Turtle

Turtle

Although our diving was complete we still had one more day in Cozumel. Since you are not allowed to dive 24 hours before flying, we could not dive on Friday. So instead we rented a car and drove around the island to check out the scenery.

Island Scenery

Our last night on the island we had dinner with the couple we met Barb and Ross at a restaurant called Prima’s. It was on the rooftop of a seven-floor building overlooking the ocean. We had an excellent time in Cozumel and I can’t wait to go back. But first Doug and I want to experience other great dive places before heading back to Cozumel.

Early, early, early Wednesday morning my boyfriend, Doug, and I headed off to the airport for a fun and relaxing 10-day trip to Cancun and Cozumel. It was to be my first warm water dive and I was looking forward to it! We were flying into Houston then on to Cancun.  Note to Self: “Pay attention to the layover time on itinerary if not flying non-stop”. We had a four-hour layover in Houston before leaving for Cancun, so we made the best of it dining at the Pappadeaux Seafood restaurant in the airport. The food was great and so was the wine! After dinner we had a cocktail at Ruby’s Dinner to kill some time.

Once in Cancun we found our driver who took us to the Ocean Spa Hotel. This particular trip included transfers to and from the airport. We checked in to our Spa Deluxe room and headed down to dinner. There were two restaurants in the hotel, Mexican and Italian. We decided on the Mexican restaurant for the first night. Our waiter’s name was Alberto and he was very nice. He made me a Mayan Coffee. Note to Self: “Make sure I ask for decaf coffee, so I’m not up all night!”

The next day, we slept in and then headed down to the pool. We had brunch on the terrace overlooking the ocean. I felt like I was in heaven. We spent the rest of the afternoon at the pool. The pool bar was my favorite place–I loved it!  Earlier I had made an appointment at the Spa and it was 4:30 pm, so I headed over to the Spa while Doug went back to the room to enjoy his beer and relax. He’s not a Spa person. I had a one-hour Sensations massage and a 30-minute Body Scrub. It was the first time trying a body scrub, and it was wonderful. My skin was so soft for the rest of my trip! That night we had dinner in the Mexican restaurant again, because the food was so good. We spent some time at the bar getting to know Wilbur, the bartender, then called it a night.

Friday, the last day in Cancun we were set up to spend the day at the sister resort called Hacienda TresRios (HTR), a Spa and Nature Park by Yucatan Holidays. Our day consisted of a tour of the resort, lunch, and two excursions. This 3-day trip was complements of Rovia, so I could experience first-hand all the amenities these resorts have to offer.

First, we toured the outside facilities of HTR. The resort has two pools, one for the adults and one for adults with kids, an area to play beach volleyball, a very nice beach area with beds with those canopies , and an outdoors restaurant. One of the three rivers runs through the resort property where you can go canoeing or kayaking.  The inside facilities were spectacular!  The rooms were very luxurious and the Ball Room was spacious and elegant. Note to Self: “Place number two to hold the wedding!”

Our first excursion in the AM was the SenseAdventure. They walked us over to the Nature Park. The adventure starts with being blind-folded, and they led us around the park while we used all five of our senses—sight, smell, touch, taste, and listen. It was an incredible experience–I highly recommend it! They took pictures of us the whole time that can be purchased later if we so desired. Note to Self: “Remind myself not to wear a tight tank top that shows off my plump belly, it doesn’t look good in pictures.”

Next, we had lunch. Since the HTR is the only environmentally responsible luxury resort in Mexico, the buffet service is only offered in one of the restaurants, with the concept of Petit Gourmet Buffet, which offers only small, well-presented portions. So they avoid food waste. The other two restaurants offer either Mexican, Italian, or Asian cuisine. We had lunch outside by the pool. The food was excellent. I had the Sea Bass.

After lunch, we went on our next excursion. We took a guided tour of the Nature Gardens and then headed to the Cenote to go swimming. It was hot that day so the cool water felt great. You could either snorkel or kayak down the river. We decided to snorkel. The water was so clear and we saw a lot of fish and big crabs. If you poked your head up out of the water you could see the trees and nature and hear the birds. We didn’t need to swim. We just let the river’s current take us down. The river runs right into the ocean and we ended up on the beach back at the resort.  It was the greatest snorkeling experience I have had so far!

As the day came to an end, we thanked Claudia de la Rosa, our tour guide with Yucatan Holidays for a wonderful day, and we headed back to the Ocean Spa Hotel. If you are interested in visiting the Hacienda TresRios, please contact Claudia at pr@yucatanholidays.travel, and tell her Peggy sent you!

We had dinner at the Italian restaurant our last night in Cancun. The food was great and the hospitality of the hotel staff was superb.  They were always very warm and welcoming. As we departed on Saturday morning to head to Cozumel, I was saddened–I did not want to leave! We had such a good time it made leaving hard to do.

Stay tuned for Part Two of our trip to Cozumel….

3 great tips I got when reading the book Time Management from the Inside Out by Julie Morgenstern.

Tip #1 – When packing, simplify the color scheme of your clothes. Working within a color scheme reduces the time you spend thinking, searching, and making decisions about what to wear or what accessories will match your outfits.

I like to stay within my business branding color scheme! Since most of my clothes are Red, Pink, Black, or Gray.

Tip #2 – Make a master travel checklist. Include on the list categories of clothing, tickets, passports, camera, medicines, toiletries, etc.

Tip #3 – Unpacking after the trip. Before you sit down to open the mail, relax, or listen to your messages, unpack your bag! If you don’t do it before dealing with the new stuff, your suitcase will probably sit in the middle of your bedroom, stuffed full of dirty clothes, for a week!

I am guilty of not unpacking my bags after a trip. Sometimes the bag sits there until my next trip! And I’m cleaning around it and saying to myself, “I need to unpack!”

So ask yourself, when was the last time you took a vacation? Has it been over a year! What is the main reason you haven’t taken one lately? Is it because you think it’s too expensive? If so, chances are you need to know what is going on in travel today, so you can start planning your next vacation.

I’m going to share with you 3 tips on how to save money while planning a perfect vacation.

Tip #1 – You need to find a good quality hotel or resort.

Nothing will ruin your vacation faster than poor service or shabby conditions!

So how do you find the perfect hotel or resort? You can use the Internet and research a location you’re interested in and look up the hotels in the area, or you can ask someone who has been where you want to go. Ask them questions on what they thought about the place, or have someone else do the research and planning for you.

What’s considered a quality resort or hotel? When you’re doing your research you want to look for places that have at least a 3 to 5 star rating. Personally, I stay at either a 4 or 5 star hotel or resort. I feel the service is better. Let me tell you a little story about that!

 I’ve been living in California now for over 3 years, I’m originally from Detroit, Michigan, and the summer of 2008 my mom, 2 sisters, and 3 nieces came to visit me and my boyfriend in Sacramento, California. Now my son, my sister’s son, and my brother’s son, all live in Los Angeles, California, going to school, and at the time they all lived in a one bedroom, one bath apartment. So being parents, we had to visit our young male adults and check up on their live style and apartment where they lived. It’s just a parent thing. We wanted to stay and visit with them for a few nights. Now being that seven of us were driving down to visit, we knew we wouldn’t all fit in a one bedroom apartment, so I got online to find us a hotel in the area. Now, mine you, at the time I was still working at my corporate job, and checked on Expedia for a hotel. I only checked one site because, needless to say, I was in a hurry. My son and nephews lived near the Santa Monica pier, so I was looking in that area. I was searching for a nice hotel at a reasonable rate for 2 nights. I was looking mainly at the picture of the hotel instead of really paying attention to the star rating. I found what I thought to be a reasonable hotel and book it.

We left the next day for Los Angeles. We decided to take highway 1 scenic route so we could site see and stop at places along the way, so it took us all day to drive to Los Angeles. We get into town around 10pm at night, we were tired from traveling all day, and when we got to the address of the hotel, we pulled into the parking lot and my sister, says, “This is the place!” I looked at her and thought, “oh dear!” I walked into the office and ask the lady at the desk if I could please see the room. We had prepaid online for a room with two king-size beds. The lady confirmed that there were two beds in the room. She gave me the key and I walked to the room and opened the door. As I swung open the door it hit the bed! The door didn’t even open all the way! There was a double-size bed and a twin, like roll-away bed in the room, and that bed was up against the wall blocking the closet door! I didn’t even look at the bathroom! I just shut the door and went back to the office! We didn’t stay there! We all crammed into that one bedroom apartment and we still laugh today at the great times we spent in LA, all 10 of us, in a one bedroom apartment!

So make sure you pay attention to the star rating and make sure the hotel has a web site so you can see more than just a small picture on Expedia! A hotel or resort website is a must when doing your research for a quality place.

Tip #2 – Tour Guide-Do you want one?

Depending on where you go, you may decide you want a tour guide. Make sure you do your research on the tour you want to take. You can call the hotel you will be staying at and ask them, or you can do some research on your own. What are you looking for in a tour guide? Do you want to be on a bus all day? Or are you looking for a more personal touch where you can spend some time at locations you are interested in? So research the tours available to you on your vacation.

Tip #3 – Make sure you are not paying more than you need!

In today’s economy money is a key factor in how you plan your vacation, so make sure you are not over paying for your trip. For example, say you want to go on a cruise to the Bahamas and the first online price you see, you think, WOW, this is a great price, I better book it now before it’s gone, so BAM you book it! Don’t! Do some research! Because 95% of the time you can get the same trip for less money. Do your homework, not all discounts are posted online, depending on the time of year you could find some really good deals, so shop around.

So you’re probably thinking this seems like a lot of research involved for planning the perfect vacation, and where do I find the time! Well, that is what I do. I can help you avoid the mistakes so you can have your perfect vacation. I’m offering a 30 minute free consultation to help you save money planning your perfect vacation. If you’re interested, please fill out my contact form and type “Need help planning the perfect vacation” in the Comment field to start planning your vacation today!

Shore diving isn’t one of my favorites, but we were at the boat ramp and it was real easy getting in and out. We didn’t have to worry about hiking it down to the lake. Just backed the truck down the ramp, unloaded our gear, and that was it!

This was the second time for me diving with a current. Last year we dove in the same spot, but with others divers from Fisheye Scuba and we had a boat take us up the river and drop us off and we dove with the current back to the ramp. So this time, Doug and I swam out a bit going up the river toward the bridge, and I decided that was too hard, so we went down, only 6 feet, and swam underwater to the bridge. I liked that better. So on the way back we just let the current take us back down to the boat ramp. It wasn’t bad going against the current either, we were using the rocks on the bottom of the lake to move us forward looking for treasure.

On our dive, we found great treasures! I found a fishing lure, and Doug found a nickel and a penny! We’re rich! We saw a few beer cans and bottles and some crawdads in between the rocks. Visibility was about 15 feet, not to bad for the lake at this time of year. It was a fun dive!

Later this month we are going diving in Cozumel! Can’t wait, my first warm water dive! We will take lots of pictures so stay tuned!

Oregon
The big insider tip about Oregon – the campgrounds are on par with private campgrounds in California in terms of basic services. The state seems to take great pride in the care and upkeep of their state-run campgrounds and facilities. Not sure what the fee are today, but a few years back they charged $20 for full hook-ups and electrical. To give you perspective, here in California you can’t get a bare RV spot for less than $30 and most charge around $40 to $50 and as high as $60 for private grounds. Every campground visited as you journey up north you will find pristine, clean and well-kept spots. For an RV trip you will appreciate that gas prices in Oregon are also much less expensive (no gas tax), and it is only one of two states in the country that doesn’t charge sales tax either (New Hampshire doesn’t have sales tax). So, if you would like to stock up on something and save the sales tax, Oregon is a good state to do so.

If you want some cheese, please do stop at the Tillamook factory, store and visitor center on the 4175 Highway. If you love all things dairy along with an assortment of incredible beef jerky, this trip promises to satisfy your cheese cravings. The factory store is enormous, with every assorted flavor or cheese Tillamook manufacturers from apparently Oregon’s many “happy” cows. Combine some of their wonderful sharp cheddar with a bit of jerky and you have the makings of a wholesome, fresh lunch or snack. Just for the fun of it, check out this list of restaurants that apply generous helpings of Tillamook cheese. We don’t recommend that the lactose intolerant make this a stop on their journey.

Washington
Continue your drive up the highway and head all the way up into Washington State. Washington, long famous for being home to many wet locations such as Seattle, hosts an array of wonderful lakes, rivers and waterfalls. Trek all the way up and over (east) in Seattle and view Snoqualmie Falls, which are utterly gorgeous and always roaring at full capacity. You can park and walk down to where the falls dump into the river base. The sight of the falls will at once take your breath away and then make you feel awe over the rush of nature’s force. Make sure you bring your camera and snap away.

Washington’s forests give great indication of the amount of logging that goes on. You will be disconcerted to discover that little old growth trees except in strips of the Olympia National Forest still exist. Mostly what you will see is homogenized tree farms where trees grow at the same age and height and look decidedly unnatural. To muck up the landscape even further, the state allows strip logging, and what gets left behind looks like a churned-up dump. It’s not scenic, and for nature lovers you will find it disturbing.

If you drive your RV up many of the major highways, you will enjoy the opportunity to drive through some lake areas that are utterly gorgeous and surrounded by snow-covered mountains. Do stop in Port Angeles and camp. They have many beautiful campgrounds right on the beach. Remember, you are not in California so do bring warm clothes and bundle up when you stroll the beaches. It’s cold almost all year around.

Montana
Finally make sure you veer off toward the east and head into Montana. Home to part of the Yellowstone National Park, Montana is at once vast and open with green, rolling plains and rugged, snow-covered mountains. Head into Yellowstone through the West Entrance and you will find the majority of hotels and lodges. Camping is available inside of the park, but reservations are hard-to-get so make them early. And you can probably forget getting any camp reservations for prime vacation season (July), as those campgrounds are often reserved a year in advance.

If you intend to stay a while, it is recommended that you find a cabin in Gardiner. Very specific cabin rental areas exist and they are prime rentals and sometimes hard to reserve. Ask your travel agent to narrow your selections, because it can take hours to scan rentals to find the right one. A fun activity to enjoy with the whole family is a swim in one of the hot springs. You can swim in the hot springs all year around and many believe the hot springs have medicinal healing powers. You will find it warm, soothing and wonderful – and a great family activity.