Carolyn and Katie and I strolled down the boardwalk. We tossed our (various shades of) red manes in a devil-may-care attitude. I stopped in for a latte, diet be damned. Carolyn indulged in the wine sampler bar. She wasn’t driving! She had charge of exactly zero minors. Katie opted for a little of each. Carefully roasted coffee beans, carefully fermented grapes, care-free girls’ night out.
Ooh, string three of those nights together and make that a girls’ road trip!
Once a year the three caballeras (is that even a word?) ditch their 10 collective children and their three long-suffering husbands for a three-day road trip. To make a girlfriend getaway extravaganza, mix together equal parts gossip, coffee, antiquing (junking?) and photo excursions. Add a liberal dash of laughter and of course the use of my husband’s (relatively) hot black sports car. Our Chevy Suburbans and our husbands must be parked at home with the kids … and that being done, the carrot-top moms are on a vacation a la Thelma and Louise. Only without Brad Pitt. Or the tragic ending. But you know what I’m saying.
There are worse things than driving off a cliff. Using one of these, for instance:
This year it was our goal to spend our long weekend at the fabulous farm chicks gathering in Idaho. But a little counsel from the guys convinced us the 10- to 12-hour drive each way might harsh our buzz a little. So we opted for a coast jaunt to the literarily famous Sylvia Beach Hotel in Nye Beach, Oregon. A little over three hours’ drive, it’s the perfect distance for finding lots of cute antique shops and photo opportunities along the way.
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Not to mention the occasional farm sale.
Or the holy grail of road trip treasure hunters everywhere: a country church yard sale.
The only problem we encountered, persay, was how to take home Katie’s eight-foot tall shelf project. Remember, we’re driving the sexy-but-no-cargo-room car. Dang. Every road trip has its bummer and thus Katie had to leave behind her treasure to dream of finding another such shelf another day.
All told, we spent six hours cruising from sale to sale, filling the available trunk space with treasures including vintage linens and books. Lots and lots of books. The back roads of coastal Oregon are chockablock with sales in July. And other than that aptly named Paradise Road stretch, I’m not giving away any of the locations. So sorry. A girl’s gotta have some secrets.
Because clearly, if the word got out, this guy might run out of stock at next year’s sale. It’s a planter! And two birdhouses! And it’s embellished with a metal moose. Wait. Is that a moose? A bear. We think.
The Sylvia Beach Hotel is named after a famous patron of writers from the 1920s. Sylvia owned the Parisian bookstore Shakespeare and Company, which storefront by the way is glimpsed in the recently released movie Julie and Julia.
The Oregon hotel named after Sylvia perches above the surf on a dramatically rocky cliff. There are no phones, no televisions. Just a third-floor library with views to capture your heart and 10 p.m. complementary mulled wine to enhance the late-night giggling. Each room is themed after a different author. We three shared the spacious and lovely Emily Dickinson room when we weren’t exploring the library or the neighborhood’s nearby bookstores and tea shops. Hotel cats Keats and Shelley snuck in each night to share our smoked salmon snacks.
We played “two truths and a lie” at the Tables of Content restaurant. We walked the boardwalk. We took lots of photos; I filled four separate 2 gig cards. Don't ask me what a gig is, but it's a lot of photos. We laughed so hard I think it qualified as an ab workout. Didn’t it?
We never once had a peanut-butter-and-jelly request interrupt our conversation or our quiet.
In short, we recharged our batteries and returned to our families better and happier than we left. There’s nothing like a road trip with good friends to do that. In fact we’re already planning to pull Katie’s deluxe travel trailer to Idaho next year. There’s no telling how much we can fit in that Airstream. Oh, and we can sleep in it too, thus saving the would-be hotel money for, you know, more treasure.
Check out the other BlogHer reviewers' tales from the road.
The Shell family of cards is great for Summer road trips.
“For a limited time only, Shell is offering a return of 30 cents per gallon on the first 100 gallons purchased with a Shell Card within a 90-day period. The promotional savings is available at all Shell-branded stations nationwide for those who sign up and are approved for a new Shell Card from June 29, 2009 to September 30, 2009.”
Not to mention the occasional farm sale.
Or the holy grail of road trip treasure hunters everywhere: a country church yard sale.
The only problem we encountered, persay, was how to take home Katie’s eight-foot tall shelf project. Remember, we’re driving the sexy-but-no-cargo-room car. Dang. Every road trip has its bummer and thus Katie had to leave behind her treasure to dream of finding another such shelf another day.
All told, we spent six hours cruising from sale to sale, filling the available trunk space with treasures including vintage linens and books. Lots and lots of books. The back roads of coastal Oregon are chockablock with sales in July. And other than that aptly named Paradise Road stretch, I’m not giving away any of the locations. So sorry. A girl’s gotta have some secrets.
Because clearly, if the word got out, this guy might run out of stock at next year’s sale. It’s a planter! And two birdhouses! And it’s embellished with a metal moose. Wait. Is that a moose? A bear. We think.
.
Sooner or later we either ran out of cash or room in the trunk or both. It was time to get serious about putting some miles under the tires to reach our bookish destination of the Sylvia Beach.
The Sylvia Beach Hotel is named after a famous patron of writers from the 1920s. Sylvia owned the Parisian bookstore Shakespeare and Company, which storefront by the way is glimpsed in the recently released movie Julie and Julia.
The Oregon hotel named after Sylvia perches above the surf on a dramatically rocky cliff. There are no phones, no televisions. Just a third-floor library with views to capture your heart and 10 p.m. complementary mulled wine to enhance the late-night giggling. Each room is themed after a different author. We three shared the spacious and lovely Emily Dickinson room when we weren’t exploring the library or the neighborhood’s nearby bookstores and tea shops. Hotel cats Keats and Shelley snuck in each night to share our smoked salmon snacks.
We played “two truths and a lie” at the Tables of Content restaurant. We walked the boardwalk. We took lots of photos; I filled four separate 2 gig cards. Don't ask me what a gig is, but it's a lot of photos. We laughed so hard I think it qualified as an ab workout. Didn’t it?
We never once had a peanut-butter-and-jelly request interrupt our conversation or our quiet.
In short, we recharged our batteries and returned to our families better and happier than we left. There’s nothing like a road trip with good friends to do that. In fact we’re already planning to pull Katie’s deluxe travel trailer to Idaho next year. There’s no telling how much we can fit in that Airstream. Oh, and we can sleep in it too, thus saving the would-be hotel money for, you know, more treasure.
Check out the other BlogHer reviewers' tales from the road.
The Shell family of cards is great for Summer road trips.
“For a limited time only, Shell is offering a return of 30 cents per gallon on the first 100 gallons purchased with a Shell Card within a 90-day period. The promotional savings is available at all Shell-branded stations nationwide for those who sign up and are approved for a new Shell Card from June 29, 2009 to September 30, 2009.”
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What's the best road trip you've ever taken? Was it alone? With new friends? Family? I'd love to hear about it!
