Road trip to Seattle

This is one journey no one wants to do over 2 nights. It is over 850 miles from San Jose to Seattle and is go go go. The scenery along the Pacific coast was breathtakingly beautiful and rivalled our Great Ocean Road. We could have stopped every few miles to see something but having such a short time to get there... another time. We saw huge elk on the side of the road which we were told was out of the ordinary. I would not like to bump into one of those with the car. The road at times passed through dense pine and fir tree forests. So nice. There is nothing better stopping alongside a lake or in a forest having a picnic lunch with your family. The closer we got to Seattle the colder it got. Getting to minus temperatures. Then we hit the snow. Lucky for us it had snowed heavily earlier and was only snowing lightly while driving so it was not slippery driving. The upside was the trees were covered in snow. It was truely a winter wonderland. The kids were in raptures while we found a radio station that played non stop Christmas Carols. I won't forget those moments. Just enough snow. Arriving into Renton about 18 miles out of the City of Seattle was a treat. We had never been in a neighbourhood with snow before so as we drove up to our next host's front door it was the most beautiful scene...right out of a christmas card. Beth and her sister Susan live across the road from each other so we were billetted out with plenty of room for all of us. Thank you Susan, Andy, Nicky and Amanda for making us feel at home right away. It was the night before Thanksgiving so we all went out for dinner all 15 of us..enjoying the food and the beer. Not a good idea when you have to go out grocery shopping to contribute to Thanksgiving. Our contribution to the lunch was a traditional Pavlova...without a recipe, and potato salad. Rachel, Tomi and the kids stayed at Beth's..... tomorrow Thanksgiving.