I am convinced that road trips are the fastest and the surest way of getting to know someone really well. I mean, you are stuck in a small box together for an extended length of time: You can't avoid issues if they come up, you can't just leave the house or just go into your room and shut the door... Also, you are not as connected to the rest of the world, especially if you are old school like us and don't own iphones or any phone with a data plan. So these are some of the things I have learned, experienced, and thought about on this road trip with my lil bro, grandma, and an ipod plugged into the car.
- Grandmas always tell the BEST stories! I mean, they are like walking history books, right? It's so much more fun learning about history through them than learning it through a textbook (although I find reading history really interesting as well haha) Also, I think they had waay more fun back then. Also, I'm glad arranged marriages are not common anymore,, even though both of my grandparents had arranged marriages, and their marriages were very happy. Grandma dated grandpa for only 2 months before getting married! 2 months! D=
- If you are driving, and you get sleepy, you should ask someone else to drive right away. Because it's dangerous. But, say, if you feel like testing your willpower to see how long you can stay awake, continuously slapping yourself lightly works pretty well. (lil bro made fun of me for it, but I woke up once to find him doing the same thing! haha) Trying to count multiples of 7, on the other hand, doesn't work very well--it only works for a couple of minutes.
- There are some really odd names for roads and cities. For example, Bond Butt Rd. After 13 hours of driving, this becomes 'James Bond's Butt Road' in your mind. Also, after many hours in the car, one of these odd names will be enough to have everyone in the car dying from laughter.
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| Martinez Hercules!!! |
- Actually, now that I think about it, an incredible amount of things are funny after 10+ hours of straight driving. And then you look back and wonder,,, 'why did we think that was funny?'
- Bring a blanket for those not driving! When you are driving, for some reason your temperature runs higher than those of the passengers. Also, the cold temperature helps to keep you awake, so naturally, you blast the AC. Unfortunately, this means frozen passengers. A simple blanket will take care of this issue.
- Lil bro is one smart cookie. I took a Theory of Ethics class last year, and I was explaining some of the philosophical views and the issues that came up in the class, and we had fun discussing philosophy for quite a bit of Oregon. We also discussed how history can be interpreted in so many different ways. President Lincoln is always a fascinating subject. We also discussed his future. Though he is going into Pre-med, and I couldn't have been farther from Pre-med in my undergraduate studies, I had many friends who were Pre-med, so I tried to be helpful. I think he's going to be just fine =)
- When you want to eat a picnic lunch and see a sign for a lake, make sure to check just how far this lake is. We didn't, and ended up driving 10 minutes out of the way just to get to this 'lake'. In the end, it wasn't even a lake,, and it smelled funny. but it felt very adventurous because the road was extremely narrow and squiggly. We also saw a rope bridge which was blocked off. If Grandma wasn't there, we probably would have attempted it anyway. Grandma probably saved our lives.
- I've seen deer crossing signs, but Oregon has bear crossing signs and California has cow crossing signs. I wish I would have taken pictures. We were laughing so hard when we saw the cow crossing sign.
- The West coast is incredibly beautiful. The landscape varies every hour or so, but I enjoyed seeing every single one. It's funny how quickly the changes happen as well. As soon as we got into California, almost in an instant, the landscape changed!
- Did you know that Seattle is NOT the capital of Washington? It's Olympia! Who's heard of Olympia? (I actually learned this on my last road trip with daddy, but I just thought I'd share)
- My brother can pop his ears just by thinking about it. For me, I have to yawn to do that. I thought that was how it was for everyone? I spent the rest of that car ride trying to pop my ears by sheer willpower. I didn't succeed.
- We were incredibly happy to see I-80. It was kinda surprising. (it's the highway that runs through Nebraska) Aurora, NE, the first place we moved to from Korea, will always have a special place in our hearts =)
- The way we felt when we saw the Seattle skyline after so many hours on the road must be how one feels when seeing an oasis in the desert. Also, why oh WHY does California have to be so long?! We cheered for a good couple of minutes when 'Welcome to Oregon' sign came up.
- I had another popular music crash course (because I am always behind on the latest popular music trends and lil bro is always on top of these things). I learned that I still am not a member of the Bieber fever. Still not a Taylor Swift fan. Still don't get rap. at all. We whipped our hair back and forth (and the car did a little bit as well) to Willow Smith. My favorites are still the oldies. We really like Michael Jackson; we tried to sing as high as he was singing. When Mexican music comes on while surfing the radio, our heads automatically bobble side to side. I found that I really enjoy acoustic music--like AJ Rafael, Jason Mraz, Jeremy Passion. so nice! Oh, and Lil bro and I can now belt out 'Lucky' by Jason Mraz and Colby Cailllt--right harmonies and everything!
- and it reminded me of the last road trip we took to the East Coast.. about 8 years ago. We were belting out duets back then as well. It was High School Musical... Don't judge, we were young! haha but they had some really nice, singable duets on the soundtrack CD. =p
Thanks so much for stopping by!
Happy Monday!
--Janny
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