The Miller Family

Mom, Dad, Chris, Tim & Amie

Saturday, August 15, 2009

Reno to Salt Lake City - July 14th; Darrick and Di 15th

We left Reno before noon on the 14th and drove to Salt Lake City. On this same day, Darrick and Di were picking up a load in California. They thought they might be coming through Salt Lake City the following morning.


We got to Salt Lake City that evening, ate and went to bed! In the morning we got up and drove about an hour and a half or so outside of Salt Lake City to a truck stop for breakfast!



Who's driving who?




It was good to see them - even if just for a bit! Then hitting the road again!

Road trip to Reno

After leaving Grants Pass in the early afternoon - we traveled the rest of the day and into the night to Reno Nevada. This looked like a nice respite from the long drives & we knew they had games that would entertain both Amie and Tim. And with a little balancing on who went when - the big kids could do a little arm excersise at the one arm bandit machines!!



So - we arrived at Circus Circus after 10pm! And all the restaurants were closed (and we hadn't eaten dinner - because of the late breakfast, and late lunch). We found a little deli that had some hotdogs - which were rubbery!!
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Then Darwin, Amie and Tim went to bed and Grandma and I got robbed by those one arm bandits for a while!!


Moving between the casino and the hotel was done by a tram - so that was kinda neat!


In the morning, Darwin was robbed a bit by those bandits.....then Amie and Tim got some time to play!
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Then we hit the road!! Next stop was Salt Lake City, Utah!

After breakfast - Aunt Joan's house

After we had breakfast - we headed over to Aunt Joan's house for a bit.
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Here's Susie, with her three grandkids (Christopher, Lindsey & Ashley) & Amie in with them.

Grandma Susie with her girls!


Miss Ham!


Me and Susie and Lindsey

Ashley taking the picture!


Lindsey was helping out on the farm while we were visiting!! You go little farmer!! :)


The other three were interested in a little music!


Aunt Joan's son Ricky & his girlfriend Peggy.


A nice picture of Susie!!!


All too soon, our time had come that we needed to hit the road! Three more days of driving were ahead of us!
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Missing being around the family already! But loved the time we had!

Grants Pass & seeing Aunt Joan!

After leaving the Washington gang - we hit the road for Grants Pass Oregon! We had no idea how absolutely gorgeous much of Oregon is & specifically Grants Pass. Grants Pass is one of those towns that seems so welcoming & really beautiful!! It was quite a long trip though (longer then I realized when we first talked about going there).

Sunday night when we got there - under the darkness of night - as a covert mission! - No not really under the darkness of night - but as a covert mission (my Aunt didn't know we were coming!) We met up with my cousin Susie (who did know we were coming) and had dinner with her. Then we just visited! It was nice, especially considering I've only gotten to see Susie maybe 4 times in my memorable life! (That is a good thing about Facebook - we can talk much more that way then ever before!)
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On Monday morning - we had made secret arrangements to meet Aunt Joan & Jack at a restaurant in Grants Pass. Susie had told them they would go there for Jack's birthday (which was that day).
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We were prepared and hidden behind some decorations as Aunt Joan & Susie walked in. Aunt Joan's sight is getting pretty bad - but she could tell that someone was behind a tree flashing flash bulbs at her!
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Then I told her who it was!! She was so excited!







We had a beautiful seat on the porch of this magnificent restaurant (pictures below give you just a peek at how incredible it was!)


Aunt Joan and I.
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I know that I bring back memories of her baby brother (my Dad) that left this earth way too early! Aunt Joan is the last of her siblings that is still alive.
Susie and I.
Happy Birthday Jack (BTW - the 13th of July was also brother-in-law Andy's birthday! Happy Birthday Andy also!)

This is an artists painting of the restaurant we ate at - this is the side of the restaurant that faces the Rogue River (which is the side we ate on). The upper porch is where we ate - to the left of this picture! Facing the gorgeous river!

This is the front side of the building - the side you enter! The sidewalk has metal fish embedded in them with swirlies in the cement that make it look like a river!


Here's my photo of the enterance & sidewalk (closer up sidewalk pictures below)






As you walk up to the enterance, this is a view of the river (and up on the left of this picture is a portion of the porch that we ate on)


Amie and Grandma looking over a wishing well (water fall)
Here's the view of where the wishing water fall goes (and you can see the porch and rogue river below as well)


This building has to be an architechs dream come true! Every where you turn - there are details that no one person could have possibly have dreamed of!


This was below the porch!







Then one of the most truly amazing parts of this building were the stainless steel art! Anything and everything that could be made out of stainless steel was AND every piece of stainless steel had artistic etchings on them! Most of them were wildlife - but there were some leaves also! Truly works of art & these pictures will not do them the justice they deserve!




Even every stainless steel surface in the bathroom was etched!

















Somebody is certainly way more talented then I could ever even imagine being!