Tag: kitsch

KimTrippin: Pacific NorthWest — Day 20 (The Road Home)

And that’s a wrap.
20 days. 4129.6 total miles. 96 hrs., 33 mins. total travel time.
We love you, Pacific Northwest.


To see all the photos on Instagram with #kimtrippinPacNW, click here.




We made one final kitschy stop at Pancake Circus in Sacramento before heading on the final leg of our (almost) 3-week tour. We can’t ever pass up a chance to marvel at some mid-century awesomeness! We’re glad we went, but um … the food was pretty terrible.

Now we’re back and we’re still marveling over all the places we’ve been! Trying to create a map showing all our stops … stay tuned.

 

 

 

KimTrippin: Pacific NorthWest — Day 17 (Oregon Coast and the Redwoods)


The road from Florence to the Redwoods included some of the most beautiful scenery of the entire trip. It was so varied – we stopped for Elk sightings and ocean rock formations all in the same route!

Here are a few highlights:

Ed is Elk-Spotting at the Dean Creek Elk Viewing Area in Reedsport, OR.

We made the most of the coast and stopped to see Face Rock and had lunch at a chowder shack in Bandon, OR.

It’s a side profile of a woman looking up towards the sky. Can you see her?


Fresh chowder right at the seaside!


We also made a stop at Arch Rock Brewing Company in Gold Beach, OR. One of the guys that works for Ed asked us to stop by and show some support — the brewery belongs to his sister & brother-in-law. Of course, we were more than happy to oblige and Ed was able to pick up a growler!


We wrapped up the day in Klamath, CA – right inside the Redwoods National Park. We took my parents’ suggestion and booked a cabin there for two nights. It was perfect and you couldn’t beat the location – it was less than a mile from the kitschy roadside attraction we were dying to see, Paul Bunyon + Babe the Blue Ox!

We were hungry for more Americana, so after saying hi to Paul Bunyon, we made a beeline to the Tour-Thru Tree to get our pic before it closed for the evening!

Our cabin had no wi-fi and our phones had absolutely no cell reception, so we were truly off the grid! We actually had to pick up pamphlets and read them … haha. We had a low key evening in the cabin – Ruby slept and we caught a Golden Girls marathon on TV!

KimTrippin: PacificNorthWest — Day 4 (Salem, OR)

Leaving Bend for Salem was another 130+ miles, and it was definitely time to hook Ruby up with some quality “kid time.” The plan was to go to Enchanted Forest, a whimsical little amusement park with a Fairy Tale theme. The road to Salem was very pretty … we saw the scenery we were expecting to see driving through Oregon: Tall green trees and streams and lakes. We passed through the cute town of Sisters (which we know we’ll have to stop in next time) and we drove by Klamath Lake.

Enchanted Forest ended up being a real find. It’s very quaint and almost feels like you’ve gone back in time! The path you take leading into the park is storybook themed and you see everyone from Little Red Riding Hood to Hansel & Gretel to The Little Old Woman Who Lived in a Shoe. Ruby was very tentative at first, but by the time she got to the shoe with the slide, she was into it!

They also had a bunch of kiddie rides that Ruby got to go on by herself. She rode the train, the kiddie ferris wheel, the bumper boats and even “The Frog Hopper.”

After the kiddie rides, she got really brave and decided she wanted to go on her first roller coaster! She and Daddy rode in the very back car …

Being used to Disneyland, we found Enchanted Forest to be incredibly low key! The park is literally cloaked in trees and the forest shade keeps you so nice and cool (it was in the high 80s today). We also couldn’t believe how cheap everything was – we actually bought her a souvenir that only cost $1.95! Short lines were nice too. It was cute, kitschy and even a little bit weird. But it was exactly what we needed after a few long days in the car.

We got through everything in a little under three hours and went to grab some dinner. Then, we met up with friends in Oregon for dessert at the Willamette Valley Pie Co.. It was such a cool place – more pies than you could imagine and even a playground out front as well! Our friends’ daughter Annie was born just three days after Ruby. They were instant buddies. :)

We said our goodbyes and then it was a about a 50-mile jaunt to Portland. We’ll be in Portland for the next three days and are looking forward to exploring this awesome city!

Wigwam Motel Holiday Lighting and Donut Exchange


When we found out Charles Phoenix, The King of Retro!, was going to host a Holiday Lighting & Donut Exchange at the uber kitschy Wigwam Motel in San Bernadino off Route 66, we knew we had to be there. We stayed at The Wigwam in Holbrook, AZ a few years back on our kitschy southwest road trip and we were dying to see what the one in CA was like, and come on — any event hosted by Charles Phoenix doesn’t take much convincing for us to attend. :)

The Wigwams were in great shape, much nicer than the ones in Holbrook.

But the real sight to behold was the solitary teepee Charles adorned with lights. Here he is counting down before the switch was flipped on!

People took the donut exchange part of the gathering very seriously. There were SO many donuts! Someone even kept the kitsch theme alive by creating an Astro-DONUT Tree (inspired by the Astro Weenie Trees of the era). Boy was it a beauty!

Ruby had a blast – “The teepee has lights on, the teepee has lights on!”

We got to meet Charles, too (he was a fan of our glasses!), but unfortunately my iPhone flash turned everything this ugly green color. :(

All in all, there couldn’t been more of a perfectly fun & festive way to spend a Sunday afternoon. We love Christmas, we love Charles Phoenix, we love kitsch – and we love donuts!

Tennessee Super Kitschfest! Day 7, Memphis Morning to Nashville Night

Our last day in Tennessee was filled to the brim as we left Memphis to head back to Nashville. We logged 28 hrs., 14 mins. in the car and drove 1093 miles total across Tennessee – it was an amazing trip and we were sad to say goodbye to some of the most heartwarming places we’ve visited in America!

The highlights:

#1: Arcade Restaurant (Memphis)

The Arcade is the oldest diner in Memphis and a place that Elvis himself used to dine at quite frequently. It was the ultimate diner, in the “old” downtown, and we loved it! We managed to sneak into The King’s favorite booth too, for a little photo op.

#2: The Lorraine Motel, Room 306 (Memphis)

As we sat around the breakfast table, my mom reminded us that the site of Martin Luther King Jr.’s assassination was somewhere nearby, and we should try to see it on our way out. Upon pulling out our phones and checking google maps, we realized it was just around the corner! It was a surreal experience to look at Room 306 with the wreath near the door in memorium of MLK, Jr. and think about that day so long ago.

#3: Ryman Auditorium, aka The O.G. Grand Ole Opry (Nashville)

We made it back to Nashville in time to get one last tour in. We saw a lot of major music stuff at the Ryman – including dressing rooms of Johnny + June, Patsy + Hank and so much more! We were glad we had the chance to see such a legendary performance venue knowing all of the tremendous history behind it!

#4: Robert’s Western World (Nashville)

The nightlife on Broadway in downtown Nashville GOES OFF, and although we aren’t the hugest country music fans, we were told that they do VINTAGE country right down at Robert’s Western World. We were lucky enough to have my parents offer to babysit so Ed + I could experience what a real honky tonk bar is like in Nashville on our last night in town. It was awesome! Brazilbilly is an amazing band that does all old school songs – with a latin/country twist, if you can even imagine! They blew our minds – they played everything from “Girl from Ipanema,” to the Batman theme, to old Hank Williams, and they had everybody out there dancing! Young rockabilly chicks were getting spun around on the dance floor by old white dudes with cowboy hats. We had the best time and wish Brazilbilly would come out and play at Alex’s Bar in the LBC … they’d be AMAZING!

And that concludes our tour! We love you, Tennessee!