About 20 minutes after this post, I crawled in bed and passed out. I think it was a combination of the beer, stress, and constant squeezing of my butt cheeks for nearly eight hours on the drive down to Grants Pass. Even after we had cleared the snow and ice, I was still on the edge of my seat. I didn't have the strength to think about what we were going to do next. I just wanted sleep. Then, at 3am I woke up and my brain started spinning. I thought about our ride the previous day and what we might have to go through again to get over the Siskiyou Pass. The thought of driving for another 4 hours in ice and snow terrified me. I woke up J (after rolling around) and told him that I didn't think I could do it. We agreed then and there that we wouldn't go through the pass unless it was relatively clear and realized that we might not make it to California after all. Then, I realized that I was starving (probably why I woke up in the first place), so we had snacks in bed and went back to sleep around 5am.
J woke up around 8am and went to get a new tires and to call his parents to tell them the bad news. The worst part of all was that we couldn't make it to California, but we also couldn't go back home to Portland because of another front that was dumping snow on the city again. The thought of spending Christmas in Grants Pass, Oregon made me cry, but the alternative (driving over the pass) made me cry even harder.
We had to check out at 11am, so we nibbled at breakfast, did a lot of sighing, and decided to drive around town a bit before making our final decision. While I was checking out, the lady at the front desk asked where we were headed and tears welled up in my eyes. (I'm sure I looked like death since I had only slept about 4 hours the night before and spent most of my morning in tears.) I told her our situation and she immediately started searching on the internet for alternate routes and weather conditions. She found that U.S. Route 199 was pretty clear and a little warmer and travels through the valley so was relatively flat. I thanked her profusely and ran out to the parking lot to tell J that we might have a chance.
He was on the phone with his mom and told her he had to go because we were going to try once again. We hopped in the car and were on the road again, this time heading west towards the coast. US 199 didn't feel unsafe at all and was quite a beautiful drive. The area had gotten snow overnight, but the temperatures were high enough to prevent it from sticking on the road. 
Once we reached California, the snow vanished and we were feeling pretty good. I had never really seen giant Redwood trees before, so when we entered into the Redwood State Park I made J pull over. They probably come close to some of the most glorious things I have ever seen (or ever will see). Given our day with the snow, it was also amazing to finally see grass, and dirt, and pools of water! We took a brief moment to walk around and have a mini celebration for making it out of Grants Pass. At that point, I knew we would make it to Santa Cruz in time for Christmas, and even if we didn't, I was so glad that we wouldn't spend another night in the snow. 
The rest of the drive was long and tedious. The sky dumped rain all the way from Eureka to Ukiah, which consisted of nearly all two-lane winding roads. Past Ukiah, the rain didn't really let up, but at least we hit the freeway and had a buffer from the oncoming traffic's lights. At least we didn't have to think once about having to use our "ice scraper" or the rest of the kitty litter in our back seat at any point on the second half of our journey. We arrived in Santa Cruz around 11:30pm on Christmas Eve, bringing our total driving time to around 17 hours over the course of two harrowing days. However, we were greeted by the whole family with smiles and a warm fire and delicious crab cakes made fresh for our hungry bellies. 
