JUNE 23rd
We left Cheney at around 10 a.m. This morning with lots of filled totes and high hopes for our extended 2 1/2 week road trip to Disney Land. We got to Portland, OR today and checked into our air B and B which was a charming 1880s home that was advertised as an "artists retreat". It had a lot of character and it was our first time staying at an air B and B, so I'm glad we did it. Tonight we rode a gondola just for fun that ran to and from a hospital on a hill above our place, and Mont decided ,(subconsciously) to get our one and only "wreck" out of the way by backing into a parked car. No damage was done to our rig but he did dent the other persons car. It could have been much worse and I'm glad we got that out of the way. Tomorrow we r headed to Lincoln City, OR to stay on the beach and play in the surf. 😛Can't wait!!
JUNE 24th
Got to Lincoln City this morning and we got straight to the beach to eat lunch and play in the sand. It was a warm, mild day and the sand was so wonderful to put our feet in. Then we checked into our hotel and then spent the rest of the day hanging out on the beach. The kids spent the afternoon running from the waves and ended up getting very wet from all the spray. They had a blast! After a bit we went to dinner at the hotel restaurant and then headed back to the room to call it a day. We got lots of pictures and sun. It was an awesome day!
JUNE 25th
I woke up this morning and went for a run on the beach. It was so wonderful!!! I didn't escape without wet feet but that's to b expected. It was a much windier day and not as nice but we still hung out on the beach for a while while the kids played on the beach and in the surf. We also made a pretty awesome mote/dam/lake/village out of sand. Even among contributed by creating the village around the top edge of it. 😄 then, we headed into town to shop a bit and ended up coming back with some lovely cement stepping stones for the garden. After that we flew kites with the kids and as always, the wind didn't disappoint. Then, after a pizza dinner we watched a movie and went to bed. That's one of my favorite things about going on vacation; it's the intentional rest, cuddling, leisurely activities that
we get to do as a family that makes it tops for me.
JUNE 26th
We drove to Crescent City today which took most of the day. En route, however, we visited the Oregon Coast Aquarium for a few hours. It was very interesting to see all the marine animals in their natural environment. I especially liked the walk-through tube where we got to be surrounded by sharks and other fish in every direction. After that a ways we stopped at the popular Sea Lion Cave attraction. We paid to ride an elevators down to view some sea lions laying on rocks in an open cave. It wasn't the most amazing thing ever but it was pretty cool.👍 that night we stopped for a good dinner and then made our way to The Lighthouse Inn in Crescent City.
JUNE 27
First thing today we visited The Trees of Mystery just out of Crescent City. It was actually a pretty long excursion that took most of the morning. To begin, we hiked the trail a bit to view all the very impressive Redwood trees rode the gondola up to the top of the mountain. It took us quite a while to hike back down the trail which was about a mile long. It was pretty steep and even though we had walking sticks we occasionally slipped and sputtered down the trail. At the gift shop we bought a large dragon fly for Lena when they come visit in a few weeks. After our hike we drove a LONG way to San Francisco and got to our hotel pretty late. It was only a few short blocks away from the wharf and all the tourist stuff which was great!
JUNE 28
Our time in San Francisco was wonderful! We acted like tourists in every sense of the word. When we got there, we ate a late dinner at Burger Meister and got settled at our hotel, "The Columbus Motor Inn" which was within walking distance of the wharf. It was a decent hotel and was very reasonable rate considering the great location. We only spent 1 full day in the city but did a bunch. We started at the Wharf and took a few tours while there. The first tour we took we were MOST excited about. It was called, "The San Francisco Dungeons" and had actors that took us through a few different long-ago, dark times in San Fran when scary stuff was happening (during the late 18th century times). It was SO great,and scary, but it got cancelled half way through for some reason, so instead they let us into the wax museum where we could view celebrities (wax ones) up close. We also took a "Ride the Ducks" tour which was SUCH a blast! Jeff was our tour guide and he was full of laughs and jokes and interesting San Francisco information along the tour. Part of the tour included the vehicle we were in going into the water. The kids even got to drive the boat! It was a party on wheels and super fun! We ate clam chowder out of sour dough bowls, spent time in an arcade museum where we could play many coin games from long ago (including some from our day like; Galaxia, Centipede, old fashioned Pong, etc) The kids sure enjoyed the street performers on the Wharf and we spent a lot of time watching their antics. I also got scammed out of $80 which I guess is part of our traveling experience.
Wednesday, June 24, 2015
July 20th - August 20th, 2014
What a busy final month of summer this was for all of us!
We did not set the pool up this summer because the wind damaged it last year and it would have taken lots of effort and $ to fix the parts so instead we made efforts to visit the lake a few times. We went to Lake Coeur D'Alene and played for part of the day which helped cool all of us off. It was a HOT summer and we needed it! We even went to Medical Lake once with Delaney and Alex. I also planned a trip to Canada for all of us because I was aching to go somewhere and Finn had done a report on Canada in class last year and wanted to go "some day." I got us Canadian money, got our driver's licenses changed over so we could cross the border and got our hotel arrangements arranged. We were ready to go on Saturday, August 16th and returned on Monday, the 18th. On the way there we stopped in Sandpoint and checked out their farmer's market which was a highlight for me. I looked for huckleberries but ended up with blueberries which is o.k. because they were still delicious. We also bought a few other little things. We then headed to Ainsworth Hot Springs where we planned to spend the majority of our time. It only took about 6 hours of driving and we were able to even take a ferry ride across Kootenay Lake on the way. There were lots of little towns along the way that were so quiant and artsy that I would love to check out more another time. While at the Hot Springs we soaked in the deliciously hot water at least a couple times a day, we ate really well at the fancy restaurant there and even took a cave tour at Cody Caves. On the tour we hiked a bit and wore real miner's hats and lights. Our guide was the owner of the caves and was very knowledgable about caving. There were several other folks that were on the tour, from all over, and it was very fun sneaking around in the cave and getting to know the other people too. We only went as far north as Kaslo, B.C. but that was enough to get us out and about and to give us our FIRST trip as a family, all by ourselves. It was so wonderful!!!
We did not set the pool up this summer because the wind damaged it last year and it would have taken lots of effort and $ to fix the parts so instead we made efforts to visit the lake a few times. We went to Lake Coeur D'Alene and played for part of the day which helped cool all of us off. It was a HOT summer and we needed it! We even went to Medical Lake once with Delaney and Alex. I also planned a trip to Canada for all of us because I was aching to go somewhere and Finn had done a report on Canada in class last year and wanted to go "some day." I got us Canadian money, got our driver's licenses changed over so we could cross the border and got our hotel arrangements arranged. We were ready to go on Saturday, August 16th and returned on Monday, the 18th. On the way there we stopped in Sandpoint and checked out their farmer's market which was a highlight for me. I looked for huckleberries but ended up with blueberries which is o.k. because they were still delicious. We also bought a few other little things. We then headed to Ainsworth Hot Springs where we planned to spend the majority of our time. It only took about 6 hours of driving and we were able to even take a ferry ride across Kootenay Lake on the way. There were lots of little towns along the way that were so quiant and artsy that I would love to check out more another time. While at the Hot Springs we soaked in the deliciously hot water at least a couple times a day, we ate really well at the fancy restaurant there and even took a cave tour at Cody Caves. On the tour we hiked a bit and wore real miner's hats and lights. Our guide was the owner of the caves and was very knowledgable about caving. There were several other folks that were on the tour, from all over, and it was very fun sneaking around in the cave and getting to know the other people too. We only went as far north as Kaslo, B.C. but that was enough to get us out and about and to give us our FIRST trip as a family, all by ourselves. It was so wonderful!!!
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