Oregon and Washington

I thought I could cheat and just post our vacation photos on Google+, but I've received some feedback that that's not good enough. So, those who are not savvy enough to find me over there can now read about our family vacation to Oregon and Washington. We left July 13th and drove as far as Winnemucca. Our hotel was connected to a casino, as you may expect in Nevada. That was a new experience for our girls, who quickly developed a disdain for gambling. The next day we drove the other half of the way to Klamath Falls, Oregon. The first two days were dedicated to driving and giving the girls plenty of pool time. I thought I better get that in early, before I expected them to get out and see the world. Day 3 we finally made it up to Crater Lake. The girls got a book last year about National Parks and are now interested in seeing everyone. The lake was beautiful, and we enjoyed walking around it and watching a film at the visitor center.

Then we headed over to Eugene to spend the night. I loved our time in Oregon with lots of options for eating local, vegan food. I had originally planned to just drive up to Portland via the mountains, but then last minute I decided we needed to go see the coast. We drove over to Florence to see the beach, but we didn't stay long. It was so cold! 54° when we got there, plus wind. It didn't slow Sophie down from hunting for seashells, though.

Then we made it to Portland. Portland was beautiful and such an active community, seemed like a great place to live. I got some more vegan food. My cousin who used to live in Portland recommended this place to me called Hot Lips Pizza. Oh my -- HOT Lips is right! My lips were on fire, but it was very good.

Lark was visiting shortly before we left for our trip and had mentioned Multnomah Falls was one of her top destinations to visit. Then I got a thing in the mail from my insurance company listing the 7 best drives, which included the historic Columbia River Hwy to Multnomah, and then my sister-in-law who had just been in Oregon posted a picture of her family there, so I took that as a sign we needed to go. It was so packed when we got there we could not find a parking spot. Brandon finally decided to just drop us off, let us get a picture while he circled around again, and then we could go. Well, I think we made him go around twice, but just as we were headed back to meet him a spot opened up. He pulled in, and then he got to come see that Falls with us, and we were able to go hike up to the upper bridge.

After Portland we headed into Washington, right for Mount St Helens. We learned a little about the volcano, hiked around some, and then continued on our way.

We reserved a big chunk of our time in Seattle for Sophie to visit the American Girl store. Yes, I deserve the Mother of the Year Award. She is such a good shopper, though. She saves her money, and then puts a lot of thought into making the best purchase. At one point in the store she started having doubts about blowing all of her money, but then she calmly said, "No, I saved my money for this. It's OK to spend it." I have to admit, I think she gets that from her mom. And she was really great trying on the outfits. I had told her I wanted to buy her one of the matching outfits for girls, but the ones she tried on were not very modest. Both my girls are always so conscious of how their clothing fits. So, she decided against that and we just got her an "American Girl Seattle" T-shirt.

Since we planned something special for Sophie, I wanted to give Chloe equal time. She absolutely loves paddle boats, but they are so hard to find! I finally found a park in Seattle. Again, we had such a difficult time finding a parking spot, but once we did we had a great time. The weather was so nice, and it was relaxing to just sit out on the lake. She picked a great activity for the afternoon.

Our last day in Seattle we decided we didn't want to go back into the city, so we chose some activities much closer to our hotel. We found this little Bonsai garden that the girls soaked up. They were so inspired, and started making plans to grow their own. That reminds me: I need to get them some books! They went around and took pictures of each display, and made notes about them. It was very educational.

Our last stop was to a beach on Puget Sound. The locals seemed to enjoy it just fine, but the tourists were not such fans. The beach was covered in seaweed. The girls were not impressed. We decided to go hike some trails on the other side, and they were much happier there.

And that about sums it up. If you missed it, and want to see the whole story in pictures you can find them here: Oregon/Washington Photos