Off On An Adventure

The day has come: It's time to take our little Bug to college! We decided that if we were going to drive all the way to Seattle, we should make it a bit of an adventure, so we left a few days early and planned a couple of fun stops along the way. We got loaded up after church on Sunday and drove to Eugene, OR before we stopped for the night.

That put us in a good spot to stop at Silver Falls State Park the next morning where we hiked to two of the many waterfalls in the park.

Both South Falls and Lower South Falls had a trail behind the falls which was fun.

It was so beautiful!

Glad we got to enjoy a few fun sibling moments before we only have one at home. That's going to be a weird shift--it's been almost 18 years since we've only had 1!

Found a banana slug along the 2.6 mile trail.

And then came to the Lower South Falls.

Peanut found a couple little caves carved out of the rocks.

Walked behind this one as well.

Kind of a two-for-one fall with a straight drop and cascading over the rocks on the lower half.

We found a spot to check out the creek.

This whole area is so beautiful!

I'm so glad we were able to sneak in this hike, even with several hours of driving.

Back up near the visitors' center, we checked out the old kitchen house which was made of rocks that had lots of fossils.

Shell imprints everywhere!

And then we finished the drive to Olympic National Park.

Our home away from home for a couple of days--cute little cottage in the woods--it was near the Quinalt Visitors' Center, which is closed, but such a beautiful location. It was a little creepy because the road was closed to through traffic and it turns out that this is the only house on that stretch of road, so we were really isolated.

We walked over to the old homestead before dinner.

Everything was closed for the bats living in the area, so we didn't get to see it any closer, but it was a gorgeous view and we still had a day in the park to look forward to!

Back To CA

By Thursday, we all felt like the trip was winding down. The trip up the coast had been the main objective, so with that behind us, everything else just felt like part of the traveling home. But we still had some fun ahead of us.

We left Portland right after breakfast, but stopped in Eugene to do a short hike in a park by the University of Oregon. I had specifically picked this spot because people have seen beavers along the river in the park and I was hoping we might get lucky in our short time there, but it wasn't meant to be.

But the blossoms were lovely,

and we needed to get some sort of physical activity. This was our longest driving day, but we didn't want to just sit in the car all day. And I had another reason for wanting to make this stop.

Not too far away was a Voodoo Doughnut shop. Bean had asked if we were going to get donuts while in Portland, but we weren't anywhere near downtown and we just didn't have time in our schedule to make that detour, so I was really excited when I saw that there was one in Eugene that would just mean another 30 minutes. Their doughnuts are so good!

We also found this very strange, but perfectly placed, portable bathroom trailer. Saved us from having to make another stop.

On to Redding, CA! I don't remember where I learned about the sundial bridge, but it's been marked Want to See on my Google maps for awhile now.

It's really pretty at night. We walked across the river on the lighted bridge and back again. A fun bedtime adventure.

Last Day on the Coast

We stayed overnight in Newport, OR, and I got my traditional early morning vacation walk the next morning. I'm always up early at least one morning and have some pretty awesome memories of various places we've stayed when I've been out wandering while the rest of my family slept.

It was pretty drizzly and cold, and there wasn't a whole lot to go see on the beach, which was a little disappointing because it was another low tide and I would have loved to have some good tide pools nearby to check out, but I went for a walk anyway and just enjoyed the quiet beach.

And I did get to watch a couple sea gulls chasing a bald eagle from these cliffs up above right before I left. 

After breakfast, we drove the short distance to the Yaquina Head Lighthouse. This one feels very remote.

I just love the rocky coasts.

The common murre were there by the thousands--seriously, SO many birds! They come to breed and had just recently shown up.

We found another seal, too.

And Cobble Beach.

The coolest black basalt rocks that cover the beach.

Peanut was so happy playing down there. He stacked rocks, rolled them, and did who knows what while the rest of us looked for wildlife.

The best part of the cobbles is the noise that make as the tide rolls them around. It was seriously loud down by the water.

There are just so many unique beaches to visit.

I love watching our kids play when we go to these new places. It's easy to imagine the lightkeepers family exploring and playing on these same beaches.

(gumboot chiton we found on the rocks)

(contemplating life)

I'm so glad that we made that stop. We were feeling like we needed to hurry a little more this day because we had dinner plans in Portland with Daddy-o's sister's family, but this stop was worth it.

And so was the 1/2 hour break we took at Prehistoric--a store full of fossils. This kid especially loved it, and bought a trilobite for his collection. He's got a couple shark teeth, little bits of dinosaur bone, and now a new specimen.

Maybe the funniest part of this stop--we were having a hard time finding parking but after circling the block, saw a small parking lot behind the Birkenstock store across the street. We decided that we'd pop into the store so we'd count as customers, so the boys ran in the back door by the parking lot while the rest of us got out of the car. They came back out quickly and said that it wasn't the Birkenstock store, but just some hallway that went to a closed door. Then, we noticed that the shoe store was around the corner on the main street. This back entrance, where the boys had gone in, was a marijuana dispensary 😂 Probably shouldn't be sending our 7 and 12 year olds in there.

Next stop--the Tillamook Factory! This was pretty high on everyone's lists.

We got to see how they process the cheese (and watched the conveyer belt where they check for weight for a really long time--why are assembly lines so fascinating?), try some samples,

and then bought ice cream--yum!

And then we made our last coastal stop before we turned inland.

The kids were so excited to see the Goonies beach (Cannon Beach) after watching the movie a couple years ago. We ended up parking pretty far north, but Bean was determined to get closer, 

so she ran all the way down the beach and the rest of us followed, and made it close enough for pictures with the iconic rock.

Of course Peanut was tired for the trek back.  I said he did pretty well this trip, but it didn't mean that he didn't have his moments of begging to be carried. Luckily he's still a lightweight.

One last look.

We were sad to leave the coast, but had a fun dinner with Casey, Mo, and Emma once we got into Portland. We don't make it up to see them often enough, and it was a short visit, but we had a good time getting caught up and meeting Mo.