We had been wanting to go on another fun family vacation during the summer, so after weighing our options we decided to take a trip to the Northwest. I had never been to Oregon(and I needed to go to cross it off my list) and one of Adam's best friends lives in the Seattle area so we thought it would be the perfect trip! Our flight left Vegas at 7 am,,,, ya I am not too sure what we were thinking when we booked a 7 am flight at an airport that is 2 hours away with 2 small children. We ended up leaving our house around 4:30. That was the beginning of a long--- yet fun day. The flight was direct to Portland so that was nice.... and we got to Portland at 9 am, which gave us a whole day to explore the Portland area. A
After getting our bags, our rental car, and all settled we were hungry so we ate an early lunch-- and then headed to Multnomah Falls! Oregon is gorgeous. Lots of trees and lots of green.
The falls are gorgeous---- and super busy. We only had these two little travel strollers but we were determined to hike as far as we could with them. Norah had fallen asleep in the car on the way here but notice that the 4 am wake up had gotten to Lincoln and he fell right asleep in the stroller... and stayed that way for awhile.
So we started our climb. It was a paved path up until the first bridge and a bit further... then it got a little bit muddy in spots and the pavement wasn't quite as well. But we kept going. Every once in awhile we would see another stroller coming down so we figured we could keep going..
About half way up.
We actually made it all the way to the top with our little strollers... It was a fun little hike and beautiful at the top.
After the hike we went and explored a little bit of Portland. We ended up where they have a whole bunch of Food Trucks downtown for dinner. I chose to get a grilled cheese. We then ate in pavilion area and Lincoln and Norah had a good time chasing the nasty pigeons and feeding them. After eating we took a little walk to find VooDoo Donuts for a little dessert but once we got there we decided that waiting in the huge line was not worth it----and because our street parking was going to expire and we didnt want a ticket. So we snapped a picture standing in front and called it good. Next time. :)
Next we headed to our hotel and went to bed early....... it was a long day and we were tired!
The next day we headed East towards the coast to explore. Our first stop was the Tillamook Cheese factory.
Watching huge blocks of cheese get made. It was pretty neat but the Cabot cheese factory in Vermont was much better and more intimate. This one was huge, you gave yourself the tour, and it was crowded!! Tons of people.
We ended up eating lunch there and then of course topping it off with Fresh Ice Cream!
We headed North up the coast, and came to Cannon Beach. It was a beautiful and huge beach. Haystack Rock(the rocks in the pictures were in the movie the Goonies). There were fun little tidepools around the rocks and birds had made their home along the rocks.
We just happened to be there for the Annual Sandcastle Building contest. It was insane both because there were so many people there but also because of some of the creations people were making.
There were some cool tools that were used to make some of these creations. Notice dirt balls balanced on little sticks of sand. Crazy how they make it stick and stay.
Lincoln's favorite part was playing in the water!
Norah got to experience it a little but it was chilly and windy! I didnt want here drenched.
Lincoln ended up falling in and getting wet so we had to strip him down and change his clothes. He didnt seem to mind.
Our next stop was the city of Seaside. It is a fun little beachy town. We went into a Salt Water taffy store that had ever kind of taffy you could imagine. They let you sample all you wanted if you were going to buy some so after sampling way too many taffys and buying WAY TOO MUCH taffy we headed to get some dinner. We mostly just walked around the town and went into the little shops. We had to stop at the carousel when we saw it!
That night we stayed right in a town that was close called Astoria at the "Lincoln Inn," we had to get a picture of course.
The next day was Sunday so first thing we went to church-- we were thinking it was going to be a pretty small ward but we walked in and the whole chapel and most of the gym was packed. It turned out that they were splitting their ward that day. After church we did some sight seeing. First up was checking out the official Goonies house from the movie.
It seemed smaller than I remember but I made Lincoln stand in front and do the truffle shuffle.
Astoria was a fun town. It is the oldest American settlement west of the mississippi. So it had a lot of old fun things to see. The Astoria Column was neat. We hiked to the top and had a great view of the city and the Columbia River.
We ate our little picnic lunch here overlooking the river.
Next we hopped on the city trolley and took a tour of the city. We learned all kinds of interesting facts about the city. I loved Astoria!
After walking around Astoria a bit more-- we packed up and headed North towards Seattle.
We crossed over the Oregon-Washington border but of course it was on a busy bridge and we couldn't stop, or even slow down to get a picture at the state line. These crummy pictures of the border will have to do until I can get a good one or photoshop myself into a better one.
No comments:
Post a Comment