Showing posts with label family vacation. Show all posts
Showing posts with label family vacation. Show all posts
Tuesday, September 20, 2011
Oregon Trip Picture Time!
It's picture sharing time! Warning: This is purely me bragging up my family and our great week long trek up the Oregon Coast. Skip this post if you are looking only for quilting related news. Otherwise, enjoy pictures of our vacation last month along the Oregon Coast!
Thursday, August 18, 2011
Who's going to be the first one to touch the ocean?!
Last week, I took a much needed break to visit the Oregon Coast with my husband and our three youngest kids. (The three that I get to share my very own DNA with. Some day they will thank me for this, I'm sure)
Charlie especially wanted to see Crater Lake, and since this was to be nothing if not a sight seeing trip, we hit the lake first thing. We drove from 12:30am Monday morning until about 9:30am to see this:
After looking around a bit, we excitedly headed for the coast. Well, at least we thought we did. See, Kylee and I had done some preliminary research the week before, and decided to pick Gold Beach as our first coastal stop. (OK, so I picked it and Kylee just wrote it down. I admit it, it was my fault already!)
Little did we know that there isn't exactly a main highway from Crater Lake straight to Gold Beach. In fact, my Garmin GPS didn't know this either. It deceivingly gave us directions, turn by turn, as if it were no big deal. By 2:30pm, we were headed up a winding, one lane, mountain road that looked alarmingly similar to the set of Deliverance.
The GPS said we'd be hitting the sandy beaches by 4:00pm. But, after several "keep lefts" and "turn rights" we were still in the mountains at 4:30pm. In fact, the only things keeping my from insisting we turn around were the road markers every few miles that said "Coastal Route" and the nearly full tank of gas in the car.
At one point, Charlie said that he needed to take a potty break, but thought twice about getting too far from the road in fear of ending up squealing like a pig.
About an hour into it, my car actually started to smell hot. My brand new, still on manufacturer warranty, car, started to smell hot!
The entire way we kept meeting large econoline vans, pulling trailers full of river rafts. We even saw a sign warning vehicles to use a CB radio if possible. I'm pretty sure every one of those vans was using their radio, to warn the vans behind them about the stupid ****'s from Idaho in the red car headed their way!
At what might have been the top of the mountain, we pulled into an overlook area and met a couple from Holland who were headed the opposite direction. They were on a 4 week vacation, and didn't seem alarmed at all about the road they were traveling. They must have some fierce traffic in Holland!
Finally, delirious from hours on a winding, narrow road that seemed to go nowhere, we emerged on some highway where there was road construction, complete with flaggers, and deep, unmarked trenches that tried to rip my car apart and swallow it. I'm pretty sure it will never be the same. The moose was no match for backwoods Oregon!
And then, just when I was about ready to turn around and go home, we finally found Highway 101, and Gold Beach. Actually, it was all worth it, because Kylee and Will have never seen the ocean, and I got to watch as Charlie called out, "Who's going to be the first one to touch the ocean?"
Charlie especially wanted to see Crater Lake, and since this was to be nothing if not a sight seeing trip, we hit the lake first thing. We drove from 12:30am Monday morning until about 9:30am to see this:
After looking around a bit, we excitedly headed for the coast. Well, at least we thought we did. See, Kylee and I had done some preliminary research the week before, and decided to pick Gold Beach as our first coastal stop. (OK, so I picked it and Kylee just wrote it down. I admit it, it was my fault already!)
Little did we know that there isn't exactly a main highway from Crater Lake straight to Gold Beach. In fact, my Garmin GPS didn't know this either. It deceivingly gave us directions, turn by turn, as if it were no big deal. By 2:30pm, we were headed up a winding, one lane, mountain road that looked alarmingly similar to the set of Deliverance.
The GPS said we'd be hitting the sandy beaches by 4:00pm. But, after several "keep lefts" and "turn rights" we were still in the mountains at 4:30pm. In fact, the only things keeping my from insisting we turn around were the road markers every few miles that said "Coastal Route" and the nearly full tank of gas in the car.
At one point, Charlie said that he needed to take a potty break, but thought twice about getting too far from the road in fear of ending up squealing like a pig.
About an hour into it, my car actually started to smell hot. My brand new, still on manufacturer warranty, car, started to smell hot!
The entire way we kept meeting large econoline vans, pulling trailers full of river rafts. We even saw a sign warning vehicles to use a CB radio if possible. I'm pretty sure every one of those vans was using their radio, to warn the vans behind them about the stupid ****'s from Idaho in the red car headed their way!
At what might have been the top of the mountain, we pulled into an overlook area and met a couple from Holland who were headed the opposite direction. They were on a 4 week vacation, and didn't seem alarmed at all about the road they were traveling. They must have some fierce traffic in Holland!
Finally, delirious from hours on a winding, narrow road that seemed to go nowhere, we emerged on some highway where there was road construction, complete with flaggers, and deep, unmarked trenches that tried to rip my car apart and swallow it. I'm pretty sure it will never be the same. The moose was no match for backwoods Oregon!
And then, just when I was about ready to turn around and go home, we finally found Highway 101, and Gold Beach. Actually, it was all worth it, because Kylee and Will have never seen the ocean, and I got to watch as Charlie called out, "Who's going to be the first one to touch the ocean?"
Thursday, March 26, 2009
The Happiest Vacation on Earth
My family and I just returned from a fantastic vacation at Disneyland! I am, of course, way behind on blogging about the wonderful new things at the shop lately, but first, here are a few pictures from our first ever bonafide family vacation. Look closely - you might see the promised Sun Surf Halter!
Monday, March 24, 2008
Triple Play-Great Fun!
We returned from a quick trip to Triple Play today. The kids had a great time, and it wasn't too bad for us parents either! The hotel is connected to the Triple Play facility by a sky bridge, so it was super convenient. The kids spent almost the entire afternoon and evening yesterday in the water, except for dinner and a trip to the bowling alley. Will whined the entire hour of bowling about wanting to go back to the pool, so we went back to the water park for the last 1/2 hour they were open.
The Triple Play water park is a great park if you have little kids. Will, who's turning 4 Wednesday the 26th, could even ride the body slide by himself. The slides end with a dead-end, not in a deep pool, so there was no risk of him not being able to swim out once the ride ended. He had a great time and climbed the 4 flights of stairs over and over again to go down the slide. He is fearless, and loved it, even if his sisters wouldn't go with him.
You'd think the kids would've had enough, but we returned to the water park today from 10am-12pm before we checked out. They emerged from the water with red eyes, exhausted and cranky, but they had a great time.
Now it's back to work for one more week. The Simplicity quilt is getting quilted, after a slow start. My quilting machine was suffering from abandonment issues and had to be coaxed into running without skipping stitches.
The Triple Play water park is a great park if you have little kids. Will, who's turning 4 Wednesday the 26th, could even ride the body slide by himself. The slides end with a dead-end, not in a deep pool, so there was no risk of him not being able to swim out once the ride ended. He had a great time and climbed the 4 flights of stairs over and over again to go down the slide. He is fearless, and loved it, even if his sisters wouldn't go with him.
You'd think the kids would've had enough, but we returned to the water park today from 10am-12pm before we checked out. They emerged from the water with red eyes, exhausted and cranky, but they had a great time.
Now it's back to work for one more week. The Simplicity quilt is getting quilted, after a slow start. My quilting machine was suffering from abandonment issues and had to be coaxed into running without skipping stitches.
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