Hi everyone! How is your summer going? (or for my one friend in New Zealand and any other readers in the Southern Hemisphere, how is your winter going?) Ours has been busy with work and play. I’m hoping to write the next few posts as travel articles from our activities this summer. Feel free to skim them for travel ideas to take your children (or inner child) to, or read just to catch up with us. Don’t forget to share below in the comments what you’ve been up to. I’d love to hear your adventures, especially fun stuff local to where you live!

First, I’ll catch you up a bit so you know what might be in future posts. Starting with Memorial Day weekend (not quite summer here in Oregon, but it kicks off summer adventures anyway), we saw several big waterfalls at Silver Falls State Park, took a weekend camping trip to some mysterious places in northwestern California and southwestern Oregon, played at the Enchanted Forest theme park, camped at the Oregon coast, ate fun food at Eugene’s Saturday Market (that was as far as we had energy to go that weekend), played in the river at Hendricks Bridge County Park east of Springfield, and explored the fun activities at Mt. Hood. By myself I did a short shady hike in the Thurston Hills Recreation Area one weekend with my friend Jas who was visiting from Arizona. And of course, the kids have had lots of fun playing in the backyard and parks (and on video game devices, of course), watching movies, and doing fun things with relatives (including driving bulldozers at the Dozer Days event at the fairground with my brother). Today I’ll write about that first camping trip. It was epic!

For Father’s Day this year, Chris really wanted to take the kids to some mysterious places: the Trees of Mystery, Oregon Caves National Monument, and the Oregon Vortex House of Mystery. We ran out of time to do that last one, but replaced it with something even more fun.

We’d planned to drive down to California on Saturday, but then our church decided to do a picnic that day at our friend’s beautiful property where we got married last fall. The kids would mutiny if they found out we’d be gone and miss a chance to play there, so we pushed the trip back a day to Sunday/Monday. Early Saturday morning, we headed south on I-5 from our home in the Eugene/Springfield area. We made it to Crescent City, California, in time to eat, drive through the redwoods and play in the river at Jedidiah Smith State Park. We also saw the rocky ocean from the Battery Point Vista Area. Seeing the horizon over the ocean filled my soul with joy as the last few years it had been foggy whenever I had visited the Oregon coast.

While we were in Crescent City, Chris decided to buy some supplies at the Home Depot so we could roll up the sleeping bags into the tarp and strap them onto the roof of the car. This helped the kids be less cramped in the 8-passenger car (leading to less fighting). Unfortunately, it rained on us the next day, so drips of water crept in on the straps and fell on us. Since that trip, Chris has obtained the supplies to attach a real cargo box to the top of the car. Our backup plan is to buy a 15-passenger van so each kid will get a bucket seat to themselves and can store luggage below them. You think I’m kidding, but you try driving very far with 5 siblings ages 6-14 who live in a cramped house!

We finally made it to our first real destination: the Trees of Mystery! If you haven’t been there or heard of it, it’s a great tourist trap. My ex-husband and I stopped there on our honeymoon over two decades ago, but back then it was a bit overpriced for what there was to do. We snapped pictures of us in front of Paul Bunyan and Babe the Blue Ox, used the bathrooms, and called it good, figuring we’d shell out the money when we had kids. We never made it back. But Chris had fond memories of it from his childhood, and really wanted to take our kids. Totally worth it! They’ve added a lot of great things to do without adding that much to the price of admission! In addition to the trails of amazing Redwoods with apt names such as the Elephant Tree, Octopus Tree, and the grand Cathedral Trees, now there is a trail in the sky made out of swinging bridges and an aerial tram that takes you up a mountain to see the ocean from up high. Totally worth the ~$25 admission.

The kids enjoyed the park almost as much as we did. But they were even more excited to see the beach and to camp, so on we went. We drove back up toward Crescent City and pulled off at a beach along Highway 101. Dark grey sands beckoned us out to the driftwood and rocks to climb on. The sun was out, we could still see the horizon, and the kids had a great time collecting shells and rocks and relaxing. We pressed on after a while so we could get back up to Oregon in time to camp at the site we’d reserved.

Laughing Alpaca campground near Cave Junction was quite an experience. The tent camping isn’t in regular sites: you pitch your tent wherever you want to in a big shady lawn. When we got there, the sprinklers were on, giving us a bit of anxiety. But they’d left the sprinklers off in the corner by the river with the fire pit, ping-pong table, and odd vertical playground hung on a giant strap. So we set up by the fire pit. We never did find the clubhouse with the game room and the kitchen room looked closed, but the alpacas next to the property were cute! And the price was affordable. After setting up camp (3 tents) and letting the kids play, I drove into town to get dinner. Most places were closed or about to, so I went to the grocery store to try to find fire supplies and hot food. I ended up with matches, marshmallows, and greasy flaky foods (pizza pockets, corndogs, and burritos) that hit the spot. We found just enough wood in and around the fire pit to make a fire big enough for a quick round of s’mores. The owner had told me that we may hear the tigers from the nearby Great Cats World Park at night, but we didn’t and we slept well.

I woke up in the morning to the sound of water hitting one side of the tent. Assuming the sprinklers were now on for this side of the field, I got up to check it out. Rain! We tore down camp as quick as we could, which was not very quick at all with 5 kids and 3 tents. We got into town in time to buy breakfast sandwiches at the Subway and stop in the Illinois Valley visitor’s center to buy our cave tour tickets, which is highly recommended to do before the 45 minute drive to the national monument (after we got there, the wait for people who needed to buy tours there was super long!). There they gave the directions about what we needed to avoid wearing/carrying in order to keep the bats safe from disease.

If you want to go to Oregon Caves, please be aware that they have strict codes now because of a disease making its way around the world. Read their website carefully. You can’t wear/carry anything that has been inside another cave. The staff at the Oregon Caves visitor’s center gave me a free locker for my camera case, had me wipe down the camera, and recorded what cave I’d taken it in. They did a double take when I said it was the Buddha caves in Bamiyan, Afghanistan! I think that was a new one for their list. And I got a button that said something to the effect of “I’m saving the bats,” which I gave to our 12-year-old since she’d wiped down her shoes because she couldn’t remember if she’d worn them in the lava tube cave we explored last summer. Side note; Chris volunteered to be the person who stays in the back of the line through the cave and make sure there were no stragglers, so he asked if he got a pin, and the ranger gave him one that says “I was vaguely responsible at Oregon Caves.”

Seeing the cave was worth it all. I didn’t get to go far because our 6-year-old got cold/tired/spooked because he’d gotten wet in the rain in the parking lot, and didn’t really like the lava cave last year either. So he and I left at the emergency exit about 1/4 the way in, and hiked down the hill to the visitor’s center to warm up in there with hot cocoa. Even the hike was pretty, with mist hugging giant Douglas Fir trees and blooming wild rhododendrons. Chris and the girls went on and saw the epic cave rooms, formations, and flowstones I’d seen once before, including the naturally elegant Drapery Room. The cave isn’t a lava tube cave like most of them in Oregon or a limestone cave like Mammoth Caves National Park, but a marble cave. Truly a marvel. One of the interesting parts of it is the creek. Inside the cave, it’s known as the River Styx. When it exits the cave into the area around the Chateau (lodge) and the visitor’s center, it becomes Cave Creek. It makes two pretty waterfalls on either side of the driveway and then disappears into a pool by the Chateau. But back to the creek: it resurfaces inside the Chateau, running in a little channel through the middle of the dining room. The Chateau is currently closed for renovation, but I’ve seen it before, and it’s really neat. Random fact: Did you know that the View Master toy was invented with the Oregon Caves?

After the caves, we ate “hot eats” at the Dairy Queen in Cave Junction. They were quick and got our large order perfectly. While the kids sat in the van afterwards with their “cool treats”, Chris and I walked across the street to check out the Taylor’s Sausage restaurant/store that friends had told us about. We figure we’ll eat there if we come back without the kids someday, but for now we made do with buying elk, venison, and alligator jerky.

We had planned to go to Gold Hill after the caves to tour the Oregon Vortex / House of Mystery, a local tourist trap that is interesting to see once (and only once). I’d been there once with my ex and didn’t need to go again, but our kids wanted to see it because it’s one of the inspirations for the cartoon Gravity Falls. Unfortunately, we were running out of time. But Chris and I had one more idea of a place we could surprise the kids with on the way home.

A short drive off I-5, we made it to Wildlife Safari in Winston a mere 15 minutes before closing time. The wonderful staff there let us in to roam around the “Village” area. What a great use of 15 minutes! We saw all kinds of animals. The lady running the camel-riding station brought the camel over to the landing so the kids could pet it. And the dog and cheetah buddies in the cheetah pen snuggled and wrestled for us to enjoy. Chris had taken the kids there for the safari drive during the early days of the pandemic, but they didn’t get to see the village part. The kids want to go back with more time.

We stopped at Roseburg to get giant ice cream cones at Sherm’s Thunderbird grocery store (Southern Oregon’s answer to Winco, but with a gazillion flavors of Umpqua ice cream at the front concessions counter and great prices). We’d had it a few weeks earlier when we drove to South County to visit my old church in Riddle I attended when I lived in Myrtle Creek over a decade ago. Unfortunately, our luck ran out for the day. On Mondays, they close the ice cream early to clean the area. So we bought candy in the store and drove the rest of the way home.

While we didn’t get to see every mystery spot we wanted to on that trip (there’s also Confusion Hill farther south in California, another inspiration for Gravity Falls), we had a lot of fun. And this last weekend, we drove through the first inspiration for the show according to its creator, the Oregon town of Boring. But that’s another story for another day. On this trip, the trees, beach, and caves were enough for us.

In my last post, I said I’d tell about our spring break day trip soon. I wanted to share about the Piano Queen first, and decided to let that post be short and focused. But here’s our trip for you, in case you want road trip ideas. I’m having fun seeing my favorite Oregon places with new eyes as I play tour guide for my stepkids. And I want to practice writing more travel-article-style posts as I do that. I loved reading the family trip ideas in the recently-defunct Springfield Free For All newspaper, and want to continue that awesome family’s legacy. Enjoy! (Note – it took me a month to write it, but here it is! With a bonus waterfall trip listed at the end that we took last week)

Spring break was as rainy as a Western Oregon spring break usually is. I had to work during it, so that was fine by me, but by Saturday we were (okay, I was) desperately needing to get out of Dodge. We needed to head north to pick up one of the kids from my stepsister’s house, so we thought of places that direction. With the weather forecast, we knew it would need to be a place where we didn’t need to stray far from the car. We settled on the Columbia Gorge. The kids had never been there. I’ve been there lots of times, but I don’t think I’ve written about it much. And I’m trying to practice writing travel article-style posts. So here you go!

I decided to drive Highway 99E from Salem to avoid I-5’s vacation weekend traffic and get a bit more scenic route into our day. In Brooks, I pulled through the driveway of the old Brooks Elementary School where I used to work so the kids could see it. It’s now an Oregon Child Development Coalition facility. Our first actual stop was in Hubbard, where my stepsister lives. We got gas and pulled through the “From Russia With Love” coffee/food cart to get some lunch for the adults (I’d packed generic lunchables, fruit, and other snacks for the kids). The greater Woodburn area has a community of Russian Old Believers that settled here long ago, so it makes sense there’s a Russian fast food place! They were out of some things because of Lent, but the dumplings and potato dish were delicious. At my stepsister’s house (on the edge of town, almost in the country), we played with my niece, nephew, dogs, and goats. The baby goats had grown a little since we saw them at Christmastime, but they’re still small and adorable! Our 6 year old couldn’t pick up the baby goats, so he carried around my stepsister’s mom’s Pomeranian instead.

Driving up 99E landed us in Oregon City, so we checked out the Municipal Elevator. Evidently, there are only 4 of these in the world. This one’s been there since 1955 (replacing a wooden one before it), and is North America’s only “vertical street.” Nowadays with cars, one can just drive a block or two out of the way to get to the roads above the cliffs. But that’s no fun. We started at the top, walking around the observation deck first before taking the ride down to the road with the bridge. You can see Willamette Falls over downtown Oregon City. My husband’s favorite part of the whole day was listening to the docent who sits at the top of the elevator, waiting eagerly for tourists and kids to tell stories to. Her true story about a sternwheeler riding the rapids upriver was somehow even more incredible than her Sasquatch one.

From Oregon City, we hopped on I-205 and then I-84. We got off in Troutdale to start our journey up Historic Highway 30 there, but in retrospect, we should have started at Lewis & Clark State Park a little ways away so we could stay we started at the very beginning. But driving through the lush forest up to the cliffs of Corbett made us forget any loss. We stopped first at the Women’s Forum overlook to see the Crown Point Vista House from afar, shrouded in foggy mist.

The Vista House is a small but majestic art nouveau building, created as a rest stop observatory for travelers and a memorial to the pioneers. It’s over 100 years old and just as relevant now. It sits on Crown Point, a basalt promontory once known as “Thor’s Heights.” (See https://vistahouse.com/history/ for more information). We raced there from our car to beat the rain. Once inside, we stamped our homemade national park passport/travel journals at the visitor’s desk, and went downstairs to look at the exhibits and gift shop. Tip: the espresso stand has some overpriced candy, but also 15 cent huckleberry taffy! I stocked up on that, and when the rain subsided, the kids raced upstairs to the visitor’s deck. The views of the Columbia Gorge there are epic. But our youngest two mainly enjoyed sliding down the little ramps on the back side once the rains stopped.

After bumming around the Vista House, we drove to Latourelle Falls. This is the beginning of the Waterfall Corridor, a section of Highway 30 with tall waterfall after waterfall gushing down the sides of the cliffs. Most visitors skip the historic highway and stop at Multnomah Falls via the pullout from I-84, but I love the more intimate journey of Highway 30. The highway itself is a marvel, the first scenic highway to attain National Historic Landmark status, and this section of it is spectacular. Latourelle Falls is tall and graceful, but my favorite part of it is the octagonal basalt columns fanning out behind it. We just walked up the hill a bit to a great viewpoint, but if you have time, I recommend continuing on the steep trail to another waterfall up above it.

The next stop we made was Shepperd’s Dell Falls. This lesser-known stop along the historic road is my husband’s favorite in this area. It cascades down cliffs in several tiers and makes its way down a steep ravine below the highway bridge. According to a guy I briefly dated (the one person I met from e-Harmony, whom I call Waterfall Dave because he loves hiking to waterfalls even more than I do), the falls were named after his grandma (or great-grandma?). Online you can find that they were named for the wife of George Shepperd, who owned the land and donated it to the public in 1915. My favorite part of it is the gorgeous stonework lining the path, made from the same stonework as on the bridge.

Next we arrived at Wahkeena Falls. It is made up of a long but shallow series pf cascades below a tall, steep section up the hill behind a stone footbridge. Three of our kids chose to make the trek up to the bridge, enjoying getting sprayed by the larger fall. By this time, it had stopped raining for good, and we enjoyed the rest of the watefalls without getting wet (except by choice).

Finally we made it to Multnomah Falls, the crown jewel of the Columbia Gorge waterfalls. Unfortunately, the parking lot along the historic highway was packed, so we pressed on, stopping at Horsetail Falls, which looks like, you guessed it, a horse’s tail. We drove on to the next place to get onto I-84, doubled back, and parked at the larger parking lot for Multnomah Falls. In the summer, you have to get a pass in advance to park there, but that early in the year, we didn’t need it.

Two of the kids hadn’t gotten out of the car at the last three waterfalls, opting to stay inside and play video games. But here at Oregon’s highest one, we forced them outside for the grand finale of our day.

By this time, though, they were all a bit over waterfalls. Chris and I managed to get the kids all in one spot for some stranger to take a picture of us in front of the lower cascade with the bridge over it, which was like herding cats. They are definitely not all smiling in it. (The only time I’ve ever managed to get that photo was as they were all descending into their first cave, one of the lava tube caves in Central Oregon). They were, however, excited to go to the big gift shop and concession stand in the official Multnomah Falls Lodge.

The Lodge itself doesn’t look like much from the outside or from the main public areas (gift shop, bathrooms, etc.), at least compared to some of the other great lodges of Oregon like Timberline and Crater Lake. But Chris and I took turns exploring upstairs to the restaurant while the other supervised the kids in the gift shop. It looks amazing! And romantic, with sweeping views of the waterfall. We made a mental note to come back and eat here sometime for an anniversary or something. Without the kids.

We got concessions food for the kids (and a swirl ice cream cone for me… it’s tradition there! No matter how cold and grey it is out!) and headed back toward Portland. In Clackamas, we tried to stop for food for us grownups at the German restaurant Gustav’s, but it was closed for good. So sad! Then we tried the big restaurants by the mall, but Claim Jumper had a three hour wait. We ended up in a quiet but delicious Thai food place in a strip mall. The kids got potstickers and boba tea, and Chris and I got curry.

Late that night we arrived home, full of food and nature’s beauty. This year’s winter was extra long and dark and wet, and even though it was still dark and wet that day, I realized how much I’d needed to escape into God’s wonderful creation. We didn’t get to go very far for spring break this year, but one day in the Columbia Gorge made it feel like a vacation.

What are your favorite memories of the Columbia Gorge?

A good few weeks later, we finally got spring weather. Some warmth and even a little sunshine. Last Saturday, we took Marcola Road through the Coburg Hills to Sweet Home, and hiked the McDowell Creek waterfalls trails. They are so beautiful this time of year! Gushing waterfalls framed by green moss and ferns. Trails lined with trilliums. The kids had a great time climbing up stumps and waterfalls, walking on logs, squeezing into cavernous evergreen trunks,eating sorrel, and looking at the blooming trilliums. Afterwards we ate on the patio of The Point restaurant overlooking Foster Reservoir. I’m so grateful that spring has finally sprung! Today I’m up in Mt. Angel with my writing buddies, having a little writing retreat in the guest house of the Abbey, with views of the mountain ranges and the valley below us. How are you enjoying this beautiful spring weather?

Okay, Last week I said that would be the last post in the Winter Activity series I spontaneously started earlier this year. But this week brought some new experiences! Last Wednesday my husband and I got to try axe-throwing with some of my coworkers. It was fun! We went to Oregon Axe in Springfield, in the Booth Kelly Center. I had no idea what the Booth Kelly Center was. It’s an old mill site that’s been converted into a cool hipster artisan collective. Check it out here: https://www.boothkellymakers.org/

If you haven’t been axe-throwing yet, it’s kind of like darts but with real axes. Chris was definitely better than me at it. We’ll credit his pizza-dough rolling skills. But in my defense, I was paired up in competition with my awesome boss! Not intimidating at all! Just kidding. I’m sure I threw my best. I got in a few good throws that stuck, and my boss got in a good few more. But a couple of my colleagues were amazing at it. The staff there were trying to recruit them for leagues!

So that was Chris’ and my new activity for the week. On Saturday, our kids got one. We took our kids up to the mountains to play in the snow. Only our 10 year old had gone sledding before (while visiting my at my apartment right after a good snowstorm last year, and we walked to a nearby park with a great sledding hill). They loved it! And ate it! A lot! The younger kids were miserable at times with cold and bruises (the 6 year old went flying off a ramp that no one could see and bumped his knee). But they rallied and loved the experience overall. The older ones loved the ramps. And they all loved the speed. “Best roller coaster ever!”

We met up with my friends from Central Oregon there at the Santiam Sno-Park, which has great steep hills for fast sledding. Then all split up to eat and met back together at Belknap Hot Springs to soak in the hot pools. We knew that would make our kids happy, because they loved that place last summer. And it was a great way to get warmed up after the snow.

On the way home, we stopped for pizza at Takoda’s in Rainbow (yes, that’s a town foothills of the Cascades). I’d been in there but never actually eaten there. It was great! Fantastic friendly service, lots of fun souvenirs and things to buy or look at, and even pizza topped with the same pepperoni that Joey’s Pizza uses. Chris told the staff that he works at Joey’s and asked about it, and they not only confirmed which pepperoni it is, but said they call it “Joey’s Pepperoni”! They love Joey’s Pizza! I guess Joey’s has a sister restaurant up in the mountains! They also had great soup and a decent salad bar. They do not, to our 6 year old’s disappointment, have French Fries and hamburgers in their salad bar. But it was good.

We’ve just been relaxing at home for the rest of the holiday weekend. What have you all been doing with yours? Happy Presidents Day!