My grandparents live outside Portland, Oregon, and they have come out to the East Coast every couple of years for as long as I can remember. They are AMAZING people, wonderful grandparents, and just sweet, dear, Christian people. We decided that this year, WE would be the ones to travel.
We arrived on the 26th, about 4 pm. We were a little earlier than they anticipated, but we made very few stops between Idaho and their house. We were all very excited to see them! We had dinner, figured out our plans for the next few days and crashed.
Wednesday morning, we got up, packed up a lunch, and headed for the Columbia River Gorge, Multnomah Falls, and the Bonneville Fish Hatchery. This is a trip I made when our family visited back in...oh...1992?? A while ago! It was just as beautiful and the kids loved it just as much as I did. We saw our first Stellar jay, the kids played in water, saw "silver dollars" growing in the wild, and just enjoyed visiting with their great-grandparents.
On Thursday, we kind of slacked and didn't pack a lunch. Not to say we didn't have any food, but we didn't make up the sandwiches ahead of time. We then drove up to Mt. St. Helens. So amazing. There was a new visitors center with a movie and lots of interactive displays. The kids really enjoyed it. It reminded me how big our God is - much bigger than we give Him credit for. We sort of confine him to our country, our town, our house, our own little problem. He's HUGE!!!
Friday was Oregon coast and Tillamook day!! For those of you who don't know, the Pacific Ocean is COLD....all the way down to California, in my opinion. My kids did not know that and were looking forward to splashing in the ocean. Yeah - that was funny. They did put their toes in, so they could say they've put their toes in both the Atlantic and the Pacific.
Tillamook is a town famous for a dairy...so we sampled their cheese and for lunch....ICE CREAM! They make their own waffle cones there, in which we got two very large scoops. Everyone except Caroline ate every bite - and she was really close. Victoria didn't want any more ice cream for several days. She hardly had any dinner, either! Dinner was at Mo's, a famous seafood place. Delicious. It was right on the water, so we could see seals cavorting in the water, cormorants, pelicans....it was so much fun.
We were also able to touch base with some dear friends, the Krauses, when we returned that evening. It was so great to see them again!
Saturday morning was the day Tim returned to Virginia. We dropped him at the airport and then we all went shopping. We went to a HUGE used bookstore called Powell's. I loved it. If it were on this side of the country, I'd be broke buying all the books I wanted, but I restrained myself. Then we went to the junk stores (what my grandmother calls thrift stores) and Oregon City to ride the elevator. It's the country's only municipal elevator.
Of course, in between all our travels, we played games - mostly Mexican Train (a domino game).
We got up Sunday morning to head south. We were sad to say goodbye, but we had a great visit and were so blessed!
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