One down-2 to go!

Took my middle daughter to camp early on Monday morning. We left at 4:30 am because she wanted to be at camp when the gates opened at 7:30! I drove and she slept but not before remembering at least 4 needed items forgotten at home. We arrived at 7:38, behind about 200 others but she was excited. L. will be at main camp for almost 5 weeks. She was excited and a little concerned about the length of her session. The longest she has ever been before is 3 weeks. I reminded her how much her family has been "bugging" her and that now she was in one of her favorite places. I know she will be fine and have a ball. And we will have a break from the frequent and extreme mood changes of a teenage girl! Win-Win! She left me a sweet message on her computer thanking me for sending her to camp and telling me how much she loves me. So sweet and now I am writing her daily and sending funny cards. It is good to realize how much you appreciate someone once they are not around everyday.

( Mailed a sleeping bag, hairbrush, tooth brush and water bottle to camp yesterday. )

Wrapping up the family trip

On Thursday we headed to McMinnville, Oregon. Cute, quirky town in the middle of the Willamette Valley or wine country of Oregon. We drove through lots of interestingly named towns on the way, such as, Happy Valley, Boring, Clackamus and Zig Zag. Visited one vineyard on the way, Sokol Blosser, our new found favorite pinot noir. Beautiful estate and you could see Mount Hood in the distance. In McMinnville, we checked into the Hotel Oregon. Funny hotel that has live music almost every night, a roof top bar/restaurant and a wine cellar for intimate meal or wine tastings. Not every room has a private bath so everywhere we went, whenever anyone found out where we were staying, they ALWAYS asked if we had to share a bathroom. Of course, we had 2 room so we had a private bath for our family. But it was funny to always get asked. Did 2 geocaches as soon as we arrived. Then wandered around the main street area. There were wine tastings, ice cream, a local farmer's market and much more. The girls found a pizza/ movie house and had dinner with a movie that night. H. and I went to the rooftop bar and sampled some of the local microbrewery beers. We ate dinner while looking out into beautiful Oregon countryside and could still see Mount Hood. After we got the family back we went for ice cream at Serendipity. Delicious- ended up here 4 times in a 24 hour period! On Friday morning after breakfast we went to the Flying M Ranch for a horseback riding adventure! Just the 5 of us and a guide did a gorgeous trail ride. M. was "over the moon" excited!!! She had woken up at 6 am to make sure the ride was today! After riding we packed up the car and had lunch on the roof top again. Left McMinnville and went to one more vineyard and 3 more geocaches before going to the airport for the red eye home. Great family vacation. Filled with laughter (and some arguments) and lots of memories! Some of the most beautiful parts of the country that I have ever seen!!

Welches, Oregon

We love this state! Today was a "rest" day with really nothing in particular that had to be done. H. got up at 6:30 am to watch the US in the World Cup, while the rest of us slept later. We had a great breakfast around 11. I got crunchy french toast with hazelnuts that was divine! After brunch, I went to a local yarn store while the girls and H. headed to the pool. It was warm, over 80 and sunny today. Later H. and I sat on our back porch and enjoyed the view while reading. So relaxing and absolutely beautiful. They have this tree called a Cottonwood here that is now in bloom, which means that it looks like it is snowing all the time with little pieces of cotton floating around EVERYWHERE! Very weird since it piles up on the ground and blows in your car windows, really everywhere. Late afternoon we all showered and headed up to Mount Hood to the historic Timberline Lodge. We looked around awhile and H. remembered when he was there almost 20 years ago with his dad. We also hit a geocache on the way out. It was an easy find and had to have been the biggest we have ever found in terms of size. Next we headed to Government Camp, or "Govy" to the local for some pizza at The Ratskellar. Fun, easy day today. Tomorrow the girls are going to the spa and H. is going skiing at Mount Hood in the morning before we head toward McMinnville after lunch.

Oregon!

Had a fun night in Portland and left for Welches and Estacada today. We had a lovely (depending on who you ask) drive this am on the scenic Oregon Highway 30. It had lots of twists and turns along the Columbia River Gorge. We stopped at several waterfalls along the way and "made" the girls "hike" to see the falls -no more than .2 miles! It was early, between 9 and 10 am, so they were reluctant to embrace the experience. I tried to snap one family photo but you see what the big girls decided to do! So this will NOT be our holiday card but it WILL be on the blog. We finally stopped for breakfast at Multnomah Falls. It is the 2nd largest waterfall in the USA! Great breakfast and beautiful falls! H. and M. and I walked up there after breakfast but K. and L. elected to wait by the car. We left and headed to Estacada to go on a half day rafting trip down the Clackamus. That was rally fun with class 2-4 rapids! M. was nervous but ended up having a ball and both K. and L. ended up "riding the bull" which means sitting on the front point of the raft with your legs dangling over during a rapid ride. We wore wet suits but the weather was really good, 77 and sunny! Great time! We all thought it was as much fun as the zipline excursion! Then we headed to Welches to our resort. Showered and changed for dinner. Great dinner. H. and I tried and LOVED a new Oregon wine from the Dundee Hills!! Tried to geocaching but we lost the light and will have to go tomorrow. There are 2 on the resort property to get tomorrow! Awesome day but sooooo nice to crash at a great place for 2 night in a row!!

Seattle, Washington- back in the US!

Travel day on Sunday. We got up early to finish packing and grab some breakfast before going to the ferry. We were taking a high speed (3 hour) ferry to Seattle today. Boat was full and full of all our friends at the conference so that was fun! We arrived around 2:30 pm in Seattle to dripping rain, cold and cloudy weather. It was our worst weather yet. Hope it gets better soon! We checked into our hotel and then grabbed rain coats and walked to the Pike's Market for a late lunch. Everybody got a little something then we all got cookies at Three Sisters' Bakery. We watched the fish get thrown, weighed and bagged at the market and got a real flavor of the place. Walked back to the hotel where the girls relaxed and H. caught the end of the US Open on Father's Day. The girls were dying to see TOY STORY 3 and we were beside a theater so they went to the 7 o'clock showing and H. and I ate a nice romantic dinner at 94 Stewart. We tried a good Washington State wine and and yummy cheese plate. H. got grilled salmon and I got a coconut tomato curry soup and salad. We geocached successfully on the way to the theater to pick up the girls. Monday morning I had a breakfast with H. downstairs at Margeaux because I needed to have a bowl of the Birkner Musili because I had it over 20 years ago when I stayed there with my family as a teenager. It didn't disappoint! Next we went to the Seattle Space Needle. Only M. and L. wanted to go up so we did while H. and K. went U of Washington. By noon we loaded the car and headed to Portland, Oregon. Had a fun lunch in Olympia, Wa. at the Spur Cafe. I got the "blue plate special" of grilled pepper jack with bacon and tomatoes! Delicious. Drove on to Portland. Tons of traffic upon entering the city but we found our funky hotel with no problems. It is called the Jupiter and is super trendy with 3 different bands playing tonight. H. and I geocached one around the area then grabbed the kids to go to Powell Books, the largest, independent book store in the US! Spent over an hour here and the girls all got a couple of books. Then we geocached one more before dinner. It was a micro around a bus stop with high "muggle" traffic. H. was able to spot it but removal was difficult. We scored and signed the log!! Quick dinner then back to the hotel to read. Big rafting trip tomorrow!

Victoria, BC

Last day in Victoria. H. and I had breakfast by ourselves since the 3 girls were fast asleep after our big day yesterday. We brought some back for the girls as they were STILL asleep at 10 am! Since they were slow moving we grabbed the weeks worth of "must do" laundry and headed to a laundry mat. It was not far and the day was warm and sunny. While the loads were washing, H. and I geocached around the area. Happy to report we were successful twice and got a beautiful walk to the water along the way. Finished the laundry and headed back to pick up the peeps and go to lunch and shopping. We walked up from our hotel to a hoppin' section of town with lots of cafes and shops. The big girls really wanted something from Roots so we went there first. Cute and warm pullovers for K. and L. and a hoodie for me! Went by LUSH, my 3rd store since arriving in BC. Ate lunch outside and saw/heard a Justin Beeberish kid standing on the corner with his guitar. The girls thought he was cute and he did sound good. So we dropped in some coins to show some support. Then we got a few Canadian souveniers for the scrapbook. While we were on our way to Knotty By Nature (a yarn store) and going through Chinatown we saw a really weird sight for downtown- an outdoor urinal for men on the street corner! L. did not believe it so she went to check it out and immediately did an about face!! Did try to geocache in Chinatown but we were unsuccessful. By late afternoon we went back to the hotel. Some of us went swimming, I got on the computer and started packing before we leave tomorrow morning for Seattle, Washington. Great week so far and looking forward to the next week too!

Twilight and Forks, Wa.

Big day but oh so tired! Just got back from a 12 hour Twilight tour with 5 girls. We left Victoria, BC this morning by ferry to Port Angeles, Wa. USA. Cleared customs and arrived around lunch. Beautiful ride over in the Olympic Peninsula. Rented a minivan and then we found a really bad Mexican restaurant to eat lunch at. The girls all enjoyed it but M. and I did not. Next we headed to Forks, Wa. -the location of the Twilight books. We were there to see Bella's truck, high school, home, the Cullen home and La Push, the beach where Jacob reveals his true self to Bella. There were organized tours all over the place and plenty of signs about Twilight and lots of Twilight stores selling EVERYTHING you can imagine with a vampire or werewolf on it. Overall, the town was a little disappointing but the drive to Forks was amazing. Lake Cresent was the most beautiful place I have ever seen!!!!! We did get passed by huge logging trucks every 3 minutes for an hour on the way to Forks, the logging capital of the world. So sad to see all the deforestation. La Push was interesting with rocky shores and huge cliffs rising out of the water but the whole area is an Native American reservation so it is rather poor. We then traveled back to Port Angeles to have dinner at Bella Italia, the restaurant Bella had dinner with Edward. This meal was fabulous!! Then on the way to the ferry I tried to geocache( just one) but was unsuccessful after looking for over 30 minutes. The girls were sure I was going to make them miss the ferry. We all crashed on the ride home. Fun day with beautiful scenery and lots of laughs!