Category: Washington

We Take Our Airstream On a Boat, Washington

Post author By Sam
Post date November 25, 2014

Our tour of Whidbey Island was fantastic, but it was time to move along. We took a the Coupeville – Port Townsend Ferry off the middle of Whidbey Island, placing us for a tour of the Olympic Peninsula and nicely skipping over Seattle.

Putting the Airstream on a ferry was both exciting and terrifying. An experience like this highlights the difference between the things that Jess is concerned about and the stress that I feel. Jess wasn’t worried in the slightest about the process and the danger. I was pretty stressed.
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Between the picture of the empty ferry dock and our parked Airstream, I took precisely NO pictures. I was busy trying to avoid running our house into anything else in tight quarters. We DID make a video of the experience however, previously shared but added here to complete the post. Continue on after the video for more pictures and commentary.

I managed to take this epic picture of our Airstream with my phone, and it turned out to be a favorite of the trip.

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Having read other stories about parking on ferries, I was a bit nervous about pulling on and parking. I paid attention to the ferry guys, and they directed me to the spot they wanted me. Front and center is where we parked, right next to a semi full of recycled paper headed to a processing plant. We were second on and first off, which was fine by me.
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After parking, we climbed out and began to explore the ferry. It was interesting seeing a boat that never ‘turned around’ and was equipped with two bridges to make the back and forth easier to handle. The top deck was fun, but noisy and a bit windy.

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We brought along some ‘hiking snacks’ which we deploy in situations where either some light food or a distraction is useful. When possible we stop in at Winco grocery stores and raid their bulk food bins. Our snack today was green Australian licorice, which is a favorite of all.

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Being right in front, we had a great view as the ferry came into the terminal at Port Townsend. The ferry guys were awesome and fun with the kids in the few minutes before we climbed back into the truck.

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Driving off was much less worrisome than driving on. We pulled onto the exit road and headed through town to visit a friend, but more about that on our next post!

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Tags Taking an Airstream on a ferry

Could I Live in the Pacific Northwest?

Post author By Jess
Post date November 21, 2014
4 Comments on Could I Live in the Pacific Northwest?

Much to my surprise, we have had quite a few people ask us our opinion of the Pacific Northwest (PNW). I think for some people, the PNW is like a mystical dreamland. Plenty of recreation opportunities, beautiful green landcapes, the rolling ocean and coast. It does sound pretty dreamy, right?. These people were thinking of possibly moving there at some point, and were curious what we thought?

Most of our experience revolves around the shoulder season, so while we had some beautiful, sunny days, we also had our fair share of rain and bad weather. We’ve been through Medford, Crater Lake, Bend, Portland, Battle Ground, Mount Rainier, Tacoma, Seattle, Vancouver BC, Whidbey Island, Port Townsend, the Olympic Peninsula, La Push, Astoria, and Lincoln City from the end of August through the end of October. Although foggy and a little drippy, we didn’t run into some serious rain until we hit La Push and the Olympic Peninsula during mid-October. From there I felt like it was a constant downpour down through the Oregon Coast. We did hear from locals that rain that heavy in October was fairly a-typical, although the ranger at Cape Disappointment told me that it was supposed to rain “all winter”. That was not encouraging.

What We Loved:

Coming form living in a high Utah desert, having everything green and lush was definitely a nice change. Tons of old growth, tall trees, beautiful mountains, and lots of diversity in the terrain. The diversity in landscape led to many unique experiences which we couldn’t really find anywhere else. Two of our favorites were hiking in Silver Falls State Park viewing 10 different waterfalls, and crabbing along the Oregon Coast.

Oregon & Washington State Parks are beautiful, well-kept, and have great camping sites for both tents and RV’s. Oregon Parks have free camp showers, while Washington’s were coin-operated (not expensive but annoying). We also loved visiting the National Parks, although due to weather we had to save the North Cascades National Park for another visit. We had beautiful weather at Crater Lake, and while Mt. Rainier National Park was beautiful, it seems like it always rains there, so I don’t feel that experience was atypical. Whidbey Island was definitely a favorite, and we would love to go back and explore more of it finally make it out to the San Juan Islands.

We absolutely loved the Rogue River Valley, Medford, and Grants Pass, Oregon. In fact, its hit our list as one of two places we would possible want to live once we settle down somewhere. I don’t really consider it the Pacific Northwest, however, as its more Central, Southern Oregon and not very cool and wet. We spent a week there right around Andrew’s birthday when it was fairly hot, and just recently again for a week in November during the chillier temperatures.

What We Didn’t Love:

The constant rain. Kind of obvious, right? While not a horrendous downpour most of the time, the weather was very overcast and drizzly quite a bit. The biggest mental problem I had was not “wasting” the sunny days. If the forecast called for even partly cloudy, I felt such pressure to get out and do something while the sun shined as I didn’t know the next time we would see the sun. How annoying.

The mold. After leaving the wet side of Oregon and taking a trip over the mountains to the “dry” side, we realized how much mold we had collected. You guys, my bike shoes were moldy. For reals. Many of our items kept in the back of the truck were covered in mold, as well as some cushions and even our curtains! It was disgusting. We stripped off the curtains and couch cushion covers (back by the kid’s bedroom were the worst offenders), and used Clorox wipes to try and clean up everything else.

Being trapped inside. As one of my friends put it, “If you let the rain stop you, you won’t get anything done.”. I’m pretty sure that is a learned mindset, because all I wanted to do on rainy days was curl up with a book and drink hot chocolate. Turns out, that gets old after 4 days in a row. We just had to outside and do things anyway. Sam had a better attitude about this than I did, and some days for me were better than others. Coming up with indoor activities in a small space is a lot harder than living in a house and doing the same. There’s just not enough room! Perhaps living in a house would help with this, but I’m not sure I want to commit myself to finding out.

The mess in the Airstream. When everything is wet and muddy outside, you are going to track it indoors. It just happens. Mitigating wet floors, mud, wet shoes, clothes, jackets, and umbrellas is not exactly fun for days on end. Where’s my mud room when I need it? We got really good at pointing our electric heater at a pile of shoes, or clothes hanging outside the wardrobe, and then running our ceiling fans to bring in some cool air fro outside to keep the Airstream from completely overheating. We would also hang jackets and other items in the shower to keep them out of the way, but they never dry as fast in there due to lack of airflow.

Conclusion? While the PNW is absolutely beautiful, and I think everyone at some point in their life should visit, I don’t think we could live there. I simply just crave the sunshine. The weather during the shoulder and winter seasons is too overcast and wet for the activities we like to do, and I think I’d just go crazy!

Tags Could I live in the Pacific Northwest?, Our opinion of the Pacific Northwest

National Parks Washington

Ebey’s Landing National Historic Preserve, Washington

Post author By Andrew Curren
Post date November 18, 2014

Small, but great Historic Preserve on beautiful Whidbey Island, Washington!

When we were on Whidbey Island, we visited Ebey’s Landing National Historic Reserve.

When We Visited: October 7, 2014

Ages of Kids: 9, 7, 4

Where We Stayed: Fort Ebey State Park

We first picked up our Jr. Ranger Books from the nice ladies at the Trust Board Office near the cemetery.

After we looked through them, we walked to the Davis Blockhouse. I thought it was pretty cool! It is made out of logs and has a second floor but you could see all the way to the roof. I’m not sure how they got up there or where they stood!

This park is so big that next we drove to the town of Coupeville. We had to find historic buildings on Front Street and write down which business was located there now. Like the Kingfisher Bookstore used to be called Benson Confectionery. That means, they used to sell candy!

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We turned in our books at the museum downtown, and the nice lady gave us a nickel to buy a gumball out of the cool machine.

My favorite part about this Jr. Ranger Book was getting an orange roll at the bakery when we were finished!
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National Parks Washington

A Soggy Day at Mount Rainier National Park – Washington

Post author By Sam
Post date November 6, 2014
1 Comment on A Soggy Day at Mount Rainier National Park – Washington

We’ve been excited to visit Mt. Rainier National Park as such an iconic volcano definitely needed a wander. Unfortunately, the perfect storm of off-season, incomplete planning, and, well, RAIN, landed us in a possibly less than ideal situation.

When We Visited: September 23-24, 2014

Ages of Kids: 9, 7, 4

Where We Stayed: Ohanapecosh Campground

From Puyallup, we drove north on the 410, and then State route 123 down the east side of the park. Our target was the Ohanapecosh Campground, situated conveniently close to the Ohanapecosh Visitors Center since we planned to earn another Junior Ranger badge during our stay. This situation seemed ideal. It rained on us a bit on the way out of town, but as traffic cleared, the rain did too, and we had an enjoyable drive all the way to the campground.

Compared to our drive, our arrival was less the ideal. As we pulled up to the campground registration, we realized that the conveniently located visitors center was closed. Not only was the center closed for the DAY, it was closed for the SEASON. No Junior Ranger Badges here, folks. After finding the dump station (which made the Most Scenic Dump Station Ever list) and a site, we talked over our options. We could drive down the crazy, windy road to the other campground (didn’t sound fun), or just camp here and drive the truck in on a day trip the following morning. The latter option won out and we settled in with our hot chocolate for a night full of rain.

It rained. And rained some more.

We woke up to some German Pancakes, then packed a lunch and headed out in the truck for a day of adventure. Since there was no internet signal available, we turned a Thursday into a Saturday and I took the day off work. Some quick investigation after we arrived confirmed that the only visitor centers still open were on the other side of the park, so we drove the Stevens Canyon Road to the Paradise Visitor’s Center. Along the way, we paused for pictures in Stevens Canyon, which treated us to beautiful views of the landscape decorated with clouds low in the valley and wonderful fall colors.

As we drove along, we noticed two soggy backpackers along the side of the road. They looked at us so hopefully that we just had to stop and pick them up. They had traveled from Idaho to hike in the back country, and had enjoyed it up till last night’s constant rain. I couldn’t resist helping, and we managed to squeeze them in the truck by having both Cara and Andrew buckled in the front bench with us. Luckily there were no rangers in sight. We dropped them off where the road forked and wished them well on their journey!

The Visitors Center at Paradise is a beautiful building. Built like a lodge, there are exposed beams and iron work. The entire lobby is pretty open with huge windows that (I assume) provide majestic views on sunny days. We picked up our Junior Ranger Books, and then sat down in the theater for a quick movie about the park. The plus side of an overcast, rainy day was the lack of crowds so we spread out in the lobby and worked on the kids’ Jr. Ranger Books. We managed to time a short hike during a brief respite of the rain up to Myrtle Falls and then ate lunch inside on the picnic tables (you can tell they have inclement weather often). Overall, we managed to have a pretty good day!

On the way out, we managed a quick hike along the Nisqually Glacier overlook trail for some great views of the blue ice.

And, of course, the puddle jumping.

Unfortunately, the clouds never broke, and we didn’t get a view of the mountain top. Despite our visit to the park, the best view of the mountain we had was from Tacoma, a few days earlier. Even with the rain, we had a great time. We discovered that there are quite a few activities in the park for kids, so we’ll be sure and return.

Tags bad weather at national parks, Mt. Rainier National park, National Park, Visiting Mt. Rainier in the rain

Holidays & Bdays Oregon Washington

Celebrating Rachel’s 9th Birthday – Portland, OR & Elbe, WA

Post author By Jess
Post date October 21, 2014

Dear Rachel,

You are turning in to quite the young lady! I’m so proud of you. As the oldest there’s kind of a lot of responsibility, but you shoulder it well. You are good to your brother and sister and are great at organizing play and having fun!

Like your brother, you also LOVE to read. I love this about you guys. You’ll wake up and read for an hour before even coming to find us. You love going to used bookstores with me and finding treasures. I can’t keep up with how many books you guys read. It’s fantastic!

You also love to cross stitch, make bracelets with your loom band (I swear you have over 30 by now!), play Barbies, Lego Friends, and help me cook in the kitchen. You are constantly asking if there’s anything you can do to help make dinner, and your favorite thing is to chop veggies using the chef’s knife. You’ve learned how to make tuna sandwiches for everyone and we’re working on mac and cheese.

I loved when you watched the Women’s Conference broadcast with me the other week and really tried to listen. You love our church, Heavenly Father, and Jesus Christ and do your best to be good and listen and understand at church. I’m sad you are missing out on Activity Days with friends, but grateful that we can work on it together!

I’m proud of your creativity, your love of art, and your love and support of our family. I’m so grateful that you are ours!

Love,

Mom (and Dad!)

Rachel’s birthday was a bit chaotic this year. As she put it, “Monday is the WORST day to have a birthday!” Luckily, she is amazing and rolled with it when all our plans went sideways.

Her birthday was the last day we planned to be in Portland, OR and out of all the activities we planned to do while we were there, she picked visiting OMSI (the Science Museum everyone raved to us about!). On Sunday afternoon when I went to look up their schedule, we found it is closed on Mondays! Plan ruined.

“That’s okay, mom. We’ll find something else fun to do.” See? Rolling with it.

Starting out in the morning, daddy made Pletta (Swedish pancakes) for her breakfast, and while he cooked she opened her presents from Andrew, Cara, and the grandparents. G&G Madsen got her an Elsa Doll with the idea that if she wanted a different one (they were extremely hard to come by right then) or something else I could take her shopping later. G&G Curren sent money for Kindle Books (always love that!), Cara wanted to get her a HUGE bag of candy corn, and Andrew picked out a new snorkel and fins since we accidentally left ours at Camp Noyo over the summer.

After breakfast, Rachel and I decided to take the Elsa doll back and get her a loom case for all her bands, loom, and c-clips. We found one at Michael’s that she loved and was immediately happy with.

Since we were in Portland, the idea was to go out for lunch to some local food trucks only it turns out the ones we chose were not open for lunch. A little disappointed, but undaunted, we googled up a nearby pizza place and went out for pizza instead. Crisis #2 deflected.

We then spent a few hours searching bike shops in the area for a new bike for Rachel. In our haste to upgrade her in the spring, we ended up with a fairly lousy department store bike which just doesn’t fly in this family. She went from loving biking to absolutely hating it and that just made us sad! Knowing we needed something with better shifting capability, but not wanting to to spend a lot of money (pretty tricky!), we managed to find a used Diamondback in her size for $100. Sold. She is SO much happier now!

After dropping everyone else back off at the Airstream, Rachel and I went to pick up her pre-ordered Frozen figurine cake from the nearby Safeway. Learning my lesson from last year, I had ordered one instead of trying to take the time to make it. On impulse, I called ahead to make sure it was ready. They couldn’t find it. They didn’t have the order. They had no idea what I was talking about.

My poor mama bear came out and I’m afraid I was not so nice over the phone. Meanwhile, Rachel is bawling in the backseat because that’s the ONE thing she REALLY wanted for her birthday. We arrived at the Safeway, and the assistant manager was amazing. She immediately apologized, said they found the order but it wasn’t done and set about making it right. Rachel picked out a cake, the manager added her name and the Frozen toys (which was a nice touch even if the cake wasn’t all decorated according to theme), had us pick out ice cream and refused to let us pay for any of it. Totally above and beyond, and Rachel left feeling hopeful and happy! It really made her day!

We were staying in the neighborhood of some traveling friends, and had plans for dinner and birthday cake at their house. Although late, we managed to make it over there and had a great evening (even if the only camera I had on hand was my phone). It was fun to be able to celebrate with friends and have a little party!

While her birthday didn’t turn out quite the way she expected, she was happy and I think that’s what matters most!

Later that week, we were able to follow-up on Mom & Dad’s present of horseback riding (She was excited she only had to wait a few days!). Still promoting experiences rather than presents, she decided this was the activity she wanted to do most. Luckily, I found an outfitter nearby that did 1 hour trail rides up into the hills near Elbe, WA. They were fantastic! It ended up being just the two guides (one younger girl about Rachel’s age) and us. We wound up through the forest, to an overlook of Alder Lake and then back down. They even graciously took us the “really long way” back because it was for Rachel’s birthday.

My horse was a little spirited, but I was up for the challenge, and they put Rachel on a sweet, gentle horse that could do no wrong. I’m not sure I’ve ever seen her giggle as much as she did when we urged those horses to a trot. She was in heaven.

If you are ever in the area, I definitely recommend giving EZ Times Horse Rentals a call. I couldn’t recommend them more! Oh, and while you are in the area. Stay at Alder Lake and eat some Pizza in a Train. Super fun area of Washington!