Categories
Holidays & Bdays Oregon

Getting a Little Homesick Over Halloween – Lincoln City, Oregon

About a month ago, we decided we needed to sit somewhere for at least a week. A few weeks of 2-3 day short stops were wearing on us, and we just needed time to get some
cleaning done and catch up on other small repairs and chores. Looking ahead, we also knew Halloween was coming up and being in one place the week before to get ready for the
holiday sounded fabulous. As much as we don’t like to plan ahead and make reseravtions, holidays turn out to be the exception.

We choose Lincoln City for two reasons: it was on the Oregon Coast (which was on our list of places to see) and we had Instagram friends who we were excited to meet.

When We Visited: October 24-31, 2014
Where We Stayed: Devil’s Lake Campground – Full hookups, right in town, it seemed like a great except for the flooding in the campsites. There was so much rain that week that many of the campsites were their own lake. Not exactly encouraging. Fortunately, we were able to change sites to one that was more dry and our stay got infinitely better. There were more than a few doubts about our choice of accommodations that first night.
Ages of Kids: 9, 7, 4

Halloween is one of my favorite holidays, ranking right up there was Christmas. I especially love decorating and costumes as evidenced by past years. Last year in Virginia was a bit crazy and I was determined to do better this year. We actually planned ahead and I ordered costumes from Etsy, sent them to the Waller’s house, and we started looking around at thrift stores for other pieces of our costumes way back on Whidbey Island. See? So prepared. We decorated the Airstream, and read Halloween books every night before bed.

We managed one treat craft, and dropped in on the local library’s Halloween party. It was pretty small town, but the face painting artist was AMAZING. She paints tiles, and her skill was evident. It was also a good test run for our costumes.

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Halloween Eve we carved pumpkins with the Waller’s. Don’t judge our use of gloves. It was the only way we could get the girls to clean out their own pumpkins. Andrew, however, fully enjoyed the slimy experience. We were so proud of Rachel and Andrew who drew and carved their pumpkins all by themselves.

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Halloween morning started out with our typical pumpkin pancake breakfast (cooked this time by Rachel), and then we met up at the Waller’s church to help set up for the Harvest Festival later that evening. Amazingly, it made me homesick. That doesn’t happen often, but setting up tables and chairs in a church, getting ready for carnival type games, and a chili dinner completely overwhelmed me with homesickness for our church family back in Lehi, Utah. Every year we’d have a “Soup & Spook” event that involved, you guessed it, carnival games, chili, good friends, and a Trunk or Treat in the parking lot. It was something we looked forward to every year. I was pretty excited that we’d get to celebrate this year with new friends doing something similar.

Our kids totally rocked the cold, snowy theme this year. After a comment on an Instagram photo months ago about how Andrew looked like the “real” Jack Frost, we couldn’t resist. Rachel was Elsa from Day #1 (her and everyone else), and we talked Cara out of Merida (from Brave) and into Olaf to complete the ensemble. I love their Halloween photos so much, they got their own post. You are welcome.

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Bring on the party! This community knows how to have an event. The games were great, the food was delicious, and the kids ran around collecting as much candy in their treat bags as they absolutely could.

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The hat totally made the outfit. I don’t think most people realized how ridiculously hilarious our costumes really were.

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Our awesome friends the Waller’s:

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For our first, official, on the road Halloween, I feel like we did a pretty sweet job. I don’t know what next year will hold (or where we will be!) but if we can come close to pulling this off again we’ll be okay!

Categories
National Parks Washington

A Soggy Day at Mount Rainier National Park – Washington

A Soggy, yet beautiful day spent at Mt. Rainier National Park in 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.

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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.

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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!

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

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And, of course, the puddle jumping.

Mount Rainier NP_39Unfortunately, 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.

Categories
Airstream Accessories Inside the Airstream

Airstream Accessories We Love – Jambox, Reading Lights, Wall Clock, Garbage Can

Accessories We Love

We’ve updated a few accessories over the past few months, and it’s time to share some of the changes we’ve made. These are all items that we use regularly and love. All links are affiliate to Amazon (where we buy A LOT of stuff). You pay the same, but we get pennies for our Percy Jackson addicted children to buy books. Total win-win.

JamboxJambox

The Airstream has a cool built in sound system that even came with an external speaker. The tech is firmly rooted in 2005, however. The remote speaker is Mono, and requires either an AC plug or a zillion D batteries. We ditched the external speaker for a Jawbone Jambox, and it serves the need nicely. This also saves the power draw of the main sound system in the Airstream. We’ve had other bluetooth speakers before, and nearly anyone would work. The rubber top and bottom of the jambox make it not slide around, because sometimes we get lazy and don’t put it away during drives.

garbage canKitchen Trash Can

Under the sink, there is a built in garbage can. Over the first few months of travel, we decided we didn’t like it, and Jess came up with this Simplehuman Brushed Stainless garbage can. We place it in front of the pantry drawers, and it is short enough to fit under the drawers as they slide open. And of course, it’s silver! This is also nice and stable during drives, as it lives on the floor. In the space opened up by not using the under-sink garbage can, we hide an electric heater, an outside tablecloth, and an athletic roll.

reading lightsReading Lights

Our bed reconfiguration left us without reading lights in convenient locations for the kids. We found some cheap reading lights as replacements, and they have been perfect. In addition to saving battery life while boondocking, the kids have better light and can read without keeping each other awake. Better yet, these were cheap, and we can stuff them with the same rechargeable batteries we already keep on hand.

41kDopNSqnLWall Clock

This clock was actually our first Airstream customization, way back in Virginia. The real magic of this clock is how I mounted it to the wall. I cut a piece of a plywood  to fit just inside of the round clock. I used command strips to stick this to the wall, and the clock friction-fits right to it! Battery changes are easy, and we’ve never had a problem with the clock while driving.

We did modify this clock by cutting the tick marks in half, and cutting the hand wands a little shorter to fit in the space above our television (you can kind of barley see it in this post here). We love it, and I’d buy the same clock again!

eneloop

 

Eneloop Rechargeable Batteries

Jess has over fifty of these AA batteries from her wedding photography days. We’ve had to add a few more Eneloop AAA batteries for reading lights, dream lights, toothbrushes, and other kid’s toys. They work great, don’t loose their charge, and store easy.

 

charger

Battery Charger

To go along with batteries we needed something to charge them with. Jess also picked this Titanium Fast 16 Bay Charger up from a photography friend, and it works great. You can charge the batteries one at a time and it holds both AA and AAA batteries. Best feature? It also has a DC plug so no worries if we aren’t plugged into shore power.

 

These are all some additions we’ve made since we bought the Airstream. You can check out the kitchen post here as well. Happy shopping!

 

Categories
Oregon

The Scenic Colombia River Gorge outside of Portland, Oregon

During our stay in Portland, we wandered into the Columbia River Gorge for an afternoon. Perhaps the best known stop there is Multnomah Falls, at a height of 620 feet. The falls are beautiful, but honestly, we felt a little claustrophobic. Prior to arriving in Portland, we had visited Silver Falls State Park, and hiked to see all 10 of the waterfalls in the park.  While the falls there were certainly shorter, we enjoyed the falls with far fewer people crowding around.

When We Visited: September 10, 2014

Ages of Kids: 8, 7, 4

We stopped at Wahkeena Falls first and enjoyed a close experience with some smaller but still powerful falls. Only a few other folks hiked up to the bridge, leaving us with a quiet experience. After these falls, we hiked down the small trail to visit Multnomah Falls. The path was not amazing, but we avoided the parking morass, so the success of that walk was a toss-up.

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Multnomah Falls is beautiful, but we were unprepared for the masses of people that crowded the small area for a good view. In addition to people there were also quite a few concession stands, and we would have been tempted by the fudge if Cara didn’t have a serious nut allergy. Turns out they use the same knife for all of their fudge. 🙁

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We hiked up to the bridge for a better view and the wind generated by the falls was incredibly powerful! Jess captured this priceless image of Cara and her camera, hair blown about by the waterfall generated wind!

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After the falls, we headed over to the Bonneville Fish Hatchery. We have visited a few hatcheries, and I’ve loved every one. Our visits are rarely rushed, and everybody enjoys feeding the fish (bring quarters.) The kids loved the adult fish holding tank (lower right picture below) where we got a good look at “Herman the Sturgeon”, a 70+ year old, 450+ lb, 10+ foot long Sturgeon. I told the kids that Herman was a Doctor Fish, because he was a very famous Sturgeon. They didn’t think it was very funny.

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At this point of our visit, things turned a little south. Our struggle potty-training Cara has been ongoing, but this was a particularly bad evening. We managed to forget stuff to change her, and she desperately needed a change. We managed to make it work, but it was a bit of a painful experience. I’m happy to report that things have improved drastically since our visit here.

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We completed our afternoon with a burger on the way back home. Having been spoiled by some seriously nice Oregon Scenery, the Columbia River Gorge earned a “Good” rating from the Wandering Currens. Most visitors seem to enjoy it more than we did, but I’ll chalk that up to being spoiled by the rest of Oregon.

Categories
Oregon Video

Wandering Update: Learning to Crab on the Oregon Coast

Last Week, we rented the gear for crabbing and spent two hours on the water in Nehalem Bay on the Oregon Coast. I have plenty I could say and details to share, but for now, enjoy a Wandering Update from our YouTube Channel. We should follow up with details at some point, but for now, enjoy our experience!

Warning: Some of the camera work was done by the kids. Jess and I were busy piloting the boat and hauling crab.

This might have hit the top of our ‘favorite experiences’ list!