To Sum it All Up…

With a good night’s sleep in my own bed and several loads of laundry behind me, I feel like I can take some time to ponder on our many experiences of the past two weeks. We saw some more of the wonders that this world has to offer. And for this little group of desert dwellers, some of it was truly awe inspiring. We had some good family time with all six of us, something that has become less frequent as my kids have started to grow up and move out and which I subsequently treasure all the more. We laughed, cried (yes, there were some tearful moments involving my 11-year-old because dealing with the ramifications of food allergies is hard), joked, ate far more than we should have, and had a truly remarkable time. This is a vacation that will long be remembered. 

Inventory of assets acquired over the past two weeks:

-About a gallon of bug guts splattered across the front of the car

-Two rock chips in the windshield of my nearly new car

-An assortment of t-shirts, sweatshirts and hoodies featuring the stops we’ve made (One person we talked to commented that Malia was “wearing the trip”)

-A variety of huckleberry flavored delights 

-A boatload, or perhaps it would be more appropriate to say a carload, of wonderful memories

-Many hours of quality family time filled with the joy that comes from being together and actually liking each other (My kids have mostly gotten to the point where they are friends and despite being jam packed together for two weeks, they are still all friends now that we are home!) 

Abbreviated compendium of lessons learned:

-Sometimes a spectacular view outweighs the inconvenience of sharing one small bedroom with all your siblings. Everyone agrees that their favorite abode was the condo in Seaview.

-We have gained a healthy respect for the impact that seasonal allergies have in our family in an environment that produces more than just sagebrush. 

-Humidity wreaks havoc on wavy hair. Malia pretty much stopped trying to make her hair smooth because it was determined to frizz. However, the extra moisture also made it look super lustrous and healthy. That tells me she needs to seriously rock the conditioner now that we are home. Nathan’s normally tame locks have taken on a super fantastic natural wave that makes him look like a member of a boy band or Hugh Jackman’s Wolverine depending on the day. He’s just rolling with it. Even my hair was rather unruly, refusing to become smooth like it normally is despite determined brushing. Like Malia, I gave up trying and went with an “I combed it this morning and that’s good enough” attitude.

-While humidity’s effects on hair received mixed reviews, dry skin looooooves humidity. I didn’t need to lotion my hands the entire time we were near the water despite using cheap public restroom soap the entire time. Within a couple of hours of leaving the coast, I was already reaching for the hand cream.

-We complain about gas prices around here, but honestly, it’s not that bad. The $3.69 price tags around here are far better than the $5.69 we saw in the northwest. 

-Toblerone comes in white chocolate. And both white and regular chocolate versions are safe for Malia. We both enjoyed that discovery. 

-Seeing animals in zoos and aquariums is great but seeing them in the wild is amazing. We saw a variety of animals in their natural habitats-sea lions, assorted seabirds, vultures, pelicans, elk, bald eagles, baby salmon, and even some desert lizards as we made our way home. (The caveat to this lesson, of course, is if you find yourself in danger of being mauled by a bear, chomped on by a shark, etc. There was a sign posted in the Hoh Rain Forest visitors’ center warning folks to stay away from the elk because two visitors had gotten too close and were charged by said offended elk.)

-Baggage with wheels is definitely the way to go. We stayed in six different locations over the course of our travels and those who had wheeled ¬¬bags had a much easier time of it. Those of us without had a heavier load to haul. Seriously, I think I’m asking for luggage for Christmas.

-Sometimes all you need is a $1 glider and a stiff breeze to fill a day with delight. Even as an adult the simple things can bring joy. I need to remember that. And seriously, if you ever find yourself in Astoria, take time to visit the Column! It was a favorite for all of us.

-Family time can’t be replaced by anything else. And hopefully there will be board games in the eternities because we laugh an awful lot over Pig Pile and It Came to Pass. 😜

Home Sweet Home

Today this weary band of travelers arrived home. Technically Daniel still has two more hours of driving before he returns to his actual home in Logan and Nathan will be headed off to FSY counselor training before he sees his apartment again, but even so, it was a blessed relief to get out of the car knowing that I don’t have to get back in it today! The long days of driving at the start of a vacation are always seasoned with anticipation for the great fun to come and as such, the hours go by just a little quicker. The drive home, on the other hand, always seems longer with the fun behind us and the weariness of travel and many, many loads of dirty laundry weighing us down. As such, I am very much looking forward to sleeping in my own bed tonight!

All Vacationed Out

Vacation is great, but there comes a point when we are all tired of the excitement and are ready to step back into our normal lives. To me, that means we like our lives. And we have all reached that point. Going home is looking pretty darn good to us. Today was just a driving day with no exciting stops along the way. We were focusing on putting some miles behind us so that we can make our way home tomorrow. We are all a little bleary eyed and completely road exhausted. But one night in Boise and just over half a day on the road tomorrow will see us back in our own little corner of the world. And we are ready.

Marked Differences

Today we left Washington and started on the long road back home. However, we still had one last important stop to make. As we have made plans for this trip over the past year, one of the things we knew we wanted to do was visit the Portland temple. Some months back I was able to make a reservation in the baptistry since that is where all six of us can serve together and we left Forks nice and early this morning so we would arrive in time. 

As Utah residents, we are accustomed to the crazy busy baptistries is our nearby temples, the ones where you are in for a good long wait if you don’t have a reservation and sometimes a decent wait even if you have a reservation. We were there on a Saturday afternoon, typically one of the most popular temple times for teens, so I expected to see some other people. What we got was an empty baptistry and some very excited temple workers who were enormously glad to see us. As we waited in the chapel one other small group did come in, but that was it. It was a solid reminder that the church outside of Utah often looks somewhat different. But no matter where we are, the gospel is always the same. In some ways, being a church member in Utah is easier. And to be honest, I think in some ways it can be more challenging. Nevertheless, I think it is good to be aware of what life is like as a member of the church in different parts of the world.

I always love being in the temple with my family. With the older boys living away from home, the opportunities for all six of us to attend together are few. This was only the second time we have all served together and it was marvelous. After the general hubbub of the past two weeks, the calm and quiet were a balm to my soul. Not that our vacation has been super stressful or anything, because it hasn’t been, but walking into the temple is always like taking a big sigh of relief for me. It is a much-appreciated chance to let the outside world slip away for a bit.  

There was a vast difference once we left the temple grounds though. As we traversed downtown Portland on our way to our hotel, all of us were kind of on edge. It was sort of weird, but the feel of the city was not one we liked. It was a general unease and an “I need to be on my guard because something about this place doesn’t feel quite right” kind of a thing. As we discussed it, Daniel did say that apparently the Portland slogan of “keep it weird” seems to be quite accurate. I think what we were feeling was the lure of the world, so different from what we usually find in our own little part of the world. And I think the feeling was amplified by the fact that we had just come from the temple. Our general consensus was that we don’t want to live in Portland. I know there are many wonderful people who call Portland home and the presence of a temple is an indication of a solid church membership, but our general reaction to the part of the city where we found ourselves (which is admittedly the heart of the city and probably one of the rougher areas of town if the graffiti and barb wire topped fences are any indication) was not a place we think we would be comfortable living.

Yes. I know we live sheltered lives in our little valley. Even though it is much more diverse than it was when I was a kid, it is still fairly homogenous compared to the world at large. And the percentage of residents who are church members is still far larger than in most other areas. That in itself is a driving factor in what creates such a unique culture in Utah. And yes, there are pros and cons to our culture. I have no illusions about that. Nevertheless, it is home. 

Into the Wild

When we visited Seattle in 2016, our biggest regret was that we didn’t actually make it into the rain forest. It was on our list, and we drove out there and everything, but the rain was pouring down which slowed our travel, Google maps isn’t infallible, and we were not familiar enough with the area to realize it until it was far too late, and we honestly just ran out of time. So, the secondary purpose of this year’s trip (the primary purpose being getting Daniel back to Oregon) was to visit the rainforest. As such, anticipation was running high this morning as we left the tiny hub of civilization that is Forks, WA and headed into the wild.

Sometimes reality can be a letdown when preceded by long years of anticipation. But today was not one of those days. The rain forest was magnificent, an awe-inspiring display of some of the wonders this world holds. I won’t try to describe it, because honestly, I can’t. Even the many pictures taken by my crew pale in comparison. Let me just say that it was awe inspiring and well worth our time. One of the fun moments was spotting tiny baby salmon sheltering in the streams we encountered. Due to our visit to the hatchery yesterday, we knew exactly what kind of fish we were seeing and while they were far fewer in number than the mighty ponds of salmon at the hatchery, it was pretty cool to see them in the wild.

We are not hard-core hikers or backpackers or anything, so we didn’t plan on spending an entire day wandering around the forest. Instead, after enjoying a picnic lunch, we headed to Rialto Beach. We visited Rialto Beach on our previous trip to the area so that at least we could let the kids see the ocean, but the cold, driving rain made it a fairly unpleasant stop. On the upside, the beach was pretty much deserted, probably because everyone else was smarter than we were and decided to stay hunkered down indoors, so we had it mostly to ourselves. The weather today was much more cooperative, and we were able to enjoy the scenery despite having a lot more folks around. Rialto Beach is a rock beach rather than a sandy one like all the others we have visited on this trip, so that was one more cool thing the kids get to add to their “been there, done that” lists.

We expected rain today since we were headed into the rainforest, but about ten minutes of respectable precipitation as we drove and a slow drizzle as we were headed back to the car after our hike was all we got. We were woefully unprepared last time and got pretty wet, but this time our preparedness was in vain as our brand-new rain ponchos languished in the back of the car because we didn’t need them. But I’m ok with that. We were blessed with a perfect day to explore yet more of this beautiful world.

Natural Wonders and Awe-Inspiring Prices

Today was another leg of our drive up the coast, this time the Washington coast. We only had about four hours of driving and we couldn’t get into our vacation home in Forks until 3 p.m., so we planned some stops to fill the time and enjoy a few more of the interesting things this lovely world has to offer us. Nature in Utah is far different from nature in Washington, so we are always fascinated by the way plenty of water changes what grows without cultivation. Today’s stops included a salmon hatchery, a record-breaking giant Sitka spruce, and a well named “Tree of Life.”

The hatchery wasn’t a high traffic tourist attraction. In fact, we were the only ones there. But it was oddly fascinating. It is early in the season, so the salmon were still only a few inches long, but there were so many of them! They are clearly accustomed to being hand fed because as soon as a shadow crosses their pools, they swarm right over in a frenzy for food. There was a bucket of food provided so visitors could feed the fish, and that created even more of a fish frenzy! We didn’t stay long, just long enough to eat our lunch at an available picnic table, visit the small educational room, and feed about a million baby salmon, but it was an interesting stop.

The Sitka spruce was well and truly gigantic. Apparently, it used to be touted as the biggest Sitka spruce in the world, but larger ones must have been discovered because it has been downgraded to record breaking. Despite that, we were appropriately in awe. What we call trees around here are really just sticks in the ground with a few leaves on them. Seriously. That tree was so tall that we had to crane our necks all the way back to be able to catch a glimpse of the top. I think the only other time I remember ogling with my head tipped that far back was my very first foray into downtown Manhattan. But rather than a manmade forest of skyscrapers, this was a marvel of nature. Truly impressive. 

The Tree of Life was another marvel of nature. Erosion has eaten away the soil at the base of the tree, but somehow it has adapted, and its roots have stretched far and wide so that it can still get the nutrients it needs to live. It is proof that nature will find a way to persevere despite less-than-ideal circumstances. If only we were so dogged and versatile. It also gave us another chance to visit the beach. It was a higher traffic beach though, and we still had some miles to go before night, so we stopped just long enough to ogle the ingenuity of nature.

Our last drive of the day took us to Forks, Washington, setting for the “Twilight” books. Forks is a tiny little town, but let me tell you, they have definitely taken advantage of the whole “Twilight” craze. It has become a big part of their approach to tourism. So of course, the topic came up and when Nathan asked what the book was about, I gave him a five second synopsis:

    Teenage girl moves from mother’s abode in sunny Arizona to father’s abode in rainy Washinton. Girl     meets hunky, hunky boy who just happens to be a vampire. Girls meets second hunky, hunky boy         who just happens to be a werewolf. Drama ensues.

And then I assured him that he definitely does not need to read this book. It is super fluffy chick lit and sometimes that is just what I’m in the mood for, but there is no actual intellectual merit to be gained and his brain would probably dribble out his ears if he attempted to read it.😂

Anyway, Forks is the only town anywhere in the near vicinity of the Hoh National Rainforest so even though it is early in the summer season, it was a pretty busy little town. And the prices are a reflection of the fact it is the only location for goods and services for quite a distance. We expected that, but we were less than happy when the untimely death of the washing machine in our vacation home (in the middle of Nathan’s second load of laundry) led to the discovery of the fact that it is $8 to run a load of laundry in the one and only laundromat in Forks. Unfortunately, Matthew also needed to run a load of laundry and because it was brand new black jeans, it really couldn’t be combined with Nathan’s load. At least the dryer was still working so we were able to haul the wet laundry back to the house and avoid the matching price of the laundromat dryers. 

Having said that, we did have some amazingly good fish and chips at probably the only sit-down restaurant in town. We were pleasantly surprised. And tomorrow we see the rainforest, so we are all still in high spirits!

Aeronauts

We started off today’s adventures with a visit to the Astoria Column. The Column is a towering monument that is covered by a massive mural celebrating the history of Oregon. Every single website I visited while planning our vacation listed the column as a must see, so although I had never even heard of it prior to planning, I figured that if it was that highly recommended, we had better make time for a visit. I’m very glad we did because it was so much fun! Let me tell you why.

We have climbed a lot of stairs in the past few days. Although there was an elevator that took us the majority of the way down to the sea lion cave, there were still a lot of stairs involved. There were stairs down to the overlook at the top of the cliff and there were stairs from the elevator up to one of the viewpoints in the cave. Yesterday was the lighthouse tour and yes, that was a lot of stairs. So standing at the bottom of the column peering up through the tightly spiraling staircase, we all kind of took a big breathe, put on our big kid pants and started the climb. I must say though, that my years of yoga have definitely paid off because I didn’t get too much thigh burning and didn’t have any of the day after soreness that some of my crew had. So five points for yoga! Or maybe it should be five points per stair…either way, it was a good reminder that exercise has benefits!

But climbing the stairs was not the fun part. The fun came in the form of $1 balsa wood gliders we purchased in the gift shop before climbing the tower. Once we got to the top, we threw the gliders off the column. That may not sound like a big deal, but it was seriously the most fun we’ve had so far! Because the column is so tall and it is right on the coast, the wind at the top of the tower is impressive. We had six people which meant six gliders, and not one of them traveled the same path. Not only that, but they flew much further than we expected them to. Even the ones that were kind of haphazardly tossed over the edge (mine and Malia’s) instead of carefully and scientifically aimed with physics and engineering principles in mind (Daniel’s). The gliders were caught by the wind and were carried far and wide. Kevin’s flew the farthest, crossing the road and weaving around for a long time before disappearing into the trees. Nathan’s flew the shortest distance, landing on the grass not terribly far from the base of the column, but it took a circuitous route there so was still airborne for a goodly amount of time. Mine crash landed on the road after a respectable flight which made it retrievable if not salvageable. The other three gliders flew hither and yon, all making their way into the trees as well. It was well worth the forty-five minutes we spent there! We would definitely do it again. 

After braving the bracing wind at the top of the column, we made our way over to the Oregon Film Museum. For any of you who are familiar with the 80’s film “The Goonies,” the museum is located in the jail that is featured in the first scenes of the movie. We were excited about this stop because we are movie lovers and random funny movies like that are kind of our style, but it was seriously anticlimactic. The entire jail is only a couple of tiny cells adjacent to several small rooms and the entirety of the content was a couple of information boards and a bunch of Goonies merchandise that had been manufactured over the years. So not the most engaging fifteen minutes of our day. 

However, not all was boredom because just across the street from the film museum was the Flavel House Museum. I love old houses and the museums they become so it was a location that was on my radar, but I didn’t think the rest of my crew would care so I didn’t add it to our itinerary. However, the film museum was a much shorter stop than we had anticipated and Nathan seeing the signs for the Flavel House was highly interested in exploring it, so we crossed the street and Daniel, Nathan, Matthew, and I spent a good hour or so touring the mansion. Malia was feeling a bit sick, probably not enough food and too much riding in the car, so Kevin took her to a small store a couple of blocks down and fed her while the rest of us strolled through the mansion. By the time we were done, Malia was feeling much better and wandered the house gardens with us for a bit so she could take some pictures. 

Our other stops for the day were the Lewis and Clark Interpretive Center, a Washington state park rather than a national one. While the information we gleaned was very similar to what we learned yesterday, it was presented in a much more engaging and interactive way. It was obviously designed with children in mind, and we enjoyed it. Right next to the interpretive center was Fort Columbia Historical State Park, a decommissioned fort that was used by the miliary up until 1947. Dinner was fish again, which we were all happy about, and we spent another mellow evening hanging out enjoying the spectacular view. 

Tomorrow, we leave our seaside getaway and head further north. Next stop-the rainforest!

Enlightened

Today our plan was to be out and about in the morning and back at the condo for a slower afternoon and evening. We are fans of national parks, so as we planned our day, we knew we wanted to spend some time at Lewis and Clark National Historic Park. What we didn’t know was that the park covers a variety of different locations scattered over the Astoria area as well as across the river in Washington, which is where our current base of operations is located. This morning we visited a number of those locations, spending time at Fort Clatsop, Netul Landing, and Middle Village-Station Camp. We learned a ton about the expedition, far more details than we ever got in the classroom. Fort Clatsop is a replica of the fort they built to weather one winter and was yet another reminder to me of how grateful I am for the many modern conveniences we enjoy. We learned a lot about how the native Indian tribes played a huge part in keeping the explorers alive as they taught them how to live off the land far from any of the resources the explorers were accustomed to back in the east. And we discovered just how difficult a journey it was. When we think of a cross country trek, we think in terms of days or maybe weeks if we are taking our time. But for these explorers, it was years of hard travel.

We also stopped at North Head Lighthouse at Cape Disappointment on the Washington side of the river. We put that stop on our itinerary because you can tour that particular lighthouse. As folks who live far away from any sizeable bodies of water (yes, there is the Great Salt Lake, but is has shrunk so much since I was a kid that we’ve taken to calling it the Great Salt Puddle) we were definitely interested in climbing to the top of a lighthouse. Only small groups are allowed to climb the lighthouse at a time, so we had a bit of a wait. The coast guard was doing some training just off the coast right next to the lighthouse, so all the boys hung out and watched them practice water rescues. It was pretty darn cold outside with the wind, so Malia and I waited inside the base of the lighthouse and chatted with the lady manning the desk. Her husband was the one handling the visitors at the top of the lighthouse, and apparently this is a seasonal gig for them. They don’t actually live in the area but drive their RV out and park it for the busy summer season. Anyway, we had a nice chat and the boys got to watch a helicopter hover for a span.

Once it was our turn, we took the trek up and were treated to a short lecture and question answering session. We learned specifics about North Head lighthouse as well as some tidbits about lighthouses in general, things like the fact that the flashing light pattern is different in each lighthouse so that ships at sea know exactly where they are when they see the lights. The same thing is achieved in daylight hours by the distinctive paint design on each lighthouse. It was a very informative visit, much more interesting than we had expected. 

The rest of our day consisted of stopping by a local fresh fish market to buy some salmon and halibut, playing games, eating some yummy fish, and consuming far too much ice cream. When we picked up frozen treats for Matthew and Malia post Tillamook tour, we got some for the rest of us as well. And it is vacation, so some food splurges are expected, right? Anyway, our busy morning was followed by a relaxing afternoon and evening. Today was a good mix of go and stay.