That's great! Way to go, DS!
I was very proud of him indeed. But snacks and movies definitely helped!
Love driving the coast, both Oregon and Northern California! I've done Highway 1 a couple times and just love it!
It was absolutely gorgeous!
Yep, seems so strange. But to the native Oregonians (like my cousin's wife), they are baffled about what to do when they are in another state and need gas.
I wonder what California gas workers think when they see a car pull up to a pump station and the people are just sitting in their car, not doing anything
Cute video of feeding the goats! Looks like an overall great experience at the wildlife park.
It totally was a great find in such a random area. I don't even know how I found it!
Your mom has both creative hearing AND creative vision, I guess.
Totally does! I'm amazed by her comments a lot of the time.
Whoa, that would terrify me too! Glad he managed to get down okay.
After I realized that he was alone, I ran into the ride area to get him off the slide before more kids started coming down. Oh DH
Aw, poor guy! Izzy rode the Barnstormer this trip as her first coaster and I took video of her reaction - it's pretty funny, as she's smiling widely at the top of the hill and then suddenly becomes very serious the rest of the ride. She tells me she liked it, though.
At least she wasn't in tears, but I think she was pretty scared.
I have video of DS on the Barnstormer too since this January trip was his first time on it! It's a little shaky though cause I was riding in front of them to document his reaction and it was going pretty fast! His face looked concerned and scared
Oh no, poor guy!
Boys. Well, it's what i'm told, so i'm going with that
Mmmm! I first looked at your update this morning before I'd eaten breakfast and I really was wishing I had some doughnuts! By the way, Dug just told me that he's been hearing good things about Blue Star Doughnuts in Portland too - less of a tourist trap, but really good doughnuts, I guess.
Yes! Had I had another day in Portland, that would have been another stop. I visited their second location, 'Voodoo Too' and I was shocked to find no one! Literally just workers. No one even entered the lot as we were leaving, so it had a locals vibe feeling. I found a picture showing what it could look like when it's packed!
And how it looked for me
I had to look it up to find out what it was called. I'm surprised that was censored - it used to be a very common nickname for guys named Richard.
Exactly!
Wow, I guess I hadn't thought about how lucky we were. When we went there in 2012, we were able to walk over from our nearby hotel. It was pretty neat to walk through and check out the place.
It was bad. I'm sure had I gotten a hotel in the city, we would have no problem at all, but it was really bad. Way worse than San Francisco for sure. And on a Wednesday!
That is an amazing patio!
Is it shared by other units?
So this apartment is actually the bottom of the owners house. I think it was a basement or garage or something? But it had it's own separate entrance and she actually had two more patios that I didn't get pictures of. One of them was another patio for 'us' and then she had one on a higher level that was hers. So all that was shown in my pics (minus an additional patio) was all ours for our stay. Never saw her once aside from the initial check-in. It was awesome!
Ugh, I definitely relate to this after carrying a toddler around WDW for 13 days.
Don't know how you did it. And wonder why she didn't like being in her stroller? DS loves being in his stroller. Well, as long as it's in motion and not stopped, then he thinks he's getting out.
That seems like a pretty good view for the cheap seats. Looks like you can see all parts of the field and the Jumbotron too.
Heck yes! The only way they could have been any cheaper, is if they sold Standing Room Only, which I don't think the do sell those. But it was definitely cheap for us. That and we're used to paying San Francisco prices
We said that about our town when a Chili's got built!!!
Haha, we did pretty much the same thing when we went there - I think it was like an hour until closing and there was almost nobody else there. In fact, that tunnel was just us. And they personally escorted us out, as we were the last guests. Great way to see it, though!
Awesome! Yep, we definitely went at the right time. And it wasn't too large, unlike Monterey Bay's, so we didn't feel a need to rush through.
We went there too! And I think it was very windy for us too.
It was bad! Like take your breath away. When we were getting out of our car, a couple of older ladies were getting out of there's as well, and one of them yelled (cause no one could hear anything!) at DH if it was safe to be up here?!
I answered for him and said we're only braving this for a minute or less and leaving!
Ugh, we are dealing with this too. We apparently waited way too long between swim lesson sessions for Izzy. Now she's had two recent lessons and, despite having enjoyed the water and learned things before, she is now TERRIFIED of the water. She just clings to us for dear life and tells us to keep her safe.
The instructor and I did manage to get her to sit in a few inches of water in the zero-entry area to play with toys last time, though, so that's some progress. I hope she remembers soon how much she used to enjoy swimming.
Yep, we're both in the same position. DH took him to his mom's house two days ago and was only in for a few minutes, saying he needed to 'pee-pee'. Smart kid knows how to get out of situations already
I think he gets his dislike of pools from me. I'm not a huge fan. I know how to swim, I like laying outside of them, just don't like to get in them.
In fact, we're the odd house out in our neighborhood, all because of me! If you stood on a ladder and looked at all surrounding houses from our backyard, we're the only ones without a pool
Dug really enjoyed Dutch Bros when we were in Portland last year. My cousins recommended it and he couldn't get enough (I'm not a coffee drinker, but I had a smoothie there that was great).
We bought DS one of the smoothies and it was gone in minutes and he asked after he was done, "Soothie?!"
We do have an excuse (3 of my cousins and their families live there), but just need to find the time and money. I really want to get back there, though.
You have a great excuse to get back there, so lucky!
Thanks for sharing your trip!
Thanks for reading
I must reply now because there's two more pages left and I don't want to forget anything.
Firstly, I'm loving all this Labryinth love
and I totally feel the same about the ballroom scene
I had no idea this many people liked the Labyrinth! I showed DH for the first time when we were dating and he thought it was so, so weird. And he got to see it a few more times throughout the years and really likes it now. Even says, "You remind me of the babe" sometimes
Your vacation looks super fabulous with so much good food!!! Those Voodoo donuts! Oh my goodness!!!!!
and those waffles! and the pizza!!!
Yes! I think we did pretty good on the food portion of the trip!
The place with the gorgeous deck looks awesome, what a find!
DH and I were able to enjoy the deck the last night of our stay after DS went to bed. It was quite nice!
Too fun that you went to a baseball game last minute.
When we were researching the trip and randomly looked to see if the Giants were going to be there and saw that they were, we KNEW we had to go to a game. And then as it got closer to the trip, we saw the forecast for rain and didn't want to subject DS to that weather if it wasn't a covered stadium, so waited until the last second (or hour!) to buy tickets. It worked out!
The aquarium looks fabulous.
We had lots of fun! Not as big or nice as Monterey's but still lots of cool stuff to look at.
And the woods look so serene.
It was seriously beautiful. We were in awe at how massive it was and how we never saw anyone else in there for big periods of time.
And the lighthouse pictures are breathtaking!
Yep, being up there was literally breathtaking!
Your summer road trip looks fabulous. And major props for doing it so soon after potty training ended. Your a brave soul indeed ; )
I don't know why I do that. I feel like I always put ourselves in harder situations, like the potty training. Who in the world does that?!
And this was also the same trip he learned to take showers instead of baths! Again, why do I do that!
I've always wanted to see the Pacific Northwest and your trip just makes me wanna do it even more, just gonna have to break that darn disney habit. Love how you all split it up and especially staying in apartments vice hotels. Speaking of which, that place in Seattle was absolutely gorgeous. What a find.
No kidding. It was hard to overlook going to
Disneyland with all that vacation time, but knew we had to try something else.
And of course major props for getting a good amount of good food and most importantly adult beverages in ; )
Vacation is not vacation without massive amounts of fatty, delicious food! And drinks, I feel I did poorly on
Not much drinking aside from the six-pack I picked up. But i've been making up for it since being home
I can't believe that you guys are worse than LA now, but I understand. LA is greatly improved and especially by the Grapevine all the toxic fumes build up, it's kind of gross to see all the build up, sort of like they used to have in Riverside 20 years ago. I hope they find a way to get rid of it. I always noticed the smell of the cows when we were there in Tulare.
It's so bad up here. I have a friend that was from here, move to SLO and she'll come back to visit every once in a while but can't stay long because she can't breath when she's here. Nuts! And I can't even smell the cows anymore
Ew you're right though, you can totally see all the disgustingness in the air from the grapevine, just settling in the Valley.
Yikes! This sounds like a fun place but sort of "you're on your own". Did you see the video of the people and the bear that came up to their car that was on GMA this week?
Oh my gosh, yes!
I don't even know what I would do. Is it like if you see dinosaurs, you stay completely still?!
I love Groupon and Living Social!
Very glad to hear! Will keep this in mind if we ever make it that way!
Yes! You guys would really enjoy it I think! They had $3 blackjack tables for you
The buffet was good, Cows Creek Restaurant for us was blegh, but for DS was good. They have a nicer restaurant that you need reservations for though that is has way better reviews. Oh and a Spa for you as well! They also have a really cool QS type deli with coffees and danish for the morning, but also an ice cream counter that serves up the local ice cream brand 'Umpqua'!
Fran really wants to visit Voodoo Donuts one day, she has seen them on so many Travel Channel, Food Network shows, but we just went to this place in Downtown LA where they had some crazy donuts, Maple and bacon, Strawberry, Red Velvet and Car Wreck which had something to do with Guiness and cream. They were all pretty good. It's called the Nickel Diner and was on Triple D, you should check it out, but the donuts sell out quick. We were there at 11AM and they were running out of them!
How was the Guinness one?! I'd love to try that one, even though i'm not a Guinness fan. I'll have to check that out whenever we go down to LA (whenever that is
) There was a donut shop I really liked in Long Beach...can't even remember the name now!
But they were always fresh and delicious.
So were you looking on VRBO?
I made these particular bookings through HomeAway, which I think is a related company to VRBO. Legit, reliable and one I would definitely use again. It was my first time using HomeAway for both Portland and Seattle and I would definitely use them again!
We had an awful time parking there, we tried on a Sunday and gave up and came back on a Monday.
Seriously we almost gave up too. But then were like, we don't want to have to attempt this again tomorrow, so kept driving till we found an open garage. Even then we had to go up all 5 stories to find a spot. Pure craziness! I didn't think it was going to be that bad.
I'm sorry you missed this place, we ate there and it was incredible!
This doesn't make me feel any better Alison!
That patio is crazy beautiful!!
It really was and I took so many more pictures of her arrangements so I can try to do it at home...one day
You guys definitely hit up the coffee spots!
We really did! PNW is known for their coffee though! Wish we could have done more local spots though.
Sounds yummy! for someone who hasn't had pizza in so long, I would love it!
That's right, how's the diet coming along?
We ate at a Ruby Tuesday somewhere on a trip and really loved it. Wish they had them in California!
YAY!
Finally someone comes to my rescue and agrees with me on RT!!
We really like them too, especially the salad bar! Years ago when we had visited our first one in PA, we started researching locations once we got home and I guess there was one in West Covina but it had been closed
Yeah our favorite drive to my parent's house all 4-5 hours of it! Yay! Straight road, flat land. I drive that, Fran drives the mountains.
Isn't it so ugly looking?! I don't mind the flat drive, but dang, if it was green that would be cool. And if it wasn't so hot that would be nice too
OK, now I know what your post on my TR meant "We're planning a 10-14 trip to California". That was the number of days, not time of year!
I know you didn't ask me, but I've been to Napa quite a few times, not recently, but I am very familiar with the wineries and could give you some tips.
I also agree with Alicia, plan to hit some wineries in the Past Robles area. Heck! I could have you drinking wine all the way through California! There's even one in Downtown LA where you could stop for lunch and some glasses!
I was going to direct MEK over to you! Which one in Downtown LA are you thinking? San Antonio?!
Agreed. But there are so many other better places to take your kids...as much as I love Vegas...I think I will refrain until they are older...there's a lot of explainin' I'm not ready to do yet about the things that they may see there lol...Not that I'm judging anyone who does it......My hubby would probably take the kids if there was no other way since he loves poker lol...
@ the highlighted! Exactly! And totally agree with you. I don't care what other families do. If it works for them, than perfect!
