The girls school ended on a Friday and by Saturday morning, the car was loaded up and the Bowen girls were on the road, heading north (Jan had to stay home and bank his time off for adventures later this summer).
The drive was about 11 hours so we decided to stay the night in Yreka to break it up a bit. We drove north on the I-5 and when we got to Sutherlin, we headed west and followed the Umpqua River. Definitely one of the most beautiful drives I've ever done and with Do Re Mi by Julie Andrews on repeat and the windows open wide, we really felt like we were on top of the world.
We rolled into Florence just before lunchtime and settled in with my aunt and uncle (and their two dogs). After lunch we headed out to the dunes to see what we could see.
We spent two weeks exploring the coastline between Reedsport and Newport and had so many fun and carefree days, it was like being at summer camp. We walked the Sweet Creek Trail to see the Sweet Creek Falls and saw some giant centipedes and banana slugs. It was an easy walk and Lucy made it about half way on her own two feet. The rest of the time she hitched a ride in the backpack.
We spent a day at Cleawox Lake, one of the two freshwater lakes in the Jessie M. Honeyman Memorial State Park. The girls swam in the lake, made new friends, and hunted for salamanders. We found a few and Lainey even caught one and promptly named her "Susie".
We headed down to Reedsport to watch the Oregon Divisional Chainsaw Carving Championship and saw some amazing works of art - even the girls were impressed! Sidenote: We always travel with ear protection for Lucy - she's super sensitive to loud noises so these headphones have saved us more than once!
We drove up to Newport to go to the Oregon Coast Aquarium, took a Giant Dune Buggy ride along the beach. While we thoroughly enjoyed everything we did, one of the most memorable experiences we had was sand boarding just above Cleawox Lake. We rented wooden sandboards from a shack along Highway 1 and spent quite a few hours trudging up and sliding down the dunes. The girls are still talking about it.
My uncle bought everyone eye protection for our Giant Dune Buggy ride and those goggles sure came in handy.
Our two weeks went by way too fast and we had to say goodbye to the coast. We headed up to Portland to explore a bit before we picked Jan up from the airport for the ride home (he flew up to Portland just to drive home with us). We rented an Airbnb condo downtown right next to the Max line stop at Providence Park- it was so easy to hop on the train and within a five minute ride, we were in the midst of things... like Voodoo donut!
While waiting for Jans evening flight to arrive, we visited the Zoo and a stand of food trucks selling tasty eats.
We really enjoyed being able to take the Max train everywhere (including the airport) and felt like such city people! The next morning we walked down to Powell's Bookstore and wandered the aisles, remembering what if felt like to be in a bookstore. I hadn't been to a bookstore in years and honestly, I'm not sure if the girls had ever been to one!
We absolutely loved our time in Oregon and have decided to make it an annual event. We're already talking about what things we want to do again and the new things we want to try!
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