Oregon

This past school year, Max came across a story in his spelling book about some playful otters at the High Desert Museum in Bend, OR. When he realized we were going to be in Oregon this summer, he requested we put the museum on our travel agenda. It was one of very few specific requests he made, so we were happy to accommodate him. And, today was the big day! The museum staff told us we were the first people to ever visit on the recommendation of a spelling book. It was a delightful little museum, and we all had a wonderful time.

Shadow puppet theater at HDM

Little eagle in its nest

Watching an otter play

Looking for the otters in the water

Max was enamored with the otters
 and snapped a pic of this one having a snack.

Playing in the pioneer village

From there, we headed over to Silver Falls State Park to hike on a trail we had read meandered through the forest and allowed hikers to pass behind a couple of waterfalls along the way. It was spectacular and was the favorite part of the day for most of us.

Waterfall #1

Behind the waterfall

A throne for the little prince

King of the stump

Waterfall #2

It's sort of magical to walk behind a waterfall!

Finally, we passed through Boring, OR, which is the sister city of Dull, Scotland, a village we visited a couple of years ago. Shortly after that brief stop, we crossed into Washington and checked another state off our list.

Our Boring stop

Playing with the trees and other fun things

We left Napa around 5:30 this morning and headed northwest. We stopped for breakfast in Garberville, before pushing on to the Redwood Forest, which was some combination of  lovely, amazing, and awe-inspiring. We got out to examine some of the trees more closely and to snap some photos, and when it was time to move on down the road, Clay whined, "But I want to stay and play with the trees!"

Not even close to filling up the stump

Peek-a-boo

 My gang and me in a cool hideout

Majestic Monsters

Even our monkey couldn't climb the redwoods

Out on a limb

He just wants to play with the trees.
Is that too much to ask?

As we continued our journey, we came across Elk Meadow, which was actually a meadow filled with elk and not just a clever name for a wide spot in the road.

So many elk!

Many hours later, we arrived at Crater Lake in Oregon, only to find it almost completely obscured by fog. But the bigger adventure may have been tromping around in the substantial amount of snow, dressed for 90° Napa. We were quite a sight!

Inappropriate weather for mid-June, if you ask me!

Foggy Crater Lake

The boys loved the huge snow drifts
 and wanted to stay and play for a while.
It should be noted that they never once talked
 of putting on pants; they only wanted their gloves.

We finally made it to our campground in Crescent, OR, around 9:00 tonight, thrilled to have checked another state off our list but tired from the long day on the road.

Sonoma and Napa

We left San Francisco yesterday morning and made the short drive to Sonoma County. Our first stop was the Boon Fly Cafe for a late breakfast, which lived up to the many glowing reviews we had read online. Weston was pretty pleased with himself for managing to order off both the breakfast and lunch menus, because he was still hungry when he finished his breakfast, but by then, the restaurant had stopped serving breakfast items and had switched to lunch. From there, we drove to the Benziger Winery for our first sample of the famous wine country. This winery wasn't as flashy as some, but the wines turned out to be our favorites of all the wineries in the area that we visited. After that, we made our way to the petrified forest for a shirt hike and a brief education in geology. We really loved the park and were fascinated with the process of petrification.  After that stop, we got back on the wine trail and visited two more family-friendly wineries. The first was Castello di Amorosa, which is built to look like a real medieval castle. The next was Sterling Vineyards, where the kids were given their own goodie  bags and we got to ride a gondola up to the winery. When the tastings were complete, we stopped to check in to our yurt at the Bothe-Napa State Park, before heading into Calistoga for dinner at Pacifico Mexican Restaurant. After dinner, we had a nice little stroll around the main street area of the town, stopping for ice cream along the way.

Boon Fly Cafe

Boon Fly's famous bucket of donuts

Benziger Estate

Mt. St. Helena

Ash flow from Mt. St. Helena's
eruption 3.4 million years agi.

New tree, old tree

Petrified giants

Castello di Amorosa

Waiting for the gondola
with goodie bags

Gondola ride at Sterling

We lost Clay, but this nice young
 man did the tour with us.

Barrel room at Sterling

Our first time to stay in a yurt

Before we set up the cots

Meditation path in Calistoga

Some of us started our day with a challenging run through our hilly campground. Then, we collected the rest of the group to go hiking in the beautiful state park. Around lunch time we headed in to St. Helena to grab sone burgers and soak up some of the gorgeous weather at Gott's Roadside. After lunch, we visited V. Sattui Winery and spent much of the afternoon lounging in their lovely picnic area. Eventually, the troops got hungry again, so we walked down the road to Pizzeria Tra Vigne.

Hiking in Bothe-Napa State Park

The road less traveled

Trailblazers

Lunch at Gott's Roadside

V. Sattui Winery

Pizzeria Tra Vigne

Ridiculously Awesome

We slept in this morning and had late workouts, so we didn't head out until 10:30 or so. Our first stop was the Boudin Bakery to pick up sandwiches for a picnic lunch. This huge bakery/cafe/store/museum in Fisherman's Wharf claims to be the first baker of San Francisco's famous sourdough bread, and it has been calling to us every day we've been here with its heavenly scents. Clay was also particularly interested in watching the bakers work and loved the animal-shaped loaves they were producing.

Boudin Bakery

Watching the baker make a crab

Once our lunch was purchased, we took an Uber over to Golden Gate Park, where we spent a lovely afternoon, soaking up the gorgeous weather and creating special memories. We visited the Japanese Tea Garden, had our picnic on the steps of what Clay called The Temple of Doom, rented a surrey bike which provided lots of laughs and was deemed "ridiculously awesome," watched a bit of lawn bowling, played at a really awesome playground, rode a fun indoor carousel, and saw many lovely plants and flowers.

Japanese Tea Garden

The waterwheel bridge in the
Tea Garden was the little boys' favorite!

Assembling in the "Temple of Doom"
for lunch

Our best memories of the day
were probably made in the surrey.

Carousel Riders

 Eventually, we made our way back over to the wharf for dinner at Pier 39's Crab House. And after dinner, we killed an hour in the puzzle and game store Think Out of the Box, where they encourage customers to try all the products, whether they buy them or not.

Crab House at Pier 39

Crab enchiladas

A skating dance group was
practicing at the pier.

Working on a puzzle at
Think Out of the Box

Playing a game

Last night in San Francisco
(Golden Gate Bridge on left, Alcatraz on right)