Oregon and Washington

Last week we returned home from a family vacation to Oregon and Washington.  This year we wanted to go somewhere different and see some new things.  Jason wanted to go to a big track meet in Eugene Oregon called the Prefontaine Classic so we decided to make our vacation plans around that.

We left on Thursday and drove as far as Boise, ID.  Then on Friday we drove from Boise to Eugene, Oregon.  Friday night the had a "Distance Night in Eugene" event where they held the men's 30,000 meters (yeah, I didn't even know such a race existed or that there were world records in that event to be broken.  The winner broke the world record in that event that night.) They also had the men's 10,000 meters and the women's 5,000 meters.  Some friends of ours that live in Eugene came to the races with us that night.

Saturday we attended the main events of the Pre Classic.  I was worried about the kids getting bored, but they seemed to do just fine.  Sometimes when one of the winners would do their victory lap the kids would go down to the front and put their hands out hoping to get a high-five.  Pictured here is the winner of the Steeplechase.  He ran right past Ian, stopped, came back, grabbed him by both hands and then did a little bow kind of thing with Ian's hands in his.  Luckily Jason had gone to the top of the track to get pictures of the race and when he saw this he snapped pictures of it happening.  They're a little blurry but you get the idea. [click image to view larger]

Men's Steeplechase winner greeting Ian.

The family at Hayward field of the University of Oregon.

Men's 10,000 meter race.

They say allergies are a problem in Eugene and Andrew sure had watery eyes and a runny nose while we were there.  Nevertheless, here's me and my little cutie.

After the Pre Classic we went and visited some friends who now live in that area.  It was a nice afternoon and we really enjoyed spending some time at their house and having dinner together.  That night we drove up and spent the night at my cousin's house near Portland, unfortunately she had to leave town at the last minute for a funeral, so we stayed at her house alone.

On Sunday morning we got up and took a beautiful drive out to the Oregon coast.  We visited Cannon beach and Haystack Rock.  I think this was my personal favorite part of the trip.  The beach was simply beautiful, peaceful and I thoroughly enjoyed it.  Alyssa and I walked to from where we were over near Haystack rock.  Everybody just enjoyed playing in the sand, collecting shells, and running through the water.  That night we stayed in a cute little town called Seaside, OR.

Our two blue-eyed guys.

 Monday morning I got up early and because I knew it was low tide I knew we could probably find more treasures.  The kids and I got up and went out to the beach.  Sure enough we found all kinds of treasures, including lots of sand dollars and crabs.

A little family picture from Seaside.

We found out there was an old Army fort near Seaside and on the way to our next destination.  Since Ian loves that kind of stuff so much we decided to check it out.  There were all these old concrete bunkers and batteries.  Ian thought those were pretty neat, as was the little museum.  They were offering tours of Fort Stevens on an old army vehicle.  It was pretty cheap and we thought Ian would like it so we signed up.  They told us they would blow the horn when it was ready to leave.  I guess we should have asked, but it took an hour until it was time to go.  I personally was not super impressed with the tour.  It was long and mostly showed a bunch of old foundations of buildings that no longer exist.  I did learn some things, but I didn't feel that seeing every single foundation of the buildings that existed was necessary.  Ian had fun though, and I guess that is what matters most.

 

Seeing the shipwreck of the Peter Iredale

After visiting Fort Stevens we drove up through Astoria, across the bridge of the Columbia River and into Washington.  That night we stayed at our dear friends the Oppermans.  They recently moved to the Olympia area and it was really fun to visit them.   On Tuesday we (Jason and the kids and I) drove up to Seattle and enjoyed some of the typical tourist things there.  We visited Pikes market and enjoyed seeing all the hand-crafted goods.  We saw all the flower and fish markets, and yes, we did see them throwing fish.  It was really fun.  Ian was quite curious about all the seafood and wasn't afraid to poke some of the fish right in the eyes.

Such a stinker, Ian was closing his eyes on purpose a lot on this trip.  He said he's seen his dad do it.

Love how curious he is.

After Pikes market we tried to figure out what to do next.  Many people had told us to take a ferry, but we were getting late on time and we weren't sure if we wanted to have the kids out on a ferry for a long period of time.  Instead we decided to take a water taxi across to West Seattle.  This was perfect.  It took about 15 minutes, the kids thought it was awesome and best of all it didn't cost much.  By this time it was raining, it is Seattle after all, and we were ready to get inside.  On the other side the kids were fascinated when we got off the boat and they saw the huge starfish clinging to the pier.  We took a few quick pictures with Seattle in the background and off we went again back to our car.  Of course it was just in time for rush hour and we spent the next hour or so just trying to get to the freeway.

I think he had enough of me taking pictures of him, plus he was wet from the rain.

Clearly Seattle had worn them out.

Our kids had a blast playing with Lee and Jenny's kids and we had a great time staying up and talking with them about our lives now and of course remembering old times from when we all met in college.  On Wednesday we drove back to Boise.  It was a long drive.  I don't normally like long drives and this time was no exception.  The only thing that made it better was when we stopped at Multnomah Falls in Oregon.  These falls were so beautiful.  It was a nice break (although it was a bit early in the trip so there was still too much driving after this short excursion.)

We finally made it home on Thursday, just in time to celebrate Alyssa's birthday on Friday.  I'll post pictures from her birthday, and from the party we had yesterday in a few days.