Ally ripping it up

We spent the last three weeks in Oregon.  Our first week was in a cute little  beach town called Florene. There is a national sand dune park there where people go ATVing and where we went sand boarding.  It was an exciting ,sore inducing day. This is a sport I could totally see all my kids including Wes and myself really getting into.  

From there we went to Bend Oregon , a place known for its beer and trail running. I loved the trails and Wes loved the beer.  

Bend had beautiful water falls and the Deschutes River running through town.

Hail Storm In SunRiver 

When we got to Bend the kids and I got out of the RV to scope out the  campsite while Wes did some work inside. As we were walking around the grounds a huge thunder, lighting and rain storm came in and we were stuck in it. We had to run back to the RV in the rain trying to avoid the lightning .  We latter came to find out that the day before there was a rain storm that blew down a huge tree right next to our campsite, so the feeling of being creeped out while walking around in the storm was justifiable. (Not just my wimmpy CA lack of weather experience coming into play.)

We also went to Crater lake , which is the deepest lake in America. We hiked down the mile trail to the water which was a beautiful blue color.

Lacey was sick so Daddy carried her
to the top of the Falls 

Multnomah Falls

From there  went the MT. Hood about a 45 min drive from Portland Oregon. We hiked up to the top of Multnomah falls and went fruit picking in Mt . Hood.

Portland proved to live up to its un-offical motto “ Keep Portland Weird”   and we ate treats at two of its  strangest spots.

Voodoo Doughnuts were the doughnuts are huge and covered in all sorts of bizzar junk food toppings. ( As if doughnuts don’t have enough sugar on their own. )

 Ally Engulfed in Books

We also went to and Ice cream shop called Salt and Straw that served out of the ordinary flavors such as pear and blue cheese.  Tasty , but unusual.

The highlight of Portland for me was the massive book store called Powell books. It takes up several blocks and has muli -levels just fullll of literature.  I wish I had a whole day to spend surrounded by the walls of books sipping coffee in a comfy chair lost in novel  while it rained outside. To only dream, instead we spent an hour  in the childrens section picking out school books for the year. Still fun.

Edible Rice Crispy Treat Model of the Earths Interior,
made while driving down the freeway to our next stop.

School for the younger three has officially started and so far it has been going smoothly , albeit busy for me. The older start today with their online classes. Praying that it will be a smooth transition as this is new to us and a key component in making our trip a success.

~ What I learned about Oregon~

-You are not allowed to pump your own gas ,  Its actually the law. $500 ticket if you do (no I didn’t get a ticket)

- It rains a lot… I knew this , but got to experience it.

- Fred Myers is their version of Walmart/Target only nicer, everything you need in one spot. And they are everywhere.

Onward to Washington!