Family Vacation Fun, Savings and Ideas
The stunningly beautiful Oneonta Gorge
Let’s start here. How do you even pronounce it? I say On-ee ANH- tuh, but a hiking site also suggests oh-nee-ANH-tuh. All that to say, I’m pretty close. Either way, people will think you will know what you are talking about.
Here is why you must visit Oneonta Gorge: [Read more…]
Painted Hills Oregon
The Painted Hills are considered one of the 7 Wonders of Oregon. I had seen so many pictures I finally decided to pack my family in the car and check it out. Now these are not easily accessible and are they are pretty much out in the middle of nowhere, but we made our way there regardless.
The best route to get there from Portland would be to go over Mt. Hood. We were at the Sara Bareilles concert at the Edgefield in Troutdale, so we left the concert that night and made our way to The Dalles to spend the night. We stayed at the Fairfield Inn and Suites. Since this is so close to home, normally there is no reason to even look for a place to stay in The Dalles, so I was surprised that we found a hotel that was so nice. Service was really good, they got us everything we needed to make our stay perfect. I loved the modern look of the place too, and it was just as clean in the rooms as it was in the lobby. Even breakfast was good. Great selection including make your own waffles. It was also nice that we were just a little over 2 hours away from The Painted Hills outside of Mitchell, Oregon. [Read more…]
I have easily passed through Hood River 100 times. I kid you not, I have driven back and forth to Eastern Oregon and Portland for nearly 18 years now. We did discover the quaint downtown and for a while our stop included the Taco del Mar. We didn’t know about all the other amazing places, but we do now. It was easy and the place was so quaint, it was a fun stop, and always guaranteed fast. Every time we drove in and back out, I would look around and just want to take my time. But with 6 hours still ahead or 6 hours behind you, stopping to look was not an option.
Finally last summer I met up with a friend and we stopped in Hood River. We had the the most amazing meal and I decided the next time we came through we would stop as a family and enjoy. And we did!! That was the stop that made me want to come back for a weekend. So here we are 3 months later enjoying Hood River again. Before we even entered the town we enjoyed hours of hiking and [Read more…]
Day 1 -Today I am working on our 20 year anniversary trip that we will be taking. Most people at this point do really big trips or re new their vows. I actually wanted to do both, but because of my surgery and the cost of it, we will try and do an amazing trip, close to home on a budget.
My hope is to stay at the Columbia River Gorge Hotel or Bonneville Hot Springs. Let’s see if I can pull this off with a very small price tag. We have chose this location for 2 reasons. 1) It’s only a little over an hour away and 2)I have always wanted to spend some time in Hood River. It’s an up and coming food, wine and beer mecca and I want to experience it, all of it. Often times the best places for people to vacation are right in your backyard, but we all choose to fly to someplace better. Well, not this time. [Read more…]
Truth is there are more than 5 easy hikes, but these are super easy to get to, and they are all very close together on the Columbia Gorge Scenic Highway. As with most hiking in Oregon you can choose to go farther at nearly every stop. Got to love Oregon.
Our Day trip started out at Crown Point, this can be easily accessed (if leaving Portland and heading East) by taking the Corbet Exit.
Crown Point has a great view, but be warned it’s very windy up there. We stopped for a moment just to take in the view. Luckily the visitor center was open and we were able to look from there. We were then given this nifty map of all the Falls that were to follow. [Read more…]
We just did a 5 day hiking trip to Southern Utah and Northern Arizona. We aren’t hard core hikers, so covering over 30 miles in just a few days, was a big deal to us. But we did see some beautiful country. For us, the easiest way to get there is to fly through Las […]
We just got home from a fabulous vacation. We landed in Rome, then did a road trip up to Florence. From there we flew to Barcelona then onto some charming small towns of Catalan, Spain. The whole trip took 3 weeks and it was spectacular. After our 4 days in Rome we grabbed a car […]
We just did a trip in Italy and Spain in which we discovered and enjoyed some beautiful small charming towns. From Instagram to Facebook all my friends were asking me, “How did you even find these little towns?” Well I wish I could say I have this great method, but instead it’s just happy accidents. […]
We did a driving vacation from Glasgow, Scotland to London, England. We made a few stops along the way, but our most favorite stop was in the Cotswolds. Before we actually drove into the Cotswolds we stopped at Cheltenham. We stopped to get coffee and maybe ask for some suggestions. We didn’t have a place […]
