Family Vacation Fun, Savings and Ideas
This is a given if you have heard anything about Portland at all. We love to eat here. Not only do we love food, but we like it to be as local as possible. You will find everything from Food Carts to restaurants at the top of buildings over looking the city. If I were to spend a day eating in Portland I would definitely eat at [Read more…]
Tumalo Falls
Tumalo Falls is a spectacular waterfall located in Central Oregon just outside of Bend. The beautiful thing about this this waterfall is anyone can experience it. You see you can drive right up to it. If you park your car and walk the less than 100 yards you can see it in all it’s beauty from a viewing area. For those that want more you can continue up the path up to the top of the falls. From there the path goes on for a few miles as it follows the creek and has many [Read more…]
Fall hikes in Bend, OR
With a town like Bend, Oregon the peak times are in the summer, with all the water sports, lakes, fishing, hiking and the list goes on. And in the winter, with the skiing, snowboarding, snowshoeing and anything else you can think of. The falls seems to be the “off season” if you will. But don’t let that keep from enjoying this great town. We got to experience Bend with all it’s outdoor splendor without having to share with a lot of other people. The restaurants that are usually packed, were just quite full. The hiking trails that are ever so popular, had a crowd, but parking spots were easy to find. The the breweries pour beer all year long and that’s really all that matters, right? And you can follow the Bend Ale Trail to all 14 breweries.
Let’s get the food out of the way, since you all know we love to eat, but don’t worry I won’t skip the hiking. I had done my research ahead of time and even asked [Read more…]
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…]
Sunset at Pacific City
There is so much to see and do within Portland, but the best part of Portland is the fact that it’s so dang close to so much you can experience all kinds of adventures. As summer winds down these are some great places to get to before the school season starts. If you don’t make it before then, don’t worry, September and October are usually good months to take in the last of summer. Enjoy any of these as day trips or weekend getaways while the weather is still great. [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…]
Astoria, Oregon
We drove down from Long Beach, Washington and arrived in Astoria on a Sunday and their Farmers Market was going on. We wandered through and decided to just stop and grab a bite to eat while we waited for our room to open up. We started with lunch at Clemente’s, which was fabulous. [Read more…]
Mirror Lake with Mt. Hood in the background
Portland! You not only have the city, but the beach and the mountains can be reached within just over an hour. This is a great hike for those in or around Portland or even those that are visiting Portland and want a great view of Mt. Hood.
You can hike up just to Mirror Lake and hang out. This is a pretty easy 1.5 mile hike (3 miles round trip), with almost a 1000 ft elevation climb. If you want to keep on going you can jump on the Tom, Dick and Harry trail. Doing this hike will take your elevation climb up to 2000 ft and right at 6.5 miles round trip. You will go right past Mirror Lake, so take time to enjoy the view and the peacefulness.
You can see from the picture above how the lake gets it’s name. [Read more…]
The Tigard Balloon Fest is already over, but don’t worry with these lists you won’t miss another Fair or Festival. [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 […]
