It has been 5 years since we have had a real "Family Vacation", so with school done for me and my daughters all having Spring Break we decided to drive to Vancouver, WA to visit my wife's parents. My oldest daughter, Chantel, brought her best friend Jenny along, too. The 11 1/2 hour drive is brutal, especially through Idaho and Eastern Oregon, but once you hit the Columbia Gorge, it becomes a bit easier to take.
Our first destination was the Oregon Coast. We left for Tillamook to visit the Cheese Factory! We walked around,had samples of delicious cheese, bought a bunch (and squeaky cheese curds) then had ice cream. My wife had a goal for the trip- to eat a different type of Tillamook ice cream every day. She missed only one day of ice cream. We proceeded to the coast, stopping at different places for photos and to run down to the water, and hit a number of surf shops for stickers and t-shirts.
We proceeded up to Astoria. That is where The Goonies was filmed. It is a cool, old Victorian looking town. We headed up to the Astoria Column only to find that they have ripped out the 144 step spiral staircase to replace it with a modern one. (The previous one was built in 1921). Still a beautiful view of the river and ocean, though.
The highlight for the girls all happened on the day we went up the Gorge to see all the waterfalls. We started by heading up to the Vista House then proceeded down the old highway. Each of the waterfalls is so beautiful in it's own way. Well, when we came to Multnomah Falls, my wife noticed some trucks that said something about Twilight. It started raining pretty hard as we were walking up to the falls. There was a film crew there and and a few little canopy tents. I ducked under one for a moment, then we noticed under the next one were the stars for the movie Twilight that was being filmed. (My older 3 daughters are way into the Twilight, New Moon and Eclipse books). I guess the star who plays Edward, the main vampire character, was in the 4th Harry Potter movie who was killed at the tournament, Cederick Diggory I think. My wife suggests the girls go stand next to him for a photo. We asked and they said it was fine. He asked why weren't the girls wearing coats and then looks at my youngest daughter, who didn't go over, "Aren't you a fan?" to which she just shook her head and stayed put. So, we got a few pictures. Jenny was freaking out the rest of the day. It was hilarious.
We traveled to Lake Oswego to visit the Portland Temple. It is beautiful, as all temples are, and even has an atrium inside that we went in and sat for a minute. It is so great to feel the Spirit and be calm for just a moment.
We stopped at Powell's Book Store in Portland. It is huge! We bought a couple books, and we even went back to buy a Shakespeare bobble head, an Edgar Allan Poe miniature and a small Mark Twain figure. I was within inches of buying the perfect white-elephant gift; a Jesus bobble head, but my conscience wouldn't let me do it.
Another highlight was visiting my friend Mitch Baird. Mitch and I went through the Illustration Department at BYU. He has a small home and studio in West Linn. I am so pleased to see him painting and doing well. He and I have at times during school laughed so hard we thought we literally would die. Check his work out at www.mitchbaird.com.
These are just some highlights from the trip. It was very nice to see the in-laws and spend time with them. They are preparing to serve a 3 month mission at Martin's Cove in a month or two, so we "helped" them get rid of their excess food! Marilyn, my mother-in-law, cooked for us each night and everything was always delicious. And we kept on eating ice cream! (I did run every morning around 3 or 4 miles each day to feel better about the ice cream consumption!)
The drive home was helped along by season 3 of Seinfeld being played on the laptop. People probably thought we were nuts laughing so hard as we drove by. My wife didn't hassle me as much this time about going 90 mph. Anyway, it was a lot of fun and I loved spending so much time with my family.
