washington

Friday morning before we left Oregon we took the kids to Humpback Rock.  Jason and I were able to visit here last year and it was so amazing.  The sun was shining, the tide was out and it was a little chilly.  We were prepared for the chilly this year, but we weren't able to plan our visit during low tide so we weren't able to see all the fun sea creatures that live on the rocks.

When we left Oregon, we took a slight detour on our way to Seattle to see Mount St. Helens.

As with most mornings on our trip, the fog won.  Or so we thought!

These were the views from the observation deck when we first got there.  The guides sent us on a hike anyway and said by the time we got to the next lookout, the clouds could clear.  We had barely started our hike when it started thundering.  I'm not typically one to run from thunder, but we were so high in the clouds, I was convinced we were in the storm.  

We decided it just wasn't in the cards for us this visit and we hopped in the car and headed down the mountain.  Much to our surprise, when we got to the next overlook, the clouds seemed to be parting.

We got out and took some pictures and as we waited, the mountain came into perfect view!  I was glad we got to see it because Bryce read about Mount St. Helens this year and was excited for this excursion.  

The big crater in the center is where the eruption blew the mountain apart.

This was a slight detour, but well worth it.  We even got to Seattle in time to have dinner in the space needle.

We went in the CN tower in Toronto a few years ago and it was much higher than this.  This was more my speed.

We were leaning back against an angled glass wall.

Standing/sitting on the glass floor.  

That's a long way down.

Pretty views of the city.  You can see the Seahawks and Mariners stadiums. 

The space needle had a restaurant on the revolving floor when it first opened.  They have since made the revolving level the glass floor and moved the dining up to the observation level.

We found a table looking out over the city and enjoyed dinner and drinks as the sun set.

Pretty view at night.  

oregon

We had a lot of miles to cover on Thursday so we tried to break it up with a lot of fun!

Our first stop was the sea lion caves.  Can you see them all congregated on the rock below?  They were so loud.

The California coast is just amazing.

We took an elevator down into the cave and saw the sea lions in their natural habitat.

This was a view of the cave from the top of the cliff.

The sea lion statues were made to size.

I waited all week for this picture of the coast.  I just love the mountains on one side and the ocean on the other.  Most days it was too cloudy/foggy to appreciate it.

After lunch it was off to horseback riding.  Because we had planned to see three baseball games on this trip, Jason was sure to plan something special for Emmy.  Today we went horseback riding!

We waited patiently for our horses.

Bryce's horse, Yazzi.

Jason's horse was named float.

Emmy rode Zeus.

My horse was named Chocolate.  Christmas card potential??

We stoppped in a cute little seaside town Jason and I found last year and had dinner and caught a cloudy sunset before driving a little further to our hotel.

redwoods day 2

Our final destination for this trip was Washington state.  We had a lot of ground to cover, but we tried to stop and do 2-3 fun things each day to break up the driving. 

We enjoyed the redwoods some more on Wednesday before driving further north.

The hiking paths were so serene.  We were all enjoying it until Jason mentioned bears.  We never saw or heard any, but the thought of them was enough for the kids and I to run!

Bryce tried to fish a little more while Emmy and I explored.

We went to a touristy place and rode a sky ride through the redwoods up to an overlook.  But like every morning in California, it was too cloudy to see much from the observation deck at the top.

We made our way back to the coast for our drive north.  We finally found a good spot to get our toes in the Pacific.  It was as cold as we expected, but the sand was shockingly warm, especially since the air temperature was below 70 degrees.

We saw quite a few starfish on the rocks.  I'm glad we did because our later opportunity in the week to see the sea creatures didn't pan out .

We stopped for lunch and then visited a small aquarium with some touch tanks and a seal/sea lion show.

We finally made it to Oregon and in time for a walk on the beach, dinner and (finally )a swim in an indoor pool.  We couldn't get over how many outdoor pools there were with summer temperatures staying in the sixties.

Of the three states we visited on this trip (Washington next), Oregon is my favorite.  I love the seaside towns so much!

More of our ride through Oregon tomorrow!

redwoods day 1

Tuesday morning we left San Francisco to head up the California coast!  Bryce cracked me up reading the sports section at breakfast. 

We ate breakfast in a cute little seaside town so we walked out to the beach before we got back on the road.  We are beach people and we just don't know what to do with cold weather at the beach in the summer.

We had planned to do most of our driving along the coast but the clouds weren't clearing so it wasn't that scenic and seemed to be a lot longer route so we headed inland for a quicker trip to the redwoods!

We were all amazed at the size of these trees.

The pictures surely do not do them justice.

The kids came up with some kind of photo op at every turn and every new tree.

We drove through a tree!

Bryce bought a collapsible fishing pole a while ago and he was excited to bring it along on the trip in case we came up on any mountain streams on this trip.

He caught one and was one happy boy!

I took this picture on our drive out of the national park.  These trees really are incredible. 

Stay tuned for more redwoods tomorrow!