Champ & Nanos: August Family Roadtrip

My friend from college, Sara, had a beautiful wedding ceremony in Hood River, OR in August. It gave us an excellent excuse to do a little road trip. We drove south from Seattle to the north-west corner of Mount St. Helens, visiting the Forest Learning Center and the Johnston Ridge Observatory. Kyle and I were trading facts all day of the information we learned. Some cool facts:

-The trees didn't burn because they were encased in ash and the gaseous explosion limited the oxygen content in the air

-There was a zone of silence during the blast. The air was so dense that the sound of it wasn't heard within a 50 mi radius, though the blast itself was heard or felt up to 100+ miles.

Someone missing? He's hiding behind my legs.

Apparently, on the south side, you can walk through "lava caves," where ancient lava flows encased forest growth that later decayed. We're saving that for the future since the caves are dark and 42 degrees in the summer...

The best part of the observatory was jumping on a seismic monitor that showed you the subsequent pressure transducer readings in real time. Sam and Elsa loved it!

The kids enjoyed the fountain more than the view.

That night, we camped at Seaquest State Park. It was Sam's first time since he was 2 and Elsa's first camping ever. The kids did relatively well, and fell asleep before 9, but woke up well before anyone else in the campground. We had to high-tail it for a 6:30am breakfast down the road so as not to wake everyone else up! So much for the full-nature experience...

Pre-dinner activities

Finding the moon.

After our night of "roughing it," we drove further south to Portland, OR and used our AmEx points to stay at the Westin. Following a camping night, the beds were, indeed, heavenly! We started at OMSI (the Oregon Museum of Science and Industry) and got in for free using our Pacific Science Center membership (score!). Elsa particularly enjoyed the paleontology lab where she spent many minutes picking up rocks and looking at fossilized shells.

Sharing mango juice at a Thai food truck.

After checking into the hotel, Elsa had a nap while Sam and I explored a fabulous toy store and had treats at a vegan/gluten free bakery. It was delicious, though I hilariously asked for "regular milk" for Sam after being offered "Soy, Almond, Rice, Hemp, or Coconut." They were like, uh, this is a vegan shop. Right! Okay, soy milk, then.

Awesome treats. And soy milk, obviously.

After nap-time, we walked to the waterfront, had a good-ol frolic in the fountains, went to a Egyptian Halal food truck for dinner, and hit a Ben and Jerry's for dessert. Yum.

Love all the statues in Portland!

Fountains!

Sam's become camera shy lately.

Imitation of Sam.

Waterfront Selfie.

The next day, we drove east along the Columbia River into Hood River, OR for the wedding festivities. The first thing we did was a river float down the Klickitat River. It was advertised as a beer-drinking float so we took the kids along assuming that Class 1 and 2 rapids would be no big deal. Elsa and I in a two-person raft and Sam and Kyle each on inner-tube like rafts made it through the first rapid, roped together, just fine while nearly escaping some tree bramble. Some of the adults behind us, having just opened their first beers, were not so lucky. Floats were overturned, beers lost, and let's just say, a graceful, inflatable swan, never enjoyed the river waters again... Elsa and I portaged portaged around one other rapid (after I saw a look of trepidation in Kyle's white-water-rafting guide of two summer's eyes), but we otherwise had a successful river float. Kyle and I were excited to observe how much the kids seemed to enjoy it overall. I think we have more river-rafting in a future, though perhaps we'll wait a few more years...

Awesome park!

The following day was the wedding ceremony, on Eric's family's orchard, an expansive piece of land which has been in his family for generations. It was beautiful to watch the kids play in the creek that meanders through the property and to know that Eric used to play in those waters as a child and that their son, Jack, will play there too. Sara planted over 1500 sunflowers and, wow, they were just perfect. The whole experience felt very rooted in family history and alive with the magical energy of nature.