Archive for the ‘Vacation’ Category

Packing for vacation has never been my favorite thing to do, but now with two kids the focus I needed to remember everything was tremendous. The end result is always worth the time and energy preparing for a trip, but I’m usually exhausted before we leave. We traveled by car, taking 2 days each way, a total of 1,600 miles. We brought fun new games and toys for Eva to open throughout the journey, stopping regularly for breaks and stretches. Jeff and I love taking road trips because we always have the best time listening to music, and talking for hours.

The weather was peaking at around 90° when we left Long Beach the week of our vacation. This was our second time back to Brookings, Oregon and our third time to the Redwood Forest.  Most people jet for tropical climates, white sandy beaches  and palm trees, yet we usually opt for any place with cool temperatures, forests and trees. Don’t get me wrong, put me on the beach with a Mai Tai in hand, and I’m your girl. But, there’s something so amazing about this part of California and Oregon that I love.  I’ve traveled to many places in the U.S. and around the world, and the Redwood Forest and Oregon Coast has to be two of  the most beautiful places I’ve ever seen.

We stayed at the Loft at Duley Creek, we found on the VRBO (Vacation Rentals by Owner) website. The owners made us feel right at home for our week stay. We had a pot belly stove, two rooms, a full kitchen, our own laundry facilities and more.  It was great traveling like this with little kids. We ate most of our meals in, and Jeff and I enjoyed our evenings together after the kids were down. The owner is an angler (fisherman), fishing freshwater salmon, mostly on the Rogue River. He brought us his fresh catch two nights that week, and we enjoyed the most amazing salmon one night and brought the rest home to enjoy.

Here’s the loft with a few pictures of the property and some fun details.

The next set of pictures were taken at this great park in town. The kids loved it.
One evening, we took a walk along a beautiful trail above the coast in Brookings.  Isn’t this tree lined trail gorgeous?
View from our walk of Harris Beach.
We visited Klamath two years ago when Eva was only a year old. We had to go back, because we love the Sky Tram there and the fun trail that follows.  It’s a total tourist spot, but we love the trail and views from the top.
She wasn’t too sure about Paul Bunyan…he kept talking to her. It was funny.
She was pretending to be Snow White.
Seriously…my girl has the most beautiful eyes! I know I’m bias. :)
View from Sky Tram:
The next day we decided to do the 2.5 hour drive to the Oregon Caves National Park. We’d been there back in our kid free days, and didn’t think of calling or inquiring to see if we could take the kids into the cave. Well, we got all the way there and found out we couldn’t. Oh well….it was such a beautiful drive, we took a hike and ended up in the snack shop and enjoyed some ice cream.
Here are a few pictures we captured along some of our drives through the Redwood Forest.
Eva loved this day, playing in the sand and chasing the waves. It was just shy of 60° that day, but it didn’t stop her.
Her pants wouldn’t stay up, especially after the bottoms were wet.
This was our last day in Brookings, so we decided to head down to the harbor and walk around.  Of course, it ended in more ice cream. What’s a vacation without ice cream?