Oregon-California Trip

Our family went on a big road trip the first week of August- we drove to Newport, Oregon, then down the coast to northern California, then back home by way of Nevada. It was a LOT of driving, but we survived and had some great experiences! The day we were supposed to leave, we sold our motorhome and bought a trailer. Call us crazy, because I think we were! We spent all that day fixing up the trailer and then left the next morning. Here our "rig" is parked in an RV park in Sisters, OR, where we stayed the first night.

The next two nights we camped at South Beach State Park in Newport, OR. The kids were pretty amazed by the ocean, which was the whole reason for our trip! We had a great time playing at the beach even though it was at most 55 degrees outside, and foggy.

 

The boys loved burying themselves in the sand, although they regretted it a bit later when they had sand in every nook and cranny... ha!

 Everyone enjoyed collecting shells, of which there was an abundance.

  

 Best part about the trailer: built-in TV and DVD player. We took advantage of that one evening!

While in Newport, we went to the world-class aquarium and took a marine discovery sea cruise. Unfortunately, those pictures are on my phone and my better half is not here to help me get them off. Sometimes I'm such a granny when it comes to technology. Anyway... Our 4th night of the trip was spent in Jedediah Smith State Park, the northernmost part of the redwoods. That was spooky! We didn't get to the campground until at least 9pm, by which time it was pitch black in the forest. Those trees are so huge they block out all starlight! Then there were warning signs everywhere stating that there were black bears and mountain lions in the campground. I was a little freaked out, honestly. Of course, we never saw anything.

 This big guy was right in our camp site. You can't quite see Hanna, but she's off to the left there holding hands with Sara. So, they were able to reach about halfway around the tree!

 We locked our most valuable posessions in the bear locker overnight. Just kidding!

We spent the last night of our trip at Hunter's Hot Springs Resort in Lakeview, OR. It's really just a little motel, but it has a nice hot pool that we had all to ourselves. After 4 nights in the trailer we enjoyed spreading out in the motel room, quite a few of us in "real" beds. The next day we made the marathon 8-ish hour trip through Nevada (why does that state even exist?) to home. The only thing we saw worth mentioning was a small herd of wild horses, which was neat but brief. All in all, it was a good trip with some great experiences for the kids, and hopefully great memories made!