Ah - we love summer vacations This year's family vacation was a road trip through Nevada, Northern California, Oregon, and Idaho.
Our main sites to visit included Lassen Volcanic National Park, Crater Lake National Park, and the Oregon Coast. It was fabulous, although it was cut short this year.
Here we are on our way into Nevada - we stopped at the Bonneville Salt Flats. What an amazing place - white salt everyone you look.
Next stop was Lassen Volcanic NP. This is a small park that is not commonly visited by most people. It was surprisingly beautiful and as the name implies, it is a old volcanic area in Northern CA with the last eruption happening in the early 1900's.
There were some cool mud pots and fumaroles. We loved the bubbling mud pots!
You could easily see the layers of old ash and pumice as well as blown out mountainsides from old volcanoes.
And fortunately, there were lots of rocks to climb on.
We saw beautiful mountain lakes - this one is Emerald Lake.
Log balancing - one of our favorite pastimes.
Just look at this beautiful scenery.
They say this balanced rock was pushed down to this area by old glaciers. We worked hard to push it part way up, he he he.
See that old crater top mountain behind me.
And here's Sam with one of his famous poses.
This is Summit Lake - it was absolutely beautiful!
I earned my Junior Ranger badge at this park. It was so fun to do all the activities! Here I am being sworn in.
And here I am with my official badge.
The next day we headed to Crater Lake National Park in Southern Oregon.
This is Vidae Falls.
We hiked the Sun Notch trail up to the Phantom Ship Overlook.
That water is soooo blue - it is absolutely incredible.
And here's dad with his boys.
One last view of Wizard Island in the middle of the lake. It really is such a beautiful place!
There were still patches of snow around so we stopped to have a snowball fight - in the middle of July. Fortunately only our hands got cold.
Both Sam and I earned our Junior Ranger patches here too.
Our first adventure after we got to our condo in Newport Oregon was to the Sea Lion Caves. This was on my list of Must-Do places for this trip. It did not disappoint! This is a natural sea cavern and the sea lions and birds come in and out and just hang out. It was so much fun to watch them play and battle for prime spots on the rocks.
Here we are coming back up from the cave. On the land out behind that building behind us is Haceta Head Lighthouse.
And here's a family picture with the sea lion statues.
You might be able to see the lighthouse a little better from this view - just to the left of my head out on the rocks.
One of mom's Must-Do things was to eat at Mo's. It is a seafood restaurant with sites all up and down the coast. We managed to hit 3 of them on this trip. And oh, was it yummy!
Another adventure that mom and dad surprised us with was a ride on the Oregon Coast Scenic Railroad. This old steam engine follows the tracks from Garibaldi along the ocean up to Rockaway Beach. It was great!
We had about 1/2 hour to play up at Rockaway beach. It was absolutely beautiful!
We chased the waves and let the waves chase us.
A quick family selfie.
Here we go in after the waves.
And here we come back trying not to get wet.
Nothing like jumping pictures on the beach.
Here we are getting back on the train for our trip back.
And check out this old steam engine.
We sure do love train rides!
Our view out into the ocean from the train.
And here we are with the train.
Another old engine that was on display at the depot.
After a stop at the Tillamook Cheese Factory we headed out to the Cape Meares Lighthouse. Just up from the lighthouse was this old Octopus Tree.
And here is the view of the lighthouse from above on the trail down.
Sam has been waiting (and waiting and waiting) for his chance to climb up to the top of a lighthouse since our Maine vacation a few summers back. He wasn't tall enough then to go all the way up, but this year he sure was. And he couldn't wait! Here is proof that he made it up.
Cape Meares is the shortest lighthouse in Oregon.
Another family photo off the Cape.
And of course, there was another dinner at a Mo's - this one is at Otter Rock.
We decided to get up early to get tickets for the tour of the Yaquina Head Lighthouse. It was great too. It is the tallest lighthouse in Oregon. Sam and I also earned our Junior Ranger patches here as well.
It was quite foggy this particular day but still really cool.
Here is a view all the way up to the top.
We climbed 114 stairs up and 114 stairs back down. And Sam got to go again - he was soooo excited!
Then we drove over to the Yaquina Bay Lighthouse - it is attached directly to the keeper's house and was only used for a few years.
Our last major activity was glass blowing. We came across this amazing glass studio that let you come in and make your own project, with some help and guidance from a real glass artist of course. I decided to make sea star. My artist was Tim and he was so great to work with and learn from.
This really ended up being one of our most favorite activities of the whole vacation.
Sam got to go out on the floor and make his own project too - he worked with Pete and made a beautiful paperweight. Here he is adding his colors to the glass.
Here he is heating his project up.
And shaping it.
And cooling it down. So much fun!
We spent our last night at Beverly Beach getting wet and playing hard.
Another family photo.
And the boys playing in the water.
Finally a picture of our parents. What a great vacation!!!
Sam Alert: Hey everyone - glass, lighthouses, seafood, and beaches. What a great way to spend a vacation!
I thought you might want to see our finished projects - here is my paperweight.
And here is Mason's sea star.
Mom made a big ruffly bowl too but we didn't take a picture.
Sam out - have a great week.
