Oregon Coast

What would a trip to Oregon be without visiting the coast? There is just something so awe inspiring about being near the ocean. For me, it really puts things into perspective taking in the enormity of the ocean. We first went to a beach in Lincoln City and then headed down the coast to play in Newport. I have to apologize in advance for the massive amount of pictures on this post. I love beach pictures and Dave took about a million. I have way too many favorites!

Lincoln City

We couldn't get Max to stop playing with the sand long
enough to look at the camera!

Newport

Newport is one of my favorite places to visit. It is an actual working harbor that also doubles as a tourist attraction. It's really fun to be there.

Newport Bridge

Grants Pass

Our next stop was Grants Pass. I've never been there before, but have heard tons of stories about it. Dave always describes it as a very wooded and closed in place. On his mission, he felt claustrophobic while living there. I can see why after growing up in Idaho - it's open enough here to see 20 miles!

We didn't spend very much time actually in Grants Pass, but Dave wanted to for sure stop at the local drug store to get a phosphate. Phosphate's are a drink. It's really hard to explain - kind of like a sweet and tart base that gets mixed with another flavor. They had tons of different flavors to choose from. And, the best part.....they only cost 25¢.

After our little refreshment, we went for a quick stroll downtown.

All the fire hydrants were painted. Each one was different and unique.

After a quick stop downtown, we headed to Larry and Renee's house, which was the real reason for visiting Grants Pass. Dave baptized Renee on his mission and they are one of the very few people that he actually still keeps in contact with. They were very kind and let us stay in their guest house. All of the kids had tons of fun - their three kids are almost exactly the same age as our three kids. Their house is just outside of Grants Pass, but I could have sworn we were at a cabin. Forest totally surrounds their whole property. Deer continually walked through their yard. The kids had a blast! Bria and Max both asked me why we don't live in the forest.

Eugene's Saturday Market

We've been talking about taking a trip to Oregon all summer. We went back and forth. Yes - let's take the trip. Never-mind - we can't afford it. Well, maybe if we stretch our budget here....let's go in July. Nope. It'll never work. We can't make it this year. After a whole summer of that, we really thought that it wouldn't work out. But, last week, we decided it was now or never - summer is almost over - let's just go! Wednesday we decided to leave that Friday. Not very much notice, but thankfully, we go on road trips quite a lot, so we figured we could throw the trip together with no problem.

We spent the first day driving. All day. We got kind of a late start. There are always tons of errands that need to be done before going out of town. So, we didn't get to the hotel our first night until 2:30 in the morning. Our kids, of course, got their second wind and it took a few hours to calm them back down and get them to sleep. I really thought we were done for and the rest of the trip would be three tired and crying kids. But, I was way wrong! They always do well on trips, and thankfully, this one was no exception.

Day 2, we stopped in Eugene and went to the Saturday Market. Every trip we've made to Oregon, we've wanted to go, but...it is a Saturday Market and only open on Saturday, so our timing has never quite worked out. But, this time, we actually got to go!

There was live music and entertainment.

Eugene is a really interesting place. If you think the hippie movement ended with the 1980's, you are quite wrong. It never ended. It just moved to Eugene. It is a really different place, but fun to see everything.

The Saturday Market there is HUGE!!!! I thought that there were maybe 250-300 vendors, but I just had to check on the website. The map shows almost 400 spaces, which were all full when we went. That's not counting the adjacent Lane County Farmer's Market, which we didn't even walk through. The Saturday Market estimates that between 3,000 and 5,000 people visit on any given Saturday. Really crowded, but way fun.

Some of my favorite parts were:

All the tie-die! We got each of our kids their very own tie-die shirt.

The soap vendors. I think we saw 5. It was fun to see everyone's different soaps and packaging, and of course talk to them about soap!

The Tarot Card reader with one droopy eye. Pretty scary!

They had tons of cool and way professional looking crafts. They also had some very strange booths - like the prayer booth. Just go in and pray if you like.

But, really my favorite part was probably the food. They had tons of selection! You could eat almost anything you can imagine there! But, of course, the kids picked one of their very favorites - PIZZA!

Enjoying the Ride

Max has been working really hard to learn to ride his bike. He got the bike for his 3rd birthday and has really had no interest in it whatsoever. So, I am very happy that he is finally using it! He's spent hours working on his peddling technique. It's really fun to watch him. He is totally in the zone while he practices.

In other riding news.....Max asked me yesterday if he could ask his dad for a ride on the lawn mower. Dave used to let Max ride all the time when he was really little, but he's getting too big now. I thought I would have  a teary eyed little boy come back in the house and tell me that his dad told him no. Instead, I looked out the window and found this:

Look at the huge smile on Max's face.