SoCal Holiday

We're just back from a pre-Christmas trip to Southern California. Click here for photos.  This was our first full-team family vacation, and we spent it exploring the California coast from La Jolla (pictured above) to Oceanside (pictured below) to Dana Point. 

There was plenty of sand, surfing, and two forms of pool, along with some lovely sunsets and great company.

Happy Holidays...

Thanksgiving Weekend 2023

Thanksgiving Day started with our neighborhood's annual Turkey Bowl soccer game at Hamilton Park. Click here for photos, and thank you Ruby Belle for keeping the tradition alive. 

Our family was spread across Oregon and Idaho for Thanksgiving, so the photos in this next album include a sampling of everyone's adventures - us with Jake, Elli and Fig in Portland, Emily with Coleman's family, also in Portland, and Drew with Grace's family in Boise. 

It's been a great weekend to be outside. All the mountains have been out. Pictured below is the view of Mt. Hood from our day-after-Thanksgiving hike to Mirror Lake, and you can see both Mt. St. Helens and Mt. Rainier in the distance in the second photo, taken from Hoyt Arboretum. 

Last but not least, Fig celebrated her #3 birthday... 

Wild Turkey Regatta 2023

It was a great day to be on the river for the Willamette Sailing Club's annual Wild Turkey Regatta. Click here for photos. This fan-favorite, no-rules, un-regatta is all about collecting ducks, balls and pumpkins that have been tossed in the water, while fending off plunderers. Sturdy nets, long arms, pirate gear, and occasional bribery are key if you're going for the win. 

We've been attending this regatta off and on over the years since 2009.  Below is a photo from 2009.

Weekend on the Olympic Peninsula

We spent a long weekend exploring Puget Sound. Click here for photos from stops that included Gig Harbor, Poulsbo, Bainbridge Island, Port Townsend and Tacoma. We met up with Jake who was in the Seattle area to celebrate the birth of Theo, Elli's new nephew. Congratulations to Elli's sister and Theo's parents, Mary Morgan and Tim!

Pictured above is Pia the Peacemaker, another of Thomas Dambo's trolls, whom we visited on Bainbridge Island.  Pictured below is an especially scenic spot at Finn River Farm and Cidery, just south of Port Townsend, where we just need Emily & Coleman to visit to complete our photo-set.

While in Port Townsend, we happened upon a crazy rescue effort for a sail boat that ran aground on some shallow rocks.  It took much of the day to get it unstuck and keep it from sinking.  There are lots of photos and a time-lapse video in the album linked above. 

The album also includes photos from Tacoma's Point Defiance Park and the Tacoma Art Museum, which has a great collection of Chihuly Glass; and a video of Pat and Jake doing karaoke at the Slippery Pig in Poulsbo, where Saturday evening was One-Hit-Wonders Night.

Happy Halloween

Click here for photos from Halloween week, including Emily's pumpkin carving party and trip to the pumpkin patch.  Jake and Elli spent Halloween at Holden Village where they got to see the first snowfall in the North Cascades... so much snow in fact, they built a snowman!

And here are a few photos from Emily's recent trip to Boston to see her friend Anna. 

Cannon Beach, Kinetic Parades, and Camping Trips

We had not spent time at Cannon Beach for a while, so we took advantage of an unusually warm and sunny October weekend and visited Haystack Rock. Click here for photos. The album also includes photos from the Port Townsend Bay Kinetic Sculpture Race, which Jake and Elli got to experience this weekend; our recent visit with Jake and Elli to see Ole Bolle, the troll sculpture created by artist Thomas Dambo that now lives at Portland's Nordic Center NW; Emily and Coleman's camping adventure near Mt. Hood; and more. 

Glacier National Park

We're just back from a week in Whitefish, Montana, and Glacier National Park, where we saw bighorn sheep, a mountain goat, a grizzly bear (from a safe distance) and more. Click here for photos.  

And here are a few photos from a wedding Jake and Elli recently attended with Elli's family in Seattle as they headed back to Portland from their summer in Holden Village. 

Revisiting Bandon

While we've made regular visits to the Oregon Coast over the years, it's been a long time since we've visited the southern - and most scenic - part of the coast. Click here for photos from our long weekend in Bandon, which included a side trip along the Samuel Boardman State Scenic Corridor to see the Natural Bridges pictured below. 

And while Pat and I were enjoying the westernmost part of Oregon, Drew, Grace, Emily, Coleman and friends spent the weekend camping in Eastern Oregon, and Jake and Elli were enjoying their final weekend, for now, in Holden Village. Click here for lots of photos from the month of August, including the one below from Emily's recent bike-packing trip near Banks; and here are photos from Jake's epic Cloudy Pass hike.  It's been a summer of beautiful scenery all around. 

Since it was the first day of school for many this week, here is a throw-back album to some of our first days. 

Into the Woods...

 

It took some effort - a 6 hour drive, a 2.5 hour ferry ride up Lake Chelan, and a 40 minute drive along a winding mountain road on a retired school bus - but the trip to Holden Village was worth it for a long weekend visit with Jake and Elli at their home for the summer. Click here for photos.  

We hiked in the Glacier Peak Wilderness to Lake Holden and 10 Mile Falls; got to see Jake at work restoring porches on chalets that used to be part of a remote copper mining village turned Lutheran retreat center; and got a little more up close and personal than we were expecting with a family of bears and other wildlife. 

Meanwhile back in Portland, the rest of the crew attended a white wedding - congrats to Danny and Maris - and Drew finished 11th out of 90+ boats at Thistle Nationals on Flathead Lake, MT.  That's him below, leaning out of boat #69.

Oh... and the Barbie movie!  Fig agrees it's totally worth the hype.  

4th of July and more

We were spread across 3 states for 4th of July this year - Oregon, Washington, and Idaho. Click here for photos from the holiday weekend and other recent sails, hikes, concerts and cookouts.

The Sauvie Island Farm Tunes concert series has always been a highlight of summers in Portland, especially when Ashleigh Flynn is performing. Pat and Emily are pictured below taking in Ashleigh's 2023 show this past week; and back in July of 2009. 

San Francisco Weekend

It was a windy weekend in San Francisco, but we enjoyed our Bay Area home exchange. We spent time at Golden Gate Park, Golden Gate National Recreation Area (where the photo above was taken), and explored points south along Hwy 1 - from Pacifico to Half Moon Bay to Santa Cruz (including Shark Fin Cove pictured below). Click here for photos.

Meanwhile back in Oregon and Washington... Emily and Coleman were bike-camping in Tillamook; Jake and Elli continue to enjoy their summer at Holden Village; and Drew was racing in a regatta on Vancouver Lake.  More photos from the kids' June adventures are linked here. 

While in San Francisco, we stopped by the de Young Museum of Art to see Kahinde Wiley's Archeology of Silence exhibit... really glad we did. 

We also saw lots of Vellela vellelas on the beaches around Half Moon Bay. These "by the wind" sailing jellies were everywhere.

The first time we visited San Francisco, the twins slept through our bike crossing of the Golden Gate Bridge. Thankfully, they were more alert on future visits, but Drew remains the only member of our family so far to have sailed under the bridge: