Last weekend we made an impromptu and inaugural trip to Wildlife Safari in Winston, OR (just south of Roseburg). We’d heard from a couple other parents that it was worth visiting. I’m happy to report that we had a pretty good time. Evan really enjoyed it, and even Erin seemed to respond by trying to [...]

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On Sunday morning, we got up even earlier than the day before so we could make the hour drive from Portland to Hood River in time for our 9am ride with Thomas the Tank Engine. Though it wasn’t initially our first choice, we were relieved to be on the first train of the day because, [...]

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On Friday afternoon, we arrived at the Embassy Suites in downtown Portland. We’ve stayed at a few places in downtown Portland, but this was our first time at this Embassy Suites. Let me just say that when you have kids — especially ones with early bed times like ours — it is so worth paying [...]

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The theme for the Portland leg of our trip was “trains,” as you can see by the following photos.
From downtown Portland, we rode the MAX light rail out to the Oregon Zoo:

Once at the zoo, we rode the “zoo train” through the woods to Washington Park and back:

The following day, we drove out to Hood [...]

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My appendix, to be exact.
On Sunday afternoon we returned from a 9-day “vacation” to Portland and Western Washington, during which I had an emergency laparoscopic appendectomy shortly after arriving in the Seattle area. I awoke at around 1am on the first night in our Bellevue hotel with severe abdominal pain that persisted despite downing numerous [...]

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It only seems appropriate to wrap up my series of posts on our Oregon Coast trip with some sunset shots. We were treated to several evenings of gorgeous sunsets, but for me, sunset photos usually need little or no explanation. I hope you enjoy these, and I hope you enjoyed this series of posts.

Adventure [...]

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As the title suggests, this post focuses on our children, Evan and Erin. All the photos featured below were taken during our Oregon Coast trip back in March. But unlike the previous posts in this series, you’ll have to click through and view these photos in our gallery. They’re in a private album that requires [...]

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During our trip to the Oregon Coast last month, we made a couple visits to the Oregon Coast Aquarium. (In fact, we actually became aquarium members for the first time.) During our first visit, which happened to be on Easter morning, we got a rare treat:

That’s the Giant Pacific Octopus (whose name might actually be [...]

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The photo above, which was taken from the deck of the house we rented just north of Yachats, shows a large area of beach containing sandstone formations. From the deck, they don’t really look that interesting, but a closer inspection reveals a number of fascinating formations, as shown in the photos at right.
Yachats sandstone [...]

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As I mentioned previously, the Yaquina Head Outstanding Natural Area is one of our favorite places to visit along the Oregon Coast. Located at the north end of Newport, Oregon, Yaquina Head is home to one of the more picturesque lighthouses along the coast, as this set of photos hopefully reveals.
Built in the 1870s, the [...]

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