Lets just start with staying that I am not ready to go back to school… not at all. I am physically prepared, like I have my school supplies, but I am not mentally or emotionally prepared. But anyways, here is the first blog post in a long time, about the trip my family and I went on this summer. We rented an Rv for 11 days and traveled around Oregon. This trip consisted of a lot of sight seeing, campfires, s’mores, laughing, swimming, and most of all… driving. Please enjoy!
August 19th Day 1, Home to Seaside
We picked up our RV in Delta at 11am, that is where the journey began. After unloading a lot, like I mean a lot of stuff from our car into the Rv we ready ready to take off. The drive from Vancouver to Seaside Oregon was 6 hours and a bit but it took us around 12 hours in total because we stopped along the way. We arrived in Seaside at 11pm.
August 20th Day 2, Seaside
The next day we rode our bikes to seaside, because honestly how else does the Floe family travel. Seaside is right along the water, so we went to the beach. It was very pretty, but cold, so we decided to go swimming. Super smart right? It was like Tofino water… painfully cold. Then we went to the main street in Seaside and had a good lunch, and back to our Rv park it was! Right at our camp sight there was this small stream/river thing and my brother and I wanted to go explore it… My dad decides to come too. The stream/river thing happened to be super deep and we ended up swimming down it. The water was discussing but it was still super fun.
August 21st Day 3, Seaside to Florence
In the morning on our way out of seaside we decided to stop at Cannon Beach for a look around. We saw some puffins which was super cool, and we got to touch all the sea anemones and we played frisbee on the beach. The drive from Cannon Beach to Florence was 3 hours and 45 mins. When we arrived in Florence the first thing we did was go up to the sand dunes. Our camp site was right beside them, so we walked up to the top of it. My brother and dad were having so much fun flipping on the edge of the sand dunes, which my mom and I, not so much… I was wearing shorts and it was super windy up there, and the sand was pelting my legs and it was super painful. And my mom was hungry. So we headed back.
August 22nd Day 4, Florence
Story Time Below…
Bright and early the next day we drove up to the dune bugging place. We rented two ATV’s and one two seater dune buggy… My dad and I started off in the two seater and my mom and brother on the two ATV’s. All was going swell until my dad and brother got in the two seater… I swear when they are together they both turn into 10 year olds. In there tiny little 10 year old brains thought it was a good idea to drive straight up the biggest sand dune… They made it up just fine, at the top they turned around and we heading to come back off the top. Right as they got to the edge they slowed down just a bit too much and their front wheels went off the top and they just sunk into the sand… My mom and I were watching the whole thing, they spent like 15 mins trying to dig the wheels out, then my brother gave up and ran all the way down the sand dune… The guide game back out with another tour group and my mom told him to go up and help my dad… Another 15 mins of digging it out and it was finally free… My super smart dad just wasted 30 mins of our one hour rental… Nice going dad!
Next my dad told we to drive and I was almost 100% positive that you had to be like 21 years old old to drive it, but he was so sure i could drive, so I did. It took a while to get used to it but it was so fun. I almost flipped it completely over but, whatever.. In the end I thought that I was actually pretty good!
August 23rd Day 5, Florence to Crater Lake
In the morning we took off to go to Crater Lake, we didn’t get very far… We just left the camp ground we we saw a sand dune that went straight into a lake, we had to go swimming. So up the sand dune we went. My dad, brother and I had a race from the top into the lake, it was so fun! After the refreshing dip we continued on our journey! The drive from Florence to Crater Lake was 4 hours… When we got there we had to check in which took a while then we went to go look at the lake. It was so blue and clean, the water looked untouched…
August 24th Day 6, Crater Lake
Today we decided to hike down to the lake and go for a swim, everyone said that it was way to cold but, that didn’t apply to us. The hike down was probably around 30 mins and it was straight down… I swear that when we got down there we were stuck with the most annoying two kids I have every experienced. One of them was so loud and would not stop talking and splashing everyone and everything. The other one thought he was so cool. He was…. I don’t even have the word to describe how annoying he was. Okay anyways, we went for a quick swim cause it was cold, but now too too cold. Right as we were about to leave a person told us about a cliff we could have jumped off, it was around the corner and there was no people there. My brother and dad still jumped but my mom and I were too cold. The water was so so clear it was crazy, never seen water like that. You could see the bottom for so long off shore. The hike back up was not fun at all, it was so hot and it took like 45 minutes of walking straight up hill. I am pretty sure my brother ran up the hill but he is not human so… That night we had booked to go out for a nice dinner at the lodge. It was so good. One of the best dinners I have ever had, and don’t even get me started on the desert…
August 25th Day 7, Crater Lake to Bend
The drive from Crater Lake to Bend was just over 2 hours. The Rv park in Bend was the nicest one we had been to yet. It even had a hot tube and two super nice showers. We road our bikes into the Old Mill District which took a bit longer then expected. Right through the centre of the town there was this river that people could float down, and I thought it looked really fun but the rest of my family didn’t.
August 26th Day 8, Bend
Bend was known for their mt biking trails so of course we had to try them out. My mom had said “It is about an 30 minute climb to the top” then we would bike down. I don’t know who told her it would be a 30 minute climb, maybe an olympian, but it took us about 2 hours to the top with a few small breaks. And we weren’t going that slow. The down hill was super fun but not worth the 2 hour climb. After the ride we went into town and got a super yummy lunch at this place called “Jackson’s Corner”. My parents especially my mom loved Bend, it reminder her of Nelson and she loves Nelson. She said she would defiantly move there, I thought it was super pretty too but I like Deep Cove better.
August 27th Day 9, Bend
In the morning my parents wanted to go for another ride so my brother and I stayed at the camp sight and played a bit of tennis and ate ice cream. Once they got back we went into the Old Mill District and my brother and dad went to look at the river again my brother was scootering around. While my mom and I went window shopping. Later we were trying to find a place to eat and we came across the Crux Brewery. It was one of the coolest places, there are probably over 100 people there was this huge open grassy area that ever one was just hanging out on, and there was a live band playing and it was really fun. It was like a mini outdoor concert.
August 28th Day 10, Bend to Bellingham
Leaving Bend was sad, our trip was officially over. We were driving to Bellingham which was an 8 hour drive. Then the next day we were crossing the border and dropping off the Rv… We arrived in Bellingham pretty late and our Rv park was right next to the highway so there was no where to get food… We went into a gas station to try to find some eggs for the morning but no one had anything. So we decided to wait till we got home to eat….
August 29th Day 11, Bellingham to Home
Last day driving in the Rv… We left the Rv park fairly early in the morning because the Rv drop off time was in-between 8-10am in Delta and we still had to cross the border. The border had no line up which was good! We got to Delta around 9 and it took us a while to unload all of our belongings into the car again. We got home at 11am and stuffed out selfs with food because non of us had eaten anything since like 4pm the previous day.
And that is the day by day of my Oregon trip. I would highly recommend you going to visit Oregon. It is such a beautiful place, and I would love to go back again.