Welllllll- today was a bit of a day. We packed up at the cabin, excited to move on to Hood River, ideas of being there for lunch after a pleasant, scenic drive. Logistics spirits have been with us and today felt like it would be an easy transition.
So we leave cute Packwood, and start towards Hood River on the route Maps directs us to – Forest Road 23. Starts quite beauteous, waterfalls and beautiful forest, roads start to get a bit worse, then a lot worse (terrible, giant pot holes) then a dirt road, then a hint or snow.. and then we realize the snow is about to get very real and dangerous. We’d been on the road for ~25 miles with no service the entire stretch and started envisioning what getting stranded might look like. Fortunately made the decision to turn around and when we got back to service, saw on the state website that the road is considered closed/impassable. No warnings when entering and Apple and Google Maps continue to show this route optionally with no warnings BUT Waze doesn’t even present it as an option. New Waze fan for life.
I’m sure all can imagine that S’s stomach didn’t like the route at all but when we got out to try to prevent nausea, he asked me to snap one “good memory” from the attempt. Here you go
So course corrected and back on the route to Hood River through Portland. The stretch of road along the Columbia River towards Mt. Hood is absolutely gorgeous. We dropped some laundry off and checked into the Hood River Hotel – a refurbished historic hotel, right in the downtown area.
After settling in, we walked around the downtown area – it’s a beautiful, historic spot – reminded us a bit of Brevard. Great local restaurants, breweries. Hometown of Tofurkey, Full Sail and pFriem breweries, quite a few wine tasting rooms and all the Subarus.
We walked down to the Columbia River Gorge where there’s a waterfront park and beach area. Much kite and windsurfing happening bc of the great breeze.
We had a late afternoon stop at pFriem – great brewery and food spot right off the park.
And the boys wanted a dessert stop – so scouted the cutest ice cream spot in town – Mike’s
Good recovery at the end of the day, but phew- glad to be here!
Our next visit was around Mt. Ranier National Park. We stayed in a very small town called Packwood – in a restored cabin that at one point had been a structure within the Ohana Springs Resort, located inside of Mt. Ranier National Park. The boys thought this cabin was the best spot we’ve ever picked to stay.
We are back to some hiking adventures and felt so good. William scouted a great one today and it was beautiful. ~8 miles and 5K in altitude change ^ so we’re all going to sleep well. I think Rawlings has reached the point of having more stamina and zero grumbles on the hike, maybe until the last half mile stretch when we were already to sit down.
Couple firsts! – First time breaking into a National Park 😉 – First time hiking in a National Park and seeing zero other ppl on the trail – First time the boys really wanted to keep going on the hike and we said, eh we need to turn around (shouting “but our legs don’t hurt!” – you’ll see why we turned around below)
Boys breaking into the gate 😉 don’t worry – you’re allowed to – just means you have to walk the extra miles to/from trails
Getting started
Pretty lookout spot for lunch
And then we kept hiking from the Silver Falls loop up the Patriarch Graves offshoot and found… snow (started to fully cover trail and get deeper so.. we turned around. No one was wearing boots)
Walked back to down to finish the loop and found a beautiful lookout
And home stretch.
We all rested here at the end of the day after some tacos at White Pass taqueria!
The next day, was about finding a good vantage point to see Mt. Ranier. Instead of going into the park, William found a trail in Pinchot National forest that has a great observation point – Dry Creek trail. The trail itself was subject to more downed trees than in the park and when we got started, one of those had been setup as a bridge.
The trail the previous day may have technically been longer and had more elevation change involved, but today’s trail was legit up up up – very little flat and it was a harder hike for all. Rawls summed it up well here:
But making it to the observation point was entirely worth it! There aren’t many spots to see Mt. Ranier really well and the highlight of the hike was staring out at this for a good long while:
And then to make the trek down which was quite pleasant
We came back to the cabin, enjoyed the hot tub and rested for a bit. Our plan was to go to what we’d heard was the best burger spot in all of Washington (per Yelp and USA Today and everyone you ask around here) – but Cliff Droppers was closed upon arrival. Amazingly in this year of unpredictable times, this is the first time we’ve shown up somewhere to find it closed. So we taught the boys the word “pivot” – visited the grocery for steaks/Bellas/mashed potatoes and William is currently cooking things out here:
Chiller day than the last two. Weather wasn’t quite as beautiful as the last two days in Seattle, however we felt like this was the weather we were meant to expect in the area.
We got on the road from Seattle around 6:30 (still very easy with the time change) and drove to the ferry at Anacortes – very pretty drive along the way. The ferry took us through several islands, stopping at Orcas and dropping us at Friday Harbor.
When we arrived in Friday Harbor, we thought we’d go to the farmers market and get things for lunch and dinner, but we realized very quickly that the market was in “Low season” with very few vendors. We walked two blocks to the San Juan Island Brewery to a surprisingly great lunch. Burgers for the boys, Salmon sandwich with pickled peppers and French dip for William.
We drove across the island to Snug Harbor (all of 15 minutes) and it was nice to be out of the Friday Harbor cluster. Snug Harbor is a quiet marina and resort with individual cabins scattered across the side of the island. We checked in quickly and made our way to the dock to attempt to find a whale with Maya’s whale watching – which maybe cld be called, it’s possibly you’ll see a whale but don’t get your hopes up – better to have gone in that way! Anyways we saw all the non-whale wildlife – 3 types of porpoise (dalls, halls and harbor), 3 types of seal (harbor, stellar and black oyster catcher), a quick penguin dive, miniature puffin, sea lions and many bald eagles and other birds. We enjoyed and also Rawls took a nap.
Cozied up and cooked dinner together at the cabin / salmon (steelhead and amaze!), salad and potatoes. Something simple after last few days was perfect.
Day 2
Woke up today to similar but slightly better weather – on and off teensy drizzle and some fog but enough clarity to see the landscape clearly.
After breakfast in our cabin, we drove towards the southwest of the island, stopping first at San Juan park. We thought how nice it would be to have this within weekend camping distance of home – beautiful setting and boys enjoyed playing by the water.
From here, we headed to Lime Kiln State Park which is the most likely spot from the island to spot Orcas – there are two groups of Orcas to potentially see (of which we saw neither) – pods that stay within the area and feed off of Chinook salmon: these are endangered as Chinook salmon populations have declined or migratory pods that pass through these channels and have an expanded diet: these populations are thriving. We hiked along the coast to “dead mans bay” and on the way back, I asked Rawls if he was keeping a close eye out for Orcas – “no, mom. I’m trying to find gems on the ground”. Priorities.
From the Southwest tip of the island, we drove up to the Northwest corner towards Roche Harbor. We made a brief stop along the way at the “English camp” where British troops camped out for some time. Apparently in 1859, the US and British troops nearly went to war over the slaughter of a pig // which was really an argument over unclear borders. Apparently US territory was to the east of a channel, but it was unclear which of two channels was the outer border. Through peaceful negotiations, San Juan island was determined to be part of the US. This picture includes and English garden which apparently was setup to provide cheer to the wife of a British officer (while also replacing the vegetable garden of enlisted troops – they weren’t so cheerful)
After visiting here and driving through the arts and crafts Roche Harbor village, we went to lunch at a commercial shellfish farm – Westcott Bay Shellfish – for a “tide to table” lunch. We tried all the oysters and clams!
After some downtime siesta, we went back to explore the Friday Harbor downtown – walking around the docks, shops and this beautiful structure honoring the Salish people.
Our day ended at a gorgeous restaurant, near San Juan Vineyards and otherwise in the middle of nowhere – Duck Soup. The setting was warm, welcoming and our server had children around the boys age and was so wonderful chatting with them.
We had such a wonderful day in Seattle and to think it was a half day (after the easiest possible trip out here!). We arrived to our hotel around 12:45PM and admittedly were all famished having had only a handful of plane snacks. We’re staying at the Thompson hotel which is two blocks from Pike’s place market. We ended up in a room with the most beautiful view of Puget Sound.
We walked down through the streets by the markets, passed the first ever Starbucks and several very popular bakeries. We grabbed lunch at a seafood place – Seatown market. Rawls and William shared a seafood basket and Rawls tried his first “squid” – a fan of the rings but not the leggies. S and I opted for Salmon burgers — really a Salmon filet. Very good!
After cleaning up and chilling for… a moment, we walked back down to Pike’s place market – beautiful flowers and fun stalls.
We walked father to Miner’s landing where Rawls picked two activities – a virtual reality ride “Wings over Washington” which took us on a “tour” of several places we’ll be visiting. It was actually really well done and all had fun. Afterwards we went on the Ferris wheel and while we were waiting, we saw one of the pods setup with formal settings / raw dishes / salads / bottles of white and red – and then the pod just kept going with out anyone going into it. We’re still confused. But we had fun seeing the city from the many vantage points of our Ferris Wheel pod!
We ended the day in an industrial / fishing area of Seattle where a fun strip of restaurants has opened (and adapted to the times with very creative outdoor seating everywhere). We had dinner with the boys at the Walrus and the Carpenter – amazing oysters (Rawls loved, Shepherd tried.. twice but not so much), grilled sardines, broccoli rabe, steak tartar.. ending with the most amazing dessert per Rawls (maple bread pudding). I left to visit the ladies room and upon returning, it was MIA 😉 Both boys were super adventurous and we had a great time.
Ending the day ogling at the amazing view from our room!
Puget Sound from the room
Day 2
Another full and fun day in Seattle hitting up the obvious spots to visit and some others.
I woke up on ET and killed time until the (original) Starbucks opened and headed to grab coffee for me and William. It does feel like they’ve kept the original setting largely in tact but the coffee options are v similar.
After the boys woke up, we walked back to this strip by Pikes Place market to bring some breakfast options back to the hotel. We went to Piroschky Piroschky first which has a line down the block when we’d walked by in the afternoon the previous day. Salmon Pate Piroschky, poppy seed cinnamon bun and white chocolate cherry tarts were delish! Because vaca we also visited the “very French patisserie” next door, Le Panier, where the boys picked out macarons “for later” and a couple almond croissants bc “dad’s favorite”.
When we were all fueled up for the day, we got out to explore all the things, staring with spending some more time in the markets around Pike’s place. Shepherd was gung Ho to visit the “gum alley” – so we did and it was as gross as you’d imagine.
But we loved seeing the many seafood, vegetable, bread and even cheese making spots.
After Pike’s we walked to the Olympic statue park along the Puget Sound (public art everywhere here)
After lunch at “boys choice” Zeeks pizza, it was time to visit the Space needle and Chihuly glass and gardens. The history of the Space needle was presented as you walked to the elevators. At the top, Shepherd discovered he was not loving the heights and especially the glass, rotating floor.
Great views though and we headed from here to the Chihuly galleries. Just utterly beautiful // especially loved the garden area and the boys enjoyed the glass making demonstration after the tour.
Short break at the hotel and we ended the day visiting the Fremont neighborhood of Seattle. The gatekeeper of the neighborhood- the troll – was a quick visit on our way to the Fremont brewery (great spot across from the water with the most beautiful planters and – I suppose – good beer ;).
Dinner was at whale wins – and such a memorable family dinner. All enjoyed the spicy salmon starter, butter poached shrimp and the roasted chicken dish — especially loved shepherd proclaiming that clams are his new favorite food (green curry clams with pickled fiddlehead ferns)
William and I had a couple great New Orleans trips before the boys arrived and we’ve been wanting to go back but didn’t make it happen until this trip — March 2021.
We arrived in New Orleans to stay with Aunt Mimi and Uncle Dave and pretty much just let ourselves enjoy the amazing NOLA experience they shared as hosts. All of the great home cooked favorites – crawfish etoufee (Shepherd ate so much of this instead of the Mac n Cheese offered – yay!), jumbalaya, crab pasta, and so much other yumminess. We walked and drove around much of the city, visited the Zoo, the aquarium, cafe du monde and came up with a very long list of things we are going to do on the next trip! The best hosts possible — we can’t wait for the next time!
Zoo and time with the cousins at Mimi + Daves
Aquarium, Cafe du Monde and amazing crawfish, Shrimp + Oyster poboys (3 feet long!) from a nearby grocery (amaze), crab pasta salad
and then our now favorite family roadtrip stop on the way back to Jax
Austin TX! Had such a nice visit here – longish drive from Fairhope, but feeling like we’re more or less used to those. We stayed in a condo in east Austin — in a very walkable area. Close to Suerte, Via 313 and many other fun spots. WOW – the development that is in progress there. Felt like the area we stayed in may be unrecognizable in a couple years.
We arrive on “pi day” 3/14 and enjoyed Detroit style and Uber thin crust pizza at Via 313 – and mostly crashed after the road trip.
On Monday, William took the boys to the zoo which was more of an animal rescue experience (some hands on which they enjoyed). We walked to Reunion – Mexican spot not far from where we were staying. Loved our dinner here – debated this spot vs Suerte but opted for what felt like a less dressed up concept.
Tuesday the boys spent a bunch “PE” time in parks and we walked to another east Austin lunch location – Cenote. That night we walked along a fun Austin bar scene // lots of front porches, some live music and mostly 21 and up (so we just looked :). We watched the warm up for a band (first “live” music in a year?!) but had to head to our dinner spot before they started. S enjoyed venmo-Ing a tip. Loved loved our dinner at Emmer & Rye. The boys were incredibly adventurous eating everything from umeboshi, to grilled cabbage and orange butter, and the amaze homemade pastas/cacio e pepe is one of their specialties. Rivaled FIG in Charleston for “best family dinner”.
The next day it was William’s turn to pick lunch (bbq) and the boys to pick dinner (home slice pizza). But the highlight of the day was kayaking and swimming / swinging into the river.
Loved the morning time in Austin walking with Shepherd each morning to get coffee and breakfast (he woke me up to stay on schedule!). Good time with just him to talk about life.
William scouted a Boudin place, Kartchners, on our drive to ATX – Lafayette, LA specialty.
Arriving to East Austin on “pi day” (March 14th) – Detroit style pizza and a super thin crust “bar style” pizza.
Reunion 19 Taco spot – we LOVED the green salsa, street corn, amazing vegetarian tacos (E) and shrimp aguachiles.
Walking around Austin, music, and Emmer and Rye!
Time on the water and ending our trip at (boys choice!) Home Slice
Leaving TX – William saving a turtle in the middle of the road
Fairhope – a city with interesting history. It was founded in 1894 as a utopian socialist community and has evolved to be a quirky cute coastal town in AL. We stayed slightly outside of Fairhope at the Grand Hotel – a beautiful property, but feels like it’s clinging perhaps too closely to heritage. We were encouraged to visit a confederate memorial just offsite and they performed daily, military rituals for “entertainment”. Mixed feelings on the location, but we were able to talk to the boys openly about this – and then mostly recharged a bit after a full few weeks. We went into the Fairhope town on our last day and wish we’d explored a bit more. A few great spots and nice walkable downtown area. The boys wore themselves out at the pool – Shepherd went down the slide more than 100 times and they both made friends with other kids. First time we’ve ever met two other Shepherds. Same spelling!
We decided to take a week long road trip to accomplish a few things – visit Charleston and a few restaurants we’d been wanting to try, take the boys to see snow/ski and chill in Brevard a bit. More of a mixed trip than previous adventures.
Highs
The most amazing family Valentine’s dinner at FIG in Charleston. Started the night with a drink at Charleston Place where William and celebrated Valentine’s together 12 years prior. The boys were amazing adventurers with their dinner, befriended (nearly) the entire staff and all around perfect experience.
Capped off with “date night” in the lobby of our awesome hotel with William. In addition to FIG, we loved lunch at the ordinary and good dinner at butcher and bee the night before. Boys maybe most enjoyed the make your own Belgian waffle on our way out.
Fun cabin and nice seeing snow in Beech mountain. Boys did well on bunny slopes
Always love seeing Shepherd’s Ridge in Brevard – little slice of heaven
Not so High
The weather was terrible! Rained all week and icy cold in NC
Skiing on ice isn’t much fun and scary for beginners
S and I came down with a bug in NC so laid low there (brightside – lots of reading)
Still glad we made the trip – good family times
Charleston (Stayed at the Dewberry, Restaurants: Butcher + the Bee, the Ordinary, FIG, belgian waffle place 🙂
Since we had nearly a month in Santa Fe to settle in, I’m breaking up our family notes into three sections 1) all the eating 2) all the hiking and 3) some of the exploring. We were able to largely enage in all of the hikes and food fun we’d hoped to do, but there were quite a few places that, in normal state of the world, we would have loved to visit in Santa Fe (Georgia O’Keefe museum, Meow Wolf, more galleries on Canyon Road, peformances) — but we knew this aspect would be more limited.
Outside of eating and hiking, here are some random things we did 😉
Wandered around downtown and checked out public art and interesting buildings around the Plaza:
Got invited to paint (Shepherd) at a local gallery
and made a cake to celebrate the election outcome
Visited a (quiet) Canyon Road and then picked out a Shaman to come home with us.
Participated in a virtual music recital with friends and family
Hiking options around Santa Fe are plentiful and we foundt the landscape once you were out of the city area quite different than we were expecting — Aspen trees and evergreen are lush and everywhere. We had a period where the weather got to be quite frigid and we paused on doing too much outdoors, but sharing some of our favorites. William used the AllTrails app to download maps so that when we were in areas without service, the phone’s GPS could still keep us on track – found this to be clutch a few times.
Dale Ball North Loop – This hike is just north of Santa Fe — it meanders a bit, reaches a peak and then drops back again — and then you get to turn around and go up, down and up again.
Afterwards, we drove up above 10K feet elevation and let the boys play in the bit of snow that clung to the ground:
BorregoBear Wallow Trail – This trail is just north of the Ten Thousand Waves Japanese village — the Aspen trees along the path are stunning. Rawls decided this day was just too darn cold to hike (and since I kind of agreed with him) so we detoured to visit the village of Tesuque while William and Shepherd conquered this trail 🙂
Atalaya Trail – This trail leaves off from a local college — the first part takes you through an arroyo that during rainy seasons, would be full. The vegetation in the arroyo was like nothing we’d seen on the trip. Rawls enjoyed finding sap from trees along the way to theoretically contribute to gluing his iron man costume together.
and for William’s birthday we decided to head back to Borrego-Bear Wallow (his request) to all do the trail together, adding cousin Sean into the mix. We all loved it, some especially when it was over!
