The party's over

   We are back in Seattle for the night, ready (or maybe not) to fly home tomorrow. The cruise was awesome! The weather - eh. It rained for a good part of the time we were at sea, but we were lucky to have clear port days. I don't know where to start... Let's see - Peter's favorite part - the all-you-can-eat ice cream. Jimmy's favorite part (Happy Birthday Jimmy on the 1st day) - the basketball court. Alexa loved the sea days and hanging out with her new friends. John and I liked the ports. Our first stop was Ketchikan. We started the day with a duck tour with a great guide. It was warm - no sweatshirts needed (we had them, of course, and carried them around all day). John & I then took a seaplane to Misty Fjords National Monument. It was a 2-hr flight - awesome! The pilot kept saying that we would stop and take a walk around - I though that meant on land, I was wrong. He set down in the middle of a lake surrounded by nothing but wilderness and told us we could walk around - on the pontoons of the plane! The scenery was spectacular - I have never been on anything like it. While we were on our trip - the kids were with Grandma & Grandpa Hilston, enjoying the ship and taking in the sites of town. We all made it to the salmon ladder - you could actually see fish flinging themselves up the rapids- something I had heard about but had never seen. Sad note - did you know they die after that? OK so that was Ketchikan. Later that evening, back on board, we sailed through a common ground for whales and the naturalist on board narrated the porpoise and whale sightings as we went by.  We woke up early the next day as we sailed through Tracy Arm Fjord from 6-10am.  It was exactly what you would picture on an Alaskan Cruise brochure - chunks of ice floating in the water (small chunks, I convinced myself) a narrow passage, snow covered mountains with steep rock faces and of course, a glacier. It was not raining, but it was COLD and windy.  Later that day, we arrived in Juneau. Side note here - there were other cruise ships at every port and we always seemed to arrive last and get the worst parking space - the furthest away from town, hmmph. We went to see the Mendenhall Glacier and took a 2 mile hike to get as close to is as we could - just across a lake that it was emptying into and next to a rushing waterfall. A nice walk and it didn't start really raining until we were waiting for the shuttle bus. Its so interesting to see things you learn about in school and have always pictured, but then it is right in front of you - like the glacier, the salmon ladder, etc. Also in Juneau, is Tracy's Crab Shack - featured on the TV's Top Chef, which I am a fan. We stopped and looked, took a picture, but we were having crab legs for dinner on board that night and it didn't seem to make sense to spend a gazillion dollars on crab legs. On to Skagway and Happy Birthday John! In Skagway, we rented a car and drove to the Yukon territory. This rental car was interesting - it was a Grand Caravan with a cassette deck and 164,000 miles on it. Thats ok - it got us up and over the mountains and into the Yukon. More absolutely breathtaking scenery. No trip to the Yukon would be complete without panning for gold, we stopped and did that before returning the car - they weighed the gold flecks we all found and each of us had about $10 worth of gold in our pans. We had a sea day and then a nighttime stop in Victoria, British Columbia - gorgeous city - we took a double decker bus tour. We saw mile 0 of the main highway that runs through Canada, we saw the other end a couple of years ago in Nova Scotia.  More about the cruising part - the food was delicious, the buffet was kind of weird food, but there was always the grill and pizzeria to fall back on. Everyone came together at dinner so that was always nice (Gma & Gpa Hilston, Chuck, Mary, Jason, Peyton, Landon & us) The boys enjoyed the kids club, sports deck, ping pong, the pool (thankfully it was indoor (still cold I thought)). Not a lot of time was spent outdoors because it was cold and wet most of the time. One night, John and I wanted to watch the Movie Under the Stars on deck. I wanted to see the movie so we stayed the whole time, but I didn't think I'd ever get warm again. That was with sweatshirts and wool blankets. We enjoyed trivia and the shows. One morning we sat in the library and played Monopoly.  Alexa was given and enjoyed a lot of freedom and hung out mostly with new friends. She slept in Gma & Gpa Hilston's cabin, but had to check in with us every night and she was always at dinner. We did run into her around the ship, but she was definitely enjoying the teen club and the freedom. Our cabin was comfortable, even though it had 4 people and 7 suitcases - you could actually still move around. The boys really liked being on the bunks. It was a good time. Today, after getting off the ship, we took in a Mariners vs. Orioles game - which I am happy to report that the Os won in 10. Dinner and some relaxing, suitcase shuffling (did everything really fit - yikes!)  and some pool time. We've had an amazing trip and really enjoyed being together. Tomorrow morning Alexa, Peter and I get on the plane. John and Jimmy take the red eye tomorrow night. Next year's trip plan is already taking shape - we'll keep you posted!

You'll Shoot Your Eye Out!

We had a great day in Whistler on Thursday. We went took a chairlift to the top of a mountain - actually we took 2 chairlifts. Then at the top of the mountain, we took another chairlift to the peak. It was awesome. At the top there were skiiers and snowboarders. Then we took a gondola to another peak. The gondola ride as it passes over the valley is the highest gondola in the world. On our way back down the mountain we spotted a black bear from the chairlift.  The boys, John & I went on an alpine slide while Alexa did a ropes course. We also worked through a large maze and then to close the day played putt putt. Yes, this was the match to decide the trip champion - it's not me. John came in at 2 under par and I was, lets just say a bunch over. But it may not be completely over yet - there is a putt putt course on the cruise. On Friday we stopped at a couple of Olympic sites before heading out - the sliding center where the bobsled and luge took place and Whistler Olympic Park where ski jumping, cross country skiing and the biathlon were held. We spotted another bear on our way there. John, Alexa and Jimmy actually shot a biathlon rifle at the targets - 14 of 15 targets hit between the 3 of them! We left Whistler and headed to Vancouver - what a beautiful city! At the seawall, we saw sea otters playing on the rocks. Jimmy is a huge Tron fan so we checked out a couple of filming locations. On our tour around Vancouver we took in the seaplane airport and the Olympic cauldron. Also the stadiums and the venue where the opening ceremonies were.  We headed back south to the US. Our border crossing was uneventful, which is a good thing. Our first mission for today was to collect all the 'extras' we picked up along our route and box them up to be sent home. It was emotional for us all as stuffed animal friends got packed in the box. We met John's cousin Cari for lunch and then headed to Boeing for a factory tour. We saw  747, 777 & 787s being assembled - it was really impressive. In Seattle, we checked out Pike Place Market where we saw fish being thrown - it was pretty cool. We saw the Space Needle, the original Starbucks, the original Nordstrom's, and a lot of cool neighborhoods. We found our way to the port so we will be good to go tomorrow. We ended the day at Shakey's - the same one that we went to our first day of the trip. We had such a good time on this road trip it is sad to have it come to an end.  Tomorrow we'll get on our cruise to Alaska - I won't be blogging - internet is not cheap on ships - but I'll catch you up when we get back next Sunday.  We'll keep you posted.

 

Playing Catch-Up

Sunday, July 13th

The Astoria (WA) column was first on our to-do list of the day. It is a big lighthouse-type thing without the light on the top of it. It is high up on a hill so you overlook the mouth of the Columbia River entering the Pacific. We saw fog - and lots of it. You couldn't even see the top of the column from the ground. So we didn't get exactly what we were hoping for from that spot. We have been following Jeanette and Jason's, friends from Grove City, vacation as they travel around west (they live outside of Cleveland - we hadn't seen them since we moved to FL) . Lucky for us, our paths crossed in Astoria. We met them at Fort Clatsop (the end of the Lewis and Clark expedition). It was great to see them again. Our families have both grown in the last 13 years. After bidding our friends farewell, we toured the sites of Astoria - basically location sites for the movie, Kindergarten Cop. Goonies was filmed there as well. From Astoria we continued north into Olympic National Park.  There are no parking lots with small dune beaches in the northwest. All seem to be rocky cliffs. In Olympic, we decided to stop at the beach. That consisted of walking down a steep cliff through dense foilage, then scaling down rocks. It was worth it, everyone even tossed the football around. The biggest accomplishment of the day was me making it back up the trail. Our day ended in Forks, WA - the setting for the Twilight movies. We didn't set out on the trip to scout movie locations - it just so happened that alot of movies take place in towns we visit. We stayed in a nice suite in a motel nestled in the woods.

Monday, July 14th

One of my favorite days of the trip - Crescent Lake (still in Olympic National Park). We have seen such amazing scenery on this trip it is hard to continue to come up with words to describe it, the lake surrounded by the mountains and the pine forests - breathtaking. We stopped at the Lake Crescent Lodge where there was a large lawn, a beach and a dock. It started with John and Alexa and I enjoying taking in the scenery on comfortable lawn furniture and the boys skipping rocks into the lake. Then someone jumped off the dock and the boys were set on swimming in the lake. Peter, Jimmy and John enjoyed jumping off the dock into the mountain lake while Alexa and I went shopping at the lodge. Continuing on in Olympic National Park, we went to Hurricane Ridge. Now, we have been using our GPS, we call her nuvi, on and off during this trip. She might be on her last hurrah and has not always been accurate. We still keep following her. Driving up to Hurricane Ridge, we wound up on a very narrow, gravel road through dense forest up the side of the mountain. Alot of people visit Hurricane Ridge every day, and we didn't see a single car on our gravel road. Hmm. Well, we decided to just go with it and sure enough, we eventually joined a nice paved road with other cars on it. So I guess nuvi gets us there, she just keeps it interesting along the way. When we finally arrived it was amazing. You looked out at many snow capped mountains - awesome scenery, pictures don't do it justice. On our way back down, we stuck to the paved roads. Continuing on, we were actually early for the 6:45 car ferry to Whidbey Island and our lodging for the night. We actually got to the Coachman Inn before the pool closed! I though it was a little chilly to swim, but the pool was heated and the boys enjoyed jumping into water where they couldn't touch the bottom (it went to 10 ft).

Tuesday, July 15th

The main event of the day was whale watching. On our way there, we went over Deception Pass bridge. It is really high and it is over water with a strong current. It was a $10 charge to walk down a path and look up at the bridge so we didn't do it, but got a good view from the other side. It was also pretty foggy. OK, so we met our whale watch captain at 12:30 and headed out to the San Juan islands where the orcas were known to be swimming.  The boat was fairly small, there were only 14 passengers which was nice, some of the other whale watch boats we saw had a hundred people all crammed at a railing. The watch started slow, but turned awesome. Our captain was very knowledgeable. You could hear him talking on the radio with other boat captains about where the pods (groups) of orcas were. We had an orca swim right up next to the boat! Jimmy was excited that it was so close he could see it underwater. There were several in that area - Alexa captured probably the only great shot of 4 swimming together. They surface fast and you want to watch, you don't think about the camera until they are under again. We also saw a group of humpback whales, one of them came up out of the water and slammed down like the insurance commercial. It was pretty cool. We got back to the dock about 5:30, so we were hungry. Our trusty nuvi gave us the name of a restaurant that sounded good for dinner but then took us to the middle of a neighborhood. I guess we were supposed to invite ourselves over for dinner. After a couple of wild good chases, we settled for Arby's because it was time to head north into Canada.  The border crossing was uneventful. The agent was not mean, but not pleasant either. Not even a, "Welcome to Canada" from her.  We drove for about an hour and then had to wind through Vancouver - a beautiful city, we are going to spend more time there on Friday on our way back to Seattle.  To get to Whistler, you take the Sea to Sky highway.  We were treated to another amazing sunset over the mountains as we drove. Then we kept driving for awhile longer, until finally arriving (pretty late) at our time share. Not too late though to be so excited to see a washer and dryer in the unit that we threw a load in.

Today, Wednesday, July 16th

I'll start by first saying this is the nicest lodging I have ever stayed in - wow! Props to the Club Intrawest. The whole town of Whistler is full of chalet looking lodges that are right out of the movies and ours is no exception. It has a grand entrance full of dark wood and sits among the Fairmont and the 4 Seasons (pretty nice hotels, huh) There is a little of the Wilderness Lodge feel to it, but this seems more authentic. The suite is gorgeous and cozy (yet large) and we lost no time exploding into it. The pool is surrounded by woods and nature paths around the hotel and the pool chairs have big comfy cushions - a really nice environment to spend a good part of the afternoon in. The kids especially loved the slide, built into the side of a hill so it didn't ruin the picturesque setting. The other favorite that has emerged so far is the game room. It is full of arcade games and air hockey and it is all free. There was definitely some time logged in there today. Jimmy is reigning air hockey champ, but no one can touch me at Frogger. There aren't very many roads in Whistler. The restaurants and shops are all on pedestrian promenades. The parking lots are on the outer edge of the village. After lunch today, we walked to Whistler Olympic Park, where the medals for the mountain sports were awarded. We walked to dinner tonight, which was in the base village (we are in the upper). It was so pleasant, you walked through the pedestrian mall across from the hotel, then on a paved trail through the woods to get to the lower village, where there was another promenade. It was so scenic and such a nice walk. After dinner, more pool and arcade.. Tomorrow is another day in Whistler - among the fun things we have planned - the match to end all matches in mini golf - the deciding game. We'll keep you posted!  

 

Having fun in the car!

Tonight's post title was brought to you by Peter. Today was a transition day. We have finished our forays into California and Nevada and are now heading back north. On our trip, we stopped to see Salem, the state capitol, and had lunch at Oregon State University. We also stopped at the Nike headquarters - there was nothing to go in and see, but what we saw of the campus was impressive. Tonight we had dinner in Seaside, Oregon, which is a cute beach town with a main street and boardwalk. We walked out to the beach and people had campfires all over the beach - if we were in town another night, we would be doing that as well, but we are moving on tomorrow.  After a long car trip, we were glad that the pool is open 24 hours so John took the kids swimming before bed.  It has been warm, but now that we are back along the coast we will be back to cooler temperatures.We'll keep you posted!

Surrounded by Volcanoes!

Yesterday was Lassen Volcanic Park, today was Crater Lake - two days filled with volcanoes. At Lassen, we saw the boiling sulfur pots - geez did those smell. On our drive back to Oregon we had dinner looking out at Mt. Shasta. On our drive after dinner we saw the most amazing sunset ever. There was a ridge of mountains off to the left side of the car and the sky was painted with brilliant pinks and oranges. To the right side of the car was a full moon next to Mt. Shasta. I took pictures of both, but the car was moving and they were blurry and didn't do it justice. Speaking of pink in the sky - isn't that supposed to be a good sign for the next day's weather? (Pink at night.....) Well, today we encountered our first dose of rain. On our way up the mountain, it was raining off and on, with a lot of cloud cover.  John and the boys were going to walk down to the lake (the lake is an enormous crater left by the volcano imploding on itself, what was once as 12,000 foot mountain is now 7,000) and Alexa and I were going to take a trolley tour around the rim. Why split up? The cars park on the rim. The surface of the lake is actually much lower. Going down didn't seem so bad, but I read that climbing up to the rim from the lake's surface was equivalent to climbing up 77 flights of stairs on over a mile of switchbacks.  Umm, no thanks!  Anyway, John dropped Alexa and I off at the trolley and the boys headed out on their adventure. The first thing we heard on the trolley was that we should have been there yesterday when the sun was out that the lake was a brilliant, vibrant blue. It's clear - you can see down 144 feet (learned that today). We had a good time, learned all about geology and animals and plants and the history. We had some great views, but I was wishing that the sun would come out to see it in all its glory. I also kept worrying about the boys. Yesterday, on a pretty level loop path, Jimmy wiped out and took most of the skin off his knee. I was worried about the steepness and how everyone would do getting back up the cliff.  No need for worry, they did it without issue - John said the boys even sprinted up the last switchback. All agreed it was a tough hike. The best part of the day - the sun came out and we witnessed the brilliant ble we had heard about, I am so glad we saw it. We were actually back at the hotel in time for dinner  (there is a nice restaurant that had live entertainment tonight) and a swim in the huge, indoor pool. Tomorrow is a travel day, with a couple of sites. We'll keep you posted!

The Comstock Lode, the Lake and the Circus

We have enjoyed our couple of days in the Reno/Sparks/Virginia City/Lake Tahoe area.  Yesterday we visited Virginia City, an awesome wild, west town. We took a train past the mines of the Comstock Lode and then a trolley tour around the city. The kids enjoyed the old time candy and ice cream store while I enjoyed a sarsparilla. We have been to several preserved western towns, and this is probably my favorite. Before retiring for the night, we played the midway games at Circus Circus.  There were some minor issues with our original suite, so before heading out this morning, we packed up and moved across the complex to a townhouse - much more comfortable. On our way to Lake Tahoe, we stopped at Donner's Pass. Yes, that Donner, from the Donner Party - we didn't pay to get into the museum because well, I didn't care to see an exhibit on what they had to do to survive. OK, on to pleasantness - Squaw Valley the site of the 1960 winter Olympics. We took a gondola up to the top of the mountain where you could see all the chairlifts and ski trails. No snow on this mountain in the summer, though. Interesting fact - Walt Disney hosted the 60 Olympics, he styled the scenery of Big Thunder Mountain after the terrain in Squaw Valley. We toured the Olympic museum and then headed to Lake Tahoe. Wow, it is beautiful. I know where I want a 2nd home. There were people rafting on a river that ran into the lake and quaint little towns and the lake itself is gorgeous. The scenery was amazing. We had dinner at Edgewood, the golf course where the NBC televised Celebrity Golf tournament is located. That event happens to be next week, so a lot of the stands and other sets were already set up. We ate on a patio that overlooked the golf course and the lake - it was an amazing spot. On our way out, we stopped at a beach to put feet in the lake - cold, yet refreshing. We arrived back at the resort early (around 7 which is super early for us) and had some downtime and swimming. John and the kids went to Circus Circus for one last hurrah and I had some me time. It has been a fun couple of days in Nevada (and CA, Lake Tahoe is partly there too).   Tomorrow we head to the last major national park that John has not been too - Lassen Volcanic. We'll keep you posted.

Ocean to Desert, She Wrote

The title might not make sense unless you are a fan of the 80s murder mystery series, Murder, She Wrote. I am a fan and today we visited the town that is Cabot Cove, Maine on the TV series. The picture of me is in front of the main character's, Jessica's, house. We also visited a couple other sites from the TV show. It was weird how recognizable the town was. Then we were looking for a nice beach to put our feet in the Pacific. The clerk at the hotel recommended Glass Beach to look for sea glass. Alexa loves sea glass so she loved the beach. The boys like throwing rocks in the water so they loved the beach. John & I were looking for a sand beach and it wasn't that exactly. We shouldn't be surprised, the entire coast is rocky. You had to scale down a steep dirt path to get there. You could feel the cold air blowing in off the ocean. It was a scenic spot, but nothing like a Florida beach. John has had mini golf rematch on his mind so today we settled the score. He beat me by 8 strokes - I had awful luck. But, if you're keeping track, I am still 1 stroke ahead. We have 1 more mini golf opportunity on this trip and it will be winner take all. The kids are really getting better too. Alexa was only 3 strokes behind me. We had a fun morning, but we had the road ahead of us to get to Sparks (in the Reno area).  I think of the 5 hour trip, we spent 4.5 hours on windy twisty mountain roads. They're pretty and scenic during the day, but I am not a fan at night so we were glad to arrive. Now we are settled into our suite, where we will be for 3 nights. We are looking forward to not setting the alarm in the morning! We'll keep you posted. 
Note: 2nd floor - still no luggage carts,no elevator but wonderful AC!!

Paul Bunyan chops down Stout's Grove

Yesterday, I didn't blog because we didn't have enough outlets in the room for the laptop! We were in a hotel made from a redwood tree and there were like 2 outlets. We have 3 phones, 3 tablets, an ipod and a camera to charge every night. We need outlets! Anyway, I'll start with yesterday.

July 5
Yesterday, we left Oregon and headed for California, but not before stopping at Oregon Caves. To walk in the cave you had to bend over and lean to get around formations. They are big on not touching anything in there, but it was hard to maneuver. A scary part came when an elderly gentleman tumbled off the path. His party did not continue the tour. We saw him later having his arm wrapped up - we hope he is OK. When we got into California, we were at the top of the redwood forests. We went to Stout's Grove where the closing scene of Return of the Jedi was filmed - the scene where everyone is dancing around in the Ewok village.The size of the trees was impressive. We have not done a lot of highway driving - most of it is up and down windy, twisty mountain roads. Last night, as I said, we stayed in a room made of redwood - very quaint.

Today, July 6
We started this morning hiking to a lighthouse island that can only be walked to during low tide. The kids enjoyed walking along the rocks looking for crabs. OK, 2 of the kids - one was adamant that he did not want to be pinched. More windy and twisty roads and we reached the Trees of Mystery. Yes, a litlle bit of a tourist trap, but we enjoyed our visit. There is a giant Paul Bunyan statue that talks to you as you are looking at it, like it replies back to you if you say something to it. The main part were the trails and the gondola ride. We hiked through impressive redwood forests to get to a gondola that would take us up to the top of the mountain. I liked that the gondolas only seated 6, so we had our own car.  At the top of the mountain, the views off the mountain side were pretty, but there was a lot of fog on the ocean side, unfortunately. We drove through more windy twisty roads to a couple of other redwood sites, including driving our car through a tree, and then headed on to Fort Bragg, where we are now. The road to get here was up and down and around, we were all a little green when we finally got out of the car. We did ride along the ocean for awhile - you can't beat the views. Tonight as we were going to dinner, we saw the sun setting over the ocean - a beautiful site and a nice way to end a very scenic day.

Tomorrow we are headed to Mendocino - the TV town of Cabot Cove and then on to Reno. We'll keep you posted!

Note: still no luggage carts or AC

Happy 4th of July!

We hope you enjoyed your holiday as much as we enjoyed ours. We kept it local today, concentrating on this middle part of the Oregon coast. Our first stop was dune buggying through Oregon Dunes. They are not little dunes that separate a parking lot from a beach, we are talking dunes that go on for miles through forests down to the beach. The whole recreation area is ATV paths. We went through narrow paths through pine forests to open rolling dunes down to the ocean. I think the kids (the adults too) favorite part was when we went straight down the sides of large dunes. We may be at the coast, but it was not beach weather. It was quite chilly on the ride, due in part to the wind, but we were all in long pants and sweatshirts. The clear blue sky only enhanced the scenery.  After getting wind blown, we moved on to the bumper boats, go karts and mini-golf. I don't mean to brag, ok yes I do, I am the champion by 9 strokes. We had lunch in Old Town Florence, which is a quaint seaside town (well, actually its on a river, but its close to the ocean and looks like it could be seaside).  It was all decked out for the 4th - American flags lined the streets and there was a festival going on - a really celebratory atmosphere.After lunch, we drove up the coast to the sea lion caves.  There were hundreds of them in the cave - it was an awesome sight. What did we learn about the sea lions today - they smell really bad. We also went to an observation deck overlooking some rocks where another hundred were lying. It was interesting to watch them ride the waves as they came ashore. We came back to the hotel, relaxed, swam and watched the fireworks from our room. We had the windows open (remember - no AC) so you could really hear the booms and it didn't bother any of our kids - that is a first. They were being launched across the river from us so it was an impressive sight to see the reflection of the explosions on the water. The best part about the fireworks - no traffic afterwards! California here we come! We'll keep you posted.

Searching for DB Cooper, Roller Coasters & Luggage Carts

7 HEAVY suitcases, 4 backpacks and miscellaneous accumulated items - 3 hotels - no luggage carts. That's right. I don't think that trend has caught on here in the Northwest. Hotel 1, we were ground floor - no big deal - just a lot of trips  Hotel 2 - we could pull up right outside the townhouse - ok, not a problem. Today's hotel - hotel # 3 - the hotel is built in to the side of a hill along a riverbank so our room is down 2 flights of stairs around a couple of turns and then you actually go up a couple of stairs just in front of our door. Tonight coming down wasn't a huge problem, going back up is not going to be fun. I'm not complaining though - the room is gorgeous and we have a nice view of the Siuslaw River. Tomorrow night, we will be able to sit in the comfort of our huge room and watch the fireworks out the window.  The other thing that the hotels are missing is AC, but thats OK too - it really cools down at night. So today, we left the Mt. Hood area and headed back to the Columbia River - but this time in search of the actual site where DB Cooper's money was found. (hijacked a plane, jumped out in mid-flight with money, no trace ever found - except the suitcase of money - google it)  John did a little bit of internet research and we were able to locate the exact beach. (I like unsolved cases - we try to visit as many sites as we can find when we go on trips)  Anyway, back to today's trip. We continued to Portland to see the Trailblazer's home and the International Rose Test Garden, which I think has to be the largest rose garden anywhere. The air was so fragrant and there were roses of all colors and sizes - it was really beautiful. While Alexa and I enjoyed the rose garden, Jimmy and Peter lacked appreciation for it so it was time to reel them back in to our travel excitement. Hmm, what better way than a roller coaster? There is a small amusement park in Portland, Oaks Park that is more like a permanent fair. There was a roller coaster with a loop in it and the boys loved it. Everyone also tried their hand at the old fashioned shooting gallery. After some 'dumb fun', history was beckoning and so was the end of the Oregon Trail in Oregon City.  Most museums are open to at least 5 in the summer, but this one was not. We got there a couple minutes before 4 and it was already closed. Thats OK, we were still in the spot that was the end of the Oregon Trail, and that is cooler than just reading about it. There were some historical signs that gave us info and so hopefully something was learned - like John McLoughlin is the father of Oregon. We even saw his house, of course that was closed too. Yesterday, Jimmy was reading his Guiness Book of Records and read about an elevator in Oregon City so we decided to check that out. It is a municipal elevator, one of only 4 in the world, it is considered the world's longest vertical street. A cliff separates the halves of town so there is an elevator that you use to go up and down. Before leaving we town, we stopped at Williamette Falls. After some car time, we were in Eugene at the University of Oregon - nice place. We ate dinner at a favorite restaurant of the Ducks (the University of Oregon Ducks) that serves a bajillion types of calzones.  We decided to skip Salem, the state capitol, and Oregon State and catch them on our way back through. Now we are in Florence, and looking forward to a fun 4th of July.  Have a safe and wonderful holiday! We'll keep you posted.