West Coast Camping 2015

The day school let out we hitched up the trailer and headed west. WAY west. All the way to the ocean west.

First stop, Crater Lake. Still very snowy, only part of the road was open.

Dinner stop at Crater Lake Lodge. Spectacular views and stellar food.

 Camping outside Crater Lake. Not even to the really big trees yet.

Our camp host gave us a list of nearby hikes to waterfalls, we picked a couple short ones and enjoyed the views. Even after a solid month of rain Colorado just isn't green like this. On the plus side, while it dumped back in CO we didn't get rained on in OR.

Next stop, Redwoods SP and NP. More hiking and poking around nature.

After a couple days in California we headed back to the Oregon Coast. First stop, a lighthouse tour. FFM has been inside lighthouses before but was small enough he doesn't remember. This one you could get right up next to the beautiful Fresnel lens

We drove US101 right up the coast, stopping when something looked fun, tasty, interesting, cool. This included farmer's markets, funky shops, fishy places, and various beaches.

Also a stop at the Newport Aquarium where we were just in time for otter feeding time. They eat restaurant quality seafood. This crab must have looked tasty, FFM requested crab for dinner.

During our stay low tide hit about mid afternoon. It was the perfect time to trek out into the water and gently investigate anemones, limpets, mussels, crabs and starfish.

 Color on my little phone is weird,  in reality this starfish was more of a purple color.

As requested, Dungeness crab for dinner! They ate the whole thing with a side of ling cod.

After a couple more beach days we headed to Tillamook, home of Tillamook cheese. They were making pepperjack cheese the day we toured.

Camping in Oregon is pretty easy, campgrounds are often right on the beach with running hot water in the bathrooms - showers! Our campground was separated from this beach by a single dune. The night of this sunset the wet sand of the beach reflected the sunset making the beach look bright red (again, not being the owner of a fancy camera my little phone did the best it could).

Most kids in OR are still in school so we had the beaches pretty much to ourselves. When we found other families, the kids, of course, immediately formed packs and hauled FFM around to show him the local flora and fauna. They also built giant castles and dug holes deeper than they are tall.

It must be a good vacation if your kid is more sand and dirt than kid...

Disney

For the first time ever (since we've become real grownups) we took a spring break vacation. We've mostly skied during our spring break in the past, which if you know us isn't any different than a regular winter weekend around here.  This year we went all out with a blockbuster Disney World/Disney Cruise vaca.

(A warning - tainted by the insanely overpriced airfare to Florida, I didn't start out with the best attitude on this vacation. I managed to overcome.)

Being from a state prone to blizzards in March, we left Denver a couple night prior to our ship departure to give a little wiggle room in case we got stuck somewhere. The weather was gorgeous all the way around so after a late Friday night arrival in Orlando we hit the Disney parks on Saturday. We all have fond memories of Disney World just a couple years ago, so our target this trip was Epcot. The day was hot, steamy, and windless but we managed to have a good time. (Even locals were griping about the insane humidity that day, we desert folk were a sticky mess).

Being good parents we previewed the schedule of character meet and greets and were surprised when FFM announced he wasn't really interested in meeting any of the characters. Except Mary Poppins would be nice to meet, maybe we could find Mary Poppins. And we did! With her dancing penguin pal.

We spent the morning on the "countries" side of Epcot, and the afternoon riding rides and doing experiences in the front. 

 One thing we learned from our previous Disney trip, meal reservations are a good idea. A real meal can increase child stamina by at least 3000%. We opted for a late lunch in Italy, and were pleased to be seating right across from the flaming giant pizza ovens. Super cool. We're not sure our back yard is big enough, but if we ever manage to squeeze in a wood fired pizza oven it'll be in the shape of a giant's mouth for sure.

After a fun filled, meltdown free and sunburn free day at the park we crashed back at our hotel. The next morning the buses for the ship arrived and we were on our way!

Here's the thing, we're really bad about stopping to take pictures of the fun things we do, so for an entire week of swimming, water slides, beaches, snorkeling, eating, making new friends, quiet reading time, loud party time, shows, more eating, even more water slides we have a grand total of about a dozen pictures. Here are our favorites!

Swimming at the beach in Cozumel

Giant inflatable ocean toy thingy that was fun but caused many injuries.

Tendering from our ship (background) in Grand Cayman.

FFM first ever real snorkel trip! We snorkeled a ship wreck and Cheeseburger Reef. 

 Grand Cayman was by far and away our favorite stop. The weather, ocean, lunch, all perfect. We headed out for a day of snorkeling with a great guide. FFM has been begging to snorkel for years now, and tried a couple years ago when we were on the Gulf side of Florida, an area known for gorgeous beaches and murky water. This was picture perfect, and after the initial hyperventilating he took to it like a kid with salt water in his veins. Our first stop was a shallow reef, so far from the 80,000' drop off (seriously?) that I wasn't worried about anyone having a drop off panic attack. We were warned that there were BIG fish that would be swimming around all the little fish, but they were game fish, NOT SHARKS.

The second stop was a modern (70 years old) ship wreck. A ship carrying a load of rice started leaking when it was almost at the dock.  Before long the ship was underwater and splitting at the seams as the rice expanded. The ship was declared a total loss, and just sat there for decades. Recently the Royal Navy agreed to dynamite it so it wouldn't be sticking out of the water anymore. It makes a great dive site for beginners as there aren't very many bits sticking up. FFM figured out pretty fast that he could dive down for a closer look. He reported to Travis that it was much better to dive down than stay at the top and Dad should just spit his snorkel out and get down close to the fish/wreck.

Salt water in his veins

 Our last stop was the famous Disney Island, Castaway Cay. We had clear skies but rough seas most of the trip and this day they were the worst. We woke up and the ship hadn't docked yet, never a good sign. It took four attempts and was well after lunch before we could finally get on to the island, at which point all excursions had been cancelled so everyone was funneled to the beach. Luckily it's a huge beach so we didn't feel too crowded. We were sad to miss out on another snorkel adventure plus our afternoon with sting rays, but the water was so murky from the swells that it wasn't good viewing anyway.

While we were all rested and relaxed at the end of our trip, we decided we're pretty much done with Disney for now. FFM is already planning an all snorkeling vacation and a cruise that doesn't revolve around characters dancing around a ship.

My True Love Gave to Me

This year for Christmas we were blessed with illness! Travis took enough days off that he could spend the entire winter school break with us and all in all we got ONE day of skiing together as a family.

The first weekend of the break Travis was sick with Norovirus, a killer stomach bug. He kindly passed it on to me and I started to come out of it Christmas Day. Meanwhile Travis caught a sore throat/cold that mostly made him tired. Christmas Day went pretty well, then FFM caught the stomach bug and the remainder of our family guests skedaddled before it could strike. After scouring the Vail Valley for Pedialyte Pops FFM consumed half a box and felt better.

Week 2 we had a couple of days of everyone being mostly healthy and we managed a day out on the hill.  Tuesday of the second week Travis woke up with a sore elbow. He had me take a look at it to see if he'd banged it and bruised it, but what I saw was a giant, puffy, angry red welt. Quick trip to Urgent Care and he was armed with two kinds of antibiotics and pain killers for a staph/strep bacterial infection in his elbow. By the weekend my foot ached from doing an extremely cold NYE night time ski down with FFM, but luckily FFM had ski team on Sunday so he was able to get out on the mountain again.

We all were feeling mostly well on Christmas Day and had a wonderful and leisurly day with family. We must have been good kids this year as our wish lists were well represented and we'll have sugary treats for weeks to come.

Birthday Week 2014

FFM and I have birthdays just a few days apart. They coincide with a big national holiday so at our house we have declared an entire week off of work, etc and have cleverly dubbed it "Birthday Week."

This year marked an, ahem, significant birthday for me. Travis and I talked about what sounded good and quickly landed on a plan to retreat to a famous resort here in Colorado as a special treat. FFM, however, had plans for a huge bash with every single person he knows. We did throw a big (not birthday) bash, nearly 70 people in our backyard and greenbelt, and had a great time. Took ZERO pictures, but we played in the water, ate and drank well, and enjoyed the company.

Right after cleaning up the party we headed south to Colorado Springs. We stayed through the holiday weekend and enjoyed relaxation and pampering and amazing food. The boys had never been to Cave of the Winds, so we spent half a day exploring the cave and riding the new rides that have appeared. FFM surprised us all by being an expert on the ropes course, he even ventured out onto the top most level that juts out over the canyon. The ropes are far enough apart there that it's not really meant for someone his size, even Travis had to stretch a few times, but by being creative and swinging his little body around (my mom senses tingled mightily and I mumbled over and over that the safety equipment really was safe) he tackled every single run on the course. I enjoyed the lowest section, managed the upper section, and quit when it got time to go over the canyon.  FFM loved the cave AND ropes and we're already making plans to see some bigger and better caves in the west and hit the ropes course in Vail.

Ready for spelunking!

View from the ground of the ropes course. F in center, waving

The section over the canyon. F reached by swinging to the next rope loop.

STRECTCHING to reach the platform.
It took 4 tries but he made it on his own.

I do believe this is where his aspiration to become a tight rope walker comes from.

The section that sticks out over the canyon.
It's further down than it looks! 

The resort figured out it was my birthday and I had little treats left for me in the room and a lovely Baked Alaska birthday cake with dinner.

We stuck around the resort on the 4th and partook of the various resort activities that were available (it's a bit like a cruise, you can hop from one thing to the next all day if you like). The pool was packed so after a short swim in the morning we played all afternoon and enjoyed the family carnival. We finally got to eat at the traditional (not quite) English pub and enjoyed a rowdy lunch. While the menu wasn't anything like any English/Scottish/Irish pub I've ever been in, the decor came straight from an old English pub that had been dismantled and shipped over.

4th of July family carnival. All you can eat cotton candy and sno-cones!

Finally getting to have some Irish lager at the Golden Bee

We discussed where to watch the fireworks from, and after deciding we were one of a few rooms that would have a good view we stayed upstairs and watched out our window. We could also see fireworks in nearby Colorado Springs, we think maybe from Fort Carson.

Fireworks from our window, a lucky treat!
 They opened so we got all the noise, too.

Our hands down favorite activity (tied with the cave) was the new bowling alley. T and I loved the adult beverage milkshakes (s'mores milkshake with Frangelico and whiskey anyone?) and FFM enjoyed the "bar" foods (waffle batter dipped buffalo corn dog)  and his kid friendly black and white milkshake. We ate, drank, bowled, boogied and had an all around fabulous time.

 After a leisurely Sunday brunch buffet this morning we headed back well rested, well fed, and happy to be headed home.

Ski the Alps

We left Geneva on a Saturday morning for the three hour drive to our ski resort, Tignes. Tignes is part of a gargantuan ski area that is actually two together, Tignes and Val d'Isere. Longer ago than I'd like to admit my family skiied both of these areas, before they were connected, and I have fond memories of both. Of course NOTHING in town looked the same after being away for decades, but the Alps and the Grand Motte Glacier still took my breath away.

View from our balcony

FFM riding his favorite kind of lift - POMA aka surface lift. 

The beginning of the week was snowy, up past F's knees in a lot of places! 

Twilight walk to dinner with pal Haaken.

Sunny morning, Travis getting ready to pop on his skis.
We had to walk a few yards uphill to get to the ski run.

View down the mountain to the village of Tignes.

Lunch on mountain, totally different affair than in the US!

Enjoying long, quiet, beautiful ski runs.

FFM loved all the different kinds of lifts, this was a massive 30 person gondola.

Having fun in the powder after my big crash!

Eric and FFM walking to one of the funiculars.

Patiently waiting for our turn on the "mountain subway"

Family ski day!

Life sure is good!

One evening we decided to go out to dinner with my Mom and Eric. I randomly picked a restaurant that turned out to be a local delight. After searching for our location, literally at the end of the road, we walked into a cozy stone building that had a row of flaming metal boxes out front. New to us, we used sign language (only place my rusty French didn't work well with totally non-English speaking staff) to inquire about the flaming boxes. Turns out it was for dinner, so we ordered enough for the table. Yum! Tucked under a big copper chimney we grilled various strips of meat, dipped in an assortment of sauces, and followed it up with a giant dish of potatos au gratin. Declared a gastronomic success!

Storm rolling in again, must be about time to head home.