Cruisin' Oregon

There is something to be said of hotel life: maid service, swimming pools, fitness center, room service, clean sheets, unlimited hot water, premium channels to name a few. I am a big, big fan.

Our morning started out waking up in the hotel, having a huge breakfast in the hotel restaurant and going for a morning bike ride. We got all of 2 miles, and Romney crashed...hard. It took us a couple of minutes to get him all cleaned up and moving. It took almost a half an hour to convince him he really did have to ride the bike that had just dumped him off back to the hotel. It wasn’t the longest ride our little family has ever completed. It was one of the prettiest (along the Columbia river banks next to the airport, a serious plus for Bill.) We finished cleaning up Romney’s scrapped knees and packed out to pick up our next “traveling hotel”.

There is something to be said for RV life: lots of organizing opportunities, any food you want to eat, any time you want it, just like you like it prepared, more than a three feet distance between your bed and your children’s bed, no check out time, ability to change locations on a whim to name a few. But none of those reasons are cooler than the most important reason we chose to try out RV life this vacation: Time (absolutely unplugged) together!

The first few hours were spent at Fred Meyer (a northwest staple) gathering supplies for the trek. We bought all kinds of delicious foods to keep us going for the next several days and then rolled our groceries (unbagged) and unloaded them into our “house” straight from the cart. Skipping that transfering of bags to the car, and then the house, and then the cupboards was pretty awesome, a definite RV plus.

Bill was a masterful, if nervous first time RV driver. Me and my friend GPS did the navigating and I did a great job (GPS not so much at the end.) We stopped at a roadside store for fresh berries and salmon jerky. The latter was a treat for Bill and a huge mistake. Apparently not so great tasting or smelling.

Our first night in the RV has given us some good giggles. Giving the boys a walkie-talkie to roam the campground was our first. We sent them out to explore while we prepared their dinner. We got called a few times with silly stuff, but my favorite was William singing the Can-Can to me. I called back with my own version. The next beep from them was nothing but Romney belly-laughing back.

Next was our moment on the beach. We are at Nehalem Bay this evening and it is a bit chilly (This is July, right?) We arrived late (after 7:30) got into our spot, hooked up the RV (another first) and walked over the dunes to the beach. The boys were in heaven, even with a cold wind and the sun setting.




I was also in heaven despite the cold, because I got a bear hug from my man while watching the sun setting over the Pacific and watching my boys play in one of the most beautiful spots I have ever been.