Tag Archives: family history

2017 Pacific Northwest Summer – Part Five

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The last weekend in August we headed for the treasure of the Oregon State Parks system, Silver Falls. As a native Oregonian I’m embarrassed to admit I’d never been here before. It’s about 40 minutes outside of Salem, and the park boundary encompasses more than 9,000 acres and 10 waterfalls. Incredible!

There’s too much to see in one day with a toddler, so we stayed close to the 177-foot South Falls. We may return in the fall but definitely next summer when Aria can more easily walk up and down the trail behind South Falls and perhaps beyond. The video is only a taste of the beauty the park offers:

We’re coming close to the end of our summer travels and sadly the end of this series. I still expect one or two more trips before the end of September. The other videos in the series are here: Astoria, Aurora, Mount Hood and Seabrook. Thanks for watching!

2017 Pacific Northwest Summer – Part Four

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It’s the next installment of our summer travel documentary. This time we hopped in the Hylton family truckster for a trek to Seabrook, Washington, a cute little development just outside Pacific Beach. It’s also 189 miles from home, which meant a lot of time in the car. The video alludes to this.

The trip was an opportunity for the Seattle and Portland cousins to get together again during the summer. Claire and Aria were the biggest stars in this piece, which left me with 153 video snippets and about 35 minutes of raw footage. Overwhelming! After a great deal of culling, I think the final product is a lot of fun:

At least a couple more quick trips are planned before this series wraps up for the summer. If you’ve missed any of our previous stops in Astoria, Aurora and Mount Hood, check them out!

2017 Pacific Northwest Summer – Part Three

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Our summer adventure documentary picks up with a visit to Mount Hood. We’ve had a good time so far with stops in Astoria and also in Aurora for a look at World War II bombers. I’ve enjoyed experimenting a bit in my video production this year.

This particular trip was a return to the mountain, also called Wy’east by the Multnomah tribe of the Chinookan peoples. The tribe no longer exists as a distinct entity, but the Wy’east name lives on. We drove past Willamette Falls on the way and then stopped at Timberline Lodge to ride the Magic Mile. Sadly, Heidi and Bruno, the lodge’s Saint Bernards, took the day off. While Aria didn’t see them, I made sure to get her a Saint Bernard stuffed animal at the end of the trip:

I’m a native Oregonian and have lived here my whole life, but I never get tired of the beauty of Mount Hood. It’s stunning. We’re lucky it’s so close to Portland.

For fun here’s a look at our first trip to the mountain with our daughter in 2016. It was in May, so there was still a fair amount of snow around, and Aria was a little unsure of the experience:

She’s definitely more comfortable about a year later. More good stuff on the way as the summer continues. See you on the road!