6 members travelling….

I’m back and hopefully with the complete story. 

So I lastly posted about Meyers Creek.  Our campground for that evening was Bullards Beach State Park.  We arrived with a fore warning to not head to the beach with our precious children.  The Park Ranger was so nervous about the ocean and the crazy stormy waves that were crashing in.  Of course we weren’t going to let them close to the ocean…but that fear wasn’t stopping us from seeing the ocean.  We were so close to it how could we resist?  Or so we thought 3/4 miles was a close walk right?  Nothing like trudging through the sand for that long of a walk.  Attempting to carry a 30lb toddler and encouraging a 3 and 6 year old that they can make this distance without being carried as well.

This is my we are almost there right??

‘

Ok that trudge was worth it!! We can do our run around and put more sand in our ears trick.

Miss A was the photographer for the trip to the beach…she needs a few more lessons, but hey it’s kind of fun having more photos of the Mr and I.

That evening we had another great supper and roasted marshmallows by the fire and everyone had a fantastic sleep from all that breezy ocean air!

The next morning we pushed those to buttons and buckled the kids in for another drive.  This time we made a stop at the Heceta Head Lighthouse.  I think we managed to stop to see this lighthouse every trip to Oregon.  Our guide in the lighthouse was a teacher and so she loved chatting to the kids.  It made for a more entertaining tour as the girls were very attentive to her stories.  No one was scared this time around climbing the stair.  Of course it was a much shorter walk to the viewing point.

 

Have to love the use of a self timer to get those family photos! (The first photo was after Mr. J hit his head on the concrete and the second I think I gave him a candy to calm down)

The girls having fun posing for photos as well.  Its such a fun bridge and the girls like being behind the camera and coming up with there own picture ideas.

Our day ended at the Beachside State Park.  We could hear the roar of the ocean behind us in amongst the storm brewing.  This time we roasted our hot dogs and smokies over the fire before the rain hit and had a nice run around on the beach.  Then the rain hit.  It was a lot of rain.  Made me very thankful for the warm and dry location we were in!  Not one leak in the camper!

The next day we packed up and said goodbye to the ocean and Oregon.  Today was shopping day! We managed to fill a few shopping bags before heading to our campground of the evening.  This wasn’t without a hitch of course.  We had shopped a little longer than we were planning and dinner was in amongst truck trailers at a rest area along the highway.  We put all the kids in there pj’s and were hoping to hit our campground soon.  As we were searching for our turnoff in the darkened sky we notice and big CLOSED sign posted over top….uhhh now what?  Thankfully D had 1 more campground in mind so we trekked on.  We ended up in Millersylvania state park.   It thankfully was open and had room for our large motorhome.  This was our last night to sleep in it and the rain was pouring down so no campfire that night. 

The next morning it was clean out the fridge eat some random foods and pack pack pack before heading to Camperworld by 11 to return the motorhome and catch a ride to the airport where our vehicle vacationed.

We made it with about 5 minutes to spare.  The broom was pulled out to quickly tidy up, the lysol wipes to quickly clean up the last of the messes.  We passed the cleanliness test! Next was getting all of our 8 pieces of luggage, 5 bags and this time around a bunch of snacks and other random things. Run it through the pouring rain to somewhat of a sheltered area.  Randomly handing bottled water to strangers who were eager to pay us for them.

Then it was the taxi ride.  2 of the kids had experienced there first taxi ride back in San Francisco.  This time around we did not fit in 1 taxi to the airport. The biggest taxi is a 7 passenger mini van.  When you are travelling with as much luggage and children as us and no matter how great your taxi driver is, he’s not going to fit us all in unless he has a roof rack.  So the second taxi took the last few items and D and off to the airport we went.  You think we would have some communication of what floor we would exit on (arrivals, departures?) but we didn’t.  The taxi drivers were following each other until we lost the other car due to the speeds. So we drove around the airport twice.  My cell phone doesn’t work in the USA and so our driver was more then willing to loan me his and just as I was dialing there was D.  We piled out of the car and were carrying 2 kids who had fallen asleep, attempted to stack all our luggage again on 2 carts and 1 stroller.  We thank camperworld  for paying for this services.  Our total taxi bills in the minivan was $56 and the car was another $43.  Glad we didn’t have to pay that bill directly.

Once we managed to having everyones eyes open and bathroom breaks in the airport we headed towards our van happily.  When we found it back without a problem we pushed the automatic key unlocker and boom we should be in……except that we clicked and clicked and clicked and nope not a thing.  Ok, lets try the key.  We were in!  Let’s try turn it on….yes I’m sure you can guess that final results.  Dead battery.  How do you open a trunk on a van that doesn’t have a key hole?  We learned the trick.  But how do you push a car with a super duper dead battery?  You can’t even put it into neutral.  Again we managed to discover a tip with the key to put it in neutral.  Then a mom and 3 kids started pushing it out of its parking stall and try to track someone down in an airport whose not in a hurry to give us a boost???  Thankfully these amazing fellow Canadians stopped the second time to give us a hand.  We were blocking one of the only free parking stalls… We took 30 minutes of there time before that battery would allow us to get in a drive down the roads again.  I guess we will be paying that forward one day!

When this all ended everyone was getting pretty hungry and the cooler full of food was at the bottom of the pile.  We went to a drive thru (we weren’t shutting off the van anytime soon) and managed to feed everyone.   We of course did a little more shopping before entering back into Canada and finally arriving safely home.  We managed to have everything unpacked and laundry started by early evening.  Only to come and realize we left our camera full of the memories behind.  Once again thank you Camperworld for rescuing it before it took a journey on another trip across country and shipping it back.

This holiday holds many good times as a family and we were so thankful for spending it together. 

I did forget to tell you a few tips about a journey like this.

1 don’t forget to pack sheets for your beds.  (I did)

2  Also plan a menu before you go.  Then make the grocery list with every miniscule thing you can think of so that when you do a shopping trip with 2 grocery carts you can split up the list.  Just remember to CLEARLY state what portion of the shopping list you’re doing.  Lol, D and I were doing the same parts…thankfully we caught up before more damage was done and we re split the list again and finished.

3 Don’t leave your camera behind

4 Remember your booster cables (thankfully after getting our van detailed the day before our trip D quickly through them back into the van)

5 Don’t forget to check and double check every cupboard  (This was a first for us to much going on…)

6 fly with a frequent flyer to get luggage free on the plane(ha! if only everyone had that opportunity…)

I think those are the major things, of course enjoy the trip.. We always purchase fun snacks and drinks for vacation to make it extra special.  These family trips aren’t always relaxing but growing up all my family holidays still hold so many good memories!   Like I’m sure the girls will remember dancing in the parking lot while the van was being boosted.

That’s it folks…wish I could’ve told you more…

Next blog post is someone turned 4 in our house so stay tuned.