Oh, the places you'll go!

 

What an absolute whirlwind the past 30 days have been; it's an absolute blast and so much adventure!

The end of March started with Spring Break, and we spent five days on the road driving down to San Fransisco. 

We stopped at a little town in Northern California called Eureka. We fueled ourselves with ice cream and milk shakes. 

The time in the car was long but it did pass as we watched the land go by. 

We did all the tourist things near the warf. 

We took an excursion to Alcatraz. While in the care driving, we listened to a fascinating podcast about Alcatraz so we were ready to explore and see what we learned! 

We saw the jail cells of Al Capone and learned about the escapes and uprisings.

One of the best parts was surprising our kids with another family friend who was in that area at the same time. As we were listening to the tour guide, suddenly a loud commotion ensued as our friends came running from behind us, ambushing our kids  in delightful surprise. 

We got special access to the top floor of the Salesforce building, the tallest building West of the Mississippi. Our friends enjoyed the views with us. 

It was a perfect clear day. We could see everything. 

Riding the trollies around is a must-do, and do it we did. Up and down the hilly streets we went.

Caleb liked hanging off the edge during the ride like a real local.  

Exploring Lombard street was quite interesting as well!

As we made the drive home, we surprised the kids with a stop at Great Wolf Lodge. To add to that surprise, we again met up with our friends and their five kids for the day/night. The kids all ran off together, and the four of us adults had drinks from the bar and relaxed. It was a pleasant break. 

Feeding nine kids was no small task. Luckily a Costco resided near by and the men hauled in pizzas and hotdogs to feed the masses. 

We left mid day Friday and drove several hours to our hotel in southern Oregon. We didn't have much time to spare because we wanted/needed to be home mid day Saturday because Evelyn had her neighborhood Easter egg hunt. It was a beautiful sunny day, and the event was bigger than ever. They are already planning for next year. 

Easter this year was low key, which was nice after a week of travel and activity. My father in law had knee replacement surgery, so we stayed to ourselves and relaxed at home after a morning of easter basket hunting and church. 

The first week back to school after Spring Break included a field trip to Fort Claptop with the 4th grade. I packed my van with students, and we drove the two hours to see the site where Louis and Clark built their winter home. 

That next weekend I again drove two hours, but this time to another place on the Oregon coast, Lincoln City. It was the weekend of the courageous girls mother/daughter retreat. Although it was a rainy weekend, we still had a great time hiking "Drift Creek Falls" a two mile hike across a suspension bridge. 

   

Evelyn and I also had some intentional time together shopping at Bath and Body works in the outlet stores. 

Perhaps one of the most memorable parts of the trip was watching the sunset over the ocean.

 The rain stopped and it was a lovely night. 

The weekend was full of laughter, learning and good memories. 

A few days after returning from that retreat, we again packed our bags and headed to airport. We were on our way to Orlando, Florida! 

Meeting my parents late on Wednesday night, we powered through the next four days making memories at Hollywood studios, Magic Kingdom, Epcot and Animal Kingdom. 

It was a month of GO!