Highway 101

June 26th through July 4th, we took an amazing family trip in which we put 2500 miles on Jory's Civic! We started from our home in Layton, drove to Reno- then up to the Redwoods in Northern California and up Highway 101 to Astoria, Oregon where we started our journey home through Portland and Boise. Jory's parents, Jerry and Donna, came along. It was good to see them again and have them with us.
Redwoods National Park and the surround parks were amazing!!! Since Return of the Jedi was filmed in Redwoods NP, the girls imaginined they wer on "speeders" while we were driving through the thick forest, shooting down Storm Troopers. It was awesome!
One of our cabins was located right in the Redwood Forest. The girls had a blast exploring this area and even found a Banana Slug which was on our "Spot It" list. We also saw 3 bull elk laying in the pasture in the park.

Up the coast a little more we were able to tour lighthouses and tide pool. The first day of tidepooling we were able to find sea anenome, mussells and shells, but no starfish. That of course changed when we found many many starfish, jellyfish, sea anenome, sand dollars and crabs at another tide pool. We had a blast exploring the areas.

We also enjoyed a trip to the Sea Lion Cave where we saw hundreds of Sea Lions and seals. A another highlight was stopping at the Animal Safari where we were able to feed and hold all kinds of amimals!!! The best was holding and playing with the baby leopard and 2 lion cubs!!! The Oregon Coast Aquarium was also so much fun!! Myah made friends with one of the otters there. He was very intrigued with her.

We had pretty much everything on our "Spot It" list, except whales. I really didn't think that was going to happen since we were a little late in the season to watch the migration. At every stop and beach we went to we would keep a look out for a sighting, but had no luck. I was reading in one brouchure that Depoe Bay had resident gray whales, so we stopped. We had been there for about a half hour looking way off the into the ocean, and still nothing. We were leaving when just about 200 yards off shore, Ally and I spotted a whale!!! We spent the next hour watching this whale just off shore, and then there was another one. It was amazing and SO exciting for the girls!!!!

The scenery was gorgeous and the cities were beautiful!! We had so much fun just traveling and learning together as a family. This is one of my favorite things ever!! Jory and I work to play, so we can have these life long memories together as a family.