Day 1 – Travel Day from Orlando, FL to Portland, OR
Another historic trip, forever in the planning, was finally upon us… an epic two-plus-week vacation to the Pacific Northwest. Since Emily turned forty this year, we all braced ourselves for a year of epic adventures. It started off with a surprise birthday party for her the weekend after her birthday. Around that time we also agreed on a family summer vacation on an Alaskan Disney Cruise. Emily thought, as long as we were up in that part of the world, we should explore some of the Northwestern cities and states that are on our bucket list. In this same discussion was born the idea of 50 by 50. Emily wants to see all fifty states before she turns fifty years old. So our seven night cruise turned into a quick little nineteen night land and sea vacation.
Our first step was to bring our precious Peachy girl over to Em’s parents, Kee and Colonel, for her doggy summer camp. We can’t thank them both enough for watching her during our vacation!
Colonel Griffin, who is always so gracious in helping us get to the airport, picked us up at around eight on our departure morning. After a few photos and videos of the kids, we were ready to take the jam packed Honda Pilot to the airport. Colonel, who works at the airport, took us on a backroad adventure to avoid the traffic on HWY 528. We managed pretty good time, got our bags unloaded, gave our goodbye hugs, and we were on our way to the first leg of our trip: destination Portland, OR. Below is a video of our travels for the first three days of our adventure.
We wrestled our massive array of luggage up to the counter to check in our meticulously weighed bags. Emily was quite proud of her 49.9 pound average for each of the bags, coming in just shy of the 50 pound maximum. Not quite sure why the airline desk clerk wished us well on our move to Portland, but we certainly had enough luggage to start a new life out west. Although we were hungry for a bite, we agreed it would be much more relaxing to get to the other side of the TSA scanning nightmare to find a place to eat. While I appreciate the fact that the TSA keeps our flights safe, it is by far my least favorite part of air travel.
We made it to the other side and after a quick monorail ride, we were at our terminal with some time to spare. Ready for a nice sit down meal we decided on a brunch at Cask and Larder. Em and I ordered a Bacon, Lettuce, Tomato and Egg sandwich with a side of bacon which absolutely hit the spot. Hunter ordered a chicken biscuit which he seemed to enjoy. Our picky eater Sawyer was happy to just hang out at the table while we devoured our food.
After a quick walk around the stores at the terminal it was time to board the first leg of our Southwest flight from Orlando to Denver. The boys tucked themselves away with their devices and headphones and enjoyed their preloaded movies. This allowed Emily and I a relatively quiet flight to Denver. A quick layover in Denver (where they put kale on pizza) and we hopped on our final flight to Portland, OR. Couldn’t have been happier with the flights and the fact that we had finally reached our destination.
After retrieving our luggage we stacked it on a cart and headed out into the cool and dry Oregon afternoon. Our first stop was navigating the car rental garage to locate Avis to pick up the wheels we would be using over the next couple of days. Emily in her amazing organization had all of this set up and we walked right over to our Preferred lane and loaded up our Toyota Sequoia. This was my first time driving one of these but man there was a lot of space for luggage and people!
There was one more stop that we needed to make before we could officially start our vacation… Target. Arguably Emily would say getting to go to Target WAS the start of our vacation, but I digress. Em had preordered some items like snacks and water that were waiting for us at Customer Service. We stuffed our purchases in the few remaining crevices of the back of the Sequoia and set off to find our hotel. The drive was relatively uneventful but we did get introduced to the not-so-enjoyable traffic along the way.
Emily (with Hunter’s help) did a ton of research and found us a fun place to stay called the Inn @ Northrup Station. Upon entering the inn it was evident that we locked in on a great place to stay. The inn was super cute and had a really fun retro vibe. It was originally designed in the 70s as probably a streetside motel, but it has been updated to a very colorful hipster vibe. Walking up to the check-in desk the boys eyes lit up, as there were glass jars of free candy that lined the desk as well as the common areas. Salt Water Taffy and Starbursts as far as the eye could see… Sawyer was in heaven! The staff was super friendly and excited to see us.
After a quick tour of the common areas of the inn, we headed down the hall to check out our room. We couldn’t have been happier with our room as it felt a bit like a one bedroom apartment with a sitting area and a small kitchen. This is where we found our welcome box full of nuts, candy, and other fun snacks. The room also had a nice outside porch that looked out onto a beautiful tree lined street complete with trolly tracks down the middle. Perfect place to start our vacation. I proceeded to bring our bags into the room while Emily secured her Amazon delivery of an air mattress for Sawyer that we had delivered to the inn. We thought this was our best chance to actually get a full night sleep if we didn’t all have to share beds.
After getting settled in with our bags and travel accessories, we unpacked a bit and then took a much needed chill break. Our rest was brief before Emily and I decided to head down to the lobby for the Wine Down Wednesday offering in the dining area. It was a fun opportunity to enjoy some local wine and beer along with some cheese to go with it. Our quick snack and drink was a reminder that we were all ready for a bite to eat. We scraped ourselves out of our cozy beds, freshened up, and headed out to dinner.
Our destination for dinner on night one was SouthPark Seafood in downtown Portland. This location was featured in a book (Larry Gets Lost in Portland) that we had been reading to Sawyer at bedtime. It has an iconic salmon appearing to swim through the bricks of this corner restaurant. The location was about 1.5 miles from our hotel but we decided it would be fun to walk and explore the city on our way. The trip took about 30 minutes and gave us a nice overview of Portland. The one positive about the long walk was that we were all ready to eat when we arrived at SouthPark Seafood.
We couldn’t have been happier with our selection of restaurant. Not only was there a table available for us but the restaurant was comfortable and cozy. We enjoyed being off our feet for a bit as we placed our drink and food order. Emily ordered a Dungeness Crab Salad and I got the Halibut with a side of Brussel Sprouts. Hunter was excited to try the Pepperoni Pizza and Sawyer got his signature Butter Noodles with a side of carrots and apples. The dinner was delicious and was capped off by a plate of cookies that we all shared.
Just as we were wrapping up our dinner, we noticed outside of our window that it had started to rain. It was clear from the group that nobody was very excited about a 30 minute walk back to the inn, so we decided to hail our first family Uber ride. Within minutes we were picked up by Muhammad who was from Malaysia. Very nice driver but seemed more interested in getting us to our hotel quickly than sharing any fun anecdotal information about Portland. We were just happy to not have to walk through the rain and were grateful to arrive back to the inn safely. Emily and the kids were happy to survive their first ever Uber.
We grabbed a few candies on our way by the check-in desk as we dragged our tired bodies down the hall to our first floor room. Emily set to work unpacking a few more items while I got the boys’ beds set up. Hunter slept on the pullout couch, and Sawyer had the ideal setup just off the kitchen where his twin air mattress fit perfectly. Everyone wound down with some device time before shutting it down for the evening. After a long day of travel and three hours of time change we ended up retiring for the evening around 8:30 local time. I think it took me about twelve seconds to fall asleep. Happy to be in Portland safe and sound. Looking forward to 18 more days of travel!
June 27th, 2019 – Exploring Portland, OR (Day 2)
We awoke to our first cozy morning at the Inn @ Northrop Station as we struggled to get out of bed after our night’s rest. Our first morning of weather was a bit raw and damp but we were excited to be out of the blazing heat of Central Florida. The hotel stay included breakfast so we got ready and headed down the hall to the main gathering area. The selections were a bit limited but we managed to make a few waffles and had a few bowls of cereal to quiet the stomach pangs. After a quick stop back in the room for our day gear we were ready to head out and explore what Portland had to offer.
We hopped in the Sequoia and set out on crowded streets. Our first objective was to drive over the Steel Bridge, which is the second oldest vertical lift bridge in the US. This was yet another fact that was brought to you by Sawyer’s book. It was a really neat bridge captured best in the video at the beginning of this blog. We traveled quickly over and back on the Steel Bridge and then set our GPS for our second tourist destination of the morning, Washington Park.
The drive to Washington Park was a beautiful and windy tree-lined road reminding you that you had left the city and were joining up with a bit of nature. Believe it or not we arrived at Washington Park at 8:50 am (normally Emily doesn’t see this hour of the day), even after having had breakfast and doing some car sightseeing. Our specific goal was seeing the International Rose Test Garden. According to the website: “In 1915 Jesse A. Currey, rose hobbyist and Sunday editor of the Oregon Journal, convinced city officials to institute a rose test garden to serve as a safe haven during World War I for hybrid roses grown in Europe. Rose lovers feared that these unique plants would be destroyed in the bombings. The Park Bureau approved the idea in 1917 and by early 1918, hybridists from England began to send roses. In 1921 Florence Holmes Gerke, the landscape architect for the city of Portland, was charged with designing the International Rose Test Garden and the amphitheatre. The garden was dedicated in June 1924.” The park was absolutely beautiful with rows of colorful and healthy flowers as far as the eye could see. We explored the rows of different botanicals as we tried to avoid raindrops along the way. Emily had a field day taking a ton of photos throughout her walk, and the boys did their best not to appear overly bored. After we had our fill of flowers and selfies, we grabbed some cover in the gift shop. After getting to sample a taste of rose tea, and a few postcards later, we headed back to the car and onto our next destination… Powell’s City of Books.
Leaving the quiet of nature we set our destination to downtown Portland where we were all excited to enter the bookstore claiming to be “the world’s largest independent new and used bookstore,” Powell’s City of Books. Emily has always had a love of bookstores, and our two boys have both adopted that love as well. Entering the store from the street you could immediately tell that it was massive. Happy to be out of the rain, we took our time wandering through the different levels and sections of the shop. It was quite unique how you would walk down three or four steps to a landing area with thousands of books, only to repeat this process numerous times deeper into the bowels of the store. Both of the boys had a trip coupon to redeem for one book, so they took their time making their decisions. Hunter picked out a Middle School book and Sawyer got a book from his favorite You Tuber, Odd Ones Out. A few additional items later we found ourselves at an overstimulation point and finally checked out.
Hard to believe with all of the morning activity that it was just 11 am. After having such an early, and not terribly fulfilling breakfast, we were all ready to find a spot for lunch. Leaving the bookstore and back into the rain we were quick to select Henry’s Tavern, which was a cozy looking restaurant just down the street. We entered the restaurant and were the only ones sitting down for lunch within eyesight; we must be trendsetters! It didn’t take us long to decide what we were having. We started off with an appetizer of Tempura Fried Cheese Curds. For the main course Sawyer got a cheese pizza, Hunter got a cheeseburger, Emily and I both ordered a bowl of the Beer Cheese Soup, and she added a salad as I opted for the Bacon, Lettuce, Tomato and Avocado sandwich. We were all extremely happy with our selections both from a restaurant vibe as well as food quality.
With our hunger satisfied, it was time to head back out into the elements and continue our planned activities for the day. The next planned stop was at a trendy Blue Star Donut shop in downtown Portland. We punched the address into the GPS and set out on our journey. When we arrived at the location, there was no Donut Shop to be found. After an extensive internet search it was determined that they actually moved locations a couple blocks away. Nothing was going to stand between Emily and donuts so we updated our GPS and continued our trek. The bonus of the additional travel is that it took us past some beautiful spots where we captured some photos and video. We finally arrived at the trendy, hipster Blue Star Donuts and were met by a slew of other folks who had the same idea we did. We all selected one donut that we had boxed up and brought back to the hotel to enjoy as an afternoon snack.
After checking out with our donuts, it was clear that the Hayes family was ready for an afternoon chill break, after being on our feet all day. We also needed to spend a little time not cold and rainy. We hopped back in the Sequoia and made our way back to the Inn @ Northrop Station. We grabbed our donuts and made our way through the lobby (grabbing a few candies, of course) and settled into our room for a relaxing break. The boys and I quickly crashed on our beds while Emily was craving an afternoon coffee. She decided she would head out on foot to a nearby coffee shop while the three of us rested. She returned shortly and we all took the opportunity to sample our trendy donuts. We have now agreed when it comes to kids… the less trendy a donut, the better. Give them Dunkin’ any day.
The rain continued throughout the afternoon so we decided to enjoy a bit more relaxing time before heading out to dinner. At around 5 pm it was time for the beer sampling in the common room at the inn, in which Emily and I gladly participated. Emily tried a cider beer and I tried a local IPA. The glasses were small of course so it didn’t take us long to down our beer shots. Back in the room we all freshened up and headed out for dinner with my cousin Mike and his family, who live just outside Portland.
Emily selected a restaurant called Hopworks Urban Brewery, which was situated between where they live and where we were staying. It ended up being about a 40 minute drive for us, and traffic played into that timing quite a bit. We arrived and were excited to see Mike, his wife Liz, and their daughter Stella. We hadn’t seen them for at least 10 years so it was really great catching up. They put us in a back room which was perfect because for most of the night we had the space to ourselves. We spent hours catching up and the kids had a blast. The kids spent most of the night making slow motion videos of each other doing silly things with their faces. After a solid 3.5 hours, it was getting late and time for us all to retire for the evening. I have to say, seeing Mike, Liz, and Stella was one of our favorite memories of the trip!
We made it back to the inn and stumbled into our room (tired, not drunk) and quickly crashed for the evening. Although the weather wasn’t optimal, we had a fantastic day in Portland. Looking forward to our day three venture to our next destination, Seattle!
June 28th – Travel Day: Portland to Seattle with Stop at Northwest Wildlife Trek (Day 3)
After a brief stay in Portland it was already time to move on to our next destination of Seattle. While we enjoyed our stay in Portland we were excited to continue on our journey. Emily, having planned this vacation in amazing detail, had us up early getting ready and packing the car to ensure we got to see all the planned sites. Cramming the last bags into the Sequoia it was time to bid the Inn @ Northrup Station adieu, but not before grabbing a few breakfast items and one more handful of Starbursts for Sawyer’s road trip.
We ended up hitting the road around 8 am and took in the last sights of Portland as we weaved our way through the city and onto the highway toward the Northwest Wildlife Trek in Eatonville, WA. The drive was roughly two hours which of course required a Starbucks coffee stop for Emily and our new coffee addict Hunter. This provided a perfect restroom stop as we all settled in for a scenic car ride through Oregon. We loaded up our Hamilton soundtrack which provided the perfect musical score to our drive. Our adventure to the Northwest Wildlife Trek took us off the highway through small towns and windy roads toward Eatonville. These windy roads of course triggered a response from Sawyer that was very reminiscent of my childhood car trips. Just before we arrived at our destination I heard the stomach rumblings and ultimate heave-ho in the backseat. “Luckily” we had a McDonald’s bag that allowed him a place to focus his illness into. Note these bags are not watertight.
Our arrival couldn’t have come sooner as we were all ready to be out of the car and have an opportunity to clean up the backseat. I got the privilege of wiping down the seat, floor, and doors so that we wouldn’t return to a smelly ride to Seattle. After our brief interlude we gathered our belongings and made our way to the Wildlife Trek Park.
The park was beautiful and clean with well-paved paths leading around the grounds. Believe it or not after everything we just went through, the group was hungry for lunch! We grabbed a quick bite to eat at the restaurant inside the park while the boys played in this amazing Kids Trek playground area. The food was fairly typical theme park type food as Emily got a bun-less burger, Hunter got chicken tenders, Sawyer got pizza, and I got a chicken club sandwich with onion rings. Not the most amazing meal we had on the trip but we were really hungry so it didn’t matter much.
Emily’s goal for this entire trip was to get to see at least one moose in the wild, which has been a dream of hers for as long as I have known her. We thought our best opportunity at the Wildlife Trek park would be to take the tram experience that takes guests around the park and into the wilderness. When it was our time to board, we stepped into an enclosed tram vehicle that had windows that could be cracked open to allow a bit of air to flow. Our tram car was fairly full so we split up into groups of two and secured what we hoped would be great seats for the tour. Overall the tram tour took around thirty minutes where we were able to see a handful of animals including deer (even a baby), bison, elk, and different birds. Unfortunately moose didn’t make the list, but we did get to see some children who decided to bounce around the tram in boredom which made for a relaxing ride.
After our unproductive tram ride we were glad to be enjoying the fresh air and exploring the rest of the park on foot. We walked around for a bit exploring some of the different animal enclosures but didn’t have a ton of luck seeing much. One of the highlights of the park was a selection of animal puppets and small stage for the kids to do a show. Needless to say Hunter and Sawyer had a great time having different animals attack each other in their random storylines. The kids asked for one more round at the Kids Trek area so we returned for a bit of climbing and play. Definitely one of the coolest playgrounds we have encountered in our travels!
After our feet were tired and our thirst for animals was quenched, we headed to the gift shop to see what kind of overpriced crap we just had to pick up before we left. We did have some fun taking photos of us in silly animal hats. The shop did provide our only moose sighting (in the form of a hat) for the entire day. After circling the gift shop a couple times it was finally time to head back to the car for the last leg of the day, to Seattle, WA. The drive took about an hour with a stop at McDonald’s for Sawyer, since he didn’t actually eat much since his morning episode. This got us into the city at around 5 pm.
Seattle provided a ton of traffic and busy streets that we were anticipating. It took a bit to find the Hyatt at Olive 8, the hotel that we would be staying at for the next two nights. We navigated the traffic and one way streets until we found the drop off entrance to the hotel. We quickly checked in and were welcomed with fresh apples at the check-in desk. Our room was ready for us so we unloaded the bags from the car and brought them up to the room. Because parking was ridiculously expensive, and we were planning to spend the next few days on foot, we decided that I would return the rental car.
I left the others to relax and unpack in the room while I re-entered the city streets of Seattle trying to find the Avis car rental return. We, of course, hadn’t thought to get gas before we drove into town, so that was my first objective after leaving the hotel. Those of you familiar with downtown areas, there aren’t always a lot of gas stations around. I finally located one on the GPS which was near the car rental return. I filled up and returned the car, and was thankful to be on foot, returning to the Hyatt at Olive 8. The walk back was nice, which included one stop at a convenience store to pick up packing tape. We thought it would make the most sense to box up some of our clothes and purchases and send them home because we knew our bags would be overweight for the flight home. Yes, two days into the trip and we already had enough stuff to send home to relieve our luggage.
I picked up the tape and met the family back in our room, complete with a beer and blackberry margarita from the lobby bar. It was probably one of the largest single hotel rooms I have ever stayed in. We were lucky to have a corner room on the 6th floor. The walls were lined with windows providing a picturesque view of downtown Seattle from the sixth floor of the hotel. We chilled in the room for a bit before heading downstairs for dinner at the hotel restaurant Urbane. We were so tired we thought that just staying in would be the perfect, relaxing end to the day. Emily and I shared the charcuterie and steak frites, and Hunter ordered the grilled cheese and tomato soup. Hunter didn’t love the sandwich so I gave him my steak and I ate his sandwich. We shared some cookies and milk and a toffee dessert before retiring to the room. We had fun during dinner recording random boomerang videos of everyone being silly. We got back to the room around 9 pm, chilled for a bit, and crashed, excited for our full day exploring Seattle tomorrow!
