We took a trip over the summer to Oregon, but with the busyness of life, I’m writing about it over winter break. Hopefully, this write-up will serve someone in their trip planning (in addition to my fleeting memory).

 “You seem like you belong in Oregon; you just need more tattoos.” A friend once told me. I’ve wanted to go ever since. Cheap flights into Portland convinced us to make it a reality.

Our six-day trip (with a travel day on the front and back) was one of exploring rather than relaxing. I haven’t figured out how to relax yet, to the disappointment of my 10- and 12-year-old.

We rented a Subaru from Turo, which is like AirBnB for cars. We fit right in. Our skeleton itinerary below is followed by the details:

Day 1: Travel to Portland

Day 2: Portland for ½ day; waterfalls in the Columbia River Gorge; stay in Stevenson, WA.

Day 3: Hiking Mt Hood, stay in Bend, OR.

Day 4:  Bend for ½ day, Crater Lake National Park, stay in Florence.

Day 5: Sand dunes on 4-wheelers in Florence, drive up the Pacific Coast, stay in Seaside.

Day 6: Explore Seaside and Cannon Beach, stay in Seaside again.

Day 7: Astoria, Mt. St. Helens. Stay in Portland at a hotel near the airport.

Day 8: Fly home!

Detailed itinerary:

Day 1: Travel to Portland.

We flew into Portland airport in the evening and stayed at a nearby airport hotel to take advantage of the free shuttle.

Day 2: Explore Portland for ½ day, waterfalls on the Columbia River Gorge, stay in Stevenson, WA. Total drive time: 2 hrs.

Portland. People told us, “Portland is not what it used to be”. We weren’t sure what they were talking about, so we did a little research.

In November 2020, in the most sweeping response to date, Oregon voters passed Measure 110 (M110), making it the first state to de jure decriminalize the possession of all nonprescribed drugs for personal use, while reallocating millions of dollars toward addiction treatment, recovery programs, housing, and harm reduction services.

In 2021, Oregon’s rate of fatal overdose increased by approximately 50% compared to the previous year. In response to these initial outcomes, Oregon’s legislature recriminalized drug possession in March 2024, to take effect in September 2024.

Zoorob, M. J., Park, J. N., Kral, A. H., Lambdin, B. H., & del Pozo, B. (2024). Drug decriminalization, fentanyl, and fatal overdoses in Oregon. JAMA Network Open, 7(9), e2431612

We enjoyed Portland for half a day and could have spent a full day easily. We drove past the Trailblazers stadium, then went to Portland’s Outdoors Store, which sells classic western workwear, and found ourselves trying on fancy cowboy hats and boots. The staff were so nice, amused by our amusement, and played along.

Powell’s City of Books, the world’s largest new and used independent bookstore that takes up a whole city block, was the next worthy stop. I wanted to stay in this marvelous place for days, but the kids were done in 15 minutes. Stump Town Coffee gave us the needed caffeine boost. I’m a fan of their intricately tiled red bathroom.

We heard that Voodoo Donuts is a tourist trap, so we skipped the long line and were advised to go to Pipps Original Doughnuts. On the way, we drove down SE Hawthorne Blvd – I would have enjoyed exploring unique shops and restaurants with more time. At Pipps, my kids expected something more traditional, like long johns and sprinkles, but instead they were the kind parents used to make in the 80s with real ingredients, made right in front of you; unique and melt-in-your-mouth delicious. After donuts, I got excited about the surrounding neighborhood with its cute, otherworldly homes.

On the drive to the falls, we stopped at Crown Point Vista House – a 360-degree view of the gorge and Columbia River.

Exploring the waterfalls along the Columbia River Gorge was astonishing.

• Latourell Falls is a tall single waterfall. We could walk as close to the mist of the torrential water as we dared. I took loads of pictures, not knowing the many extraordinary falls to come.
• Bridal Veil Falls is a 2/3-mile round-trip hike (a sign posted a few days earlier said a cougar was seen in this area…!).
• Wahkeena Falls is smaller, but we parked here to walk to Multnomah Falls (since the lot there was full). The 1/2-mile walk (each way) was magical because of the tiny falls along the way, one of which was a straight line of water that formed a “shower curtain”.
• Multnomah Falls is glorious, and the crowds are there to prove it.
• I’m glad we stopped at each of these; they were all beautiful in their own way, but if I had to pick one to visit for the day, I’d choose Latourell Falls based on how close you could get to the base of the dramatic falls, the small crowds, ease of parking, and short walk.

We stayed at a motel in Stevenson, WA. I’d recommend booking earlier than one week before the trip (like we did), so you have more accommodation options in Stevenson. It’s a sweet town with great views of the Columbia River. If you are willing to wait 30 min to 1 hour, a good place to eat is Clark & Lewie’s. After a full day, we devoured delicious elk burgers and bison stroganoff. Instead of waiting to be seated (which took 45 minutes) order it “to go” and using one of the nearby picnic tables in the gorgeous spots along the river.

This was a lot for one day. The kids were flattened, but that gave them less energy to complain about our dysfunctional motel room. There were a lot of stains and smells, broken things, and odd noises. But hey, it builds character. After all our shock at the shoddy place, my daughter said, “It’s better than sleeping in the car!”

Day 3: Hiking Mt Hood, stay in Bend, OR. Total drive time: 3 hrs. 30 min.

Breakfast at The Cabin in Stevenson, WA was yummy (drive-through or outdoor seating only). Our 12-year-old daughter became a grown adult by eating the most mature avocado toast I’ve ever seen. It had legit plants on top. The staff was so friendly, I considered moving there so we could be friends.

Driving over the Bridge of the Gods took us from Washington back into Oregon. This bridge is part of the Pacific Crest Trail, you know, that long trail that spans from Mexico to Canada. This bridge is the lowest point on the entire trail.

We stopped by the Bonneville Dam and Hatchery. It was a good learning experience about salmon and the struggle between preserving nature and generating clean energy. Watching the fish swim against the rushing river current, jumping to climb the salmon ladders to get past the dam, made me tired. It also made me have deep thoughts about how our kids need to experience hard work and live through struggle to build perseverance for life in the real world. It’s exhausting to watch and tempting to jump in and put them at the top of the ladder. That would be worse for them. They wouldn’t develop those muscles. Ok, back to the itinerary.

If you’re into engineering (which 3/4ths of us are not), you can go see the massive turbines that create hydropower if you wish.

The Bonneville Hatchery was a short drive from the Dam. We saw some big fish. We rushed through this stop in under an hour because we still had a mountain to hike.

For lunch, we stopped at the iconic Sugarpine restaurant in Troutdale (the cuteness of this town melted me). The long line for ordering in the restaurant made us opt for drive-through, which, we discovered, offers only ice cream… so that’s what we ate for lunch. My advice is to park your car and wait in that line because the image of that grilled cheese I never got to experience is seared in my memory forever. Instead, we stopped yet again in Sandy, OR, at a Thai food truck. The food was delicious, and we ate it on the drive to Mt. Hood National Forest. That protein would come in handy.

The Old Salmon River Trail was our first hike. This fairytale-like path, full of ferns and soft earth, was a gorgeous and easy forest walk along the rolling river. We enjoyed rock hopping and finding rock “couches” to lie on. I knew I belonged in Oregon when I wanted to live in a hut in this old-growth forest, with its luscious ferns and mossy trees, and be a happy hobbit. There wasn’t a single word of complaint from the youth on this easy hike, only joyful frolicking.

That wasn’t the case for our next hike.

We drove uphill for a while through twisty two-lane roads. We parked at Timberline Lodge, built in the 1930s, to fill up on water and use the bathroom. When we got out of the car, the wind told us we were in the higher elevation of Mt. Hood. The Lodge is a sight to see. Intricately built with huge stones and thick wood beams, it’s nearly as solid as Mt. Hood. We hiked about 5 miles round-trip on the Timberline Ridge Trail, heading toward Zigzag Canyon. The All Trails app was helpful. This hike was at 7,000 feet of elevation and wasn’t easy, so we had some complaints along the way. But I’d recommend it. The views were spectacular, and we saw wildflowers and made a few snowballs (in July).

After the hike, we drove to Bend, OR. The drive to Bend passed through Warm Springs Reservation and featured the desert part of the state. The rolling hills of grass, pastures, and mountains in the distance made for a picturesque sunset. There weren’t a lot of places to stop between Mt. Hood area and Bend, so prepare with food and gas ahead. Bend’s air quality was in the red (unhealthy) zone due to forest fires. Using the Fire and Smoke Map (airnow.gov) was helpful. As advised, we mostly stayed in the hotel where the air was filtered. This was the kids’ favorite part of the trip so far, swimming in the hotel pool and hot tub!

Day 4:  Bend for ½ day, Crater Lake, stay in Florence, OR. Drive time: 6 hrs 30 min.

The kids wanted to go swimming AGAIN in the morning, so we pushed the day’s plans back. Not a great idea in hindsight. After checking out of the hotel, we watched people surfing on the Deschutes River. We drove downtown, and I had to limit myself to just one cute store visit. The agenda included a two-hour drive to Crater Lake National Park (and time to hike and enjoy it), then a 4-hour drive to Florence, OR.

The kids didn’t want to go to Crater Lake after hearing there was more hiking. But isn’t a forced visit to a beautiful national park an essential part of childhood?

We didn’t have time, but still stopped at Richard’s Donuts and Pastries, which made everyone happy on the drive. You’ll want to move to Bend for the apple fritter.

Crater Lake is the deepest lake in the United States. It is fed solely by rain and snow (no rivers or streams) and is considered the cleanest large body of water in the world. This clear, intensely blue lake was formed when a volcano collapsed after a major eruption.

On the way there, we passed the Deschutes National Forest and the High Desert Museum. In retrospect, we would have built in time to stop, but we were out of time.

We saw warning signs for wildfire activity and smelled smoke, which was concerning but didn’t impact our day. The kids wanted to go easy on the hiking after they had more than they wanted yesterday. But… then we found out that the Cleetwood Cove Trail is the only one that accesses Crater Lake. It’s 2.2 miles, but in the “strenuous” category with 700 ft of elevation gain in one mile. It’s equivalent to walking up 65 flights of stairs. The walk down was easy, and we enjoyed seeing the boats, dipping our toes in, and seeing people swim. The shoreline was made of big boulders, and with enough wind to make waves, we didn’t take the cold plunge. Getting back uphill was terrible. The lake sits at over 6,000 feet of elevation, so for us flatlanders, this was a factor we forgot to consider, and the kids were spent after this hike. They fell asleep in the car after driving for one literal minute. We reluctantly woke them up after their 5-minute nap for a forced photo and food at the lodge. All the National Park lodges are sights to see!

They would rather have eaten fish eyes than hike again, but we convinced them to do just one more. Sun Notch Trail is a .8-mile easy hike to see the “sailing ship” rock formation in Crater Lake. This was a gorgeous walk through the forest, reminiscent of Switzerland, with stunning views of Crater Lake. If you’re looking for a short, beautiful, and easy hike, this is a winner. Even the kids enjoyed it. If you have some people in your group who are not into the challenge of hiking, I’d skip Cleetwood Cove Trail and do some of the other hikes that are moderate.

We finished our speedy tour of Crater Lake and headed west to our destination for the night in Florence, OR. This 4.5-hour drive had no cell service, so it was fortunate that my husband had downloaded Google Maps for this part of Oregon. I felt like we were driving in a car commercial with the towering trees, turns, and mountains. But the turns were a little too much for our 10-year-old. He was unusually cranky and demanded we pull over. Thankfully, we listened because he left his “dinner” on the side of the road instead of in our car. He got to ride in the front seat for the first time in his life, which helped. Again, not much food or gas on this drive.

We passed the huge amounts of driving time by listening to an entertaining audiobook, “The Adventures of Coyote Sunrise”. This was vital to making long drives with no cell service tolerable. It features a girl driving across the country with her hippie father (just a heads up, this book is sad at points, and YOU WILL CRY). Thankfully, it was nighttime, so we could hide our sobbing.

At 10:30 pm, we pulled into The River House Inn. The kids were thrilled that this motel wasn’t horrible. We noted how much we appreciate things after experiencing something worse. Right after we arrived, I headed back out in the pouring rain to the almost-closed grocery store. Our skimpy dinner, five hours earlier, wasn’t cutting it. The kids acted like I saved their lives when I returned with yogurt, chips, Goldfish, and peanut butter crackers.

Day 5: Sand dunes on 4-wheelers in Florence, drive up the coast, stay in Seaside, OR. Total drive time 3 hrs. 50 min.

We started to get annoyed with each other. One child wanted to wake up early and eat breakfast right away, while the other wanted to sleep in, wake up slowly, and also wanted us to all eat breakfast together. When one kid was pleased, the other was mad and hungry. The River House Inn had a pancake-making machine, which helped the mood.

Our room had a balcony overlooking the Siuslaw River. While standing out there, my husband saw a seal, which made my daughter squint and say, “Is that river salt water?” He tested her by saying, “It’s brackish… do you know what that means?”

“Half and half!” She said.

The morning plan was to rent 4-wheelers and let the kids try driving on their own in the sand dunes. From my experience, it’s more fun to drive yourself than to be stuck letting someone else control your fate. We thought it would be a good way for the kids to experience driving with the safety of sand. But we were wrong. We headed to Torax ATV Rentals. After talking to a few employees who kindly answered all my questions, we decided to ride together. The company had a great safety video (telling us all the ways we could die) and all the gear we needed. In the end, I’m glad we were in the same vehicle, experiencing the joys and fears together and keeping the children alive. These dunes were no joke. Their massiveness made it so we couldn’t see who might be on the other side, riding right up to us. It’s easy to flip over when using the zigzag hiking path method, which I would have done. I’m glad we had a safety video. My husband and I took turns driving (he gave me more than my allotment because of how much fun I was having). We let the kids tell us where to go to give them some sense of control. I wasn’t sure whether we should spend the money on this adventure, but I’m glad we did. The dunes were a lot bigger and more exciting to 4-wheel on than I imagined.

After hanging up our helmets, we rolled North on our coastal drive. We passed Seal Lion Caves, “America’s Largest Sea Cave,” but viewed them from the pull-off (you can pay $16 per person to see them up close).

Our first stop along the Pacific Ocean was Thors Well. The kids heard the word “hike,” and getting them out of the car was like giving a cat a bath. I forced them to put their potato chips down and get out of the car. This easy 2-mile round-trip trail took us to a huge rocky area where we saw little crabs, crustaceans, and a hole that unpredictably spit water high into the air. We got soaked, and it was spectacular. On the hike back to the car, I overheard the kids say, “That was cool”. I asked my daughter if it was worth it, and she said, “Yeah, because I got to see my brother get splashed!”

We passed a cute coastal town called Yachats and Devil’s Punchbowl (another cool splashy rocky area), and would have stopped with more time. After lunch in Depoe Bay, we had 2.5 more hours to drive, so we took the faster, more inland route and drove on the 101 past Tillamook (where the cheese is made). They had a great-looking facility and a visitors’ center that we didn’t stop at.

The drive was long. My son kept pushing the window button up and down. My daughter felt car sick. We pulled over for a moment to settle her stomach and found tons of wild blackberries. My husband couldn’t help himself and ate one. My daughter yelled at him in fear that he would die like Chris McCandless in the book “Into the Wild”. We kept rolling, with the most car-sick person alternating in the front seat and the audiobook keeping us sane.

The next purposeful stop was Manzanitas, a town of 600 people, for the “must-see candy shop”. Well, Manzanita Sweets was closed, but we enjoyed the remote foggy beach. My pale skin likes beaches with no sun.

After a full day, we arrived at the Saltline Hotel in Seaside, OR. When we opened the car doors to unload, the seagulls were as loud as sirens. We walked into the stylish hotel with a fresh, modern design. We saw two teenage boys in the pool as we made our way to our room.

“Oh no, it’s crowded,” I said.

My daughter said, “If we want the pool to ourselves, this is what we’ve gotta do. We have to be loud and do a cannonball that splashes everyone. Then we need to swim really close to them and do more splashing.”

I laughed and said, “We sure wouldn’t like it if someone did that to us.”

But ice cream before the pool was the plan. We had some failed ice cream attempts (long lines or cash-only), so the kids settled for gas-station ice cream so they could make it back to the pool before it closed. I stayed to stand in line for Sea Star Gelato, which had the highest star rating. I never deny myself good gelato, and it was worth the wait. Grapefruit ice cream is unexpectedly good. I took some to my husband; I’m not a monster.

The teen boys were still there and beating my daughter at her own “get the pool to ourselves” game. I was sitting in a chair on the side, and they hit me with a huge ball, splashed us, and yelled. The adult with them was on his phone, paying no attention. At 10:00, the pool closed, and we all walked out together. My daughter said, “Well, at least we stayed strong and didn’t give them the satisfaction of us leaving. And if dad’s looks could kill, those boys would be dead, buried, and buried again.”

We all slept well.

Day 6: Explore Seaside and Cannon Beach, stay in Seaside, OR again.

Parent advice: Rotate taking an hour for yourself in the morning to recharge

The kids wanting the exact opposite things and waiting for each other was exasperating. The hardest and best part of traveling is being together, a lot.

My husband would leave the room in the morning to read, explore, and drink coffee. I expressed my frustration that I was the one stuck in the morning, waiting for the last kid to get ready. So today, we switched. It was glorious. One hour alone felt like 10.

We used hotel bikes and went biking on the “Prom,” short for promenade. The Seaside Promenade is a 1.5-mile paved walkway along the Pacific Ocean, built in 1920. After walking our bikes through the dry sand, we reached that perfect spot where it was firm enough for riding. The beach was vast, and we felt a sense of freedom in the fresh air. Of course, one kid wanted to ride slowly over every crunchy object while the other wanted to go as fast as possible, so we split into two groups. My group stopped at the Lewis and Clark monument in Seaside. The bronze statue commemorates Lewis and Clark’s 4,000-mile journey at the Turnaround on Broadway Street.

After a snack at Bagel by The Sea (where I accidentally left my credit card), we drove down to Cannon Beach and saw the iconic Haystack Rock. We sprinted on this very deep beach and had family races (I lost), before seeing a massive sandcastle, and live starfish. On our drive back to Seaside, I let the kids know that tomorrow would be our last day and that we were driving to Mount St. Helens. My daughter said, “What?! I was just warming up to this vacation thing!”

Phillips Candies was our afternoon stop, and we were all in sugar heaven. We walked away with fresh popcorn, homemade gelato, and bags of candy. I went back to this store three times over the next few hours to buy more and watch them make saltwater taffy. This was one of my personal favorite things. I’m in denial of my sugar problems.

Right next to the candy shop was Funland Seaside Arcade. We all enjoyed some old and new games.

Next, we faced off in old electric bumper cars, which were more violent than expected. I tried to take a picture while in the bumper car and got slammed by a 50-year-old guy who yelled, “DRIVE!” Seeing him slam into my 10-year-old so that his little head whiplashed was alarming. I didn’t feel too bad when I “accidentally” t-boned him. It’s worth going, but know what you’re getting into and have both hands on the wheel!

Day 7: Astoria, Mt.
St. Helens. Stay in Portland at an airport hotel.

Day 7: Astoria, Mt. St. Helens. Stay at an airport hotel in Portland.

None of us wanted to leave Seaside, but our plan was to drive three hours up through Astoria, to Mt. St. Helens, then two hours back south to Portland. Ugh. Who planned this trip?

We dragged our tired bodies out of bed and stuck with the plan, even though I considered skipping Mount St Helens. The kids’ favorite day was, of course, the arcade and candy-filled day at Seaside. But how could we not explore as much as possible when in a new, far-away state?

Our first stop was the Peter Iredale Shipwreck from 1906. It was surprisingly cool, even though only the steel frame remained. A woman walking her dog, who grew up in Astoria, told us that there used to be double the amount of ship wreckage left. She used to climb up a part that’s no longer there. It’s amazing how something as strong as steel goes back to nature. I wondered how long a plastic soda bottle would’ve held up in the same situation.

The next Astoria stop was Lewis and Clark National Historical Park. There is a fee to enter, but we were living it up with our everykidoutdoors.gov benefit, giving free National Park passes to fourth graders and their families. We breezed through the museum and then headed to the outside replica of their quarters, where they wintered for 5 months. Here are some interesting Lewis and Clarck facts:

• Only 12 days (out of their 5-month stay) were without rain in Astoria.
• They boiled 1,400 gallons of seawater to make 448 cups of salt (to preserve rations for their return trip).
• Lewis was wearing buckskins and got shot in the rear by one of his men, who thought he was an elk.

This was a worthwhile stop for some interactive history. We got coffee and smoothies at a coffee hut which are common in the PNW. The lady there was mean, but the drinks were good!

At this point in the trip, I was claustrophobic in the car and buried in ketchup packets, styrofoam boxes of leftovers, and maps. But we were heading to the great Mount St. Helens.

We drove over the Lewis & Clark Bridge, which crosses from Oregon to Washington over the Columbia River. The town of Longview, WA, is on the other side of this bridge, featuring mountainous piles of logs. The town was founded by R.A. Long, of the Long-Bell Lumber Company, to be one of the world’s great lumber centers. There were what seemed like broken telephone poles sticking up out of the river, looking like a boat wreck waiting to happen. They were placed there hundreds of years ago to sort the logs as they floated down the river. Not a good canoeing situation. One more hour to drive to our first hike in the Gifford Pinchot National Forest.

We stopped in Kalama, WA, for an emergency bathroom break for our son (it turned out that several other little boys needed to use the bathroom at the same time). The temperature had changed dramatically, from 70 to 100 degrees, as we drove inland from the ocean.

We listened to more Adventures of Coyote Sunrise on the drive. We realized that, with our individual devices and content tailored to our interests, we are often in our own curated worlds. It was special to share the experience of a story together.

On the way up to Mount St. Helens, our daughter started to get carsick, so she sat in the front seat. Then our son did, so they switched. How do you measure who’s more carsick? By the time we got to our destination, The Trail of Two Forests in the Gifford Pinchot National Forest, they were both asleep.

We woke their carsick selves up to explore the magnificent lava tubes and caves. It was quiet, and we had the forest to ourselves. Hearing our voices echo off all the hardened lava was intriguing. The most beautiful part was seeing my kids, full of wonder and thought, “God really did make humans the pinnacle of all creation.”

The trail of two Forests hike featured huge tree-shaped holes in the ground where lava flowed around them. When the trees rotted away, nature-made manholes were left. Similarly, there were a cave “tubes” formed by lava flowing around large fallen trees that we could climb through, like crawling through a sewer (without the sewage). The bigger the body, the more challenging the crawl. My 6-foot-tall husband made it with some extra effort. The cave was relatively short, but long enough that we needed flashlights to get through the pitch-black. Our phone lights worked, but headlamps would have been useful to free our hands for crawling.

There were bugs- mosquitoes and horse flies- which made the kids shriek. I wanted to do the Ape Cave Trail with more lava tubes, but it required an advanced reservation, and we arrived after the last tour ended.

The kids were losing their minds about the horseflies. It didn’t help that when my daughter asked, “Why are they chasing me?!” and my husband replied, “They’re hungry!”

We skipped the one-mile hike to the viewpoint and drove instead. From here, we got to see the Mount St. Helen’s National Volcanic Monument: Southern Viewpoint from a distance with a little snow on top in August. We planned to drive around the north and eastern sides, but they were closed. In hindsight, I probably wouldn’t have spent the day driving up to Mt. St. Helens for this view this far away. We wished we could go to Johnston Ridge Observatory, which we read comes, “within a stone’s throw of the crater; the view from the observatory is unparalleled.”

It was a windy drive back to Portland (I just realized that the word ‘windy’ can mean twisty or blustery). We stopped in Vancouver, WA, for some Indian carry-out, which we ate in our hotel beds while watching Simone Biles win gold in the Paris Olympics.

Day 8: Fly home!

Oregon was an incredible state to explore, with mountains, deserts, the ocean, and so much more than we had time for. The best part, of course, is the time together experiencing something new. Let me know if you go and what you’d recommend for our next trip (if I don’t live there by then).