Pacific Northwest!! Mt. Rainier Area (Post 7 of TBD)

For those that have been following our blog, we’ve totally slacked the last several weeks in coming up with our latest post. Most of this is due to Hurricane Irma. We’ll make a brief post on Irma later, but for now let’s focus on a few areas from Days 11-14: Mt. St Helens, Yakima, and some back roads fishing.

Mt St Helens

The weather really put a damper on our trip to Mt St. Helens. It was cloudy and rainy the entire day, not unusual, but annoying when you’re a tourist. The drive to the volcanic wonder site taking some back roads was very pretty, which almost made up for the clouds. The visitor center at the Johnston Ridge observatory was very crowded, but extremely informative. We actually made 2 trips to the observatory that day. We were headed down about a 30 minute ride away when I thought I saw a break in the clouds. I took a chance, turned the car around and we headed back to the observatory and we were blessed with a slightly better view. It wasn’t perfect, but it was better than nothing! Learning about the eruption, how it affected the area, and the environmental changes was awe-inspiring. You can still see acres upon acres of trees fallen down and the re-growth hasn’t even begun yet and it may never begin. However, the surrounding areas once you get to that clear line where the devastation wasn’t as bad, is truly beautiful with large tress and lush growth.

Cowlitz Falls Park and Random Hiking

For most people, you won’t hear much about this little park. It isn’t even really a park as much as it is a parking lot. However, this little area was pretty neat. We brought the fishing gear and some waders on this day with some live worms and figured we’d give it a shot to catch some trout. There are so many areas of Washington with dams and fish hatcheries for Salmon and Trout. We didn’t really plan to do fishing on this trip, though the AirBnB we stayed was gracious enough to let us use all their fishing gear! At this park, they have some picnic tables, where we sat and ate lunch, and they have a little alcove of water set apart from the Cowlitz River and that is where all the locals come to fish. There were no tourists here. The people coming to fish here were locals and they were fishing for their 3 limit max of Rainbow Trout per person for food that night. Laura and Evan tried their luck with a lure on the river side while Olivia and I tested our luck with the worms. It didn’t take long, after about 30 minutes we had our first bite. I let Olivia reel it in and it was a beautiful rainbow trout, very small, but a pretty fish and she had fun reeling it in. Though she made sure to let everyone know daddy caught it she just reeled it. There’s no fooling her even though we tried to convince her she caught it. From here we decide to drive around and thought perhaps the roads might be open to the Western side of Mt St Helens. Unfortunately, they weren’t but we did some GeoCaching, random hikes, and a fun bumpy ride to scare everyone as we went downhill! We stretched our legs a bit, saw some beautiful scenery, and better yet we were the only people for miles!!

Oak Creek Wildlife Area, Naches, and Yakima

This day was a VERY rainy day. In fact it was rainy everywhere we went except Naches. Which very amazingly is the area where just about every Washington apple sold comes from it seemed like. There were rows upon rows of Apple and Cherry trees. On top of that, the warehouses with all the apple crates outside were pretty neat too. Laura kept wishing she could have brought an apple crate home for an home decoration idea. On this day we stopped for lunch at the Naches Applewood Park. It was a nice little park with a lot of open space, a couple of playgrounds and a swimming pool. We enjoyed our picnic lunch before the rain came at this stop too. Before Naches we decided to venture to Oak Creek Wildlife area. Let’s just say in the summer, it’s pretty bare and the animals are pretty scarce as well. The road is not recommended if you have a minivan as it’s very rough. We drove for a mile or 2 before turning around. In the winter this is a designated safe zone for animals and it’s really helped re populate various animals. We ventured after Naches to Yakima, if you go to your local Publix in Florida you can buy Yakima Apples for a whopping $4 per pound whereas in Washington they are $.99 per pound. Quite a lot of transportation cost associated with those apples. There isn’t much going on in Yakima, it’s a pretty big city and had a nice little outdoor shopping center, but other than that we didn’t do much there. We then battled a heavy rain on the way back to Packwood.

Sunset of Mt. Rainier

While it was rainy for the majority of our time this week in Packwood, we were extremely blessed to capture this picture here. We took Snyder road up to NF-1260 where at the very top there’s a host of trails you can take as well as some back woods camping spots. In the rain a few nights prior up here we saw a mom dropping of her two teenage sons to go camping. This night however, we didn’t go all the way to the top. A short ways from the top there’s an electrical station of some type with a massive antenna and an absolute perfect clearing to see Mount Rainier. The picture doesn’t even do it justice at all. The sun was setting and the clouds were moving away and left this amazing ring of clouds around the mountain that was just really neat to see. Couple that with the sunset and it made for a perfect evening for just Laura and I. Laura’s mom graciously watched the kids and got them ready for bed for us so we could go do that and I am so thankful she did! We might not have otherwise been able to get the picture.

This wraps up our post this week, stay tuned next week as we detail our drive from Packwood to Vancouver by way of Seattle and Everett.

August 28, 2017January 30, 2018

Pacific Northwest!! Mt. Rainier Area (Post 6 of TBD)

Days 8-10

These next few days were like going through a time warp between summer and winter in the same day. It was quite bizarre. On these days we did some more GeoCaching, made our own trail, went sledding in the snow, hiked across a waterfall, and enjoyed the Mt. Rainier area.

Mt. Rainier

Our first day scoping out Mt. Rainier was a busy one and we didn’t even get to see the mountain! However, we had an absolutely blast! The day before on our drive into town we had already scoped out a few spots to stop and hike along the way. This helped make the day a little easier. Being that the house we rented was not equipped with internet…or cell phone signal, we had to rely on Blanton’s Market in town for their free wi-fi. Don’t fret, we did go in and buy something every single time! If you are in the Packwood area, Blanton’s really is a great little grocery store with very reasonable prices and fresh fruits and veggies.

Sledding

Alright onto our day. Our first activity…snow sledding. Yes…you read that right, snow sledding…in June! We had a blast. It was pretty cold, about 34 degrees,

but for the most part we had plenty of warm clothes. Poor Evan though, we didn’t quite pack the right pants for him and his pants weren’t really water proof. So he rode around in the car without pants on afterwards for a little while. He didn’t care though, he had so much fun sledding it made it up for all of it. The house we were staying through AirBNB had a sled they offered for us to use so we took full advantage and were just lucky enough to find a great spot to do it. Click here to see a funny video of our hiking adventures, click this link https://youtu.be/sg8ff_iMCKg

No Name Hike

Anyone know what the best kind of hikes are? The ones were you rarely run into a soul. There’s just something about the ability to get out into nature on a random trail with only one parking spot for a vehicle and making it your own. I don’t even believe this trail had a name to it as it didn’t appear on my Washington Trails App. However, it was very quick, and had an amazing view of the river at the end. We threw rocks, walked across a series of logs that had piled up and just enjoyed the atmosphere at the bottom of the mountain where there was no rain or clouds.

The View Itself

I’m not going to lie, I really wish we had delayed our trip a few weeks so that we could have had better weather and trail conditions. However, had we done that we would have encountered so many more tourists on the roads and trails of Mt. Rainier. So, because of the weather and the shear number of people, we didn’t spend much time near the visitor center or driving around. We did the one drive through the park so that we could saw we did it, and came away with the view to the right on the one sunny day. That day was pretty incredible as every turn we made we were fortunate to have a different perspective to see the mountain.

Comet and Christine Falls

This hike was really pretty interesting. It was one of the more strenuous hikes because it was essentially straight up. As we hiked up, we passed multiple groups coming down who said they turned around because they couldn’t pass, the snow became too difficult. The hike itself had some really pretty view in the short distance. However, we did come to an area where we could not pass with the kids. It was what looked like was a usual slanted rock stretch heading straight down about 200 feet to the bottom. What made this difficult was the snow build up. It was just any snow build up. No, this snow build up had half way melted and had left what was essentially a hollow cave/bridge for you to walk over. It was probably at the most 18 inches thick, so walking across it was pretty dangerous. We chose not to bring the kids, and in fact I was the only one that kept going. I knew by looking at the WTA app that I wasn’t that far from the last waterfall, maybe 3/4 of a mile. I made it across and started jogging. Without a carrier and other baggage, it felt like I could run for days…that didn’t last long though haha. I eventually made it to the more difficult snow area and I just kept sinking down in the snow. It was actually pretty painful on my knees catching me off guard each time. The view was so well worth it though and if there was more time I would have kept hiking even further.

Cora Lake Trail

Now technically this trail wasn’t within Mt. Rainier National Park. It was actually part of the “sister” park the Gifford-Pinchot National Forest. What was amazing about this trail was we were literally the only people anywhere within miles. We traveled up a random forest service dirt road. It appeared to be serving more as a logging road lately as they had been doing some planned clearings to help the over growth. The hike itself wasn’t difficult, finding the geocache on the hike took a minute, but it was fun. The hard part was finding the other geocache at the end of the trail. We spent probably an hour trying to cross the creek where the trail typically crosses. However, the water must have been extra high this time of year and didn’t give us anywhere to cross safely with the kids. So we ended up leaving our daughter, who had fallen asleep in the carrier, with my mother-in-law and backtracked a little bit to cross at a place where a small tree had fallen across the creek. Just because the creek is only 2-3 feet deep and 15 feet wide, doesn’t mean it is easy or not scary to have your 6 year old cross. However, him and I and Laura all made it across. We then double timed it around the trail. We had to cross the creek again up stream from the waterfall. This crossing was much easier. When we finally made it to the end, it was truly a beautiful view. With the clouds and mist it was an eery view that was really different from normal view that made this unique. We never did find the geocache. There was so much heavy snow around that was packed tight, it was most likely buried. We then proceeded to go back down. What we realized when we started following the trail down is that when we were first trying to make it up we couldn’t really find the trail and there were a lot of fallen trees headed straight up hill. We tried to pass that way but going uphill it became too difficult. Going downhill though we thought we’d give it a try and cut off about 3/4 of a mile of walking, plus gain a little adventure and training for our 6 year old. We repelled down the side of the cliff/mountain, grabbing onto whatever limbs/trees/branches we could. It was quite difficult, but still fun and it saved us some time for sure. We finally made it to the bottom of the trail ready for a snack!

Summary

Due to the weather, outside of the few hikes mentioned here, we spent a good bit of time looking for GeoCaches. There are so many in the area, it made it quite fun. It got to a point where anytime we would slow down the car, my son would flip his seatbelt out and yell out “are we geocaching??”. Up next Mt. St Helens, Packwood Area, and Yakima.

August 12, 2017January 30, 2018

Pacific Northwest!! (Post 5 of TBD)

Day 7 – Drive from Glacier, Wa. to Packwood, Wa.

It’s hard to believe our first week is in the books. The drive to our next destination, an AirBnb house in Packwood, Wa is about 214 miles. However, what’s a road vacation and road trip without going off the beaten path. What should have taken us 4.5 hours, ended up taking almost 10 hours. You may be thinking, what in the world took them so long. Well our trip was filled with GeoCache stops (at least a dozen), random pull offs to look at train tracks, rainbow chasing, and a waterfall hike.

The Backroads & Skykomish River Railroad Crossing

Google Maps kept telling us for the fastest route to pick up Interstate 5 and head south. We weren’t really interested in that because you miss so much of the countryside. Instead we took State Road 9 south from Deming, thru Sedro-Wooley (and a GeoCache!) before we finally catch Highway 2 south of Lake Stevens. We really didn’t know what was around us, we were just kind of driving and stopping when we wanted. When we came to the Lake Stevens area, it was really beautiful. The houses surrounding the lake were really neat, and the entire town was very quaint and welcoming. We kept thinking to ourselves, where does everyone work. Then you look at the map and realize how close you are to Everett and Seattle. Now you may be looking at the map and saying why did they take Highway 2, it doesn’t go toward Packwood. Well I had done some research online before our trip and saw this railroad bridge near Gold Bar, Wa that crosses the SkyKomish River with mountains in the background. I was not driving through that area, even if it took us an hour out of the way, without seeing that. It was really amazing because it was absolutely pouring down rain when we got there. I tried looking at the weather radar and it kind of looked like in half an hour or so there may be an opening. So we drove past it and decided to look for a GeoCache. Though, that search turned out to be a DNF. The Cache was right off the road somewhere, it was pouring down rain, and the ground fell straight down off a cliff. So I didn’t even let the kids get out of the car. We drove back to where the bridge was and it was amazing. The “break” that I thought I saw on radar was actually coming. I made Laura jump out of the car and go down to the tracks with me even though it was still raining because I could see the blue sky opening up a bit. Once we got down there it was perfect for about 3 minutes, we had the picture we were looking for which you see here. It was well worth it deviation from our path and the small town of Gold Bar was kind of neat too because we stopped in the park and found another GeoCache!

Snoqualmie Falls

As we continued our drive we made a quick pit stop at Snoqualmie Falls. This wasn’t a pre-planned stop until the morning we left. We were looking for a short hike to do to stretch our legs and maybe see a waterfall. What we didn’t expect was a massive tourist resort. This place is huge, and when I say it’s a tourist trap it really is. There is a giant resort, tons of parking, and tons of people. The trail is even mostly paved. The view was pretty neat, but we did not stay long, we looked, we walked, and then we left. We proceeded down the back roads taking us through what looked like an entirely planned city surrounding this waterfall. It was pretty neat…until we hit rush hour traffic from people getting home from Seattle. We didn’t go anywhere for close to an hour. We finally made it through and continued our journey approaching Mt. Rainier.

Mt Rainier Approach

Well there isn’t much to say about this day, it was extremely cloudy, misty rain, and cold. We could not see the mountain at all. In fact we could really only see certain portions of the side of the road. We did manage to catch one picture in the car looking forward just driving through the park as we got to lower elevations. The picture was pretty cool and I thought we should share.

July 31, 2017January 30, 2018

Pacific Northwest!! (Post 4 of TBD)

Days 5 and 6

Of all our trips, the days are when we just get in the car and go without a plan. When I say without a plan, I really mean, we are going to a general area and if we see something cool we are going to take that path. Often times, these paths are representative of the Robert Frost poem. We almost always like to take the path less traveled by. During our last two full days in the Glacier, WA area we decided to head back towards Bellingham and also towards the Cascadian Farm. Some of our visits these days include: Cascadian Farms, Baker Lake, Chuckanut Drive, Taylor Shellfish Farms, The Filling Station, and GeoCaching!

Cascadian Farms

If you are like us, and have kids, you have tried to purchase all organic groceries. In addition, like us, you probably haven’t been successful in incorporating this into your every day life. However, that didn’t stop us from wanting to visit the Cascadian farm in Concrete, Wa. One thing we loved about Washington was all of the farms and gardens people had in their yards. It definitely got us in the mode of wishing we could have gardens here like they do in Washington. Here we have two pictures, the first being the obligatory picture of the small building on the property. In the building they sell a few snacks and milkshakes and ice cream hand made on site. It was definitely delicious. We sat out back, enjoyed our treats, and the view. In the second picture, we have a row of new growth starting up. There actually wasn’t a sign to say what it was. However, the more interesting part about this picture is the woods to the left. To the left on the mountains and directly behind the Cascadian Farms building is all protected forest land. What’s even better is the land was designated as such by local families that owned the land. They chose not to develop the land, but to set up a natural habitat. Who is this natural habitat for you may ask. Bald Eagles. In the winter they come by the thousands to this one area. It is so popular that the town of Concrete, Wa has a Bald Eagle festival every weekend in January!

Baker Lake

Baker lake was not one of those places we planned to attend. However, we are so glad that we did! It was truly a beautiful, quiet, and peaceful area. We were driving around looking for places we might be able to cast a line in the water in the Skagit River. For the majority of this trip, we did not have any cell phone signal, so if we didn’t know 100% where we wanted to go in advance, we had to use a paper map. Yes I said a paper map. I am thankful that as a kid I was forced to learn how to read a map. Not just a driving map, but essentially any map you put in front of me, I can read it, understand it, and know where I am. As we were looking for fishing spots I looked on the map and saw this lake as well as a road that wound is way around varying high points of mountain points, which typically signals there are trails present. We decided to just take a chance at a side road in the town of Concrete and it led to a road up the mountain. When we go to the top of this initial road we were blessed with a 3 second view of mountain ranges in the distance to the south. We then proceeded on the other side of this mountain where we entered the Baker Lake area. In one of the more picturesque places of our entire trip we snapped several photos that as usual don’t even do the area justice. I could have stayed here for days just enjoying the view. The first stop we made was Panorama Point Campground. Yes you can camp with this view. It is absolutely amazing, stunning, and literally unbelievable. We stopped to have lunch here at the campground and just enjoyed the view. After lunch we drove across Baker Lake Dam. By the way….the Dam is super cool and eery at the same time. When you drive across, you feel like you are only a couple feet above the water level. My wife had her eyes closed and just kept repeating please drive please drive.

So of course I slowed down for some amusement. This was a quick stop, but not the last of our Baker Lake area adventures. We saw a side road that didn’t appear on the paper map, but seemed well traveled. On my All Trails app, it showed a trail at the end of the road, so we decided to give it a shot. It was definitely a long, bumpy, pot holed covered dirt road. I don’t really know how long it took us to get to the end. We never even made it because the road turned to complete snow. Other cars parked where we had and walked the 3/4 of a mile more to the beginning of the trail head. We definitely have added it to our bucket list because the pictures we’ve seen from others hiking this trail are amazing. Do a quick search or click here and check out Park Butte Lookout. You will not be disappointed.

The long random drives and stops for lunch made our day go by quick, so we took a nice drive back to the timeshare and stopped along the way to do some GeoCaching!

Bellingham – Part Deux

Let’s see if we can keep this narrowed down a bit since I’ve already chatted a bit about Bellingham. Even though it took our second trip to Bellingham to visit these areas, you absolutely MUST visit these. First, a winding drive mostly covered by State Park protected land, Chuckanut Drive. I can see this being a beautiful relaxing drive by bicycle. In the rain, the car was much better. Again, even in rainy weather this drive was incredible with stops overlooking the water, numerous trails and amazing houses in places along the way.

We just happened to be driving down Chuckanut drive when I saw a sign for Taylor Shellfish farms. About a half mile back I had stopped at an overlook and saw massive Oyster Shell Farms located in the water down below. It was really quite interesting reading about them and the value they play to the ecosystem out there. With the issues our local waterways and ecosystem are having here, it was really neat to see how valuable the Oysters can be people are placing here. In typical fashion for our trips I decided to turn off. Don’t be alarmed, yes there is a straight down hill driveway, yes you cross the rail road tracks where there is a small rail port holding area that you drive right along. It seems as though you shouldn’t be allowed to drive down there. If you keep driving, eventually you get to Taylor Shellfish Farms. It’s a very neat place, selling all types of Oysters. We got 2 Dozen of varying types, I shucked them all and we downed them in no time. I grew up eating Oysters (in Florida only in months ending in R). My wife and mother-in-law on the other hand did not. This picture and video says it all at the link to the right. https://photos.app.goo.gl/N1NapfUFuVHfC0el2 This was an experience for them. It was rainy and cold outside, but you shuck em and eat em and toss em all outside onto the shore below their dock. Really you must stop here and if nothing else learn about the local culture and history.

The Filling Station

For lunch we decided to stop and eat somewhere. I think we only did this for lunch twice in our entire 3 week trip as eating out is very expensive out here, especially with kids. That being said, this was a pretty neat place. They had Bloody Mary buffet so you could build your own. They bring your glass with Vodka in it (yes they have Bacon Vodka!!!) and you go up to the bar and pick your own ingredients and fill your glass yourself for your own custom Bloody Mary. Really quite a neat perspective and way to get people to try something unique. They had a really good tea that day made with mint, lavender and perhaps one other thing I can’t recall, but it was delicious. The food was good as well, several unique items to choose from that made it difficult to pick just one. All told, we highly recommend you give this place a chance.

That pretty much concludes our last two days in the northern half of Washington State. Up next…our drive from Glacier, Wa to our “home” for the next week, Packwood, Wa.

July 18, 2017January 30, 2018

Pacific Northwest 2017! (Post 3 of TBD)

Days 3 and 4

So we’ve given you a brief overview of our trip to Washington as well as our first two days. Now we are going to give you a quick look at days 3 and 4 of our trip. Up on tap: Scenic Highway 20, Thunder Knob Trail / Diablo Lake, North Cascades Visitor Center, Washington Pass Overlook, Heliotrope Ridge Trail, and Chair 9 Restaurant!

Scenic Highway 20

We began our 3rd day in typical fashion with a stop at the Wake ‘N Bakery. From there we proceeded south toward the town of Sedro Wooley. We then picked up highway 20 to head east. The drive is absolutely beautiful and winds through several small towns. On a clear day you can catch glimpses of Mt Baker and many other peaks. On this day we were fortunate enough to have one of our few completely sunny days. Our first stop was the North Cascades Visitor Center. The turn off is relatively obscure, but the center itself is pretty neat. Boasting a 3D topographical map, video about the area and a gift shop with the usual Park Service trinkets. A short jaunt down a boardwalk out the back of the center leads you to a nice little view of a glacier. After this quick pit stop, it was time for our first hike of the day, Thunder Knob Trail

Thunder Knob Trail

Round trip this trail is about 3.5 miles. It is also almost completely straight up. It’s a pretty steep climb once you really get into it. However, the work is well worth it! We didn’t see many animals, just a few chipmunks, but the stench of possibly some bobcats was nearby. About half way up you get to a clearing where you get a glimpse of something so spectacular it makes you want to sit there and just stare all day. Alas we needed to move on to see what was at the top! This hike most definitely worked the calves toting a little one on the back, but our Deuter Kid Comfort III saved my back and shoulders!!! Once you get to the top though, you are rewarded with a gorgeous view of Diablo Lake. There are numerous sub trails you can take at the top to walk around for differing views. If you are lucky enough you can get a chipmunk to come up to you. This is another spot in which you can sit and stare for hours. It’s extremely peaceful and you’re lucky if you pass two other groups of hikers on the whole trail.

Washington Pass Overlook

Drive a little further, and by a little I mean a few hours further, and you reach the Washington Pass Overlook. At 5,400 feet it’s the highest point you can drive to in Washington State. On the day we drove up we were forced to park right at the entrance off Highway 20 due to snow covering the road way. However, that made for a more fun walk up to the boardwalk lookout. The road was pretty clear, but the kids had more fun running in the snow and throwing it. As with every stop we made this trip, the views were unbelievable. With an amazing view of Liberty Bell mountain and the surrounding snow covered woodlands, this was well worth the several hour drive.

Heliotrope Ridge Trail

In what was perhaps one of the most fun hikes we have done with our family, the Heliotrope Ridge trail did not disappoint! The access to this trail is just down the road from the Visitor Center for the Park Service in Glacier. Once you turn down the Forest Service road, it is quite a long drive up a very narrow road. Regardless, the drive is pretty bumpy, but oh so beautiful. Once you arrive to the end of the road you have reached the trail head. I will post a few pictures here of the trail, but they don’t even come close to doing it justice. Determining the full length of this trail was difficult due to all the snow. Based on our trek using the All Trails app tracking our GPS location, roundtrip we hiked 5.8 miles and exceeded 2,800 feet in elevation climb. Our 6 year old Evan hiked the entire trail roundtrip with no problem. Our 3 year old Olivia hiked the first 1.75 miles on her own before finally succumbing to our Deuter Kid Comfort 3 carrier. Pretty impressive from both kids as the hike was almost entirely straight uphill. From the moment we hit the trail we had to deal with snow. Three areas in particular where both sketchy walking across and beautiful at the same time. The first is at this small location of a waterfall where everything else is covered in snow and you have only a small thin path in the snow to walk, one slip and down you go to the bottom! Even more astonishing was the view as you look the opposite direction from the waterfall. For as far as you can see there are snow capped mountains and the view is just awe inspiring. The second was right before crossing the creek leading down from another waterfall. The creek was harder to cross on the way back as the snow melt later in the day had increased the water flow. Lastly, when we got to the stop, the snow was so deep, but as we were walking we could hear the water just rushing underneath us. It was very neat to hear, but at the same time a little scary knowing at any moment you could fall through. Lastly, at the top you are again blessed with an assortment of views with more snow and beauty. We took a break at the top to enjoy some snacks before heading back down. At this point we were covered in snow. Thankful we had some great hiking shoes and waterproof clothing…well most of us did anyway. My poor son’s pants were not waterproof, but he was a trooper! All told the hike took us approximately 4 hours roundtrip. We began after lunch around 1pm or so and made it back to the car around 5pm. When you have kids, hikes always take longer, but we wouldn’t have changed it for anything.

Chair 9 Restaurant

After a long tiring hike we didn’t want anything to do with cooking dinner. We were fortunate Chair 9 restaurant was on the way right outside the trail and right before Snowater, where we were staying. With free wifi, ice cold beer, and coloring pages and crayons for the kids, we were set! The pizza was excellent, the staff friendly, and the environment was really great. We couldn’t say enough nice things about this place.

That does it for days 3 and 4. We hope you enjoyed this post and look forward to our next post!

June 30, 2017January 30, 2018

Pacific Northwest 2017! (Post 2 of TBD)

Overview

As our previous post mentioned, we spent the first week of our trip staying in Glacier, WA. What we didn’t say was we did a great deal of driving and exploring. We enjoyed ourselves so much we are hoping to come back next summer. Enough rambling, we’ll get to the details we hope you enjoy as much as we did. At the end of this post we will post a link to our Google Photos folder from the first week of our trip. To the right is a picture of the kids standing in front of a giant Douglas Fir on display at the Glacier National Park Service Center. They couldn’t believe trees grew that big!

Day 1 – Deception Pass & Bellingham

In what became a seemingly daily ritual, the sky was cloudy and the rain misty. It was that type of rain that really doesn’t even get your clothes wet, just a little damp. We started our day with a stop at the Wake ‘N Bakery to grab a couple magic cookie bars and we were off toward Bellingham. After an almost two hour drive we arrived at our first stop…Deception Pass. One can only imagine what the views are like when the clouds disappear. Even so, the views were phenomenal. The kids enjoyed climbing the rocks and walking the short trails. The view from very entrance at the park front he bridge is even more fascinating and again one can only wonder how amazing it looks in person when the sun is out or even better at sunset. Anytime you can take a minute to go somewhere different, experience something new, and see God’s true wonder and beauty, it’s as though it takes your breath away. These scenes made me just want to sit there and stare at them for hours. From there we took a short little jaunt to Boundary Bay Brewery in downtown Bellingham. The beer was excellent and the food just as excellent. There was a really great farmers market going on right across the street that was filled with anything you could think of from the local community. Since this was our first full day in Washington we spent the rest of the day going to the grocery store and heading back to condo to get situated for the rest of our trip. This was a great first day to get acclimated to the time change (3 hours) and experience some local culture.

Day 2 – Horseshoe Bend & Mt Baker Ski Area

We decided to begin our northwest hikes with a relatively simple trail, Horseshoe Bend. This trail follows the Nooksack River for approximately 2.5 miles roundtrip. There is virtually no incline of any significance, but the beauty of this trail was phenomenal. Our kids really liked this hike to get us started. Evan is six and Olivia is three. On our entire trip Evan did every hike, faster and better than us adults! Olivia did as well as she could for most hikes, but really it was a 50/50 chance whether she’d want to hike or not. She did enjoy this one very much though for it’s relative ease. The flow of water here is absolutely unbelievable. The power behind this river is unlike anything I’ve ever seen. I have no doubt there’s greater, but this was really amazing. After this little hike we pulled off the side of the road and had a picnic lunch at the Shuksan Picnic area. This was a really nice place with picnic tables and areas to walk down to the river and throw rocks and walk along the water. From lunch we proceeded our trek toward Artist Point Ridge trail. The drive up was absolutely stunning. The one problem….we could only make it to the Mt Baker Ski area. Everything continuing on was blocked by snow. This area received 271 inches of snow this winter, that combined with a late snow and unusually cool temperatures has made the snowmelt end later in the season. So our entire plan of hiking the Artist Ridge trail was foiled by all the snow. We didn’t let that stop us though. We decided to attempt to just start hiking in the snow to see how far we could make it. We didn’t make it very far, but the views were absolutely spectacular! The drive up was well worth it just for the views alone. We headed down the mountain and made a quick stop to see Nooksack Falls. There is no hike to these falls, you park and walk maybe 100 feet to the viewpoint. It was beautiful and the history behind the falls and the attempts at delivering power to the area were very interesting as well. There’s a road that continues from the falls, but is off limits to vehicles. You’ll need to walk from there. We didn’t walk up this way, but Glacier Service Center recommended it to us for a rainy day as it’s mostly covered with trees and can keep you dry. It’s just a nice little walk to see the sights and apparently animals frequent this trail. When Mother Nature changes around you and delays your plans, you just roll with it. This was a great day and the views were truly spectacular. We definitely recommend doing the Artist Ridge hike in July – September. If/When we make it back this way, this is going to be tops on our list and we will be more prepared with snowshoes!!

June 28, 2017January 30, 2018

Pacific Northwest 2017!!! (Post 1 of TBD)

Intro to our Pacific Northwest Adventure!

With these next series of posts, we are going to take you on a voyage to the Pacific Northwest of the United States. Seeing places different from Florida is simply awe inspiring. Of all the places we have been, this is the first place my wife would seriously consider moving to. The trip extended 17 days departing from Orlando International Airport and flying into Vancouver International. If you read our most recent post on booking airfare, you know we got a really good deal. Our adventures encompassed so many different activities and places, and we want to make sure we tell you about all of them. To keep it well organized, we are breaking it up into probably 4 posts.

On the way Flight & Airport Reviews

Let me begin this sections with this, if you can avoid making a connecting international flight in Toronto DO SO!!! Our connection was in Toronto and it was very confusing, and time consuming. We had two hours from the time we arrived at our gate until our boarding for our next flight, and it took every bit of it to get there! In partial defense to the Toronto airport, they are going through a lot of construction. That being said the entire transition and customs process and directions were very confusing. Our flight to Vancouver, Canada from Orlando was with WestJet. WestJet is well known in Canada as the low cost carrier of Canada. They are relatively unknown to us in the United States. I will add that I would definitely fly WestJet again. Their customer service was top notch from the time of booking issues I mentioned in our previous post on the flights, to even letting us check extra bags for free at the counter. I couldn’t be more pleased with WestJet, and they specifically advertise that they NEVER OVERBOOK their flights! The Vancouver airport is a descent walk to baggage claim and it took a long time to get our bags. However, all our bags and car seats arrived with no problems. The best thing about the Vancouver Airport is the free luggage carriers. In Orlando you have to pay $5 USD to use one.

Rental Car Pickup

We then headed over to the National Car Rental Emerald Club Section. I can’t say enough good things about National, I have used them for work and personal rentals for a few years now. If you book a midsize car under the free Emerald Club program, you can pick any vehicle from the Emerald Club Aisle. We walked over and picked out the first minivan we saw and proceeded on our merry way. Like I mentioned before, I searched for weeks to find the best rental car rate and for this entire trip we paid less than $500 TOTAL for this minivan. That price is almost unheard of, especially for a minivan. The Emerald Aisle section at the Vancouver Airport was loaded with Quad Cab Pickups, SUVS, Full Size cars, and even a full-size Excursion.

Snowater Resort

The first week of our stay we used a timeshare exchange to stay at the Snowater Resort. I’d hardly call this place a resort, but nonetheless it’s located right outside the National Park on the way to Mt Baker Ski area so they call themselves a resort. We had a 1 bedroom loft unit that was supposed to be 2 private bedrooms, but it definitely wasn’t a private bedroom as it is open to the living room below. The scenery is gorgeous with views of the raging Nooksak River out back made for an awesome sound machine at night. It was a down time for the resort so it was really quiet. Two big negatives with the resort. The upstairs loft room gets very hot during the day and takes a while to cool off. There is no fan up there so regulating the air flow was very difficult. There was also a cleaning fee of $130, yet they ask you to throw all the trash out at the dumpster down the street, wash all the dishes, and take all the linens off the beds. All in all the resort met our needs, the location was good, and we lived to see another day. When we come back we’d probably seek out an AirBNB in lieu of this place.

Glacier, WA

We can’t say enough good things about the town of Glacier, WA. First on the list is the Wake n Bakery!! This place was so neat. They make a really good cup of coffee and several desert bars and cookies. Our favorite was the Magic Cookie Bar. In fact, we liked it so much, we bought a half sheet to take with us the Friday we left Glacier for our next destination so we could have some every day! The owners are very nice, the place just has a cool vibe that makes you feel welcome and the food is great! If you are passing by or staying anywhere near Glacier, WA, the Wake n Bakery has to be on your list of places to visit. Give them a follow on Facebook so you don’t forget too!! Our second favorite stop was the Glacier Public Service Center run by the National Forest Service. The folks there are very knowledgeable of the entire area, they can point you to some good hikes to check out, road closures, as well as some neat information about the history of the area. Last but not least, Chair 9 Pizza and Sports Restaurant. We stopped in here after one of our difficult hikes (more on this later), the beer was good, the pizza was good, and the kids colored while dad got to watch sports, plus they had free WiFi, which in an area with no cell signal is a welcomed site to help plan your next day adventures.

Since this post was pretty long, I figure it’s best to let you read through this and digest it before overloading you. Don’t worry there is more to come! The next post will focus on what we did each day the first week as well as direct links to the Washington Trails App as well as All Trails app and my subsequent reviews and pictures of each trail. For now enjoy the info in this post and if you have questions, shoot them to us in the comments. Thanks!

May 24, 2017January 30, 2018

Booking Airfare & Flying…..with Kids! (Part 2 of 3)

Booking Airfare & Flying…..with Kids! (Part 2 of 4)

I know exactly what you’re thinking….what the heck took them so long to post the next part of this series! Haha! For all those who actually are interested you can wait no more! In this post I will focus on the optimal ways for you to book your airfare when traveling with kids.

First things first….Patience!! I realize traveling with kids is easier said than done. I promise you, more times than not your patience will be rewarded.

Just an Overview

I travel a lot for work. Often times though, the carrier I fly is not within my control. However, for our personal travel we have flown to places like Hawaii, Boston, Chicago, Buffalo, Washington D.C., Denver, Vancouver, Anchorage, Calgary, and Austin. From those trips I have sorta developed a system. To some of you it may not make a bit of sense. However, I promise there is a reason for the madness.

Time of day to Fly

Here’s the lowdown on what type of flights typically make up the cheapest airfare.

Overnight Flights
Flights with multiple stops
Red-eye departures

We have flown (and Drove) overnight with our kids quite a few times. I only recommend choosing the overnight flight if you are truly flying across country or further and non-stop. Kids don’t react well if they are awoken from a deep sleep. In addition, it takes them several days to recuperate, so keep that in mind. It is also much easier if you are flying from the West Coast to the East Coast due to the time change. It just makes it easier to get back on schedule if you are able to get the right flight.

Making Stops

Most people hate flying and making stops. When we don’t travel overnight, we actually prefer flights with 1 stop. For example, in a few weeks we are flying to Vancouver by way of Toronto. If it were non-stop it would be an almost 8 hour flight. Flying overnight wasn’t going to work out, so instead we are splitting it up, almost 3 hours to Toronto and almost 4.5 hours to Vancouver. The flight to Vancouver, though long puts us just past the point of no return with kids on an airplane. If they don’t fall asleep it could be a long flight haha. However, our 1 way flight to Vancouver from Orlando was only $130 per person. You read that right….$130 per person, and yes I booked a one way ticket. The price was too good to be true. We will be flying WestJet, which is a first for us, so it should be interesting. WestJet is a Canadian carrier that is like a Frontier or Spirit from the United States. I will say my first encounter with their customer service has been a positive one. They changed our flight times without really telling us and so when I called to ask about it and get some clarification, they went ahead and gave us reserved seats near the front of the plane for free. To some that seems small, but on a no frills pay for everything air carrier, you take what you can, especially so you can be near the front of the plane (faster to get off), and all next to each other.

Our return trip is with American Airlines. I have long boycotted American Airlines. I will save that story for another post. It will make you never want to fly them again. I try at all costs to avoid flying them for work too. The one time I couldn’t avoid it I had pretty major issues. However, just like the flight to Vancouver, our flight home was just too good to be true as well being $126 one way with a single stop in Phoenix. So that’s $260 roundtrip to fly across all of the United States from Orlando, Florida to Vancouver, BC. That’s almost unheard of.

The Tools

Ok, so how did I do it? First, I am a huge fan of Google Flights. Of all the flight search sites out there, that one is one of the best. The downside to it is Southwest Airlines for some reason doesn’t have their flight rates show up on Google Flights or any search for that matter. Southwest airfare rates don’t change dramatically or very often so you won’t need to check them very much. That being said, for these flights I used the Hopper App on my smartphone. Where on Google Flights you can look at different dates and use plus or minus days to find the best fares on a single search, Hopper requires that you select a particular date. This isn’t a huge deal. I definitely recommend only searching 1 way flights. First, it gives you more flexibility in what you do, when you book, where you fly, etc. Second, you will almost always find cheaper round-trip flight fares if you book them as one way flights.

For this trip I set up 4-5 days one way between Orlando and Seattle / Vancouver each and the same number reversed for the flight home. Each day Hopper notifies you of the current cheapest airfare and predicts based on historical knowledge whether you should book now or wait. My wife and I were in the parking lot of Office Depot when the notice came through on my phone for the first flights using WestJet, I immediately booked the tickets on my phone knowing the price I saw was almost too good to be true.

Where does patience fall in this? I had started searching for tickets 5 months prior. It takes a tremendous amount of trust and patience to know that the right price will make its way to you if you trust the process. As you start your search, whether you use Google Flights, Kayak, Priceline, Hopper, or some other medium, you will start to understand what the price point typically is for a flight to a given location. For us, it was 50% cheaper to fly to Vancouver than to Seattle. Even though we are spending 2 weeks in Washington state, Vancouver is not that far away and we all have passports and the price made sense. It’s not always like that. We’ve made mistakes booking flights and could have gotten them cheaper…almost always if we had waited. Sometimes we wait too long, but for the most part we have gotten really great fares, times, stops, seats, etc for each of our flights.

Still confused or have questions or need clarification? Send us an email or comment on the post below.