Harvey 2.0 - The Return of the Summer Road Trip!

Readers of this blog may remember a trip last year we took with our grandsons

It was called the Harvey trip.  

The name came from the fact that we were driving around Oregon in an RV, which the grandsons named "Harvey" after a character in a Disney movie.  It was a cartoon, and the character was actually an RV = "Harvey" - get it?  Anyway, we're doing it again, only this time it's not quite an RV, more like a mini-van. 

So we set out on Monday morning after a very hectic last couple weeks.  June is Birthday time around our family, and our son TK came home from Nicaragua, and other assorted activities - and best of all - our other son Lewis and his wife Ruby just had a baby, their first, a boy.

Therefore we didn't have as much time to lay out elaborate travel plans.  We just packed up as much as we could and off we went.

On the way up to the north coast of Oregon, we were passing through Portland and out through Hillsboro with a destination of Fort Stevens at the northwest tip of Oregon, west of Astoria.  

While driving there I was talking to Fiona and I stated that I would like for this trip to be a "McDonalds free" zone, with a focus on eating right with the three boys and trying to be healthy.   So where was the very first place we stopped?  You guessed it - McDonalds.   

The following conversation ensued over lunch:
Me:  Sam, how many chicken nuggets do you think you've had in your life?     Sam:  Oh, maybe like thirty.
Me:  Thirty?  That's not very many, I'm sure you've had a lot more than that ...    Sam:  Hmmm, Okay well, maybe like a million ...

We pull into Fort Stevens and we have a special treat for the boys, we're staying in a Yurt!

What's a Yurt, you might ask?  It's a round tent like structure, based on the traditional portable housing of Mongolian nomads.  No, really, that's where they come from.  And they're pretty cool. 

It was fun and interesting and - we were completely unprepared.  It's more like camping than we thought and we didn't bring hardly anything for cooking or other such needs, other than a big frying pan, shown in the back seat next to Fiona's shoes.  We did have some firewood, however, and built a good fire to cook some basic breakfast 

We didn't bring bikes along this time, but we had scooters.  The only problem - the camp rangers wouldn't let them ride without helmets (really? in a campground? seriously?).  It just so happens they sell them ... so we bought some and then named the boys "The Red Helmet Club" - with matching stop sign. 

We realized we didn't have sleeping bags so Fiona bought some last minute and the boys used the bags for sack races!  Rather ingenious I would say.  

We made our way to the nearby beach where the boys got entirely covered in wet sand and other assorted states of dirty.  I got a picture of them in front of the historic shipwreck of the Peter Iredale in the waves.  

We were still digging sand out of Sam's ear the next day.

When we got to Fort Stevens of course the boys loved it. There were a bunch of big cannons there.  They played soldiers and ran and jumped around and pretended like they were shooting bombs.  Great fun for little boys.  

They found a big old rusty cannon from the days of World War II and they used their imagination about the past.  Jackson is usually the ring leader and convinced the boys that "we can blast ourselves into the past if we work together!" if they said it while placing hands on the old relic. 

 

Lewis & Clark were the best ...

After that we went to Fort Clatsop, where the Lewis and Clark Expedition camped when they finally reached the Pacific Coast after the Voyage of Discovery across the "virgin American wilderness" in 1805.  It's a place I really love.  I have studied a lot about Lewis and Clark and this place holds a real fascination for me. 

On the way there, we went to another standard spot for lunch - Costco (in Warrenton).  We got pizza, hot dogs, and ice cream.  Yeah, really super healthy.  On the way out, the boys can't resist climbing and playing on everything.  Just as I was taking a picture of them horsing around on the shopping cart cage, Yoppie plunged to the ground and did a face plant.  Great Fun!  Well, he was just a little hurt ....

Our next to last stop that day was at the Astor Column in Astoria, Oregon.  Jackson, Yoppie and I climbed all the way to the top.  It's really tall and I'm not real good with heights.  Jackson isn't either.  He boldly declared that he would "conquer his fear" but it still took some coaxing to get him to the top.  We snapped a selfie when we got back down.  The view from the top was spectacular!  

Oh, and one last thing we did that second day, we went to the movies in the evening in Astoria and took the boys to see "Finding Dory" which was a terrific fun movie.  

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We departed after a couple days there at Fort Stevens State Park, and started south to Tillamook, where we toured the cheese factory. It's pretty touristy and everybody goes there, but you can't resist the place, and all the good food.  

On the road again ...