Author Archives: amcandrew

I started our first full day in Seaside with a run along the beach. It was foggy and grey, but with all the exertion, I didn’t feel cold in my running clothes. Upon returning to the house, I threw on a sweatshirt and took the kids to the beach. We planned to walk to theContinue reading “Baby, it’s cold outside”

After a five hour drive, with a one hour lunch at Olive Garden (the kids loved it) in Salem, we arrived in Seaside! Our house was built by an English sea captain in the 1930s and is now owned by three families from Portland who love to surf. Two of the owners – Gabe andContinue reading “Seaside, at last”

We finally reached Oregon on July 13. After leaving Boise, we spent most of our drive meandering through a fairly ugly desert, stopping only in Burns, OR (a small town full of Trump flags) to eat at picnic tables. We made good time and arrived in Bend about two hours before check-in, so we stoppedContinue reading “Bend”

Although we were curious to see Boise, our main reason for spending two nights here was to have time to visit the Morley Nelson Bird of Prey Conservatory – the largest nesting ground for birds of prey in the entire world. Evelyn read the My Side of the Mountain trilogy this year and has beenContinue reading “Finding Raptors”

We were happy to roll into Park City, UT where we had a spacious condo for four nights. Park City is a large ski town with many urban conveniences (like a Whole Foods and Lululemon). It was also much greener and more humid (relatively) than we expected. Jim had conference calls for most of theContinue reading “Park City”

After our time in Durango, we spent the night in surprisingly interesting Moab, UT. Located on the Colorado River, Moab is an oasis in the stark Utah desert. It was filled with interesting shops and restaurants. We picked up delicious Thai food for dinner and the children swam in the pool of our hotel allContinue reading “Arches National Park and the Moab Valley”

We headed to Mesa Verde National Park right after breakfast. The entrance to the park is about 35 miles from Durango, but most of the cliff buildings are another 20 miles into the park. Mesa Verde combines the natural beauty of high desert mesas with the fascinating remains of ancestral Pueblo villages. Unfortunately we wereContinue reading “Mesa Verde”

We headed to Durango early to meet our dear friends the Foxes, who also happened to be vacationing here at the same time. Since it was also a Sunday, we attended church with them at a terrific reformed evangelical church called Gospel Church. We spent the day at their AirBNB and let the kids playContinue reading “Durango”

Our first full day in Pagosa Springs was mostly spent on the banks of the San Juan River, in an area where water from the nearby hot springs trickles down rocks to form warm, shallow pools near the icy river water. The hot springs here in Pagosa are the deepest in the world and theContinue reading “Pagosa Springs”

Today we said farewell to Red River and the state of New Mexico and headed to Pagosa Springs, CO. Our route took us through Taos and across the Rio Grande Gorge Bridge. The landscape changed from rugged high desert to green valleys, including the gorgeous Chama Valley, and ended with huge views of the RockyContinue reading “Crossing Into Colorado”