2015 Oregon 3 week Christmas trip with the "kids"

 For awhile now the "kids" (son who's 37 and his wife, and our daughter who's 35 and her husband) have been talking about us all going somewhere for Christmas.  So on Thanksgiving of 2014, we decided in 2015 we would do it.   All we had to do was decide where and wait for over a year for the time to come.  After suggesting places like Grand Cayman, Grand Bahamas, Key West, and other assorted warm weather beach places, I mentioned the Oregon coast.  That was it, they didn't even hesitate!  That's where they wanted to go!  No warm beaches, no snorkeling, no t-shirts and shorts!  I've lived in Oregon many years ago and know that in winter it rains A LOT!  But I don't remember being in Oregon for Christmas since I was a kid, so I said, "Why not!?"  So at 13 months out  I went onto the Worldmark site and booked a 3 bedroom condo at Gleneden for 2 weeks. When it got closer to Christmas 2015, I refined our reservations by booking 3 nights at Depoe Bay before the Gleneden stay since Angie, Josh and we flew out earlier to get better airfare and cancelled the 2nd week of Gleneden when the kids had all flown home.  Ken and  I stayed an extra week to get the better airfare back, but my brother and sister-in-law offered us their empty house in nearby Dallas since they wouldn't be making it back for Christmas.  

Dec. 16, 2015---flying out of Ft. Lauderdale

Dec. 17, 2015 --- up to rainy Cannon Beach

Dec. 18, 2015---down the Oregon Coast to Cape Perpetua

Dec. 19, 2015---move to Gleneden Beach and Tim and Faith arrive

Dec. 20, 2015---walk along the beach and Mo's

Dec. 21, 2015---to Rogue distillery and brewery

Dec. 22, 2015---Tim's 37th birthday!

Dec. 23, 2015---heading south towards Newport and Seal Beach

Dec. 24, 2015---more sea foam and White Elephant gift exchange

Dec. 25, 2015---Christmas!

Dec. 26, 2015---sad day, the kids leave :(, but first--Multinomah Falls and Mcmenamins Kennedy school for dinner

Dec. 27, 2015---move inland to Dallas

Dec. 28, 2015---apparently there was nothing I wanted to remember about this day?!


Dec. 29, 2015---Silver Falls and Oregon Gardens

Dec. 30, 2015---riding around in the valley and search for Northern Lights

Dec. 31, 2015---Playing with my new lens, Rogue Farms, and into the coastal range by Falls City

Jan. 1, 2016---hanging around Dallas

Jan. 2, 2016---Senior pictures of my great nephew

Jan. 3, 2016---snow and ice storm and time to leave

After living 3 places in Oregon as a kid (Klamath Falls, Corvalis, and Dallas) for a total of 7 years and spending many years vacationing to Dallas as an adult after my parents retired and moved back there, it was nice going back to a place that felt like home.  A lot happened in the year from Thanksgiving 2014 and Christmas 2015---such as Tim and Faith moved to Knoxville and we moved to South Florida.  But we all still managed to come up with the time and money to make the trip.  Even with the cold and rain, it turned out to be a fun trip!

2014 Oregon Sept. (continuation from Utah), Crater Lake, Clear Lake, waterfalls, Coast

After our busy, but wonderful week in Utah, we were off to Oregon for another 2 weeks.  This was a trip to show some friends as much of Oregon as we could in the 10 days they were with us.  Although day 1 for them was a travel day to Las Vegas where they met up with us.  Having lived in Oregon as a kid and vacationed there for over 40 years as an adult, I put together a pretty intensive itinerary for them: Kennedy School Restaurant; Voodoo doughnuts; Columbia River Gorge; Mt. Hood; Cascade Lakes byway; Crater Lake; row boating on Clear Lake; Silver Falls; Oregon Gardens; Frank Loyd Wright's Gordon House; Ugo's in Dallas (my nephew's pizza place); 2 days on the coast (lots of whales!); Garibaldi scenic train ride; Tillamook Cheese Factory; Rogue Brewery; Portland Rose Garden; Portland Japanese Garden---then our company went home and we spent 5 more nights on the coast in Lincoln City.

Aug. 30, 2014 --- to Portland:

Aug. 31, 2014 --- Columbia River Gorge; Mt. Hood; Bend:

Sept. 1, 2014 (Labor Day) --- lava tube; Cascade Lakes Scenic Byway:

Sept. 2, 2014 --- Crater Lake:

Sept. 3, 2014 -- Dee Wright Observatory; Clear Lake:

Sept. 4, 2014 --- Silver Falls; Oregon Gardens; Gordon House; Depoe Bay Worldmark:

Sept. 5, 2014 --- heading south along the coast:

Sept. 6, 2014 --- heading north to Tillamook and Garibaldi train ride:

Sept. 7, 2014 --- Portland Rose Garden, Portland Japanese Garden, good bye to our friends:

Sept. 8, 2014 --- north to Seaside for the night:

Sept. 9, 2014  --- Seaside to Dallas:

Sept. 10, 2014 --- South along the beach to Newport:

Sept. 11, 2014 --- South from Newport Bay:

Sept. 12, 2014 --- Dallas and Portland:

When asked if I was ready to go home, I had to admit---not really! 
Link to my UTAH BLOG:

The Oregon Coast

Time to get started on some of my Oregon trips. Since we've taken so many trips there, this blog will just be about some of the places we've been to along the Oregon coast. My parents and brother's family moved back to the Wilamette Valley (Dallas, Oregon) when I got married and left me in St. Louis. For the next 33 years, my husband and I (and our kids) made this our main vacation every year. Although we stayed with my parents most of the time, we would venture off for a few days each year and see different parts of Oregon. Quite often we headed 30 miles due west of Dallas to the mid-coast area of Lincoln City. We would usually stay somewhere between Lincoln City and Depoe Bay, but we did travel the whole length of the Oregon coast a few times. For this blog, I'll start in the far north and work my way south.

Astoria--This charming little town is full of historic Victorian homes overlooking the coast and mouth of the Columbia River. Just north of the town is the 4.1 mile long Astoria Bridge which goes over the Columbia River to Washington. Fishing for salmon, sturgeon, and crab are very popular here as well as exploring the shops and galleries along the Riverwalk area.

When we were here, the famous Astoria column was closed for renos.  But as of 2026, admission is free but you're required to pay for an annual parking pass of $10. 

 
The town of Astoria is a cute hillside village.

2005 Oregon July trip with Barb (Crater Lake)

I was always threatening to take my best friend from childhood on a trip with me.  We finally did that trip.  Turned out to be a lot more stressful for her then we ever anticipated!  Anyway---

We started the trip with a couple night on the beautiful Oregon coast.  By now my husband and I were Worldmark owners, so I had gotten a couple nights at the Worldmark Depoe Bay in a 3 bedroom unit.  My DAd joined us and was pretty much our driver for most of the week we were in Oregon.  My friend started showing signs that something was wrong, but we chalked it up to the chilly Oregon coast breezes, even though it was July.

Worldmark Depoe Bay

view from livingroom window

more of our condo at Depoe Bay

the gounds of the resort

 Of course we headed down the coast to show Barb the scenic coastline.  She had never been to the west coast.  We stopped in the little town of Depoe Bay and watched for some of the resident whales there.

 Then we continued on .

 Dad even found a tree stump on one of the coastal pathways that doubled as a chair.

2000-Oregon Vacation (Faith's 1st trip to Oregon)

This was the year we took Tim's girlfriend (and future wife) with us to "meet the family".  What we didn't know was that in afew short months, my Mom would suddenly die in her sleep.  She was in a quadriplegic state for 32 years after a car accident.  Can't imagine living like that for so long, or taking care of her like my Dad did for so long----but I'm glad she did!  And I'm glad dad took such good care of her!  They were much loved!!!  Glad I took this last group picture of us!

One of the things we always did on our summer family visits to Oregon was head to the coast for a couple nights.   This gave Mom and DAd a little break from us and all the commotion for a couple days and we got to enjoy one of Oregon's treasures.  We usually ended up around Lincoln City---about 45 minutes away from our base of Dallas, Oregon, where my family lived. 

This year we stayed at Ocean Terrace Condos.  They aren't fancy, but the views are pretty spectacular.

1997 Oregon summer vacation (yurt and Crater Lake)

This was the summer Tim graduated from high school and told us he didn't want to go.  I don't know if it was Oregon he was tired of or going on vacation with us, but we let him stay home.  So we let Angie ask a friend to come along.  She chose Shannon and she was a delight to have along.

We did our usual 2 night trip away from Dallas, but did it a little differently this time.  Instead of staying in a hotel, we stayed in a yurt.

I had tried to get one on the coast, but reservations for those were gone well before summer.  But I did get one in southern Oregon between Crater Lake and the coast.  It was much more comfortable then camping, but it isn't a resort!   It was cheaper then a hotel, but not much.  It was a unique experience, though.

There was a bunk bed for 4 and a double fouton.  It was clean and I liked that there are real floors in it unlike camping. 

1995 Oregon (North coast and white water rafting out of Maupin)

This was another year of  new activities for us in Oregon.  We went to Oregon almost every year from 1975-2010 to visit with my parents,  so we didn't spend the whole time doing touristy things, but we would try to include some new adventure every now and then. 

We always spent a couple night on the coast, but we usually stayed around Lincoln City since it's close to our base of Dallas, Oregon.  This year we headed north.   We don't often go that direction because the road heads inland from the coast in many places.   A lot of the highway is through forests, but there are also lots of farmlands with some interesting animals in them.

The areas where we did see the ocean were beautiful.

Most of the ocean views were from high above ocean level.

1994 Oregon (mother-in-law with us)

This year we brought my mother-in-law with us for 1 week of our 2 week stay at my Mom and Dad's.  She had never been to Oregon before, or anywhere on the west coast.  It was fun showing her the beautiful northwest.

One of the first places we took her to was the coast.  You can't come to Oregon and not see the coast! 

We don't often do much in Newport but sightsee and find a bite to eat, but this time we did drop the kids off at the Ripley's Believe it of Not and let them go through it.   They seemed to have a good time, although I'm not sure what they're doing here!

Since we were on the coast for a couple of days, we got to enjoy the sunsets, too.