Our Trip to Oregon 2008 -- Day Two and Three

"We are off to Oregon to see my Great Grandma and Grandpa Bowman" says Regen, We left San Francisco Monday morning and traveled about 14 hours until we arrived in Portland. We spent the night and the next day we picked up our pop up trailer.

"This is such a long drive Grandma, when are we going to be there...maybe I'll take a little nap. " She was such a good little traveler.
When we finally reached Warrenton about 4:00 pm on Tuesday, we went straight to the beach. It's about a 10 minute walk from my parents home to the beach. It was just as beautiful as I remembered.
We took my sister Erica's daughter, Anna (12) and my brother Brett's two kids, Jazmine(12), and Ryan(11) by the way, what awesome kids. They couldn't keep out of the water, it was cold and windy...only kids would be that crazy.Jazmine, Ryan, Anna and Alanna. Kirk built a nice roaring fire to keep them warm.
This was Regens' first time at the beach, she loved the sand, but wasn't too sure about the freezing cold water.
The lighting was perfect, I love the glow on Regens face.
The three out of four cousins who will be 13 at the same time. Jessica, my sister Lisa's daughter would be arriving the following day.

Ashley and Regen, this was Ashleys first time at the Oregon coast too.

Three generations, how precious.
If you look really close, you can see that Regens was using all of her senses to experience the sand, (look at the corner of her mouth)
Ashley took this picture, it is quite breathtaking, I love the lighting and the great expanse of the ocean. Nice job Ash!

Then it was time for the annual smore making at the fire pit in my parents yard. Jaz is jamming to her own tune there, or maybe she's doing the yummy dance...So cute.

" Mom, if you don't quit taking pictures of me, so help me, I'll poke you with my marshmallow spear." Seriously, we have great memories and full tummies from our nightly fire pit get togethers.

Regen and Ashley along with Racer and Ryder. Regen enjoyed her first taste of a smore, yummy.
Here's Ryan, where else would you find an 11 year old boy, but in front of a fire, you're just like your Dad. Tomorrow, we are going into seaside, we can't wait.

Our Trip to Oregon 2008 -- Day One

We started our trip to Oregon a week ago last Saturday, June 28th. We drove 14 hours to San Fransisco and arrived late that night. The next morning we wanted to go and see the sights, here we are going over the Oakland Bay bridge. It was so overcast and drizzly, we thought it would be a miserable day.

Lucky for us the sun broke through the clouds and burned away the fog and we decided to go on the boat trip to see the Golden Gate bridge and Alcatraz before we lost the sun again. Here are Ashley and Regen and Alanna down on Fishermans Wharf.


Alanna and Ashley have staked their spots for the ride, they sat up front where they were sprayed and windblown. They said it was awesome.

We are waiting for the boat to fill with people, it was an hour ride out and back, well worth $15.00.
Regen and I stayed in the cabin for a little bit of the ride, it was very windy and cold.

They were having races, and I just happened to capture a great shot of this magnificent sail boat. That is on my list of 100 things to do before I die.

You can see the Golden Gate bridge in the background, the boat went under and turned around one of the massive concrete columns. It was quite spectacular. Ashley and Alanna had their picture taken by one of the boat crew. Nice shot.
Close up and personal, this is one of my favorite sights and places. This is our third trip here.
Now we are coming to Alcatraz, the tour guide said this building use to be a recreation center for the families of the guards and use to hold a bowling alley inside.

Here is the prison, and is open for tours. It is booked up at least four days in advance, one day it would be neat to go through the inside of Alcatraz.

This sign was interesting, it was a warning about concealing or helping prisoners escape.Here are a whole bunch of sail boats racing, it sure was cool to watch.
Kirk and myself.

These are very expensive home right on the bay, it was so pretty.
A wind surfer, the bay was very busy. The gold dome building is the science museum, and next time we go to San Fransisco, I'm going there.
Ashley and Regen, we really had beautiful weather. A great shot of San Fransisco and the wharf.
One of many massive ships.Our trip is coming to an end, lets go get lunch!Fresh crabs, straight from the bay, yum-yum!!!Alanna, Kirk and Regen are enjoying their crab.

Even Regen couldn't get enough, then we thought, we hope she doesn't have an allergy to shell fish, luckily she didn't.

We played tourist for a while and Ashley found this very tall pirate to pose with.

The girls decided they wanted their names painted. He uses a small piece of leather and it looked like some toll painting techniques and made Alannas' name in under 5 minutes.
Here she is showing us her name completed. Ashley had Regen's name done in pink and purple, so cute.
What a cute shot, Regen was a great little tourist.
Then it was time to board the trolley car, the girls were in for a ride. Let's go, Alanna and Ashley rode on the stairs, be sure you keep your head and body close.

Here is a shot of some of the tall and skinny homes all along the streets. There were some pretty ornate homes.

Here is a shot looking down, it was pretty steep.
Now we're going down, okay, this is really steep, you can see the bay straight ahead. Regen is thouroughly enjoying her trolley ride.

Summer Time Fun!

The first few pictures and video are from a little splash park in the newly built Westgate Plaza which is part of the new Football Stadium where the Super Bowl was held. It is suppose to be Vegas-like, it has lots of lights, a theatre, restaurants, shops, condos for sale and another fountain that dances to music. At this particular area, they have live music, it's really fun. Devon thinks so too. It's about 7:00 pm, we went out just this past Saturday night with Regen, Ashley and Alanna.

This is a great shot of Regen and the lighting was perfect. Devon is behind her, even though it was 7:00 at night, it was still over 100 degrees, we were sweating up a storm. When the babies were done, we walked to Cold Stone and enjoyed some yummy ice cream.
This is another splash park that I take the day care kids too, it has water guns, and dumping buckets.

This is a video taken at the Westgate plaza, you can hear the live music playing in the background.

Alanna and Regen...this was Regens first visit to the park and I was surprised that she liked it as much as she did.