6/14/17 - Day 4

6/14/17

Made it to California!  We put in a long day of driving and made it all the way to Jedediah Smith Redwoods State Park from Bend. 
We even took a side trip to Crater Lake where we had a bit of a National Lampoon’s Vacation moment.  What I mean is we took a long drive with cranky, tired kids and got there and honestly were a bit underwhelmed!  Maybe it’s because I’ve seen so many pictures of it that I felt like I had been there before!  



Updates from our Bend stay – June 12-June 14: We arrived in Bend in the afternoon.  

After a necessary stop at REI we met everyone for dinner at Worthy Brewery (our first Oregon brewery).  It was fabulous to see the Soares family, along with Nicole and her kids.  The kids outnumbered the adults 6-5 and it was a bit chaotic at times!  

The next day was definitely a big day of activity.  The morning was filled with lots of trampoline jumping (by the kids, but I was seriously tempted!).  Really, I would have been on the trampoline, but there was a couch on their deck that had a slightly stronger pull.  As you can see, the choice was a no-brainer. 


After breakfast 5 of the kids and four of the adults went to Smith Rock State Park.  


 We climbed the Misery Ridge trail (appropriately named according to the kids) to the top where we took in the view of the Monkey Face. 















It was perfect weather for it, and the kids all made it to the top (with only a small to medium amount of complaining).  It was quite an accomplishment because it was definitely very steep in parts.  Then it was time to hustle back to pick up kid number 6 from school (Nadia), drop off Chad for his mountain bike ride, and visit the local Ben and Jerry’s for some Enlighten-Mint ice cream (yes, that’s really the name of the flavor I had, which, by the way, I highly recommend).  On the way there Henry asked, “I wonder if Ben and Jerry are nice.”  I would say so!  We headed back to Kimberlee’s for more trampoline time.  We cooked dinner at the Soares home and Kimberlee, Nicole and I got to go out and try the beer at the Good Life Brewery. As you may have noticed Oregon is big on their beer, and Bend is big on beer crafting.  Then, sadly, I had to say goodbye to Kimberlee since she was getting up early for work the next morning.  I will miss her smiling face!  

The next morning I was lucky enough to get a trail run in before we left.  We didn’t actually get out of town until 11:30 – only an hour later than planned. 

Then off to Crater Lake and Cali!

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