Back in Sac, San Francisco

Wow, how touristy are these pictures?

Erin, Natalie and Nicholas with Grammy

Is that a smile, Nick?

Back in California, the streets of Sacramento

Sisters

Cindy & Cheryl

Finally Fishing!!!!

Uncle Jim shows Natalie and Nick the finer points of casting. Don't worry, the fish are perfectly safe.

Oregon Zoo

They just let the animals roam free here. In this photo you see them posing with a couple of bears...

Nick FInally Rides the Rails

Nick has been driving us crazy to take him on Max. I've tried to tell him that it is not an amusement park ride but a method of mass transportation but Nick is relentless when he wants something. So yesterday evening just Nick and I took the train from one hundred eighty millionth or something to downtown. Fun time, GREAT train, clean, no graffiti nice ride and cheap. I would not commute by car to get downtown here. There are a couple of easy line switches a transfer stations. Those trains take you to places like the airport, SW Portland, etc. And they are expanding. I don't know why people don't consider this a viable option for SB. Seems like a perfect fit to me. Anyway, Nick was fascinated...

Natalie in Pioneer Square

She loves the big city but had just confessed to me that she was getting a little homesick.

Jakes

OK, My turn to have a picture taken with the kids in front of a restaurant. And no, this is not a dining guide of the northwest. But Jake's is not just any restaurant either. They've been on the same downtown corner for 116 years and the food is unbelievable. Tastes even better when you've been walking around the zoo all morning! Kids tried crawfish for the first time, loved em.

At Timberline Lodge

Timberline Lodge is a national Historic Landmark at the 6000 foot level of Mount Hood. It was built by artisans of the New Deal era and has a lot of cool stuff like hand hewn beams and carved animals at the end of every stairway bannister. Nostalgic for us: Cindy & I used to ski here and we stayed here once just for fun. It was also a common starting point for many climbs. If it looks familiar, it was the exterior of the lodge in "The Shining".

Video: Multnomah Falls

Mt Hood.

Nick wanted to go boarding but we would have had to rent gear. Otherwise, they knew just what to do on a mountain, no introductions necessary.

Mount Hood and Multnomah Falls

We had a fun time on Mount Hood and the Columbia River Gorge today. The mountain was beautiful and we hiked to the top of Multnomah Falls! No whining allowed.

Finally blogging again

Whew! Couldn't get wirless for a bit. From Day 2, the big trees.

OMSI

OMSI stands for Oregon Museum of Science and Industry. It was awesome! Right now they have a great dinosaur exhibit, with giant fossils from China. We also saw an IMAX movie called Dinosaurs Alive! The museum has a lot of science exhibits that you can play with and real science labs out in the open where you can see the work being done.

With Cousin Erin

We went out with our cousin Erin. She's awesome!

This train is called Max

It is a really big train and a good way to get to town. It looks really fun and carries like, three thousand people a day! (Actually, a few more than that, ed.). It lets you off right at the sidewalk. Nick

Pioneer Square, Sandcastles in the City. Portland

Mom and Dad in the redwood forest

I'm really happy that I took this picture of Mom and Dad. I wanted them to have a picture with just them in it!

At our hotel in Eureka

Can you find us?

Wish there were some wildlife around here...

They call this Elk Valley. I wonder why? Glad the wolves aren't here...

Day 3

Readers: We are, for the moment, internet challenged, but we'll get back to it tomorrow!

Car Window Photography

I took 88 pictures from my seat in the car as we drove along. This one is the Bay Bridge. It was grey. It looked like the Golden Gate Bridge. Dad is helping me edit my pictures. Nick

Telegraph Hill

With Dad, Marin County

My sister in The Zone

A blue whale could fly by the car window right now and she wouldn't notice...

Fog City Diner

An old San Francisco standby. It was nice to get out of the car. Next time we want to see haunted Alcatraz!

We Saw Wolves!

OK, they were in the back of some guy's pickup, but a wolf is a wolf. The big headed one on the left is named Miguel. The owner said they make good pets 'cause they're so social. We first noticed them when they tried to get our attention by howling! Sounds like a wolf alright.

Natalie's perspective on the Golden Gate Bridge

I really like the angle here. I wanted to show the bridge and the cars on it. Natalie

Friday, July 18 2008, Nicholas

We went to a hotel. The Hotel was in Eureka. We got to see Tall, Tall trees! It was soooooo cool!

Friday, July 18, 2008. Natalie

Today we drove 500 miles. We passed by San Francisco and the food was great! There was a lot to see. We got to drive on the Golden Gate Bridge! The we drove another long time to the redwood grove. It was amazing! I could not see to the top of the trees! Then we were in Eureka. Dinner was good, I had fish & Chips. That's basically it. It was funner than I thought!

We Usually Hate Car Trips

They're boring! Of course, we're totally wired back there, what with ipods, Nintendo DS, DVD player, Mom's computer... It's like a virtual command center where we never have to acknowledge the outside world. Why count cows or play alphabet games? "Golden Gate" what? Who cares? fagettaboutit... Then of course, there's Dad, who has to point out every detail ("Hey kids, did you see the spots on that cow?") while we pretend to be asleep or unable to hear over our head sets.

Such is the state of summer car trips, 2008. That and five dollar per gallon gasoline, but we don't care about that right now. At the moment all we care about is getting to Portland. We will try to blog and add photos as often as we can but hey, we're kids.