Category Archives: Roadtrips

After the zoo we went to the NASA Space Center in Houston. On the drive there we got caught in a crazy Texas thunderstorm. I remember how intense they are from when we used to live in Texas, but it was a new experience for Carter - she wondered if it might be a hurricane! The Space Center was awesome - they had a Skylab trainer that you walk through, and some of the originally-flown modules from the Mercury and Gemini programs. Lots of spacesuits from the early part of the space program, and other great stuff. Carter got to touch a moon rock! We couldn't go see the shuttle because of the weather, unfortunately. In the gift shop, they sell dozens of different patches - one for each manned NASA mission, just like the astronauts get.

We got really lucky at the Houston Zoo - the thunderstorms arrived right as we were leaving. The whole place was full of Live Oak trees like you see below - I love the way they grow out rather than up. They look so cool and gnarly.

First stop on the 2019 roadtrip was Hermann Park in downtown Houston, Texas. There's a man-made lake that we walked around, and saw lots of wildlife. Someone gave Carter a handful of peanuts, and she hand-fed the squirrels. We lots of turtles, and a whole bunch of baby ducks. And it stayed dry the whole time, even through it threatened to rain the all morning.

Carter and I found a cool US map poster that we hung up in the basement, and we're using colored sewing pins and embroidery floss to show the path of each of the roadtrips we've taken so far. I really like seeing them all laid out like that - it reminds us of all the trips we've taken so far, and gives us ideas of where we'd like to go next.

I've been to Washington, D.C. many times for work, but have never had a chance to just enjoy it as a tourist. Recently I had to go down there for a week for work, so I went down a day early so that I could spend some time exploring the National Mall. There are a bunch of free museums on the Mall, not to mention all of the monuments. I saw the Air and Space Museum, the Natural History Museum, the Museum of American History, the Washington Memorial, and the Lincoln Memorial. I was pretty burnt out by that point, but will definitely be planning a trip back there, and everything was amazing.

This is just a random collection of things that caught my eye on the trip. Lori loved the "Shark Sighted" sign, and the "trees are greater than buildings" graffiti was pretty cool. But my favorite was seeing the start of Route 20, which goes all the way from Newport, Oregon to Boston, Massachusetts - over three thousand miles away. Now THAT'S a roadtrip!

Once we got back near Portland we stopped in to see my cousin Vanessa, who lives near there. We got to meet her two kids - her son is four, and her daughter is just 10 months old. Her daughter took a real shine to Carter, as you can see!

Right off of the highway in the Columbia River Gorge is Multnomah Falls, the highest waterfall in Oregon at 620 feet. The trail up to the bridge isn't currently open to the public, but the view from the bottom was fantastic anyway! Crowded, though!

Once we reached the river again, we drove along the gorge back to Portland. We were feeling run down by this point and anxious to get home, so we didn't stop much. We originally had several hikes planned for this day of the trip, but a wildfire last year had led to most of those trails being closed and not expected to reopen for at least a few more months. But we did stop once or twice to stretch our legs and soak in the scenery.

After leaving the Bend area, we took off across the high desert country on our way back to the Columbia River. I expected this part of the drive to be somewhat boring, but it turned out to be just as beautiful as the rest of the trip. I didn't get many pictures, as we were down to a half of a tank of gas and I had no idea where the next town would be - there were several stretches of a half hour or more where I didn't see a single sign of civilization other than the road itself. Next time I'd like to plan to spend a little more time in the area, and get out of the car and explore a little.