Of all the times we have been to the Safari Park, we had never hiked up to the Bonsai Pavilion. So, after a stop off to see the tigers, we continued all the way up the hill to see the little trees. We also took a stroll though the Epiphyllum House, Baja Garden, and Nativescapes Garden.
The 3rd photo below was taken by Connor, and the 4th by Gavin. That’s why they are from a little lower perspective.
We visited the Museum Of Man to see the new “Living with Animals” exhibit. While there was some interesting information, it was pretty sparse. The exhibit seemed more like an art show of creepy looking humanoid animals. The little dressed up mice were pretty cute though.
We also stopped by the Monsters! exhibit, which is one of the boys’ favorites. They have a giant magnet wall where you can combine various animal parts to make your own monster creations.
The boys always have fun at their Tía Kristel’s house… especially if water is involved.
We flew into Portland late the night before, but we were going to spend our first 6 days of vacation exploring Washington. We spent this day driving to Bremerton, WA, which we are using as our home base as we explore the Olympic Peninsula and Seattle.
Along the drive north from Portland, we stopped in Olympia, WA to check out the state capitol.
We took a nice tour of the building, learning a lot about the history of the capitol. The tour also touched on how the Washington legislature works (or doesn’t… they were having trouble passing a state budget).
We spent the day exploring the breathtaking Hurricane Ridge in the northern part of the Olympic National Park. As you can see in the photos, there were deer everywhere! Also, there was still snow way up in the mountains, which the boys enjoyed throwing at us and each other.
In a few of the photos, way off in the distance on the other side of the water, you can see Victoria, Canada. Someday we are going to explore there too.
We started off the day with a long drive though Port Angeles, then along shore of Lake Crescent, though unending trees, and finally over to the Washington coast near La Push. The Pacific coast up in Washington was beautiful and rugged.
Our voyage continued up into the mountains to the Hoh Rain Forest. We went on two hikes, the Hall of Mosses Trail and the Spruce Nature Trail. Unfortunately, I forgot my backup camera battery in the car, so I didn’t get to take as many photos as I would have liked.
After spending all afternoon hiking, we finished a big loop though most of western Washington, driving south along the 101 into Aberdeen, and then cutting inland and back to Bremerton. All together, we covered 420 miles in a little under 10 hours of driving.
It wouldn’t be a Ladd summer vacation without a trip to a baseball stadium. This was the boys second time seeing a Mariners game at Safeco Field.
We got to see King Felix pitch, but unfortunately the Mariners’ closer ended up blowing the save. After the game, we walked around the Pioneer Square part of downtown Seattle.
We started off a long day of exploring Seattle by catching the ferry from Bremerton to Seattle. We drove our car onto the ferry, which the boys thought was cool. The views were beautiful but the wind outside on the deck was quite cold.
We parked at Pacific Place in downtown Seattle, then walked down Pine St to Pike Place Market. We wandered around looking at all the shops and produce, visited Rachel the Piggy Bank, and tried to look (but not touch) the Gum Wall.
After seeing all there was to see at Pike Place, the boys and Aliciana caught the Seattle Monorail and visited the Space Needle. I picked up the car and then picked them up, before heading out for more adventures.
Our next stop of the day took us to the Ballard Locks. We learned all about the locks in a nice visitor center, then got to see some boats actually pass though the locks.
Next we visited the fish ladder, where it was very difficult for me to get a picture of the finish jumping through the air. They have an observation tank by the ladder, where you can see the giant fish on their way upstream.
We finished off our day exploring Seattle at Gas Works Park, which must have the best view of Lake Union and Seattle. The boys enjoyed rolling down the giant hill. I was very tempted to join them, but figured I would hurt myself.
We started off our last day in Washington by having a picnic at Snoqualmie Falls. Then we continued east, up into the mountains, to the little “Bavarian village” of Leavenworth.
We went for a nice hike along the Wenatchee River and then walked around exploring the village shops. We finished up our day by having a delicious German dinner at the Andreas Keller Restaurant. The bratwurst and weinkraut were amazingly good!
We started off our first day back in Portland by building some bug boxes. My little brother AJ and sister Michaela joined us, as did my dad.
Later on in the day, we watched a Hillsboro Hops game with my parents, little brother and sister, and my sister Courtney’s family. Connor was excited to get to buy a Hops hat, so he could match his Daddy and Grandpa Rick.
It was a little on the hot side, but the kids enjoyed themselves and even got to run the bases after the game.
All the Portland Ladd clan went to the Silver Falls State Park that was in the mountains south of Portland for an afternoon picnic and some fishing. Connor and Gavin were super excited to try fishing, because they had never gone before. Unfortunately, there wasn’t any fish biting this day.
Aliciana and I went on the 2.5 mile long looping trail that went to the South Falls and Lower South Falls. It was gorgeous, but the climb up from the Lower South Falls would have killed the fatter version of myself from several years ago.
Today was what passes for a rest day for our style of vacationing. We made a short 45 mile drive down to Salem to check out the Oregon State Capitol. We went on the guided tour and learned about the building, which was actually the 3rd capitol building, because the first two burned down.
On the way back up to Portland, we walked around an Eddie Bauer outlet, where I found a cool shirt with a llama on it. Aliciana also snagged some good deals in the Loft outlet.
Back in Portland, we had a delicious family dinner at the Raccoon Lodge. The Reuben sandwich I ate was superb!
