Left the lovely South Beach Campsite in Newport, south west of Portland after enjoying a stint down at the beach. As usual, our kids managed to expend a lot of energy and whilst doing this, Trev took some lovely shots of interesting things on the beach.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Our plan was to go and see the touristy Sea Lion caves which is where you find all the sea lions and their cubs. Apparently the smell is supposed to be terrible, but tourists still pay money to go down the caves with a tour guide. On this day, however, we managed to save our pennies. When we stopped at a vista to take some photos of the coastline, a guy informed us that all of the sealions were sunning themselves on the rocks below us and none were in their caves. That was a stroke of luck meeting him.

 

 

 

 

 

 

We drove on through a town called Florence, where we stopped to do some shopping. As luck would have it, we were parked right near some sand dunes, so the children had fun sliding down the dunes any way they could.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

They had so much fun that we stayed there longer than planned and ended up finding a campground close by called Jessie M Honeymoon Campsite. There were heaps of ATV’s there. For you Aussies, that simply means 4 wheeled motor bikes.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Had to do some running repairs on the kids’ longboards, so went back into Florence to get the necessary parts. We decided to hire some sandboards and a sand sled. Went back to the sand dunes to practise how to use them.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

It looks a little like surfing, but without the water. And when you fall, your feet stay in the straps, so you come down harder. Trev was testament to this as he fell many times. However, the old saying “Never give up” is very apt in this case because it wasn’t long before everyone (except Kit, Chayse, Akaisha and I) were up and surfing the sand! Kit managed to master the sand sled and had a great time following the others as they traversed down the dunes. Chayse spent most of his time sliding down on his bottom, but seemed to have a ball anyway.

 

 

 

 

 

 

We stayed at a lovely campsite called Woahink. It was situated right on some sand dunes, so the kids managed to continue their sandboarding and I managed to do 4 loads of washing!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The next morning before leaving, the kids had another session of sandboarding. The injury list continued to grow. The day before Jai had hit his head and nursed a headache for a while. Trev had fallen hard and hit his ribs (which ended up being sore for another two weeks) and Kaitlin managed to twist her ankle and needed me to rescue her across miles of sand dunes (I’m sure it wasn’t that far, but supporting a teenage daughter who is a foot taller than yourself as she hops back to camp certainly made it feel that way!). In case anyone’s wondering, all injuries sustained have now gone and good health returned.

 

 

 

 

 

 

We dropped the boards back in town, then continued South. We stopped at Coos Bay where we made the decision to continue along the coast rather than go inland to see the Wildlife Park. Went sightseeing along the way and finally stopped at at a place called Gold beach. It was right on the beach (as well as in town) and was also in the hazardous Tsunami zone. You can see where the next blog might be heading, but I’ll leave it up to Trev to talk about the topic of Tsunamis in the next blog. Until then………….

Nearly 2 weeks ago, we arrived in Washington State, America.  We were there to visit my friend Tiara who had joined me at Bunbury Senior High School for the first half of this year. She had spoken with her high school and they said that I was able to join Tiara in classes for however long I wished.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

On Day number one(Tuesday) I woke at 6am. It was way, way too early. Dad walked me to Tiaras and we went on our way to school. Kelso High school has no uniform so when I arrived I was quite excited to see so many cheerleaders and many other ‘stereotypes’.  Tiara immediately introduced me to many of her friends and many people introduced themselves to me. The classes were as follows:

Drama- the joy of being alone on stage having to act out something to a full American class,

Spanish– which I knew absolutely none of, but I did find it amusing how the teacher used a microphone just because he liked it.

Language arts(English)- Learnt about alternate perspective and wrote a story.

Lunch– spent sitting in the Cafeteria socialising and buying lunch.

Biology– Did stuff about stuff which I don’t remember.

Health– had fun. Was a cruisy class and made more friends.

Math- Which I understood nothing. Tiara is obviously extremely smart ‘cause the class was the grade above hers then extended specialist…

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

In most classes I was nicknamed ‘Australia’. I often had kids asking me to say words like chihahua, banana, and Ryan Shekler.  I never realised that when we ‘Aussies talk’, we often miss out letters in our words such as the ‘r’ in car. We kinda say caaa, and the Americans say every individual letter like c.a.rr.

After school on Tuesday and Wednesday Tiara had Drivers Education, even though she is only 15.    So I stayed at her house and chilled with her sister Destinny, sat on facebook and cleaned Tiara’s bedroom

On Thursday, the school day was knows as a ‘short day’ where school started at 10.30am instead of 8am. Tiara, Kaitlyn(Friend of Tiaras), Kyle and a few others and I walked to a place called Dennys for Breakfast (I prefer the term ‘Dunnies). Tiara and I ordered pancakes and the hugest ones came out about 10 minutes later. Only eating four of the eight, and drinking two hot chocolates which the waitress kept refilling, we waddled to school.

Most people knew me as ‘Australia’. The day played out much as the first.  Being asked to say words, making new friends,  etc.  Then after school we went back to Tiara’s and went longboarding.  Tiara was quite happy that I had a longboard, because it’s not a very popular sport in Washington because of the weather. We stayed out ‘till it was dark and then made our way in because freaky people slowly started around Kelso.

Friday was no school at all, so being Tiara and Kaitlin, we just slept in and then relaxed all morning. Then in the afternoon, Tiara took me to Burger King for the first time. It was quite nice just to relax and socialise. After we ate we walked to Kelso High school as they had a ‘Football’ game – which to me, looked just like rugby with all the padding and stuff. All the Kelso High students stood in the grandstand and socialised while the cheerleaders cheered and the players played.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

After the game, we started talking to some girls who made it quite obvious that I was Australian. Before long I had a large group of guys who wanted me to speak and talk. Then before I knew it I was surrounded with guys taking photos of/with me and giving me hugs, quoting each other “I’m actually hugging an Australian, omg omg omg.”  Then as we left more people came up. So finally we were on our way home. I stayed one last night, then, in the morning Amy, Tiara and Destinny had to go visit Tiaras brother and we had to leave Washington, on our way through Oregon to California.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Waldron’s were very friendly and loving towards me and I appreciate so much them taking me into their home and giving me some incredible experiences, such as socialising in a cafeteria, going to an American school, meeting heaps of wonderful people, observing a real ‘football’ match and having a taste of the American Life. They were always so nice and a great energy to be around and I consider them my American family 😀

I am extremely keen to return to Kelso and Kelso High in a couple of years and visit many of my new lifelong friends, especially Tiara.

The End

We finally made it to a place called Kelso. It became part of our itinerary when Kaitlin arranged to meet up with her friend Tiara (who had lived for 6 months in Australia). I had been liaising with Amy, Tiara’s Mum, and it had been arranged for Kaitlin to go to school with Tiara for a few days. Kaitlin was ecstatic to be going to an American school AND hanging with teenagers her own age. Kaitlin has always had good taste in friends, so it is an added bonus when the rest of the family are as nice as the friend. We camped at an RV Park just minutes from Tiara’s house. Amy had warned us that it rains a lot in Washington, and the weather obviously wanted to prove Amy right. We met the Waldron family, minus the Dad (Layne was in Peru for work) and brother (Camden was at University).

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Kaitlin went to school with Tiara in the morning whilst we chilled a little, got wet in the rain, and did our washing. (Yes, those mundane chores do need to be done even when travelling around a beautiful country). That evening we went for tea to Tiara’s family’s house, and it wasn’t long before we felt ike we had known everyone for years. The hot tub completed a lovely evening. We said goodbye to our eldest who we wouldn’t see for a few days (funnily enough, there were no tears from Kaitlin!!!)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The next day we headed out on a sightseeing adventure to see Mt St Helens Volcano. It had erupted in this area back in 1980 on the 18th May (on Trev’s birthday). Jai did a little bit of research and I have included what he has to say about Mount St Helens.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This legendary volcano of Washington had thousands of people in awe and disbelief when it exploded on May 18^th 1980, and sent a billowing cloud of ash 60,000  feet into the air!

The landscape surrounding the volcano was changed dramatically, as the whole North face of Mount St Helens was blown off, sending one of the biggest landslides recorded, cascading down the mountain at speeds of more that 155miles/hr!

Below is the stump of a massive tree that lived 9 miles away from the volcano.) Travelling 300 mph (480km per hour), the lateral blast reached this tree in about one minute, snapping the trunk as if it were a matchstick.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A nearby lake –Spirit Lake-  was completely transformed, covered in a deep layer of ash and debris, just like the rest of the land.

There was a total of 58 human deaths that day and the following few days, and thousands of animals were fried.

Overall, the exploding of Mount St Helens was devastating, but life soon returned to the blast zone. Forests grew through the flattened land and animals returned. But the explosion of 1980 was never forgotten and the landscape will never be the same.

By Jai

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

On the way back down, we came across the Big Foot, so the children couldn’t resist being photographed with the “Legend” himself!! Next door was what remained of an A frame house that was half buried by the ensuing mudslide after Mt St Helen erupted.

 

 

 

From mountains to the coast. We covered many miles, but wanted to go to Longbeach and get a taste of the beach again. We travelled south of Kelso into Oregon state where we travelled along a very scenic road taking us to a town called Astoria. We actually stopped here to do some shopping, but heard the “barking” of what sounded like seals…..and we had to investigate! At the harbour we found a colony of sea lions basking along the piers where the boats are moored.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

From there, we headed across the harbour from Oregon back to Washington where we then followed the coast line and along the peninsula. It was so good to see a beach again……….and as luck would have it, this was supposedly the “Longest Beach in the World.” We didn’t care what title it had, we were just glad to see the ocean!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

After camping at an RV place near the beach, we travelled along the peninsula more, discovering quaint little book stores and a lovely art gallery run by a beautiful soul called Cynthia. We had a great discussion about art, the beach, what inspires artists etc, and we left knowing a little more about this area and having seen some wonderful artwork from a variety of local artists. Cynthia also had the honour of winning this year’s art competition for the Kite Festival with a beautiful water colour painting. Flying kites in this town is a big thing and they even have a kite museum.

 

 

 

 

 

 

We headed back to the beach to walk along the boardwalk and look for a whale skeleton, but the kids (besides Chayse and Akaisha) were more interested in digging in the sand again.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We left the coast and headed back to Kelso where we were back in time to see a Football match between Kelso High and another Highschool team. Whilst Kelso High didn’t win, there was lots of atmosphere with the cheerleaders, the band and of course, the players themselves.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We spent the last part of the evening with Amy, Tiara and Destinny (and Angel!). We can’t thank them enough for their kindness, hospitality and generosity in making Kaitlin’s and our stay in Kelso so much fun.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The next blog I put up with be written by Kaitlin, giving her account of going to an American Highschool. Stay tuned….

After leaving Yellowstone National Park into Montana, we still followed some very pretty country until we found our way to a town (or city) called Missoula. This was our “sliding doors” part of our journey. Do we head north to the Glacier National Park, or do we head West toward Washington?

 

 

 

 

 

 

As you can see, heading West won out, not for any other reason that we were conscious of how much time we have left, and as the weather had been quite cold with forecast of more rain and possible snow, we decided that heading in a westerly direction will take us to the coast and warmer weather. The Glacier National Park would have been awesome as we had heard such wonderful reports about it. But that may have to be for another time……..

 

 

 

 

 

 

We drove through Montana, into the northern part of Idaho, where we experienced some amazing scenery as well. We were so high up at one point that the clouds were lower than we were! It rained a fair bit as we travelled, but eventually we arrived in Spokane in Washington, wlere we camped for the night. We had some lovey family time whilst sitting outside eating tea and telling stories.

 

 

 

 

 

 

We headed off again the next morning, shopped along the way, then made camp at Ellensburg (not far from Seattle). It was a nice KOA campsite, with some beautiful RV’s parked there. One lady, called Carol, who was parked near us, let us have a look inside her RV. This one was pretty flash indeed, and had three huge slideouts. When you walked inside, it was like being inside a house. Boy, this RV would have fitted all of our family very well indeed. Asked her if she wanted to swap, but for some reason, she declined. Her gorgeous dog, Shaltz, kept our kids entertained, as did the Games room, which had a table tennis table and air hockey game.

 

 

 

 

 

 

The next day we arrived in Seattle, Washington. It is a very pretty city and we decided to go to the city centre in the morning, so we booked into a campground first. Kaitlin would be meeting her friend Tiara, who she met in Australia, and going to school with her for a few days. So, off to the shops we went (to find suitable attire). Apparently, it was the Supermall of the Great North West. We split up (can you imagine Trevor wanting to go clothes shopping with Kaitlin!?). We shopped for clothes, whilst the others had fun looking in Halloween stores and going in a fun centre.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

After dinner, we returned to our campsite and had a enlightening chat with a lovely guy called Randall Lee. He had travelled a fair bit in the US and was a “Master Carpenter” by trade. People like him are very rare, so he was very interesting to talk to, and gave us a lot of advice about which places would be good to see as we make our way down the West coast of Amercia and then across the country back to Pennsylvania. I asked if he had been to Australia, and he said, “It’s on my bucket list!” I hope you get to cross that one off your list Randall.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We left the next morning and headed into Seattle. There is so much to see and do here, but we had to choose, so off to the famous Pike Markets we went. They call this the Soul of Seattle, and I can see why. There were many interesting characters and a myriad of local art/craft shops, book stores, gift stores and of course, food markets.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Fish markets were an interesting place to be because it seemed to be the hub of all the activity. Cheery, vocal Fish mongers would yell out when somebody purchased soem seafood, then throw it from one fish monger to another, until it landed in the customers hands. As we wandered past, one of the guys eyes lit up and he yelled, “Are you Morman?” I laughed and said “No”. “Are you Catholic?” “Yes, but that’s not why we have so many children!” “Do you have your own TV show yet?” He asked. “We’re Australian, not American” I answered. He laughed. Everyone around us was enjoying the banter….and that’s really what this place was about, a hive of activity with people interacting, having fun and clearly enjoying the atmosphere.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We found a place to eat some lunch, then headed out as we had a time limit on our parking.

 

 

 

 

From Seattle, we headed South, towards a little town called Kelso, where Kaitlin’s friend awaited……