Mt. Saint Helens

(Today's blogger: Fr. Michael) We left Portland and headed north. While I'm sure Washington has many things to see, there was only one place I knew of: Mt. Saint Helens. I remember when it erupted back when I was in high school. Coincidentally, we were visiting one week after the 30th anniversary of the eruption. Unfortunately, the weather was so rainy that even if we drove the 40 curvy miles from I-5 to a viewpoint 4 miles from the base of the mountain, we wouldn't have been able to see it. So we just spent some time at the visitor center 5 miles from the highway. It was interesting to talk to one of the staff who told me her memories of the eruption. She was five years old and couldn't understand why her mom wouldn't let her out to play in the "snow." It was actually a foot deep layer of volcanic ash.
Besides having nothing to take pictures of, our camera had been dropped a few days before and was no longer working. So instead of pictures, you can enjoy a little video clip of our time in the visitor center.

Portland bound...

(Today's blogger: Vicky) Our next leg was not very far at all. We drove up to Portland, which was only about an hour from Albany. In Portland we stayed with some old friends, Fr. Alban and his wife Krista and their two girls. We got to enjoy pizza and movie night with them after we had walked over to their church to see the new iconography in their church. The next day we left their home to travel over to the OMSI (Oregon Museum of Science and Industry) We all had a great time there. They had a traveling exhibit on Space which was great and we enjoyed all the hands on exhibits there. We also saw the Imax movie, "Hubble" (well, they saw it, I "rested my eyes" for a lot of it) which was incredible to see and the kids enjoyed it a lot.

An unexpectedly extended stay....

(Today's blogger: Vicky) So, on Wed. May 19th, we pull up to Fr. Stephen and Mona Soot's home in Albany, OR. Elena had requested to visit them because she had made friends with two of their girls last summer at Camp St. Nick's. We originally had planned to stay with them for two nights before continuing north. As we first got there, one of the first things Mona said was that we were welcome to stay as long as we wanted. In fact, she says, "why don't you stay and celebrate Pentecost with us?" We all kind of laughed because we all thought we were going to move on before then. Well, God had other plans for us. Michael took our car into local mechanic because he heard a funny noise in the engine. Thankfully he did at that time because the transmission was in terrible condition and needed to be rebuilt. I say thankfully that he took it in at that time, because if he hadn't the car would be in much worse shape and we could have gotten stranded in some isolated place. Instead we were blessed to be able to stay with the Soots for an extra 5 nights. They were so gracious to open their home so completely to us. The kids all played great together and enjoyed the great selection of books to read at their home. The grownups all enjoyed the talks and lots of laughs that were had with our friends. The kids got to have "sleepover" in their house, which they loved, except the one night Onyx, their adorable black kitten, decided he wanted to pounce on Elena and woke her up in the middle of the night. After that, Onyx was banished from their bedroom at night. The Soots have 7 kids, so I felt right at home with all the "craziness" of so many people around. It was great!! On Sunday we were able to celebrate Pentecost with them. That morning Fr. Stephen was blessed to receive 9 new people into his church through Chrismations and Baptisms.
Fr. Michael was able to catch up on some writing and the kids did a lot of schoolwork. While we were staying with the Soots, we took a couple of day trips. On Friday the 22nd, we drove to Clackamas, which is just outside of Portland to visit with an old school friend, John Wengel and his wife Cindy. John played tour guide and took us around. I had been wanting to go to the museum at the end of the Oregon Trail. So we went there, only to find out that they had closed last summer due to government cutbacks. I was disappointed to find that out. John then took us to Multnomah Falls, which was awesome, but we didn't stay long because it was raining. We then had dinner with the Wengels and we enjoyed catching up and looking back on "the good old days." John was even able to pull out some pictures from high school days. Wow, how we have changed since then...
On Saturday the 23rd, we drove to Salem to visit with Fr. Michael's cousin Linda and her husband Tim. It was great to spend the afternoon with them and their grandkids. On Tuesday, 25th, we drove up to Silver Lake State Park and explored there for the afternoon. We were so lucky, it rained on the way up and when we first got there, and on the way home. But for the actual time we hiked, there was no rain. The waterfalls there were beautiful. But I have to admit the kids complained a lot about it being too far to hike. So Fr. Michael and I told them maybe we shouldn't visit any more amusement parks then, because "it's too far to walk." That same day we got our car back. We spent one last enjoyable night with the Soots and then took off on Wednesday for our next leg of the trip.

Crater Lake

(Today's blogger: Fr. Michael) We woke up on our first morning in Oregon, unhitched the trailer and drove the truck solo up into the mountains to see Oregon's only national park, Crater Lake. I knew it'd still be cold, so we all brought heavy jackets. I didn't read the "current status" on the park's website close enough to see that there was about between 5 and 15 feet of snow on the ground still. Oh, no, not inches. Feet. Right.
So we weren't prepared for snowball fights but that didn't stop us from having a few, although with really cold hands. Most of the roads around the park were closed due to the snow, but we were able to enjoy the visitor center and Elena was able to do her Junior Ranger activities. We drove the one mile of the rim road circling the lake and enjoyed the beautiful views. Crater Lake was once a mountain that exploded a la Mount St. Helens and eventually filled in. The water is crystal clear and deep, deep blue. I wanted just one more quick view before leaving and pulled the car over to the side of the road. Or what I thought was the side of the road. Turns out I was just parking in snow. Ya....we got stuck. It gave Vicky and the kids the utmost pleasure to see me explaining our predicament to the ranger that was sent to pull us out. Hey, anything to bring joy to my family, right?
Once we got pulled out, we drove back to Grant's Pass, following the Rogue River valley. At a few points, the river is funneled through a thin, deep gorge, and at other points it disappears underground into underground lava flow tunnels. We stopped at a few points and enjoyed some short walks along the river just to take in the beauty. We planned to share some of that beauty with you through the pictures we took. That was before one of the kids dropped the camera. OK, she didn't "drop" it. It was more like it fell. Sort of. You get the picture. Well, actually, you don't get the picture. Get it? "Get the picture?" Broken camera? OK, time to end this blog.

Are they STILL in California??

(Today's blogger: Fr. Michael). I imagine that those of you who have followed this journey for a while now have probably whispered to yourself at some point, "They're still in California?" Seeing that we'd traveled almost two months and still hadn't managed to leave the state where we began the trip from, I was also very surprised that we were still in the Golden State. Like most southern Californians, crossing California is what you do when you go to Vegas or Phoenix, and you count the time it takes in hours (about 4) not months. It is true that we've been in no hurry, but it's also true that California is one darn LONG state. Not so wide, but LONG. I would get so frustrated when we were in the Bay Area and I'd open the Northern California map only to find it didn't include the Bay Area. Really now: what kind of Northern California map doesn't include San Francisco. From my experience up until recently San Francisco WAS northern California. In fact, in my 44 years, I'd never been farther north in California than San Francisco.
Then came this trip. We left San Fran heading north (quite the novelty), only to find there was MUCH more California to go. If you don't believe me, look at a map. All the Southern Californians will be surprised to see that the San Francisco bay is barely more than halfway up the coast. Who'da thunk it!
Anyway, all that long rambling is a prelude to our accomplishment on May 17, when we saw the "Welcome to Oregon" sign. We had left that morning from the Klamath River, heading north on the 101 through Crescent City where we bid farewell to the highway that has brought us on most of the journey up to this point. Heading up Route 199, the momentous event occurred. Cheers went up, some hoots and hollers were heard. And then Vicky went back to sleep and the kids went back to their books and Nintendos (if you think none of us have any alone time on this trip, guess again). Anyway, it was nice to see some tangible proof of the length of our travels. We made it to a campground near Grant's Pass, OR (that's right: no CA in that address!) and enjoyed some Oregon beauty.
Since this was mostly a driving day and not much to take pictures of, I'll put in a few more from the stop at the "Trees of Mystery," including one of Muskini enjoying the sky tram through the trees and another posing besides Paul Bunyan's dog. Muskini is the smaller one.

The Redwoods...and other "mysterious" trees

(Today's blogger: Fr. Michael) We left Eureka on Saturday afternoon, after enjoying the Arcata farmers' market with Josh and Amy (complete with barbecued oysters--yum!), and enjoying an authentic lumberjack meal at the Samoa Cookhouse, an actual mess hall used by loggers for decades and now open to the public. We feasted on pork steaks, mashed potatoes, calico beans, salad and finished it off with peach cobbler. I chugged a few cups of coffee to avoid the food coma that would have been my fate during that afternoon drive and we headed up the coast.
We made it up to our next national park, Redwood. We pulled in just before sunset and after a quick supper, we all went to sleep early.
Sunday morning found us without a nearby church for the second or third time this trip, so we defrosted some Holy Bread we had saved from Pascha night, said some prayers, and read the readings for the day. After that it was a day exploring the beautiful redwood forests. The kids were pretty grossed out by the banana slugs. Our highlight of the day (OK, my highlight--not the kids' so much) was hiking Redwood Creek. For those of you who've been to Disney's California Adventure, that's the creek where you fly right over the rafters. In typical Disney fashion, the ride has a stronger scent of pine trees than the real thing, but it was beautiful nonetheless. So why wasn't it a highlight for the kids? Let's just say they're not much for hiking. They're REALLY good at complaining about hiking--and actually they're really good at hiking--they just don't like doing it very much. And they love to tell us how much they really don't like doing it very much.
After a day of hiking around (and visiting the obligatory Visitor Center to watch the obligatory movie) we headed a bit further north, staying in an RV park right on the shore of the Klamath River. It was one more of those "this is too beautiful to be true" places, and we felt very blessed to be able to enjoy it.
We woke up the next morning and headed north, not entirely sure where we'd end up. Our first stop was a whole 3 miles up the road from where we camped. It was a classic 1960's/70's tourist trap called "Trees of Mystery." The owners were smart because they must have known that when you're traveling with kids, they're usually so bored that they beg and plead for you to take them to any place that looks like it was made for kids to enjoy, even if the name is "Trees of Mystery." Fortunately, this one had been updated with a sky tram through the redwoods, and that made the stop worth it for everyone. The dozen or so carved scenes from the story of Paul Bunyan might not have done the trick if that was all that was there. My accomplishment of the day was getting out of "One of Northern California's Largest Gift Shops" without having to pay for a bag of rocks or a cheesy snowglobe. After being mystified (not so much) by the Trees of Mystery, we headed north and then did something we hadn't done since we began the trip. Which you can read about in my next post!

Eureka II: The Sequel

(Today's blogger: Elena) On Friday, we went to the Borders in Eureka. Me, Joshua & Maria were excited to go there because there's a series that we like & we wanted to find the 4th book in that series. We went inside, and in the front there was a rack of books from that author, but the book we were looking for wasn't there. I asked one of the employees, but by the time he showed me where the book was, Joshua had already found it. Then we read for a bit. Then we left and went to the Eureka Sequoia Park Zoo.
We got in free to the zoo because most of the exhibits closed at 4 and it was almost 4 when we arrived. We saw flamingos, llamas (which Joshua called Kuzco, a character on Disney's Emperor's New Groove), and this really cute furry animal that looked like a cross between a kangaroo, a rabbit and a squirrel. We caught a peek of the Barnyard, but it was closed. All in all, it was a fun little zoo.
We then went to Josh and Amy's house. When we got there we saw said hello and then went to their backyard while the adults chatted inside. As soon as we got in the backyard Joshua zoomed in on the BB gun. At first I was nervous with Joshua having a gun, but when Martin, Josh's brother showed him how, I saw that he was really good. We took turns on the BB gun and Maria shot the can targets three times in a row. They had a fire going in an old wood stove in the backyard. I stoked it for a bit and then we went inside for dinner. When I was going to put my shoes back on to go outside, I saw they had a bow and arrow set. Once they said I could use it, I went out in the backyard to try it out and immediately saw that I wasn't that good at all. They also had chickens in the backyard, too!
The next morning we had breakfast and watched cartoons for a while (it was Saturday morning) and then we went down to the river that was right by their house and went for a canoe ride, though Mom didn't want to come. It was fun learning how to row. We rowed across the river and parked the canoes and went for a walk on the beach, since the river was very close to the ocean. We walked along the beach and found this old log formation thingy. We went back but on the way back to the canoes, Amy saw a snake but I was sure to stay far away from it!

The first day in Eureka

(Today's blogger: Joshua) On Thursday we woke up not preparing to go to church even though it was the Holy Ascension.
That's because the day before we had searched for a Orthodox church on the GPS and the closest one was really far away.Then Mom went for a morning jog and saw bumper sticker that said''Orthodox Eureka.'' So Dad went on the internet for their phone number and called them and asked them what their address was. They told him and he said that church started in in one hour. So we all ran around to get ready. We go there only a few minutes late.
When we went inside we saw somebody my dad knew from a college conference, Josh Nicholas and his wife, Amy. More about them later.
After church we set out to explore Ferndale, a town with lots of Victorian houses that mom was excited to see. We walked around and saw a bunch of the Victorian houses and the town cemetery (Maria and I stayed outside for this one). The we passed this candy store called Trudy's. The woman who owned it had been running it for 38 years. She was really nice and we spent a few hours talking with her, and she told us how she was close to all the kids that grew up in Ferndale, including Guy Fieri. Before we left, she gave us some money that she collects in the "Praise the Lord" box. People give her money and tell her God said to give it to her. She said that the Lord told her to give it to us.
Then we went for a drive on the Lost Coast. It's one of the few areas of the coast that's pretty empty because it's so hard to get to. You have to drive a long, windy road to get there. It was really pretty. We stopped by some tide pools where there was a huge starfish and sea anemones. It was really windy that day. That day was a lot of fun.

Some Beautiful Beaches

(Today's blogger: Maria) We woke up Wednesday morning at MacKarritcher State Park just north of the town of Ft. Bragg, where we decided to camp the night before. After breakfast while Mom & Elena were cleaning the trailer Dad , Joshua, Muskini, and I went on a walk along the beach. We walked along the black pebble beach for a while until we got to some rocks. We climbed on the rocks for a little bit and then we walked a bit more. After walking for a bit we found a colony of seals living on the beach. There were some swimming, some sunbathing, and some just waddling around. There were even a couple of baby seals!
After we got back from our walk we packed up to leave. But before we left Fort Bragg we went to the glass beach. This is a beach where a while ago people dumped a bunch of glass and then the sea smoothed over all the glass and made a bunch of beach glass. We parked the car and walked down to the beach. We stayed at the beach for a bit and before we left we all got a handful to take home.
After that we left Fort Bragg for Eureka. We were going to take a detour go on the Avenue of the Giants, a scenic road with a lot of big redwoods, but Joshua wasn't feeling well so we just took the quickest way to Eureka.

Who knew there were so many shades of green...

(Today's blogger: Vicky) On Monday the 10th, we headed towards Hendy Woods State Park. As for most of this trip, we were blessed with the presence of such beautiful, lush scenery. Sometimes the road followed rivers and other times incredibly green fields and trees. Who knew there were so many shades of green in trees and grass???? I can't tell you how many wineries we have passed by on this trip, way too many to count. Today we stopped to visit one because it was so beautifully landscaped. That's the beauty of this trip, we can just stop anytime we see that interests us. We arrived at Hendy Woods State Park which is smack dab in the middle of redwood forests. After setting up our trailer, we all went off to explore Hendy Trail. It was unbelievable how majestic the trees were as we explored. The kids are enjoying taking turns being videographer and photographer of the day. Sometimes they get great images, sometimes just plain silly.
Once we left Hendy Woods, we continued driving toward the coast seeing the Pacific Ocean again near the town of Mendocino, a beautiful New England style town. We walked along the rocky cliffs--which of course made me nervous--and the kids made fun of me for days. The newest "momism" (as the kids call them) is "Michael, PLEASE come back," which I yelled when he and the kids went down a very tiny trail high above the rocky shore below.
Later that day, we found the beautiful Mendocino Botanical Garden, one of the only ocean front botanical gardens in the world. Elena and I were the only ones interested enough, so while Fr. Michael and the other two took a break and read for a while, Elena and I enjoyed a wonderful stroll through the gardens. We had great mother-daughter time.

Weekend in the Wine Country

(Today's Blogger: Fr. Michael) We left Fort Ross and I enjoyed the beautiful drive back to Healdsburg along the coast. I can't say the same for Vicky, who was sitting closer to the edge of the road with the drop off straight down to the rocky shore, a few hundred feet below.
We drove straight to Healdsburg where we enjoyed a great dinner with my cousin, Marilyn and two of her boys, Matt and Carey. After dinner, Matt endured a few hours of Disney Channel with our cable-deprived kids while Vicky, Marilyn and I strolled around the beautiful town of Healdsburg.
On Saturday morning, we toured the Simi Winery and got an inside look at how wine is made. We heard the great story of the owner who took over the operation of the winery at the age of 17 when her father died, and during Prohibition, became a seller of sacramental wine to keep the business going. The kids were pleasant throughout the tour, even if more than a bit bored. They did enjoy one part of the wine tasting that concluded the tour: the chocolate cups that the tasty Riesling was served in. We met up with Marilyn again for lunch, then she took us out to Sonoma Lake, not far from Healdsburg. We made a stop at the fish hatchery on the way back and saw the efforts being made to reintroduce salmon to the area after they'd been over fished for decades.
The next day we headed back to Calistoga for Liturgy and enjoyed time with the nuns there once again. We toured the Calistoga area for a bit, making a stop at "California's Old Faithful" geyser.

The Russian River Area

(Today's Blogger: Elena)
On Tuesday, we went from Petaluma to Windsor. We stayed in the trailer a lot because Maria got sick. Joshua and Dad went into Windsor to walk around a bit on Wednesday while Mom and I stayed with Maria. Then when they got back, I went with Mom into town where we went to the toy store and the bookstore.
On Thursday we went to Mrs. Grossman's sticker factory. There were millions of stickers--and all different types! We saw the virtual tour. Then we shopped a little.
On Friday, we went to Fort Ross. It was an old Russian fort. It's really pretty. St. Innocent visited there when he was a priest. That's all for now.

Heading North from San Francisco

(Today’s Blogger: Joshua)

On Saturday we had a picnic with Uncle Glen Friesen and his girls, so we could spend a little more time with them before heading north. The playground was really cool. I had a lot of fun. The girls made these really good muffins.

Then we went to visit my dad’s cousin, Deacon John Dibs and his family: his wife Irene, and his kids, John (18), Michael (17), Gregory (15) and Maria (12). We had a lot of fun. I played Rock Band and Tony Hawk on their Playstation 2. The night we got there, we went to look for a campground, but it turns out it didn’t have the set up we thought it did, so we went back to the Dibs’ house at about 10:30 and parked the trailer there. On Sunday we went to Holy Assumption Monastery where there’s a bunch of cats and beautiful flowers. The acting abbess is my Godfather’s sister, Mother Melania. After Liturgy, Dn. John took us on a tour of Napa Valley. Then we went to this winery where the adults sampled wine and the kids sampled grape juice.

The next day we went to Point Reyes National Seashore where we climbed up and down 302 stairs to reach the Pt. Reyes Lighthouse. All in all, we had a really fun time.