Finally The Man and I were able to find a week that we could both take some time off for a family vacation.

We compiled a list of places we thought would be neat to see and decided to wing it a bit.
This is our first family road trip with two kids, so there were some learning opportunities, like please let us out of the car to run around every once and a while, big bags of trail mix + 2 kids in
the back seat + who don't like sharing = trail mix all over and hotels with pools are the best.

We started off driving South to Portland, we had a nice visit and meal with my sister, and then headed over to the coast. We arrived late in the evening and with no reservations anywhere (winged it, remember) and ended up staying in Astoria for the night.
While we drove through town after we had checked into our hotel, looking for some place to eat, we drove by the Columbia River Maritime Museum
which had this huge window with a Coast Guard ship up on display, it looked cool & we looked forward to seeing it the next day.

Here is Antonio in one of the exhibits.



Julia said her first sentence here.
"Fish. Eeaat! Nummy!"




After the museum, we packed up and left to go to the Tillamook cheese factory.
We did the little self tour of the factory, had some ice cream and picked up some cheese and crackers for an afternoon snack.

Back on the road, we headed back to Portland, arriving in town in the evening, but had much better luck finding a hotel than the previous night.

The next day we went to Portland Classical Chinese Garden Which is this amazing and peaceful garden located in the middle of this huge city. Once you pass through the garden wall, you can easily forget that there is this city bustling along just a few hundred feet away.



I was distracted by all of flowers in bloom and wondering what ideas I could incorporate into my own yard at home.
A fountain with one of these would be perfect.



These would be nice too...



Antonio thought this dog at the main gate was pretty cool.



We walked around Chinatown, which was pretty quiet since it was before noon.
A recommendation from one of the people at the garden, we had dim sum at Fong Chong's. The kids loved the ladies with their carts full of dim sum goodies.

After short drive through town to Washington Park, we arrived at the Japanese Garden

We had a bit of trouble with the mega wee (jog stroller) on the windy paths, but it was good to have instead of lugging Julia up most of the hills.

Here is the sand and stone zen garden.







About halfway through the garden, Julia decided to walk and happily held hands with Antonio the rest of the way.



These dogs are similar to the ones at the Chinese garden and Antonio though it would be much easier to bring home.





After the Japanese garden, we did some shopping downtown Portland and called it a day and headed home.
We were ready for sleep in our own beds, even if there wasn't a pool out back.