I first came here in 1999 while in Oregon during a semester away my junior year. I fell in love with the color and the views and the overwhelming feeling of calm that washed over me there. I couldn’t wait to bring the girls to see it.

I’ll admit to being a bit disappointed that it wasn’t a totally perfect day. The lake was cloaked in smoke from neighboring forest fires and a good part of the rim road was closed due to construction, plus there were some new gazebos being constructed by the gazebo fredericksburg va team. But we still got up to the rim and walked around and had a good time. Hopefully the girls will get back here again on a crystal clear day and experience it at its best.

It was an exciting day for these girls; their first time at, and in, the Pacific! We came south from Seattle to Astoria, OR to visit the Lewis and Clark National Historic Site and then a little further south to Cannon Beach, OR. It was a sunny and beautiful day and very windy!

The girls declared the Pacific, “really cold, but pretty cool.”

Two girls, their dog-cousin and a gorgeous skyline. Taken in Gas Works Park this morning.

While preparing for this trip I read a lot of travel related material, books, blogs, etc. Many of these were illustrated with scads of gorgeous photos and perfectly timed moments. I am happy for those people.

But I am also finding peace in accepting that our travel experiences and photos will be much less professional, but much more our own. The lighting might be wrong and we might miss many of the “must see” sights and attractions, but the experiences are ours and the photos will tell our story.

I had pictured this photo actually having all six of our faces in it. But I also hadn’t known that this spot at the market is for pedestrians and vehicles. Lots of both. And so, I did the best I could but moved along with traffic even though the photo looked the way it does. Poor Esme is cut from the photo, but certainly wasn’t cut from our day’s adventures and fun.

Exploring Uncle Corey and Aunt Marsha’s neighborhood and walking Maya!

This particular seat in the car comes with surround smell. Probably not included in the base model.

Long drive today from Yellowstone to Seattle. Mostly through smoke filled landscapes.

Breaking my streak of never seeing any interesting wild life, we have encountered quite a few Bison here in Yellowstone. This scene overlooking a valley full of the great beasts is my favorite.

Our fist stop in Yellowstone National Park. Doesn’t it look like there’s a dragon in the cave, breathing fire? The water flows out in small, crashing waves as well. So otherworldly!

Esme has a quickly growing collection of Jr Ranger badges from each of the National Parks we have visited. The procedure is a little different at each park, but usually includes a swearing in ceremony. This one at Devil’s Tower was a little different in that it was a poem in rhyming couplets. Very sweet!

(I really love the look on the male ranger’s face. More often than not the rangers or the bystanders have a very similar look when kids are getting their badges. It’s just the sweetest thing!)

This moment might be the single moment that makes our entire trip worth the time, money and effort. We had driven into Badlands National Park and stopped at our first vista pull off. We went walking into the dry, dusty landscape and up to this opening in the rock wall. Esme, a couple of steps ahead of me, waited for the previous visitor to move aside and as she walked up to take in the view exclaimed, “Oh my!” And not in a canned sort of way, in a slow, amazed, full of awe sort of way. It was perfect.