Ever since Kathryn and I went on our Pacific Northwest Tour in 2017, one of our favorite trips for sure, we’ve longed to go back and recreate some of the magic. This year, as a final hurrah before school started, we did a quick 2-night, 3-day trip and hit some of the highlights with the kids. We packed a lot in, and it was a super fun trip. There were too many great pictures to pick from, so I just erred on the side of “more is better.”

The flight to Portland was almost too short for the kids. They all felt like they could have done with a little more TV time.

Landon got undivided attention working on his Zelda game.

“Candy-apple red car, yes please,” said Kathryn.

First stop, Wahclella Falls in the Columbia River Gorge on the way to Hood River. Very neat little 1-mile hike and beautiful falls.

We stayed at the Best Western Plus right on the river. It’s my favorite hotel in Hood River, a town I’ve visited often for work. After a swim, we came to the hotel restaurant for dinner outside.

After the kids were in bed, we snuck out and visited Mike’s Ice Cream (shh, don’t tell Ashley. Sorry sweetie). This is the very place where I fell in love with salted caramel ice cream. You can’t visit Hood River without coming here.

We had a big day planned, and we were the first ones in for breakfast, right at the crack of dawn. We had the best table in the house.

The traditional corned beef hash. Love it.

Driving to the Mount Saint Helens range. The forests here are incredible.

At the mouth of Ape Caves. About to head in for the most terrifying adventure of Zoey’s life.

Zoey wanted absolutely, positively nothing to do with the cave. Poor thing, and poor us as parents. Eventually, after we were beyond the point of desperation and about to abort the whole adventure, I asked everyone to turn off their lights. We were enveloped in complete and utter darkness. I told Zoey that if she could calm herself, we could turn the lights back on. When we did, we were dazzled by the amount of light that our headlamps and flashlights provided in comparison to the nothingness of before. This helped Zoey regain her composure, and we actually started to enjoy the experience.

Towards the end of the hike, there was a dazzling skylight. After being in the dark and lifeless cave, it was so incredible to see the majesty of the sun again bringing light and life. You can also imagine the great joy and comfort that this gave Zoey.

Looking up the skylight, seeing what seemed like the tree of life through the opening.

A little farther on, and we reached another break in the cave with our exit.

All of the kids did incredible on this challenging 1.5-mile hike, climbing over boulders, navigating tricky footing, and scaling steep ledges—all in the cold and dark. We were especially proud that Zoey made it and hope that this can be a lifelong memory for her of conquering overwhelming fear.

A little down the road from the cave is another fun spot where lava enveloped trees, which burned out until eventually all traces succumbed to time, leaving a perfect negative imprint in the rock. Here, a few trees created a short tree tunnel that can be crawled through.

A rare glimpse of Mount Saint Helens, often hidden by the endless forests surrounding it.

We enjoyed seeing the timber industry at work, with log trucks, lumber mills, barges being loaded, and plots of trees in various stages of growth after harvesting.

A visit to the top of the Astoria Column.

Dinner at Mo’s Seafood and Chowder on Cannon Beach.

Then we let the kids loose on the beach. They started jumping…

And leaping…

And flipping…

And digging…

The beach is a magical place.

We stayed at a cute little motel very close to the beach in Manzanita. Nice little town. Breakfast at the coffee shop.

We hiked through the old-growth forest in Oswald West State Park on our way to Short Sand Beach.

Eliza demonstrating just how huge this old Sitka tree is. Amazing!

We came right at low tide and had a spectacular starfish show at the tide pools.

There were thousands of them. I’ve never seen so many starfish before. Not to mention lots of sea anemones and a few little crabs. The seagulls had already caught some very large crabs and had a feast on the beach earlier in the morning.

At low tide, there was no shortage of sand at Short Sand Beach. It was probably 300 feet of beautiful clean sand. With the tide starting to come in, the kids tried to build a sand castle, but were disappointed that they couldn’t withstand the power of the waves. Meanwhile, Kathryn was performing yoga on the beach while holding all of the kids’ discarded clothing.

After we got cleaned up, we started our drive down to Tillamook for our final stop. On the way there, the kids invented a catapult and all practiced shooting a little paper projectile to try and hit the infotainment screen. The little things bring out the best laughter.

Like a bunch of other tourist suckers, we paid top dollar for some ice cream and cheese you can get in every grocery store. Just kidding, we had a great time and enjoyed our stop, especially seeing the cheesemaking line in action. It was like a real-life How It’s Made episode.

And after that, we headed out to the airport. There was a short-lived scare where Google Maps thought we’d miss our flight due to an accident and traffic, but thankfully it was cleared up before we came through the mountain pass, and we had plenty of time to spare.

Thanks Tim and Suzanne for helping with the car and for watching Kacho.

That’s a wrap on this K&L Oregon 2026 trip.

We had the 2026 Hawker Family Reunion in Island Park this year, at a really cool cabin on Henry’s Lake. We loaded up all the toys and rolled out. Yes, that’s 4 dirt bikes in the back of the truck, and the boat. Luckily, with the boat, it was a breeze to throw in everything we wanted to bring, including an extra kitchen sink…jk.

Oh yeah, and fully loaded with the family as well!

Hi Eliza.

Picture of a picture.

Lots of pelicans called the little bay by the house home.

Theo s’more’in with the Moores.

We went to Big Springs. I came here several years ago on snowmobiles with James. It was fun to see it in the summer.

We did a really cool 25-mile loop from the house, up into Montana, and along the Continental Divide trail. Tim and Ashley rode in the side-by-side, and Kathryn and I rocked the e-motos.

We had a fun time paddle boarding and kayaking on the lake. In that bay, there were springs and so many huge trout lurking around.

We got some good use out of the Cobalt too with kids taking turns driving. And we got some turns in on the Big Mable couch.

We drove over to West Yellowstone and visited the Grizzly and Wolf Discovery Center. This was a really cool way to see the bears and wolves up close. They would hide food around the area and then let a pair of bears out for an hour to find it and eat. I’ve never been this close to a big ol’ grizzly bear or a wolf.

Lunch and treats in town. This was the most well-stocked candy shop I’ve ever been in. They had everything you could imagine ranging from the expected to the exotic.

We took turns cooking. We did a pancake and sausage spread, with 4 different varieties of pancakes.

Tim and Suzanne did a fancy steak dinner. Got to admire Tim’s grill marks on those steaks.

Landon gives it a double thumbs-up rating.

Family picture attempt number 1.

And attempt number 2 later in the evening, but minus one sleeping baby Scottie.

Dirt bike rides with the family.

All packed up and ready to roll on out towards home. Thanks for the incredible weekend trip!

Happy 15th Anniversary to us! We wanted to go on an anniversary trip. The kids really wanted to try out a cruise. Sure, let’s do it. We planned out a 3-night Ensenada Cruise out of LA. Road trip time!

We made a quick stop in St George to say hi to Shalyn and the cousins and drop off Kacho.

We continued on to Las Vegas. Man was it hot. 105° in the shade, I think. Oof. We walked around for a little bit and got some dinner and then headed to our hotel.

The next day we got up bright and early and continued on to Los Angeles. Amazingly, we didn’t hit any real traffic, and we made great time getting to the port and on the ship. Easy.  The ship was the Royal Caribbean Quantum of the Seas. They had the North Star lift which went up really high and gave a neat view of the port and ship.

And glass elevators.

And swimming pools, of course.

And an arcade with air hockey.

And bumper cars!

And a rock climbing wall.

And FlowRider.

And the pièce de résistance was the Ripcord skydiving simulator.

I won the prize for the floppiest cheeks.

And they had some really cool artwork.

And it’s easy to forget you’re on a boat.

Another hot item were the towel animals. Very popular with the kids!

And what the cruise ships are maybe the most known for is all the yummy food and drinks.

And they had a fabulous show in the Royal Theater called Sonic Odyssey. Very, very cool.

One thing the kids were excited about was going to a foreign country. Now they have officially been to Mexico.

The one thing the girls wanted for sure was to get their hair braided. Check.

We enjoyed the beautiful flowers.

And it’s always fun to people-watch.

Time to roll out and start our long drive home.

118 degrees outside Baker, California. Yikes.

Bonus picture from the night we got home.

Time for our annual Moore Family Reunion. It started out with a 2-night backpacking trip with Ashley. We drove up the morning of and met up with the gang at the lake. We stopped for lunch in Ketchum at Atkinson’s Market and got deli sandwiches just like when I was a kid. Then we had to get some ice cream from Leroy’s as well. How could we not?

Quick stop for a picture at Galena Summit.

And we’re at the trailhead, ready to go.

I really enjoyed my special time with Ashley.

Cousin pic on the little peak above the lake.

Casper Lake, Leah Lake, whatever this place is called, it was very picturesque.

On day 2, we day hiked up to the upper lakes in the drainage. Then we split and I continued to press on and hit two of the peaks up on the ridge. This is from the highest peak of the drainage looking back towards camp.

I caught a fish. Picture proof.

On day 3, we broke camp and headed out. Since we had two cars, Ashley, Laura and I booked it down and headed out early.

We stopped in Ketchum again for some sushi from Atkinson’s and more Leroy’s ice cream.

What a great backpacking trip!

I knew I had been up here in 2017 with Kevin, Stan, and Jimmy.  Video from that trip:

I totally forgot that in 2014 we were up here,  but we went into the Alpine Creek drainage to the north: Backpacking in the Sawtooths

Once we were all back in Filer at the house, the family reunion officially started.

We had our annual family picture.

And loads of cousin fun.

And pool time!

And hangin’ out with Grandpa Gerald.

And kayaks, paddle boards, beach, and relaxing at Dierkes Lake.

We had some break-ins in the berry patch.

And a birthday celebration for Josie and Dad.

On Saturday, we headed home along with Stan’s family. That evening, we went to the final concert and drone/fireworks show for the Mapleton Pioneer Days celebration.

Bonus picture: