My Last Childless Vacation

The last few months I've been aching for a vacation or something to get me out of town.  So we planned a trip with my parents to Hood River (not more than an hour and half away, in case I shot into labor) and I've been looking forward to it for quite some time!

Warning:  This post contains LOTS of pictures!

We stayed at a cute little Bed and Breakfast.  I love B&B's.  It's the way to go if you want to meet talkative people in a quirky little town.  Kirk and decided that if we ever owned a B&B, he would do the cooking, and I would do the talking :)

Here are my parents posing out front just after arriving at Hood River.

Our room was awesome.  It had two doors that lead onto "the Terrace."  

And no, we did not share a room with my parents.

We became aquainted with the little town by walking up and down the mian street.

Had to take a pic in front of this sign.  It has the word "Labor" in it for goodness sakes.

There were several bike shops, so for Kirk's sake we stopped in.  Although it was my mother who ended up actually purchasing something.  A bike bell.  Go figure.

If you look carefully you can see the Columbia Gorge in the background.

I LOVE this picture of my dad!  

"slow down"

Hood River is well-known for Kite Surfing.  I always see tons of them from the highway on the drive to Utah, but I've never seen them this close up.  There were some impressive tricks and flips goin' on there..

This random dog decided to join us in spectating.  

He seemed to know exactly what was going on.

Spectating.

The whole weekend was surpsingly sunny for Oregon.

We scouted out this restaurant "Nora's Table," and I highly recomend it if you're ever in the area.  Deliciously yummy and very reasonably price.  Kirk labled the food as a highlight of the trip.

The Bed & Breakfast meal in the morning was quite delicious too.

On Saturday morning we headed out to the Hood River Railraod for the scenic ride we'd been looking forward to.  The train went from Hood River to the Base of Mount Hood.  It was about a 4 hour trip and super fun!

Filing on to the old fashioned cars.

When I say old-fashionied, I mean authentic.

We were in the Dome Car.  It was high enough up to be able to see really well (and it was much quiter than the other cars).

"Look!  We're moving!  Woo hoo!"

I never realized how much trains rock back and forth.  We're thinkin that the baby like the gentle rocking motion too.  He was not very active.  I'm guessing he slept through the whole thing.  Good to know that if we ever want him to go to sleep after he's born, that we should just thop on the nearest train.

We followed Hood River for most of the ride.

Spectacular views of Oregon that I've never seen before!

(Check out the reflection of my shirt)

Apparently this area is the ideal climate for harvesting fruit.  The trees on the right are cherry trees and the ones on the left are apple trees.  We happend to be there the week that everything was in bloom.  It was gorgeous.  There were tons and tons of blossoms :)

My luvvy-dubby parents

Mount Hood in the distance

A part of me wanted to bust out into song on the train - secretly hoping that everyone else would join in with a choreographed dance rountine.

The train stopped in Parkdale, OR for about an hour.

Kirk fascinated by the size of the gas tank

Apparently it had 2,000 gallons left at half full. 

This tree stump was huge.  We grow them big here in Oregon.

I'm counting the rings.  There were over a thousand.

That's my Lumberjack!

On the ride back to Hood River we explored the other cars.  This open air car was quite windy!

My dad particularly liked the name of this ice cream shack.  We ended up going there twice in the less-than-24-hours that we were in Hood River.

On the drive home, we stopped at random exits along the scenic gorge drive and saw things like Cascade Locks, Oregon and its fairy boat thingy.

Horsetail Falls - one of the many waterfalls of the gorge.

Oneonta (prounouced "On-ee-on-tah") Gorge.  This used to be our favorite family hike when I was younger.  It's a good 2.5 mile hike in the creek to get to the falls.  But it's changed a lot since then.  Like this tunnel.  That's new.

Overall it was a very fun little overnighter vacation.  Very refreshing.  I feel ready to face pregnancy again!