2018 Travel Guide: Birthday Celebrations in Long Beach Peninsula


Happy New Year! 

My blog vacation ended up being a little longer than I had planned due to some changes at home but I’m back! While my blog vacation was on the longer side I have to say our family getaway far too short.

We kicked our New Year off with a surprise birthday trip for Neil to the Adrift Hotel in Long Beach, Washington and a visit to our favorite Oregon city – Astoria. 

This wasn’t our first trip to the Long Beach Peninsula and it certainly won’t be our last. The first time we ever visited Long Beach was nearly five years ago when we first moved here. A friend from Vermont who had lived in the Portland area told us how they would head up to Long Beach, Washington and drive on the beach. We had never driven on the beach before so on our first trip to Astoria we crossed the bridge and headed to the beach. This was our first trip to Washington state, first trip to Astoria, first time driving on the beach and it was also the first time we came across the Adrift hotel. It would be almost 2 years later before we would stay at the Adrift but once we did we knew we would stay there again…. even if it took 3 years. 

So why the Adrift Hotel? 

First, location, location, location. The Adrift Hotel is located just across the bridge from Astoria, it is located on the beach which means some rooms have a beach view and you can easily walk or borrow a bike and head to the beach. Secondly, it’s incredibly family friendly with it’s suites but it is also fun and modern for friends and couples are looking for a little getaway. One of my favorite features is the style which is a mix of modern, vintage and nautical. Also there are bikes, movies and games to borrow as well as a game area on the second floor which was a favorite of my littles. 

 

Lastly, the food. Pickled Fish is a located in the Adrift Hotel and it offers some really great food. They also are great about accommodating vegan, vegetarian and gluten free diets which is hard time find on the peninsula. On this visit we enjoyed brunch for Neil’s birthday which included this tofu rice bowl, the hash sub tofu for the eggs and crispy potatoes. If you’d rather bring your own food you’ll find a mini fridge and microwave in your room and down in the lobby there is complimentary tea, coffee and flavored water. You can also find lots of snacks, drinks and treats like these amazing coconut caramels that I had and wish I could remember the name of because they were amazing. 

After brunch we took a quick visit down to the Discovery Trail to check out the ocean but this was short lived as the rain quickly came. 

We checked out of the Adrift Hotel and Astoria to take the kids to the Astoria Column, out to lunch at Buoy Brewing and to my favorite Scandinavian store Finnware.

Check out this post from our 2016 visit to Astoria for what to see and eat as well as our stay Adrift’s sister hotel Ashore. Also this post from our first stay at the Adrift Hotel for Neil’s birthday a few years ago. 

Thank you to Adrift Hotel for our stay. We enjoyed ourselves and can’t wait to return. While this stay was complimentary as always all opinions are my own.

Weekend Adventure to Trillium Lake and The Power of Nature

This weekend felt like something out of a dream. For the first time in 9 months I felt good enough to get out with my family and get back to nature. We started our Saturday running a bit behind schedule, that was until I reminded myself that we had nowhere to be so schedules were unnecessary. After gathering ourselves and the kids we headed to Trillium Lake not without a quick stop to Target to pick up a pair of shoes because apparently pregnancy makes my feet grow.

Once we made it to Trillium Lake we spent the day wandering slowly walking the loop around the lake. Letting the kids set the pace and stopping for long playing (and nursing) sessions in the woods. We completed the loop, ate our packed lunch and then let the kids splash around in the lake until it was time to head out.

 

We decided that the thought of heading straight home sounded awful and we made a detour to Hood River for dinner and playtime at the waterfront park. We enjoyed a great meal, the kids while tired were in great spirits and despite the awful sewage smell at the park we all had a nice time soaking up the last bits of sun and watching the kite boarders. 

As I drove home I couldn’t help but feel so full of love and happiness. It felt amazing to get out, explore and go back to our normal routine after months of sickness due to pregnancy, feeling so anxious about birth because our baby girl was breech up until 36+ weeks and then all that time I spent healing and not leaving the house. I am slow moving still and everything takes extra effort but I am reminded how much nature can heal the heart, the soul and fill us up. 
So here is my request to all of you – spend more time in nature and let nature nurture your soul and heal your heart.

PDX Events | 2016 Oregon Fermentation Festival

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Pickles, kombucha, kraut, kimchi, miso….fermented goodies. All the amazing goodies we got to taste at the Oregon Fermentation Festival this past weekend. 

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Our house is one that is constantly stocked with delicious krauts and kombuchas and we often have something fermenting (some more successful than others). What can I saw we love fermented foods so when we found out about the Oregon Fermentation Festival we marked our calendars and purchased our tickets and prepared for an afternoon of funky foods. 

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We sampled some of our favorites like Kevita, Health-ade and OlyKraut. We also tried some new (to us) places such as Rawkstar Creations which not only has really great kombucha but an AAAAAMAZING raw BLT. 2016-09-10-oregon-fermentation-festival-7

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We dined on popsicles and the most delicious miso-lemon corn from Obon PDX. We loved it so much we shared 4 ears. 2016-09-10-oregon-fermentation-festival-15

We even got to make a jar of pickled cucumbers and green beans! Which the kids thought was pretty amazing. 2016-09-10-oregon-fermentation-festival-22

Overall we loved the festival and the kids couldn’t get enough kombucha so of course we ended up going home with a box of different varieties.

So fermented foods and beverages- love or hate? What are you favorites?