Ritz Family Happenings: Oregon

Casey and I flew out to Oregon to visit family and enjoy the beautiful scenery Oregon has to offer. It was a later flight, so we didn't get into Portland until 8:30pm (11:30pm GA time). We had a long day of travel, so we were looking forward to a good nights rest. I always get emotional when I fly into Portland and see beautiful Mt. Hood. Home Sweet Home!

The time change takes a bit to adapt to. The next morning was rough...

But we got up, got ready to meet my brother and his girlfriend for breakfast. It was a nice restaurant, and the food was delicious. So glad we could visit!

Casey and I spent the rest of the day roaming around Portland before heading to the Coast. Our first stop was to Powell's bookstore. It is the biggest, best and amazing bookstore I've ever been in. It's set up like a huge library with many rooms and levels. I wish we would've went a 2nd time, because it's so big and there's so much to see. It's hard to get it all in just one visit. I had to be selective of my purchases, because we had limited space and this was our very first stop😀

Our next stop was Salt-n-Straw. Kaitlyn had told us how good their ice cream was, so we managed to make two stops there...one at the beginning of our trip and one at the end. Their summer flavors were the best! SO GOOD!

We headed up the coast to Yachats, Lincoln City and Newport. Casey's favorite thing was collecting Salt water taffy from all the stores😂 My favorite thing was trying the clam chowder everywhere we went. It was really windy, and we weren't prepared for the coastal chill, so we purchased some outdoor wear(wind gear) before moving on.

Casey saw many bigfoots on his travels(notice his first of many bags of taffy)

My parents met us for dinner in Newport. A store owner(where we purchased our taffy) told us about a really good local restaurant, so we looked it up and ate there. It was really nice with a beautiful view of the ocean.

We found another Bigfoot...Casey's favorite. The funny story behind this is that when the kids were little Casey was always watching Bigfoot sightings/searchings for Bigfoot on the Discovery channel. Ryan was still pretty young and was having trouble sleeping and we discovered it was because he was afraid of Bigfoot. So, Casey had to curb his desire of searching for Bigfoot on TV.

We did some shopping before dinner, and found some fun treasures. I didn't buy the "Year in History" - my birth year, but it's always a fun read.

I did buy some local artisanal chocolate bars. They were really good!!

After dinner my mom told us about a fun stop on our way to where we were staying the night, so we stopped and walked the nature trail. I forgot how many random trails Oregon has that are just off the road. They are so accessible and easy(some of them-more on that later😅) for just a fun short walk.

I remember these bugs as a kid, because they looked like spit - so gross. We would call them spit bugs, but their actual name is Cercopidae. Fun Fact - They feed on plant sap and then excrete bubbly foam to create a protective fortress around themselves. Later, they emerge as adult froghoppers.

(Picture below is from google)

We arrived at our pit stop for the night just in time for a walk along the beach. This was the same place we stayed the night of our wedding 34 yrs. ago. It was so fun(and kinda crazy) to go back and experience it all over again with (what feels like) a lifetime of experiences and to realize how little we really knew back when we thought we knew it all😏💗

Casey was already tired of me taking photos😂

We were hoping to find some nice agates. We found a few small ones, but nothing spectacular.

Me: If you put the buttercup under your chin and it glows, it means you like butter.

Casey: It glows on everyone😳

My 9yr. old mind was blown😅

Casey, always on the hunt for some good wood to take home for making pens.

We headed out early, so we could make a stop at Haceta Head Lighthouse before going to my parents in Reedsport.

We did a short tour and enjoyed the scenery.

There were a ton of birds on these rocks. It was their nesting season.

I spy Casey...👀

A Reedsport staple...

We did a lot of different things while we were at my parents. One short day trip we did was to shore Acres. Lots to see and take in.

Nature is crazy and beautiful

Casey is tired of taking pictures...😂

They had a beautiful Rose Garden

We took a night drive up Deans Mountain

My pretty Momma

We went to Bandon and walked and shopped

Another Bigfoot sighting

Casey and I both grew up in Oregon but had never been to Crater Lake(a National Park), so we decided to go and visit. It was 3 hrs. from where my parents live, so we did an over night trip. It was worth it. It was majestic and breathtakingly beautiful. We spent most of the day there taking it all in. Nature has a way of bringing immediate peace to the soul, and this was no exception. I could've spent a week there💚💙

We met up with family for dinner💓

On our way home we went through Eugene and Casey wanted to stop at a Fish market eatery that he had seen on Diners, Drive-ins and Dives. It was really good! I got my cup of clam chowder😊

My brother and his family came for a visit, so we spent the next few days visiting and enjoying all the things the coast has to offer.

Bev also came for a visit. So fun to see her and visit. It's hard to live so far away from family💕

Sweet Tucker waiting for someone to throw him his ball😀

We went to the beach for sunset. Jaelee was having fun. She's so sweet and fun, also a talented photographer like her momma.

There was a lot of buzzing around as the ATV's were heading in for the night.

As we headed back to Portland we went through Monmouth to see Casey's parents gravesites and drove past his childhood home/turkey farm. It was fitting that we saw some wild turkeys on the way.

Casey also found his (HUGE) Agate he'd been searching for as well as a couple other cool rocks. Not sure what they were doing in the graveyard, but he was pretty excited about his discovery.

We decided we wanted to go to Silver Falls where we had our engagement video shot 34 years ago. It's a beautiful area that has many different trailheads you can enter to hike to the falls. Depending on which entrance you are at, depends on how long the hike is. We couldn't remember which one was the quickest, so we got off on one, got a map and was hoping for a short walk to view the falls. Well, that's not how it worked out. We did see the falls, but it was a 3 mile hike. It was not an easy hike. We saw some people with hiking poles and knew we were in trouble. It's a 13 mile loop all the way around the falls in which there are 7 different falls for viewing. Once we made it back to our car we knew which one we needed to be at to find the park area, so we went and hiked another 2 miles for the viewing of the one we should've been at to begin with. We were hungry and tired, so we stopped at a little cafe on the way back down and split a BLT. It was a beautiful day, just more of a hike than we were prepared for😅