Oregon

Lest you think this blog is all about Darin--the ENTIRE family took a wonderful vacation to Oregon and California this summer. The last time we had been in Oregon to see family was in 1998 when the kids were 16, 13, 10 and 7. Needless to say, much had changed in our family in the 11 years since we'd been there... Sarah, Erik and Delainey had yet to meet the Oregon/Idaho relatives and so a Pritchett reunion needed to be held.

We started by flying into San Francisco, CA on June 30. We were scattered on 3 different flights so I was delighted when we were all actually in California and able to get our rental cars. We had to have two cars--a minivan and a smaller sedan. Donald and Devin split the driving in the van and I drove a Caliber for the most part. We immediately headed north to Oregon. Our first stop was at In-N-Out for a great burger. We are all huge fans of In-N-Out and only get to go there when we're in the west. Delainey wondered what the big deal was until we gave her a taste!!

After In-N-Out, it was on to Medford, Oregon to stay with some friends that moved to Oregon two years ago. We spent the night with them and then left Wednesday morning for Crater Lake.

No one in the family had ever been to Crater Lake. Although I grew up in Oregon and have been back to visit numerous times, I had never been there. Crater Lake was one of the top things on our "to see" list and I am so glad we went. It is an amazing place and if you're ever in that part of Oregon, it's worth the drive.

After taking lots of pictures at the rim of the lake, we decided to hike down to the bottom of the lake. The hike is only one mile--downhill--and that means one mile uphill to get back to your car! They told us that it was the equivalent of taking the stairs to the 75th story of a building!!
Erik was the only brave enough to jump into the water--but the rest of us all got our feet wet so we could say that we had been "in" Crater Lake.

From Crater Lake, it was off to Newport. After trusting our GPS too much and taking a logging road for about 30 minutes, we were finally heading west and arrived in Newport about 10pm.

We spent a week in Newport, Oregon and were able to visit with my brother and his wife and kids, my aunt and uncle and their daughter (my cousin) and her son. We walked on the beach, ate wonderful seafood, went to the aquarium, spent two hours out on the ocean for a cool cruise where we saw seals and a whale spout, enjoyed the 4th of July (and Devin's birthday) around a fire and watched the fireworks over the bridge, went crabbing and even ran into an old friend we hadn't seen for years at church. It was awesome and we are all so glad we are able to be there. I wish I had more pictures of all my family, but I was so busy enjoying being there that I forgot to take pictures!! Below are some pictures I borrowed from Sarah and Jamie....