The Real McDonalds

The adventures of Ron, Lori & Peter McDonald

A Quick Trip to Crater Lake

With the work on the new house then the move, camping hasn't been in the works too much. But I managed to get a night to my self so I loaded up the motorcycle and headed out for a night. Plan was to head to Crater Lake seeing I had never been there, then camp over night and head home. Due to time constraints, I took a combination of Interstate & State highways.

 


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I showed up at Crater Lake around 5 PM and was told there should not be a problem finding a camping spot. With that in mind I took my time going from the North Rim down to the campground over by the West entrance. But when I did arrive at the campground I found out it was full. The sun was on its way down and I still had to find someplace to pitch my tent, another 30 miles later I found Farewell Bend Campground on the banks of the Rogue river.

Peters first day at the racetrack.

Summers here and with our remodeling of new house going on way too long there hasn't been much fun going on. So on a tip we headed out to Pacific Raceways for the vintage car races. The start for Peter was a bit off due to the noise of the unmuffeled big block V8's that were racing when we got there but we quickly found a set of ear muffs then all was well. The assortment of cars were wonderful from open wheeled Can-ams, Formula Fords to Fiats & Datsuns.

Spring Break 2011 AKA: Tour de Critter

Spring break 2011 was fast upon us, what could we do? Well, Lori had a huge project at work that wouldn't let her take time off, so it was up to the guys to figure out something to do. We were informed that Ruby, our dog, was going with us so it was pretty obvious that a road trip was in order. Sunday morning we got a late start and headed down I-5 to Roseburg Oregon. We would do our first over night near our first objective, the Winston Wildlife Safari a drive through zoo with every thing from native Northwest animals to rhinos and tigers. The park was a blast with close encounters with
Giraffes,
a rhino
and very "pointy" looking Emu  
that really wanted to get a up close and personal look at the inside of our car. Considering that we were warned about the Emu we chose not to let him get too close, which ended up being a slow motion chase that lasted nearly a 1/4 mile before he went in search of easier prey.

After a few hours at the park it was time to hit the road again. We turned the car from the interstate and headed towards Oregon coast to the West Coast Game Park Safari. Its a small park that keeps the dangerous animals in cages but lets the gentle animals like goats and deer wander the trails between the cages with the guests. Oh yeah, you get to feed them too!

 
The rain started only about an hour after we got there, so we ended up cutting our visit shorter than we wanted. That night was spent at the Red Lion Hotel in Coos Bay, they only reason I mention this is if you travel with your pet you need to look into Red Lion Hotels. Most places that allow pets charge extra, but if you join the Red Lion R&R club your pet is free, as is joining the R&R club.

After a lazy morning we continued north along the coast to the Oregon Coast Aquarium in Newport. This aquarium is incredible, with both outside and inside exhibits. The biggest and maybe most famous exhibit is the Passages of the Deep where you walk in glass tube that goes through 3 different zones. At first it was a bit scary for Peter but by the time we got to the open water section and got to watch sharks swim around us he felt comfortable. We spent 20 minutes sitting in the tube watching the colorful Tiger Sharks swimming all around us .

The next day we headed home, but just because we were going to be home didn't mean our fun was over. That Thursday we met my brother Tom and Peters cousin Ally at the Pacific Science Center for the Star Wars exhibit

The week couldn't have been any better.

Off to the Pacific Science Center

It was Presidents day, Peter & I had the day off but Lori still had to work. So what to do. . how about heading up to the Pacific Science Center? Even better, heading up to the Pacific Science Center to see the Harry Potter Experience. The showing was very cool, just wish I could show something here but they didn't allow any pictures or videos, heck they didn't even allow use of cell phones. Afterwords it was getting a bit crowded so we headed out for lunch, we didn't want to do the standard places so we headed up to the top of the Space Needle for lunch. It was Peters first trip up the Needle and even though the weather wasn't perfect we had fun. On the way back to the car we stopped by the Science Fiction Museum and Hall of Fame to poke a round a bit.

Puyallup Sportsmen's Show

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Peter & dad headed over to the Puyallup Fair Grounds to poke around the Washington Sportsmen's Show. The first stop was at the kids trout pond for Peter. After 5 minutes he had landed 4 trout, all with a huge smile on his face. We then wondered around the big show hall & saw lots of cool sights. At the back of the hall we found the archery range where Peter could have a try at a real bow. His first shot hit the target as well 80% of shots he took. Then after a bit of searching we found the dock dogs taking flight. It was a blast watching the dogs go flying, one dog made it nearly 20 feet!

Ride to Los Angeles, Universal Studios and the 39th Annual Griffith Park Sidecar Rally

A cold November night I jumped on my motorcycle to go for a little ride. OK, so it wasn't that little. . it was close to 1,100 miles and I didn't do it all in one night. My plan was to head off to Cottage Grove Oregon the first night, Santa Nella California
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the second night and then hoped to make it into LA in time to meet Lori & Peter at the hotel when they arrived. First night goal was met with out a problem, and after a minor mechanical problem coming down from Siskiyou pass, I was able to make my second day goal a hour behind what I hoped. The next morning weather tried it's darnedest  to throw me off schedule, and it did. The headwind going over the Grapevine (the pass on I-5 just north of LA) proved to be the goal killer. The wind was strong enough to keep the motorcycle maxed at 40mph in 3rd gear, but that was flying compared to the RV's and big rigs crawling up the pass. But once over and in the I was able be at the hotel in time to find the family checking out the hotel. Shortly after meeting up with the family, we all piled onto the rig and headed over to the Farmers Market to meet Lori's Aunt Lisa & Uncle Steve who were in from Las Vegas.
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The next day we started the morning with breakfast at a LA classic, Bob's Big Boy and then headed off to the rally. The rally was amazing, I had never seen so many sidecar rigs. . .ever!
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We spent 3 hours wondering the rally intermixed with play breaks at the playground next door. If that wasn't enough, we took a short rest back at the hotel and then headed off to a mini "tweet up" with Carol May better known as @ridgeley on twitter. She knew of a burger place called the Burger Kitchen that met her at. Both the food and the conversation were great!

Monday brought a new day started out pretty bad on the way to breakfast when an electrical fire broke out in the sidecar. Things were tense for a while as the smoke poured out the sidecar and spread to the motorcycle. But with some quick wire pulling I was able to keep the rig in one piece but lost allot of the electrical systems for the turn signals and brakes, but I was able to get the motor running so we were able to return to the hotel. With the days plan drastically changed, we decided to head over to Universal Studios. We had a lot of fun at the studios taking in the Simpsons, Jurassic Park and The Mummy Returns rides. Ok so we took more than a couple rides on Jurassic Park ride, it was really a blast. The Studio Tour had changed quite a bit since the last time I had been there (1978) and the new King Kong 360 attraction was wild! Kong was jumping back and forth over the tram while battling a couple of T-Rex dinosaurs, it was truly impressive. After the tour we noticed there was a true star on board the tram with us, Kelsey Grammer from TV's Frazer. Funny to be there all the way from Seattle to find a star from a show based on Seattle. Do the transportation problems we ended up spending 2 days at the studios. The second day we spent watching allot of shows and visiting with some characters around the studio, not to drop names but Beetle Juice, Sponge Bob, Shrek, Donkey and the Mummy. Our last full day we rented a car and headed off to visit the Lebrea Tar Pits and the Page Museum. We lucked out and stopped by on a that was set up for visiting home schooling kids so lots of extra things for Peter see and do. Like picking out bones and learning how to identify them and holding a fang from a saber tooth tiger. After the park we headed out to the Santa Monica Beach and Pier for a little sun and fun. While it wasn't the warmest it was fun watching Peter play on the waters edge and do a bit of sand castle building.
With the motorcycle only at 50% due to the electrical problem I ended up having to rent a truck to haul it home. So while Lori & Peter were on the way to the airport I had a flat bed truck load the motorcycle in the back of a box van. By 10 am I was heading back home on I-5. While it didn't end like I had expected it was a great trip for the family.

Halloween - Olympia Style

With the trick or treating being, well on the slow side, in Lakewood. We packed up the Saturn and head off to South Capital Historic area in Olympia known to the locals as the "Hot Spot' for the Halloween set. We managed to find a parking spot near the Pumpkin House and then made our way over through the neighborhood. By 6:30 the sidewalks were teaming with kids trick-or-treating like I haven't seen since I was child. The night was summed up the best when Peter said "The best Halloween EVER!!" We will be back.

Releasing our Glee!

That time of year has come again, it's the Western Washington State Fair. This year it was a special for the McDonalds because Peter had entered one of his creations in the Lego building contest. The amount of entries was huge, but after a bit of looking we were able to find the "Scorpion Crawler". He was a little said that he didn't win a ribbon but he was still really proud of (and right fully so) what he made. After our time looking through the rest of the Hobby Barn, we headed out to see some of the other sights. Horses, cows, and few goats later we came across something that looked pretty cool. It was giant inflatable "hamster ball" floating in a swimming pool with a kid in each one running like crazy. It only took one look for Peter to figure out that he had to give it a try. As the pictures show, he had blast. 

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National Park Weekends

What do you do when your son said he wanted the cool new tent that he saw at Cabelas one day? Well, you make deal with him, and that if he completed the deal he would get that shiny yellow tent he saw. Of course you set the requirements of the deal high enough that you have no worries about having to buy the tent. So the deal with Peter was he had to go on 4 camping trips (real camping, no swimming pools or game rooms) using the 15 year old tent that has been gathering dust in garage.

Mission 1: Mt Rainier National Park

The first trip was a simple overnighter at Mt Rainier. We reserved a spot at Cougar Rock campground, we booked it 3 weeks out and glad we did. At the time there were only 5 spots available in the park and when we showed up at the park, they had campgrounds full signs posted at the entry stations. Our plan was to set up camp and then grab our day packs and go for a hike. This would be Peters first hike so I decided to keep it short and simple by heading down the Wonderland Trail from the campground to Longmire it was only 1.5 miles and down hill. Once in Longmire we poked around the museum and the lodge then jumped on the free park shuttle and headed back to camp. The next morning we packed up early and headed to Paradise to have breakfast and to hike the Nisqually Vista trail. We had done this trail before but it was on snow shoes & with 12 feet of snow on the ground. It's amazing how different a few weeks of 70 degree weather can make! After the hike we headed through the park for return to home via state route 410 making a complete loop of the mountain that weekend.

Mission 2: Olympic National Park

The next trip I scheduled was for a more remote campground called Deer Park. It's a primative campground found nestled in mountains of Olympic National Park between Sequim and Port Angeles. It's at the end of a road 16 miles from US 101. Don't think that sounds too remote? That last 16 miles takes between 45-50 minutes to drive with an elevation gain of almost 5200 feet, and the road isn't recommended for trailers or RV's. Once there a small 14 spot primative campground (no water or garbage service & only pit toilets) is found spread out between sub alpine meadows. We arrived at 8 pm and grabbed the last spot to be found. And living up to it's name, a few deer wondered through the camp space shortley after we got our tent up.

The next day we hiked from the campground up to the top of Blue Mountain. It was a short hike about 1.5 miles to the top, but that included over 600 feet of elevation gain. We had our lunches packed and enjoyed a view that extended from Vancouver Island all the way to Seattle, that is if the marine layer of clouds would have burn off. The trip down when much quicker, getting us back to camp for some fun playing Peter's favorite card game "Ruckus" for awhile before starting our campfire for dinner. Dinner was from Peter's book "Sleep in a Sack" given to him by his Uncle. Main course was going to be "Mud Puppys" a refried bean/cheese/bun/hot dog creation that was cooked by the fire. Next we braved the "Bacon/Banana on a stick" recipe that Peter found as bad as it sounded, though I didn't think that could be possible.

After two nights we packed up and tried to head over to Hurricane Ridge to find the road closed until noon. So we headed off to the Olympic Game Farm for Peter to have the chance to feed a few Elk, Grizzly Bears and Bison. He had a blast with the critters sticking their heads in the cars to try and grab a snack from him. After a couple fun hours there we decided to head back to Lakewood before the traffic got to bad.

Where are off to next? Were not sure, but high on the list are overnight at Blake Island State Park or a overnight at the Isput Creek campground via mountain bikes.

Posterous theme by Cory Watilo
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