Vancouver, WA

There’s nothing like a ferry ride, pumpkins and hot cider to make kids young and old miss summer a little bit less. Today the sun was out, the air just slightly crisp. We put on our sweaters, packed a quick snack and headed out the door.

The park has many different features: benches, picnic tables, even a covered section, nice wide paths, a basketball half-court, drinking fountain, the playground, a habitat area, and a huge hill.

For me, an extended camping trip in our travel trailer at Maryhill State Park makes a relatively inexpensive family vacation, but being less than two hours away from Vancouver, it’s also a day trip worth taking.

When we first went to Heritage Park in Camas I found out the Heritage Trail was over three miles long and that there was another trailhead at the other end with parking and a restroom. Years ago I had volunteered at Camp Currie for a weekend children’s event and we had taken canoes to where [...]

I picked Layla up at bible camp today, then stopped at Freddie’s for our favorite chicken strips before heading out to find our park for the day, one I’ve seen from 1-205 for years and had always planned to visit. I had my little trusty map that I had looked up online and had a [...]

There is also an old-fashioned merry-go-round where the kids pile on and two or three run around the outside getting it up to speed, then jump on: the objective is to defeat gravity until it slows down.

“This was not as spectacular a walk as some of the others I have taken this summer; the photo ops were of miniature vistas: a family of 12 slugs strung out five feet or more, areas that looked like tiny rain forests, dead “woodpecker” trees, and small ferns arrayed against a tangled background.”

tion I had never been to a Sonic before? They have two back-to-back order boards for walk-ins but no directions for how to order, or at least I thought I looked all over the board…even tried out the little credit card looking thing that said Sonic Card and had four touch pads with all the arrows pointing up. If I had looked a little closer, I would have noticed that there was a BIG red button that said something like “push this to order” right beneath that strange card slot. When I finally figured out how to give an order, they couldn’t understand my name…no I didn’t say “Mighty Mouse.”

Years ago, when my son was little, I took him for a walk along the edge of Lacamas Lake, what a difference a few years has made! The walk is now over three miles long and there are quarter mile markers to let you know how many miles you have walked, jogged or biked. But I’m getting ahead of myself.

What is the most exhilarating, exciting and fun thing to do in Vancouver for FREE? Racing sailboats is exhilarating, it is one of the best ways to learn to sail and meet new people, and just as the sailor needs a boat the skipper needs crew so the ability to show up is all you need to start a new and exciting sport.

RACE SAILBOATS!