Taking in Life Around Me....#SundayStills..Theme: Vacation or Staycation

This #sundaystills challenge is hosted by Terri from Second Wind Leisure. I've also been loving visiting the blogs of the other participants and being inspired by their interpretations of the theme. Sometimes I'm a week late commenting but I do try to visit everyone. After all, if you take the time to produce something, you sure hope people visit.

It's been a few weeks since I joined in...life just got in the way, we were on "vacation, or holiday" as my grandson calls it, which I love. The theme this week is vacation or staycation which is fitting since we just returned from one. 

I am so thankful that we have prioritized vacations and getting away years ago. Whether it was a long vacation or a shorter long weekend, they're important. I also love the idea of staycations though we discovered for us, if we do this, we need to be VERY intentional with going out and doing things daily otherwise we will stay home and just do what we always do and hubby will end up working from home. Here's a post I wrote on our staycation. We have no lack of locations and things to do for a Staycation. You can easily do a variety of day trips and still be home to work on special projects or just sit and read. 

It is so easy to forget what is right in our own backyards to discover. This hike is just up the river from us (we often refer to "up river" when we are traveling east out of town. Looking down on the Lewis River Valley.

We are also about an hour if that, from Mt. St. Helens, which makes for a perfect day trip.

Or travel Southeast and head to Hood River for the day or a long weekend. We've done both. 

There are so many farmers markets and they are perfect for a day in the city as well...we are 30 minutes north of Portland and it's easy to spend an entire day exploring the city. 

It's just as easy to hit the Oregon Coast for a day or a long weekend.

Over the years as our kids and income grew and changed, our vacations and amount of them changed. I have a tab at the top of my page labeled "trips" if you want to enjoy some of our trips. There are more we've taken, but I just shared a few. 

Like I said we recently got back from a "holiday" to Northern Ohio to visit my family. I have a LOT of family in Ohio but we were mainly visiting my 3 aunts and an uncle (my moms siblings). Two of my cousins also traveled up from Kentucky and South Carolina to visit as well. I'm hoping to do a whole post on this trip, but I'll share a few photos here. The sunrises were amazing!! Our favorite local places to go on vacation are Central Oregon, the Oregon Coast and Hood River, Oregon. We've recently considered the San Juan Islands another favorite place. I need to do a post on our San Juan Trip. I just shared about it in our weekly coffee share. 

Let's get on to some photos. It's always so hard to just limit photos to a few. But I have a wedding to go to in a few hours, a grocery list to make and I'm tired. 

In 2016 we took an extended weekend trip to Hood River Oregon. Just my hubby, youngest and I. I think it was our first mini-trip without our oldest since she had gotten married the year before and they couldn't come with us. We rented a jet ski, hiked, and just enjoyed the area. It is very well known for it's kit surfing.

Hood River area has what is called the "Fruit Loop". A series of farmstands, etc..that sell a variety of produce and other goods. You can download a map and hit the road, visiting them all or just a few. It's really fun. You can read more info here. 

My trip with my youngest and a friend in 2017 to NYC was a blast, even though I ended up with blisters on my feet on the first day. This was a view from the top of the Rockefeller Tower. 

From about 2008 (when our youngest was finally tall enough)..we started traveling to Florida every other year to visit family and go to Disney World. Those were such great memories. Our last visit was in 2018. Now my aunts have moved  back to Ohio and I'm not sure we'll get back there. Maybe when grandkids are older. 

2019 found us able to travel to Switzerland and Italy. Wow! What a trip. I would love to go back. 

Another fun trip was to the San Juan Islands. Last August, my hubby and I traveled there, specifically to Orcas Island and Friday Harbor. What a great trip. 

Central Oregon is another favorite vacation spot. Sunriver and Bend are places we love going and actually would consider living there. 

Our most recent vacation took us to Kelley's Island, Ohio. The kids loved playing in the sand and in the water. 

The sunrises on the lake were absolutely stunning. 

The home we stayed in was a short walk to this area where the rocks are flat. 

We visited my aunts, who named themselves the "silver sisters"..and my uncle who recently moved back to Ohio from Las Vegas. Two of my cousins also came up to visit as well. 

Pepper hanging out with her mama in the lake. It was so nice and warm. Not like our super cold lakes here that are mostly fed from the mountain snow runoff. 

These last two photos are of me when I was little and we went to Kelley's Island! 

With Joy Unquenchable,

Kirstin