Oh, the places we went.

In the moments before the Mr. and I rang in the new year over a binge session of Cobra Kai, we engaged in the obligatory NYE reflections over the past year, and even with all the plot twists and thickening of the last 12 months, we were still grateful to be able to get outdoors and explore quite a bit as a family.

Since I’m laid up in bed with the sniffles today, I thought I would share some of our family’s favorite travel moments from 2021:

SEATTLE, WA (APRIL)

In April, my in-laws flew in to Portland, and we headed to Seattle to explore the city. We stayed at the quirky Graduate Hotel (FYI, the building did not have A/C, which our hot-natured crew really could have used on this particularly warm spring week) and spent a couple of jam-packed days visiting the Space Needle, the zoo, the History of Flight Museum, and Pike Place Market. If you’re ever in Seattle, you really should grab a latte from Storyville Coffee at the market or a gluten-free fried chicken biscuit from Honest Biscuits, two of our favorite spots.

GOLD BEACH, REDWOOD NATIONAL FOREST, AND SCENIC HIGHWAY 101 (JUNE)

If you want to read more about our trip down the Oregon coast into Northern California, you can check out my other blog posts here and here and here. We started with a camping trip to celebrate our middle child’s and the Mr.’s birthdays, including a trip to the Prehistoric Gardens on Highway 101. But when our campsite got rained out night one, our camping trip turned into a beachside retreat. This adventure was probably my favorite of 2021, where we just had to rally and make the best of a disappointing situation, and it ended up being one of the best vacations we’ve had. And I’m convinced the Oregon coast is one of the most beautiful places on Earth.

OSWALD WEST (JULY)

Sometime in July, we were itching to escape Portland for a bit, so a quick day trip to Oswald West was in order. I remember this day vividly, the strain and exhaustion of daily life slowly melting away as we climbed over nurse logs and tiptoed across the pebbled creek near the shore. We dined at perhaps our favorite restaurant in Oregon, Public Coast Brewing Co., a Cannon Beach treasure we happened upon when Kelley and I came to the PNW for the first time. With their abundance of gluten-free items on the menu, including the best onion rings I’ve ever tasted, it’s our whole family’s first choice when we’re anywhere near the coast. (Every now and then, we’ll make a special trip to Cannon Beach just because we get a hankering for those onion rings.)

OLYMPIC PENINSULA / ANACORTES / BAKER LAKE, WA (SEPTEMBER)

We may be 0 for 3 when it comes to tent camping in the Pacific Northwest, but our “camping” trip to the Olympic Peninsula was still a very rich experience. You can read more about the highlights of our week-long excursion, and our recommendations if you’re ever in the area, here.

BEND, OR / SMITH ROCK STATE PARK (NOVEMBER)

We kind of decided on a whim to go to Bend for a long Veteran’s Day weekend, but we had travel points through our credit card that paid for the hotel and funds from our charter school allotment to take a field trip to the local High Desert Museum, so we planned a last-minute mini-vacay. Bend is, in a word, sunny. I guess that’s the first thing we notice now as Portlanders. We enjoyed strolling through Drake Park in the downtown area, sipping cups of coffee from the Looney Bean coffeehouse as our kids played on the Columbia Park playground. We stayed at a hotel in the Old Mill District and enjoyed gluten-free pasta from Pastini after window shopping. We saw otters and birds of prey at the High Desert Museum and took our best guesses at landmarks from Pilot Butte after enjoying a breakfast of French toast and banana cream doughnuts from the Dough Nut on Greenwood Avenue. (Seriously, you have to try one sometime. They also have a nice selection of gluten-free doughnuts that our kids devoured.) On our way back to Portland, we stopped for a hike at Smith Rock State Park and were, once again, blown away by the natural beauty that is central Oregon, but not before I introduced our kids to the iconic last Blockbuster video in America, where I fangirled all over the blue and yellow interior. (I loved working at our local Blockbuster when I was in high school.)

Almost three years into calling the Pacific Northwest home, and we still can’t get over the varied beauty that’s here. May we never lose the sense of wonder we feel when we step outside our front door, and may 2022 bring on even more adventures to come.