America's Tasty Treats

Welcome to America's Tasty Treats! I used to do America's Ice Cream, this one includes not just Ice Cream, but all sorts of desserts and good food!

In Newport, Oregon, we went to a place called Georgie's. I had AMAZING, creamy, yummy, Clam Chowder, that tasted a little like potato soup! That place is famous for it. I didn't finish my awesome, sweet, berry-y Marion Berry Crisp, (a Marion Berry is a type of blackberry) so I took it home and had it for breakfast!😋 and another day, I went back and had good pancakes!

Also in Newport, we went to Local Ocean Sea Food with another Full Time Family*! I had not-very-good Dungeness crab that was bitter 😬. But for dessert I had yummy freshly whipped cream with strawberries and blueberries on top😄.

In Yachats, we went to a Ice Cream and Candy Shop called Topper's Ice Cream & Candy. I had AWESOME Butter Brickle, it was creamy, caramelly, and awesome 😁. 



That was the first edition of America's Tasty Treats!

See Ya Next Time!
-Lone_Wolf_Bella



*(If they read this, I didn't know whether they wanted me to say their name or not)*

Orcas and Technical Difficulties

Hi everybody! This is Gavin, and today I'll be writing about our second week in Elwha, Washington! We ended up staying a while more than we wanted, so I'll be writing about that as well. 

On Saturday, we went whale watching!! The company was called Port Angeles Whale Watch Company, if you're in the area, definitely check it out! It has a guarantee too; if you don't see a whale, you get another trip free! We, however, did see whales. SEVEN ORCAS!!! They were amazing! It was either one pod or two and they came pretty close to the boat. They were transient killer whales. That's what their real name is. Later on the cruise, we saw a humpback whale! Its tail stuck up out of the water and then it actually poked its head out! That's called a spyhop, by the way. We also saw tons of seabirds and three adorable harbor seals. 

The next day, we went to our cousin Kathy's house for a picnic. It was awesome and I met several cousins of mine. The day after that, we went to Rialto Beach for tide pooling. It was a very long walk down the beach to get to the tide pools, but we got there eventually. There were green anemones, starfish of all colors and sizes, and little crabs. Also we visited the Hole in the Wall. I know, we're all thinking of that old show, but I'm talking about a huge boulder with a hole in it. On the way back down the beach, we stopped on a log to eat our picnic dinner at sunset. 

The next day, it was our first day of school. We did school that day. 

The next day, we did more school but got pizza at a place called Gordy's. It was delicious. 

The next day... something went wrong. The truck had some... technical difficulties. It went to the dealership for service. For our loaner car? We got a tiny electric car that would take five days and nights to get 100% charged. Really? 

The next day we did school and went to the Midtown Public House for dinner. 

The next day, we were supposed to leave. Instead, the truck wasn't ready yet. So we had to borrow someone's truck and tow our camper to a water only site. That's right, no electric, no sewer, just water. However, we went a great Italian place called Bella Italia for dinner. 

The next day, we went to the Port Angeles Marine Life center. It had some cool animals like an octopus, huge sea stars, and fish. 

We walked on the pier and then drove to Port Townsend. There was a wooden boat festival going on, so we got to see a bunch of those. We also saw a harbor seal checking out the boats as well. Before we left, we stopped at an ice cream place and had some delicious ice cream. 

The next day, instead of doing school, we went to the library. I just sat at a table and read for hours. Best school day ever. We went to Toga's Soup House for lunch. It was delicious. 

The next day all we did was school. BUT THE NEXT DAY, WE FINALLY LEFT! However, the problems with the truck weren't over yet.... I'll tell you next time what happened!

Signing off,  

        Gavin

America's Ice Cream

Welcome back to America's Ice Cream! Sorry it's been awhile. We've been busy, and unfortunately, have only GONE TO 4 ICE CREAM PLACES!!!!!!!!!

The first Ice Cream place we went to was called Ram's Drive-In, I had a yummy strawberry shake, my mom and dad had AWESOME huckleberry milkshakes, my brother had a great butterscotch shake. 

Then we went to The Milk Bottle, where my mom and I had AWESOME AWESOME AWESOME Butter Brickle, my dad had great Strawberry Cheesecake, and my brother had super-chocolatey River City Sludge. 

Then we went to Granny's, I had super plain vanilla, it wasn't creamy, had no flavor. my dad had vanilla too, he says it was okay, my brother and mom had salted caramel shakes that were just vanilla with butterscotch, caramel, and some salt.

The next place we went, was A-W-E-S-O-M-E!!!!!! It was called Elevated Ice Cream, I had awesomeawesomeawesome, creamy Butter Brickle and Strawberry. My brother had Blind Love a very dark chocolate ice cream and Mint Chocolate Chip, which he said were both good. My mom had had yummy cinnamonny Mexican Chocolate and Awesome Swiss Orange Chocolate, one of her favorites so far. My dad had nice, creamy, delicious, Cookies And Cream and Coffee Cookies And Cream. This was the last America's Ice Cream. I'm doing a new blog, America's Tasty Treats, in which I'm including the best foods so far.
See Ya On The New Blog!

-Lone_Wolf_Bella

Rainforest? More Like Dry Forest

Hey everyone! This is Gavin, and today I'll be writing about our first week in Elwha, Washington. This post is very late, because at Elwha, the Internet wasn't very good. Also, I skipped a week because we didn't really do anything that interesting at the Little Diamond KOA. 

So anyway, when we arrived at the Elwha Dam RV Park, we just set up and went to bed. The next day, we went to the Hoh Rainforest! It's a part of Olympic National Park, which we spent a lot of time in. When we were there, it was extremely dry from the lack of rain in Washington. Hence my title. We hiked the Hall of Mosses trail, a beautiful trail with giant trees and huge curtains of moss. It was a pretty easy hike, with amazing scenery. After that we went to the Spruce Trail which was awesome, with incredibly tall trees and even more moss! It was a slightly harder hike, with lots of elevation gain.

The next day we swam in the mouth of the Elwha River. The water was very refreshing. Afterward, we went to Granny's Ice Cream for milkshakes. See Bella's post for more info. 

The next day, we met some kids at the campground. Their names were Jesse, Jake, Felton, and Tristan. We all had a Nerf war except Bella and Tristan. For dinner, we went to the Kokopelli Grill. I had a pretty good burger and fries. The next day we didn't really do much until evening, when we walked over to the Elwha Dam Center to learn about the Elwha Dam, and then went for a walk/hike on a nearby trail. We had delicious beef stew for dinner! 

The next day we did the Madison Falls trail and were actually able to go down right to the base of it. No one else was there so it was awesome. We also drove to the old Gline's Canyon Dam site and walked on it.

The next day, we went back to the Olympic National Park and hiked the Marymere Falls trail! It was a nice trail, and at the end was a beautiful waterfall. In the beginning, it was an easy hike, but at the end, there were a TON of steps. Worth it though! 

Next post I'll tell you about what we did on our second week!



Signing off,
         Gavin

Eastern Washington with a side of Idaho

August 19 - 26
Newport, Washington

Newport was a last minute decision detour for us. When checking the weather forecast for the place we had intended to go, I saw that the week ahead would be in the upper nineties. Our destination campground had no shade or pool offered, but I thought we would be able to swim in the lake and river the park bordered. Upon further investigation, I discovered that the beaches were all closed because of high levels of fecal bacteria in the water. Eww. Once I decided we should stay elsewhere, I came to find that everyone in Washington was going camping that week and there were very few vacancies. We ended up heading north to the Little Diamond/Newport KOA in the eastern part of the state. Not much to do in the area, but at least our campsite was shady and wooded and the kids and I were able to go to the pool.

Bernie spent most of his time standing guard in the woods and protecting us from wayward squirrels.

On Don's day off, we headed across the border to Idaho to hop on a day cruise on Lake Coeur d'Alene. It was a gorgeous, sunny day, though a bit breezy out on the water. The cruise also took us on the St. Joe River and served lunch. It was a wonderfully relaxing way to spend the day, though it was a good thing the kids brought some books to read. Otherwise, they would have had to spend all day looking at the scenery. God forbid.

Lake Coeur d'Alene

Crossing over into the St. Joe River

Nesting osprey

 

Most of the week was pretty low-key, hanging around camp and making a couple of trips into Spokane for groceries, laundry, and Camping World (of course). We did hit a few good restaurants like Conley's Place, which was like an Irish diner. I discovered that an Irish quiche is quite tasty! My favorite place was the Flying Goat that served artisan pizzas. My kids really went out on a limb and ordered cheese pizza. So much for being adventurous eaters!

We were also able to catch the solar eclipse - it was around 85% where we were. It was a tad anti-climactic, but still cool.

I let the kids choose what they wanted to do on our last day in town, and they really wanted to find a place like the Fun Spot back home. So, back to Spokane we went to the Wonderland Family Fun Center where we raced go-carts and played indoor glow-in-the-dark miniature golf. We actually all had a lot of fun.

At least we all have white teeth!

All in all, it was a relaxing week. But, we were more than ready to move on to the Olympic peninsula!