Vacation: Part One

For Christmas my sister Janae treated the whole family to one week in a house on the Oregon Coast. It was to be our first vacation in two years (the same amount of time Mike was in grad school . . . coincidence?). So, on the 15^th we packed up the car and set off for the coast, just the six of us (the rest of the family flew bpbpbpbpbp).

The destination of the first leg of our journey was Meridian, Idaho, the home of my Aunt Suzanne and Uncle Galen. We went by way of two exiting, touristy stops.

Stop one: Shoshone ice cave. (This place oozes tourist trap, but is actually run by the fine state of Idaho.) The cave is between 26 and 29 degrees year round, and the ground is made of a eight-foot thick sheet of ice. Of course, James being the macho man he is immediately declared, “It’s not even cold in here,” and refused to don his jacket.

Legend has it the cave was used as a prison for the daughter of a great Chief when she refused to marry the man her father chose. Some say her ghost still haunts the cave. A watermark bearing the likeness of a man on the rock outside the cave is said to be the chief still watching to make sure she never leaves. Spooky. The kids loved it. According to Anna, it was totally worth the $36 we paid to get in.

From there, we drove north about a thirty minutes to Craters of the Moon National Park. When the kids first saw it they complained that it was “nothing but lava rocks.” Of course Mike had to make the obligatory dinosaur-poo joke which was hilariously funny. Waka waka.

While driving through the park we came across a huge, black mound of lava dust. We took one look at the steep hill and just had to see what was at the top. So up we went.

After that we headed to a group of lava-tube caves. Ellie, sporting a fabulous headlamp, led the way. As soon as we entered the first cave it started to rain, so we had a great excuse to stay and explore. The kids were in heaven, there were so many places to climb. They shimmied through small places, and found new ways to get from here to there.

On the way back to the car, we had to take a new route through the lava field. There were so many places to hide. While the kids were busy playing, Mike hid in a small lava cave and patiently waited for one of them to walk by. Anna was the lucky one. Just as Anna walked by, Mike let out a deep growl. The resulting scream was very satisfactory, and we all had a good laugh and headed back to the car to continue our journey.

We finally made it to Meridian around 9 p.m. Naturally, we decided to go swimming. The kids swam and played with the cousins until 10, then we had a late supper, played some more, and finally made it to bed around midnight. It was a long but really great day.