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Families Travel! Breitenbush Hot Springs with Kids
Over the 2010 Labor Day Weekend, Portland mom Jennifer and her husband Tony (owners of Portland’s Milagros Boutique) took their two children to Breitenbush Hot Springs Retreat and Conference Center in Detroit, Oregon. This resort, founded in 1977, is old-school crunchy Oregon, through and through. It’s a worker-owned cooperative featuring geothermal heating, eco-conscious structures and an off-the-grid lifestyle (no phone, no TV, no wi-fi). The laid-back attitude extends toward clothing, which is optional in the tub areas. “A family uncomfortable with nudity would not feel comfortable in the bathing areas of Breitenbush,†Jennifer says. “The majority of folks in the bathing areas are naked.†So this may not be a resort for everyone – it depends on whether you’re OK…
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Book Giveaway: Camping British Columbia
This week, I’m pleased to give away a free copy of Camping British Columbia by Jayne Seagrave to one lucky, random reader. It’s never too early to start planning next year’s summer camping vacation (although I don’t suggest buying the hot dogs quite yet). If you remember, several weeks ago we spoke with Seagrave to discover the best BC camping spots for families. This book expands on the theme, although “Camping British Columbia” is not family-specific. Seagrave’s book offers photos (black and white and full-color) of every BC region’s provincial and national park campgrounds and includes the facilities, rec activities and any additional info that may sway you one way or…
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Hot Springs in Oregon and Washington with Kids
If you were a miner back in the 1880s, how did you get really clean? You planned a trip to the closest hot springs. Hot spring trips have long been a traditional pastime in the BC-Washington-Oregon region, says Jeff Birkby, author of Touring Washington and Oregon Hot Springs, a history-rich guidebook to hot springs in the Pacific Northwest. Hot springs are formed when ground and rain water sinks below the Earth’s surface, then heats in volcanic pots deep below the surface. The mineral-infused water springs back out once it’s at a boiling point, then cools in pools. “Hot springs were social centers,†Birkby says of olden-days hot spring spots. The hotter…
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Harvest Days: Farm tours, family celebrations and pumpkin patches
Get out into the autumn weather: pick pumpkins, catch leaves and attend an Oktoberfest or two. If you’re planning to travel to another city (or nearby) this season, check out these fantastic events: If you live near Seattle, grab a light jacket for this weekend’s families-welcome harvest celebration. Can’t make it? Find farmy goodness (markets, stands and u-picks) at Puget Sound Fresh website, including the always-popular Remlinger Farms. Further from Seattle, this weekend (September 25), the party-hearty Leavenworth offers a Leaf Festival. Leavenworth also hosts an Oktoberfest that runs through three weekends in a row. A more sedate time may be found at the Skagit Valley Festival of Family Farms, on October…
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Peak Escape: Timberline Lodge, Oregon with kids
Sleeping in your overstuffed bed at Timberline Lodge on Oregon’s 11,239-foot Mount Hood, you may feel like you’re the only mama on the mountain. Yes, despite your children snoring in their beds. Knotty doug fir paneling wraps you up in a cabin-like interior  — and whether rain or snow falls, it’s cozy and silent inside. We recently visited Timberline Lodge for an overnight stay, and I can’t recommend it enough. The lodge offers ski lifts right outside the door  and 1930s-era history inside the somber stone walls. Built as part of a WPA project to put the unemployed back to work, the lodge’s timber frame still stands solid at 5,960 feet (right…
