a town called wallace

It's always great to stumble upon a new place, somewhere you've never even heard of before, and be delighted by everything you find.  One of our pits stops, to refuel the car, and ourselves with coffee and treats to keep us going, those was at a town called Wallace in Idaho.

After staying the night in a pretty miserable hotel in a very unexciting town we needed something to lift our spirits and Wallace did just that.  A small mining town in north Idaho's 'Silver Valley', the area is the silver mining capital of the world, producing over 1.2 billion ounces of silver since 1884.  Population just under 800!  A quirky little place with something interesting around every corner, historical buildings, mining carts overflowing with flowers, great signs and interesting history.

We had fantastic vanilla malt shakes at The Red Light Garage bar / restaurant.   Mouthwatering bbq ribs and pulled pork at The Smokehouse washed down with a very good local beer named the 'Dirty Blond'.

There are curious shops selling all manner of antiques, neon signs, stuffed animals and brick-a-brack.  I'm sure if we'd had more space in our car (we were fully loaded with camping gear), then a good few of those objects would have come home with us.

There's even a 'Bordello Museum' in an old brothel giving a nod to Wallace's colorful past.  During the 1920s due to the silver rush and the influx of miners (there were 200 men to every woman) 5 brothels apparently did a roaring trade!  The Oasis Bordello was finally closed down in 1988!

And finally, Wallace has a monument at an intersection in the center of town saying Wallace is the 'Center of the Universe'.  Actually, the story goes that as this statement cannot be disproven, it is thereby proven!  And so since 2004 Wallace the Center of the Universe has been celebrated every year and now has a 'Miss Center of the Universe' competition!  Bizare yet true!

I'd be interested to hear from anyone else that has visited or knows Wallace.

HOPE YOU HAD A GREAT WEEKEND.

road tripping

We've a camping trip coming up later this summer.  Not just our usual weekend camp of two nights, a couple of hours from home.  This round trip will be more than 2500 miles!  Yikes!  A 'real' road trip.

National Parks to be visited, a mix of camping and a couple of nights in hotels booked using rewards (to ensure we get some sleep and a good shower!), white water rafting, maybe some horseback riding (which quite terrifies me!), campfires, s'mores, off the beaten track diners, exploring and adventure.

My planning needs to start early (unlike the other members of my wonderful family who feel they can wake up on the morning we are leaving and throw a few bits in a bag!).  Checking the camping gear (new stove and cooler (this is my favourite) required this time) planning what food supplies we can take with us, snacks, games, books etc for the kiddos.  The Huzz can work on a playlist to keep us singing and make sure the necessary in-car electronics are fully charged and loaded with some new movies (eye spy only takes us so far these days!).

And how can we fit everything into the car?!  We do not pack sparingly!   The Huzz has gently menioned buying a trailer (along with our car top box) for some extra space!

Happy travels on the horizon.

autumn camping weekend

Whatever you may call it.... Autumn, Fall, Herfst ..... it's arrived!  Chilly mornings and evenings with that distinct autumnal smell in the air, but still lucky enough to have blue skies and sunshine during the day.  Love it!  Can't wait for all beautiful colours of the trees in the coming weeks.

This weekend we had, probably, our last camping trip for this year (yes we are much better at fair weather camping than damp chilly and wet days out in the wilderness!).  And what a glorious weekend it was.

This time we headed up to Clear Lake at Mount Hood, OR, only about 2hrs driving, even at Friday evening 'rush hour'.  Still, the light had almost gone whilst we set up camp, fumbling around with tent pegs, getting a roaring fire ablaze, warming toes, keeping one eye on the kiddos running around with their head torches on throught the trees.

View from my chair whilst enjoying the sunshine and my glass of Pinot!

(well, someone's gotta do it!)

So much planning and packing goes into just a couple of nights away - and so much stuff!  We are not campers that pack light!  Even more thought seems to go into what we'll eat!

Our two family camp had made banana bread, two focaccia loaves, chilli con carne and pulled pork.  We of course had the obligatory hot dogs, s'mores and bacon and eggs.  And our trusty 12 cup Bialetti espresso coffee pot came along too - gotta have that first cup of the day around an early morning campfire.

A little hike (in the loosest sense of the word!) up to Timberline Lodge at Mount Hood, to admire the wonderful clear view was about as strenuous as it got!  And then Saturday afternoon we took our chairs down to the lake and the mums and dads relaxed in the gorgeous sunshine with a glass of Pinot Noir, whilst the kiddos built rock walls, climbed old trees, paddled and played - there was hardly a cloud in the sky.

 View from Timberline Lodge, to what I believe is Mount Jefferson

Hope you had a fabulous weekend.

weekend scenes

Saturday morning I walked onto the beach to meet the Huzz and kiddos.  Thankfully I had my camera ready as this is the sight I saw within minutes of stepping onto the sand.  We've seen dolphin fins in the sea here before, but seeing this frisky one jumping out was amazing.

Pretty pink hut at the Postcard Inn.

8.30am doughnut breakfast on the beach after an early morning swim.

Great way to start a Sunday morning.

1, 2, 3..... 'Jump'.

Dolphin art display at Pier 60, Clearwater, FLA.

Hope you had a great weekend.

collecting shells

'Our' beach on this lovely spot of the Gulf of Mexico has so many pretty shells.

When we aren't bobbing around in the sea, which is the temperature of a relaxing warm bath,

we are all wandering along searching for perfect shells.

Along the way we find broken shells so thick you cannot imagine how big the whole shell would have originally been.  We find crabs, little shrimps, coral and pretty pebbles, and we're on the look out for a fossilised shark's tooth which are apparently in abundance around here (but not to us yet!).  

(Update on shark's teeth - we have 25+ now!!!!)

Our luggage will be a lot heavier for the home trip for sure!

end of a day on the beach

Lots of swim suits drying on the little white fence around our blue and white beach cottage.

Always the sign of a good day spent at the beach.

Hope your summer is going well.

More updates from ours coming soon!

home from camp

Just back from another camping trip.  I think we might have caught the camping bug!

Once again we stayed at the Nehalem Bay State Park campsite, right next to the wonderful Manzanita beach.  This makes for a fabulous location - beach walks, skim boarding, playing on the gorgeous sand.  As well as all that the State Park has to offer - a kids program with activities and fun run by the Park Rangers, playground, horse riding, bike riding, hiking.  Never a dull moment!

This trip we went with friends = 4 kids, two mums and our lovely Dutch friend and babysitter visiting us.   There was a lot a fun, warm weather, lots of s'mores, hotdogs, sitting around campfires, running around the campsite and playground, a few arguments between the kids  (but nothing that 15 minutes 'alone time' didn't sort out!), lots of scraps and bruises from climbing trees and making dens!   All those good things about being outdoors that made the kiddos not want to come home this afternoon.

Here are a few scenes from the past four days.

Hope you're having a fab summer.  Already we are heading towards week 6 or 12!

rodeo style

What a fun 4th we had at the St Paul Rodeo.

Rodeo - Carnival - Fireworks - Doughnuts - Ribs - Corn

Red, white, blue - Flags - Music

Fun - Fun - Fun

The Huzz and I took hundreds of photographs,

which will keep my little blog busy for a while!

First up is the headgear!

Yee Haa Cowboys!

Hope you enjoy!

star spangled doughnuts!

Happy 4th July.

Wishing you a wonderful Independence Day.

 (Yes we will be enjoying a few of these today!). 

camp america!

This past weekend we had our first family camping trip.  A whole stash of 'necessary' camping gear was purchased in preparation (well we weren't exactly going into the wilds!) - everything from tent to washing-up bowl, from camping chairs to s'mores supplies!  We had all the gear and hopefully some idea!  The kiddos were beyond excited in the days leading up.

The Nehalem Bay State Park in Oregon has a great campsite set right next to a fabulous beach with sand dunes, beach grasses, lots of sun bleached driftwood and miles and miles of sand - perfect.

A mix bag of weather was forecast, but we were lucky to get just a light shower of rain on Sunday morning (before we staggered bleary eyed out of the tent at 7.30am - this was a late start compared with the extremely early 5.45am waking by Ruby on day one!).

S'mores, hotdogs, steak with mushrooms and onions, pots of coffee and even scrambled eggs and bacon were all skillfully cooked on our campfire and little one burner stove.  And of course sitting around a roaring fire with a glass of red wine in hand is a great way to end a day in the outdoors.

Savouring the delights of s'mores!

Wind and sand in her hair!

Beach life.

Off to the beach on Friday evening.

Ripples in the sand.

Discarded flipflops in the dunes.

Grass and blue skies.

the world in a room

So we are still hunting for a new family home here in the US. Who'd have thought that with the housing market at a low that we would still be looking for the right one?  Not me.  Maybe we were being too optimistic?  Maybe we should settle for a home that doesn't tick every box on our list, just most of them?

In the meantime, I'm gathering together all kinds of ideas for when 'the' house comes along.  And I cannot wait to unpack all our stuff again (which has now gone into storage here) and make a great home for our family.

For now, I will keep storing all the ideas and plan rooms in my mind, on my Pinterest boards and in my ideas folder filled with pages torn from magazines.

Starting with Luca's bedroom.....

I'm thinking 'maps'.  A wall covered with a huge world map.  A globe he can spin and plan world adventures.  And possibly a huge chalk board / wall too.

(This one will be perfect for helping us all to learn our US states!)

images via Pinterest

What great ideas do you have for boys bedrooms?