Roadtrip to Oregon

{Click on the pictures once (and double click the videos) to really see the beauty of some of these places}

We had a wonderful road trip to Oregon. I think I was always a little worried for some reason about taking the kids on a lengthy ride, but it's something I'd do again in a heart beat. I have to admit that it took us a good amount of planning and research, but all worth it.

This is kind of funny, but one thing that really helped was GUM! :) I rarely let the kids chew gum (just because it's something I dislike) and they aren't allowed any outside of the house (ie: chewing in front of ppl) so any time they got restless during the trip (which was pretty much once a day) they got half a stick of gum. I tell you it's magic-- if you're planning a road trip, I suggest you hold back on the gum the prior year :)


(July 4) Our First stop after a four-hour ride was the Shasta Caverns:

 Getting ready to ride the fairy across Shasta Lake

We got the kids each a sketch pad for the trip and Asmaa really enjoyed it. Here she's sketching the mountains and lake Shasta as we ride a fairy on our way to the Caverns.

After the fairy, we took a bus ride to the Shasta Caverns

Getting ready for our tour in the Caverns

Some of the formations were just beautiful. Unfortunately the lighting didn't help for great pictures.

 We spent the night in Redding (near Lake Shasta) so we got to really enjoy the pool at the hotel for almost two hours, then watched the 4th of July fireworks:

The next day (July 5) we headed up to Crater Lake in Oregon (4hrs from Redding and barely caught our 3:30pm bout tour!):

An erupted volcano that collapsed and the caldera (hole) kept filling with snow/water over the years.

The water was amazingly blue subhan Allah because of the debth.  "The Old Man": It's a tree that isn't actually rooted, but just a log  that's floating in the lake. Because of its weight it's not floating as  you'd imagine it (on it's side). It moves around with the current and  bobs up and down in various locations. Wizard Island (an Island in the middle of the caldera) This picture reminds me of that Cafe! We didn't have lunch and we barely made it for the boat tour so we stopped to grab sandwiches from the Cafe on-site (in Crater Lake). We spent $50 on sandwiches! A total rip-off: PB&J was for $5 and a cold-cut (just bread and roast beef) was $10! I still can't believe it! :}   We left Crater Lake and drove 2.5 hours to get to a city called  Roseburg in Oregon. We spent the night there and in the morning  (July 6) we were 20 minutes away from our next stop, Wildlife Safari: Nusayba, Asmaa & Abdurrahman :) We could have spent some more time here, but we all opted to head north to the Oregon Dunes. We didn't really explore the dunes as we could have if we had just a little more time--we were anxious to swim in the Umqua river (We saw so many summer homes along this beautiful river--definitely worth exploring!):   The kids got extremely cold after the swim. They wouldn't stop shivering even after we changed their clothes and put on sweaters ...it was definitely worth it :) We now started heading back south and drove 2 hours to our hotel which was in Sutherlin. We decided to take the 101 along the coast back home (we went up the 5). (July 7) We only stopped once, which was at the  Trees of Mystery and Drive thru tree before retiring to our hotel in Eureka. As we returned to California from Oregon The trees are magnificent, subhana Allah The Brotherhood Tree was so beautiful We spent the night in Eureka, woke up pretty late (July 8) and had "breakfast" at noon:)  We arrived home at about 8:00pm. It was a wonderful trip alhamdulillah. I ask Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala to grant us the ability to go on many more road trips and to bring us closer to Him 'azza wajal through His magnificent creation.