Finally . . . Vacation, here we come!

A week ago, our girls were done with school and we set our sights on getting our summer vacation under way.  Finally, on Thursday, we were able to mobilize ourselves out of the house, the van fully packed and everyone packed in, including our standard poodle, Lilah.  Summer traveling and road trips are something we love to do together as a family.  On our first day on the road, Isabella told me, "I like to take trips like this because it is a fun way to spend time together as a family".  And then Arianna added, "Yeah, it's our family tradition!". 

Our first stop this summer is one of our traditional stops, my husband's hometown of Rogue River, Oregon, located in the Rogue Valley in Southern Oregon.  Our first day here, we took the girls to a historic mill, called Butte Creek Mills.  The milling stones were brought over by ship from France in 1872 and are still being used today to grind many different grains powered by river water.  One of the miller's, Mike, generously took time to give us a tour of the process so that the girls could get a good look at the entire process.  Here is a link to this neat stop:  http://buttecreekmill.com/

Today, we went to the Grower's Market in Grants Pass, OR, and bought locally grown organic fruits and vegetables.  It was amazing how many local businesses were represented there selling lovely, fresh produce, goat milk products, fresh flowers, honey, plants, and lots of tasty homemade breads and goodies.  The girls were fairly patient during all of this, but they were itching to get down the street two blocks to go to the Grants Pass Pharmacy and drink a phosphate made rigt there at the soda fountain for you in any flavor that you can imagine - this still costs only 25 cents.  I chose a cup of coffee, which was 10 cents.  Then, the girls bought themselves a jumbo gumball with their spending  money.  It's the little things that make their day. 

We'll see what tomorrow brings.  :-)

I'm going to try a couple of things this summer as I blog while we travel (as I'm able to get internet access, of course).  First of all, I'm going to try and take pictures of Lilah in fun spots, sort of like the garden gnome for Travelocity.  Secondly, I'm going to add little travel tips here and there from our personal experiences as we are on the go.