Road Trip: The Rock Farm

My parents have a piece of property out in the middle of nowhere that we go to several times a year.  It's nicknamed The Rock Farm.  Every year in May, we go up to celebrate my step-dad's birthday.  The weekend consists of eating, drinking, and sitting.  I read magazines, newspapers and did crosswords.  And that was my main accomplishment over the span of three days.  The kids played in the dirt.  No phone, no TV (there's a DVD player, but we didn't watch any movies this time), no computer, no nothin'.  My kind of vaca.

It's a three hour drive - The Girl fell asleep about 30 minutes in.

The Kid was awake the entire trip.

The theme song for our trip:  Ain't no mountain high enough, ain't no valley low enough, ain't no river wide enough, to keep me from gettin' to you babe.

 You can see Mount Hood peeking through the clouds.

Once you get around the mountain, the trees become scarce and the skies turn blue.

The river is so pretty.

We stopped for lunch in Madras.  The Girl woke up with some serious static issues.

Then on the road again.  I love driving through all the farm land.

This waterfall is so pretty.

And then, the pièce de résistance......the first glimpse of Lake Billy Chinook when you come around the corner.

Only about 30 minutes left to go.  Then we pull up to this.

When you pull in, you're at the back of the house.  It sits on a point.  There's a deck off the front and this is the view from there.

Not bad for a three hour drive, eh?

Here's dinner at The Kid table our first night.  My sister made penne with pesto, salad and bread.  It was deeeelicious!

Can you tell they're saying "cheese"?

The Rock Farm is also The Dog's favorite place in the whole world.

 

The guys went fishing on Saturday, but other than that, we never made it down to the lake, so we stopped to play on our way out of the canyon.

Then it was time to get back on the road and head for home.  And here we are, home again, home again, jiggity jog.