road trip 2010 :: childhood memories

the thing that bobby was most looking forward to on the last day of the trip was lunch at lucas lodge.  he describes the food here as good down home cooking.  you row and work out for three days just to be able to eat fried chicken and biscuits at lucas lodge.  as soon as we walked into the lobby i remembered when bobby and i were here years ago.  it really is as good as you remember.

we sat on the long picnic tables and waited for the plates of food to be delivered.  fried chicken, mashed potatoes, coleslaw, green beans, corn and biscuits.  oh those lovely biscuits. with blackberry jam in a squeezable container.  there really is nothing like it.

 worth the drive to have a lovely meal.  this also marked the end of our time with our rafting friends and angela and mike.  they had to fly home the next day.  but we had such a fun time hanging out with them.

we left the river and went back to gold beach to show the boys the dollhouse.  bobby spent many summers in gold beach as a kid.  he couldn't wait to take the kids to agate beach, prehistoric gardens and grant's pancake house.  d and i had a little surprise for them too.

we settled into the little house for the night.

the next morning all bob and bobby wanted to do was eat oregon cakes from grant's pancake house.  another childhood memory of bobby's was ordering this gigantic plate of rolled pancakes filled with jelly.  so we drove to the restaurant but we couldn't find it.  the guys were a little confused.  it turns out the the lady that owned grant's no longer wanted to make pancakes, so she turned it into a pizza place.  the boys were disappointed and stunned.  so d and i took them to a restaurant that we had been to a few days before.  it was then that we sprung the surprise.  this place had oregon cakes and they were gooooood.

this picture was actually taken the first time we had them.

when d and i found out that grant's was gone we made it our mission to find a restaurant that served these beloved cakes.  so glad we only had to look one place because i don't know how many pancakes i could eat.

next item was taking the kids to prehistoric gardens for a trip back in time where they would learn about dinosaurs that once roamed the earth. it would be a very educational and inspiring experience.  not really, we just wanted to take pictures like this

and this

at first sofia didn't get the concept of pretending to run away from the dinosaurs.  but once she did we couldn't get her to stop.

everyone had a good time.  we also visited the lighthouse in port orford so the boys could see it.  sofia was their little tour guide.

and dinner was fish and chips at the crazy norwegian.  i mean we had to have dinner here, don't you think?

we never made it to the beach but we did visit battle rock.

the next day it was time to say goodbye to oregon.  we were heading back to california for some camping.  we stopped at a myrtlewood shop for some souvenirs and apple butter, another childhood favorite of bobby's.

and we had to stop at dutch brothers for coffee and smoothies.

our final stop before heading into the redwoods was trees of mystery for a picture with paul bunyan.

i am so glad bobby didn't make them take "that" picture.  there are many of bobby when he was a kid.

so now we start our own family vacation and make new childhood memories for our kids.