I took an unintentional blog break recently. Sorry guys. It's just that my family was coming into town for a weekend + I was busy getting my home in order. Then they arrived + I was doing my best to take them to different places in + around Portland. We had a great time enjoying eats around the city. We dined at St. Honoré Boulangerie with ice cream to follow next door at Salt + Straw. (My daughter + I enjoyed a meal followed by dessert at these two locations the week before, so I knew they would be winners.) The next day was St. Patrick's Day, which also happens to be my Little Sister's birthday. We started off the day at Wings + Waves Waterpark (I might have snuck in a few delicious cupcakes from New Seasons) then eventually we made our way to the movie theater to see Beauty + The Beast on opening night. We finished off the evening with a late night meal at Industry in Tualatin. Nothing but great things to say about all of the fun places we visited + dined.
Saturday morning rolled around + we hit the road for a family roadtrip into California to see the Redwoods. Mostly, we traveled down The 101 + it pretty much took us eight hours to get to Crescent City, California but there were some awesome views of the Pacific Ocean along the way, despite the rain + clouds. Unfortunately, the restaurants we ate at along the way were not so pleasant. (I'm looking at you Fisherman's Grotto + The Good Harvest Cafe.) Seriously, Crescent City redeemed itself when we ate at Denny's on Sunday morning. I kid you not. Maybe sometimes it's best to just stick with what you know will be good.
A short 5-mile drive later + we arrived at the Nickerson Ranch Trailhead in the Jedediah Smith Redwood State Park. We took our time walking along the short route, taking in the sights + sounds (Mostly the sounds were made by our crew... i.e. Daddy whacking a stick on a cross bridge + children being children.) 
Just for a little height reference, my father is 6'2". The fallen redwood they are standing in front of has a trunk base that is over twice my father's height. Some are reported to have bases over 20-feet in diameter. WOW!
Visiting the Redwood Forest has been on my father's bucket list for quite some time now. It made my heart happy to be able to share this experience with him + the rest of my family. I would certainly encourage you to add a trip to the Redwoods to your bucket list as well. They are over 2,000 years old! And they're ginormous, some over 350 feet tall.
We moved along + started making our way back toward home. This was my last chance to squeeze a little more Oregon in on the last night of their trip. And what's more Oregon than Voodoo Doughnuts?
Truth is, in the combined six years of our time spent living in the Portland Metro Area, I had never eaten at Voodoo Doughnuts. I had only attempted to once before + the line was just too long for me to wait with my then two-year-old son. Turns out, there was a shop in Downtown Eugene, not too far off of I-5. We stopped in + helped ourselves. (Maybe it's just me, but I like Blue Star Donuts better. #SorryNotSorry
Truth is, in the combined six years of our time spent living in the Portland Metro Area, I had never eaten at Voodoo Doughnuts. I had only attempted to once before + the line was just too long for me to wait with my then two-year-old son. Turns out, there was a shop in Downtown Eugene, not too far off of I-5. We stopped in + helped ourselves. (Maybe it's just me, but I like Blue Star Donuts better. #SorryNotSorry