We find ourselves reunited with the minivan, in which we traveled during much of 2015, for a 2024 Spring Break trip. I had forgotten what a great traveling vehicle it is (it’s a 15-year-old 2WD Toyota Sienna, in case you’re looking for minivan-life transportation—this one’s not for sale :))

There was a significant snowstorm in Colorado last week and, as I mentioned, the minivan is two wheel drive, so we were a little nervous setting out. We opted to head towards the Pacific Northwest by first going north instead of across the decidedly snowy Colorado mountains. We found dry roads! We also unfortunately found many tractor trailers, some of whom were probably also avoiding the winter conditions on I-70. Wyoming was, well, windy. Is it ever not?

Utah was still windy. We stopped in Ogden, hoping to fuel up and then get dinner. We fought the Costco parking lot to save a few pennies on gas, then headed downtown. TripAdvisor showed Tona, a Japanese restaurant, as the top choice. At 5:11 on a Saturday (they open at 5) there was a 45-minute wait. We walked around the corner to Slackwater pizza (TripAdvisor’s #2) and after the hostess said she could get us a table, she clarified that she meant in 20-25 minutes. So we headed back towards Costco to Windy’s Sukiyaki. They also quoted 20 minutes, but they at least had a place to wait, so we waited. It was worth it. We started with agedashi dofu and I had miso soup. Maureen went with the beef donburi and I chose a fancy hamachi roll for my main course. We had a plan for later, so we declined the interesting (at least to me) dessert choices.

We eventually got out of Ogden and headed to Brigham City (is there a more Utah city name?) and our hotel. We checked in and walked a few blocks (still windy!) to Peach City. It is an old-fashioned—also old—drive-in and diner/soda fountain. I wanted to try their ice cream and selected peach and maple nut. Maureen selected chocolate and caramel fudge. All were good and servings were large. It was hard not to overeat; perhaps we did.

Our plan for Sunday morning was to check out the bird life at Bear River Migratory Bird Refuge. Fortunately breakfast at Hampton Inn starts at 6 a.m. and this was a decent breakfast. We ate eggs and potatoes and grabbed some fruit, yogurt, and carbs for later. The refuge did not disappoint. You do have to drive about 12 miles to get to the 12 mile loop. The loop was uncrowded a few minutes after sunrise, and it appeared that the swans were just waking up. In addition to the tundra swans, we spotted yellow-headed blackbirds, cormorants, grebes, several great blue herons, pintails, shovelers, mergansers, harriers, and countless coots.

Driving day 2 took us into Idaho, so we decided to revisit Twin Falls (for visit #1–nine years ago!—see here.) It has not changed much—the gorge is still spectacular. We enjoyed a short walk, fueled up at Costco, and hit the road again. And drove. Through wind and trucks and past many windmills.

We arrived in Pendleton, Oregon in early evening and checked into our second Hampton Inn. We then attempted to go to the Oregon Grain Growers Brand Distillery for dinner and drinks. They were closed 😡. Apparently they noted that closure on Facebook shortly after I checked their page. We ended up at Prodigal Son Brewery and Pub instead. They were overwhelmed and tired from serving the participants in the Real West Gravel race crowd the previous night, but rallied to provide good service. We had some delicious gluten-free fried cauliflower before our dinner. We also sampled cider and Jameson’s with pickle juice—it was St. Patrick’s Day. 🍀

We walked around “downtown” Pendleton a bit after eating, then called it a day.

On Monday morning, we were able to have a slow start. We knew that the Pendleton Mill and Store opened at 10, so there was no motivation to hurry. On the way to the store, we stopped for fuel and Maureen struck up a conversation with the folks in the pickup/truck camper “fun mobile” next to us. They were headed to Moab from Vancouver, BC, and the husband was English. They also provided a great lead on an owl sanctuary in Cornwall 🦉.

Once at the Pendleton factory, we commenced shopping. I was disappointed that I had failed to book the factory tour, but then we heard some other guests asking to get on it… We jumped on the opportunity to sign up for the 11:00 tour. It was quite cool.

After the tour, I ended up finding an article of clothing that I had been seeking since before the pandemic (long-sleeved black turtleneck) in merino wool. It was one of those clothing try-on experiences in which you slip the item over your head and immediately know you will be buying it. Big win—especially with the extra 30% off.

And then we were driving again. We stopped at the Columbia Gorge Discovery Center, but did not opt to go in and just enjoyed the scenery. We also avoided a traffic jam.

A few minutes later we took another short detour for wine tasting in Oregon. We shared a 5 ounce flight and ate our own potato chips and (gf) pretzels in order to keep moving afterwards. The ambience was spectacular, even if the wine was not our favorite.

Shortly thereafter, we crossed a small toll bridge into Washington on the (slightly misguided?) advice of Apple Maps. Since Washington state was our ultimate destination for this trip, that’s as good a point as any to finish this post. Stay tuned for adventures in the Evergreen state.