Short Trips
SISTERS, Ore. -- July 10 will be a special day in Sisters. In a shower of color, hundreds of quilts will be hung from storefronts for the annual quilt show. It's such a big deal that, each year, locals plan personal activities so as not to conflict with the glitzy event. Quilts also are on display inside various businesses during the week preceding the one-day show.
Next week Sisters hosts its annual two-day professional rodeo. Indicative of the town's western sensibilities, the new downtown public restroom facilities are labeled "cowgirls" and "cowboys."
By Jeff Larsen | June 3, 2004
I've heard of backpackers who have a baby and still manage to seek a good time with nature. They pack a few diapers, throw baby on their back and head for the woods.
My parenting style is more worrywart than carefree. There are bugs, sun, wind, cold, heat, hunger, thirst. There are tantrums, picky eating, bedtime woes. It seemed easier to stay in a motel than a tent.
By Vanessa Ho | June 3, 2004
Gas prices keeping you close to home this vacation season? Through Labor Day, Northwest Weekend will offer weekly ideas for close-to-Seattle getaways you can get to and back on less than 10 gallons of gas. And just to make it more "real world" our tips are fine-tuned to whether you own a big honkin' SUV or a gas-sipping hybrid electric.
The fine print: Our "demo" vehicles are a Lincoln Navigator, which can get you 90 miles away and back on 10 gallons, and a Toyota Prius, which can get you 250 miles away and back on 10 gallons. *
The Lincoln Navigator getaway
June 3, 2004
MIRACLE BEACH, B.C. The woman at the entrance booth, no doubt, thought we were nuts.
"We have a reservation!" I had proudly proclaimed as we drove our newish pint-sized RV, the White Rhino, up to the gate at one of Vancouver Island's finer campgrounds last Friday.
"Oh," was all she could say, flashing back the kind of polite smile usually reserved for crazy people who approach you on the street and ask you to watch their dog, which is nowhere in sight.
By Ron C. Judd | June 3, 2004
Hike of the Week
Some hiking guides give the Bald Mountain Trail in the north-central Cascades a poor rating because they consider it a boring slog through dense forest before the trail gets to worthy views. That, of course, depends on what your definition of a "view" is. If old-growth trees, lush vegetation and poetic ponds don't qualify as "views," then you may indeed want to go elsewhere.
By Karen Sykes | June 3, 2004
VASHON ISLAND At first glance, the meadow's contents seemed out of place.
Tall evergreens, nurtured by the Northwestern climate, surrounded a field of tepees, which are characteristically a plains dwelling.
Co-manager Jake Mulhair had just finished setting up our tepee when we arrived at AYH Ranch Hostel. Our stay marked the beginning of tepee season, a warm-weather Vashon tradition that continues at the hostel through October.
By Jennifer Lloyd | June 3, 2004
Gearing Up
Ask most folks what they're craving after a few days in the wilderness and the answer is almost always "a burger (or steak) and a beer." That's because it's so hard to pack perishable meats on multiday trips. Instead, we tend to subsist on carbs and fats (Dr. Atkins would have never made it as a backpacker).
By Kristin Hostetter | June 3, 2004
