A week of summer vacation is upon us and we finally have a plan in place. We debated on where to go all week. Based on the wildfires in the pacific northwest most places we wanted to visit were undesirable because of the air quality.
We decided our first stop would be Salem, OR to take the kids to the Enchanted Forest theme park. We love the cute little theme parks that the kids can enjoy now when they are full of wonder. From there we the smoke forecast pushed us off to Tahoe for a few days where we could be outside and enjoy hiking, biking and playing in the water. Sound like the perfect getaway.
An unexpected added bonus for our fist leg is that our friends The Birdies were willing to fly to Salem and meet us and the kids would have buddies to explore and share the wonder with. We called the FBO, Salem Aviation and reserved a car that would hold all 8 of us the night before.
Salem is a short hour flight for us from S50. We have quite a few things packed since we will be gone for 4 days so we decided to change the configuration of the plane. We moved both kids forward facing in the middle row for better access to A Plane Girl and easier loading because instead of a stroller we brought our folding wagon. We thought the wagon would be useful at the park and in Tahoe since we can use it to get all the things from our room to the pool or the beach.
We have a pretty uneventful flight down. We love to fly north-south through Portland. Although, Portland Approach doesn’t like this so much since that puts us in the way of traffic arriving to the airport with their east-west runways. We get a few small vectors though their airspace and go to Salem tower. We enter the 45 for downwind to runway 3-4, and get cleared to land.
The FBO does have our car ready for us, but it is 4x the normal price! Unfortunately, the rental car company is closed at 2pm on a Saturday and cannot verify if that is the price or an error. The Ramp Agent, who was also running the desk, offered us the courtesy car (van) which seats 8 people. The car has a 4 hour limit, but they close at 5pm, so he lets us know to have it back by when they open, 7am and leave the keys in the box outside. We still haven’t decided on whether we will spend the night in Salem or take the short 30 minute flight to go to Bend, so it we might use the car over night and return it in the morning
The Enchanted Forest is only a 10 minute drive from the airport. After schlepping 4 car seats out of the planes and reinstalling into the van, we arrive at the park. The Park is small with 3 main areas, the story book village, the western and european towns, and the rides. We start the castle and follow the story book village. There are many small passages and windows with displays the kids are excited to see, each one is unique; some have secret tunnels, passages or slides. After the village we grab a snack at the Jolly Roger Inn that also offers a water show while you eat. The food is not earth shattering, but we noticed a lot of families brought their own food, which may be the way to go. After lunch and the show it’s off to the rides. The Little Dude is tall enough for everything, so we do the log ride and roller coaster. They also have some kiddie rides he can do alone. The park is literally in the forest so even though it is 90 degrees F outside, it is cool in the park. We only do about 3/4 of the park in 2.5 hours before it’s time to head back to the airport.
We unload the car seats and get the planes ready. We decide to fly to Bend for the night and the Birdies are heading back to Seattle.
We just returned from our first family camping trip and in true A Plane Family style, we flew there. Monitoring aviation forms, one location came across the websites frequently, Cavanaugh Bay, Idaho. There is good reason this is a highly praised spot with families who come back often in the summer and return year after year.
We started planning for this trip about 2 weeks out. Besides doing our standard weather and airport recon, we also have to determine what camping items are required to for our proposed 2 night stay. Mama Pilot hasn’t done a lot of camping, The Little Dude has gone on 2 small overnights, The Plane Girl has never been, so we are all relying on Papa Pilot for guidance.
We have a standard list of things we pack for our normal trips and have added another section for camping. We are pretty spoiled because Cavanaugh Bay is said to have: Toilets, Showers, Sink, Microwave, Refrigerator, Picnic Tables, Fire pits and Firewood and upon our arrival we quickly learn that this is all true. Maybe we really set out on a glamping trip?
Our plan is to meet after work at the airport and get going as soon as possible, but there is something else we need to pack which we never have had to make provisions for before- food. Even though they have courtesy cars to get to the store, and a restaurant we still need food. The restaurant only serves lunch and dinner, but we still need breakfast and at least one dinner to have at the campfire. Also, What camping trip would be complete without smore’s?
On the morning of departure, we can’t seem to get the food part together before time to leave to work for us, oh well ,slight detour back to the house after work. That will push our landing time about an hour. We don’t want to land too late going over the mountains and landing at a grass strip. We get the food, the kids and load up the plane.
The car is full with the gear and it is time to load the plane. We pull out the weight and balance and compute where to put everything based on size and weight including room to put the kids. We grab some gas and we are off. 1:30 ETA. Once off Auburn, we get flight following from Seattle Approach and fly over the cascades at 11,500ft. We were delighted to have smooth air for our evening journey across the mountains despite being 90 degrees outside.
We start to approach the Priest Lake area, load the CTAF and plan the approach. No one else is on the frequency and it is about 7pm in the evening. We fly over once above the pattern altitude then come back around at and approach runway 15 from over the lake. The runway is 3000 feet long and Papa Pilot lands so soft on the runway with plenty of room to go. We taxi back and find a parking spot.
There is parking on the right and left of the runway. The parking on the east side is usually for commuters and the parking on the west side and the horse shoe on the west side is for the campers. We really aren’t sure of the normal procedure when we first arrive and end up parking on the east side. We walk across the runway and find the campground, but not the showers and toilets. We then walk south to Cavanughs Restaurant on the north end to have dinner. We’ll figure out the setup when we get back, its past dinnertime now and everyone is hungry and tired from a full day of work, and a flight across the state.
A short 5 minute walk leads us to the lake, a beach and the restaurant. They are pretty busy and we have to wait a bit to be seated, but over all the food was very good and fresh. We head back to the plane and start getting up camp, and settle in for the night. We learn there is a dirt path through the horse shoe that leads to the showers, toilets, refrigerator and microwave. Then we head to the camp ground area to roast a few marshmallows on a fellow campers fire before calling it a night.
It’s morning and we all slept very well. The combination of the soft grass and great sleeping pads made for a far better than average sleeping arrangement. We have a 6 person tent so we brought the pack and play for Plane Girl. This is the one thing we didn’t need to bring. She woke up cold in the middle of the night in a fleece pajama and a fleece outdoor outfit, so we put her in a sleeping bag with us, and she slept just as well as the rest of us that way. It was a relatively quite morning with no one taking off early and we woke about 6am with the sun.
Time for breakfast. We packed Eggs, precooked bacon, cereal, milk, bread, ghee, jelly to make eggs and bacon and toast on the camp stove. It cooked up well, but we were happy we brought the cereal in the plastic cups for the kids. We walk over to the “kitchen” area of the campground and help ourselves to coffee and a wall outlet to charge our power pack. We clean up the breakfast dishes in the sink and call the care taker, Allen (208-659-8198), and request a courtesy car for the day.
Our plan for the day is to go for a hike, grab some groceries and ice while out and spend the afternoon back in Cavanaugh Bay to hang out by the lake and let the kids swim and play in the sand before making dinner at the campground. The plan went off without a hitch.
The town of Coolin is about a 5 minute drive, Leonard Paul Store has fresh vegetables, shelf items, cold drinks, ice, beer and wine, clothes, but no ATM. We didn’t double check our cash before the trip. But there is another store about 15 minutes away, Tamrak, has everything as well and is substantially more commercial. Tamrak also had ice cream, and the elusive ATM. We needed Cash for the Courtesy Car which rus $5 per use and $.30 cents a mile.
Dinner in the campground was so easy. We brought skewers for the hot dogs and smores, a pan for the pizzas and there was a grate to put over the fire to set the pan on. One nice gentleman, Tex, even came over with a plate of fresh cut up watermelon and cantaloupe for the kids. We hung up all of the wet towels and clothes on the plane. Everyone seemed to go to bed by 9pm on Saturday as a few of the pilots had mentioned wanted to depart at 6am.
And there is was, 6AM time for aircraft motors to light up and start rolling, and lesson learned- everything we left out to dry on the plane, was now wetter than it was the night before from the evening dew. In hindsight we should have utilized the back vestibule of the tent for evening storage. We heard 4 planes take off before 7, but The Little Dude didn’t, and he snoozed right through them. Time for a quick campstove breakfast before reloading the plane.
The environment was so relaxing and friendly with a few planes coming in and out for dinner or lunch. it seemed like most of the people who planned on camping were in by friday shortly after 5pm. We will definitely be back to Cavanaugh Bay soon!
Please keep in mind that this is technically considered a backcountry airport and requires a different knowledge base than standard airport ops. Do you due diligence and if you’re not familiar with this type of flying, mountain flying, and/or operating from an unimproved airfield, find an instructor and get the proper training. Conditions change fast, and it pays to be prepared. It is also especially important to carry an array of emergency survival gear and know how to use it when flying in remote and rugged areas. Aircraft Spruce stocks various kits and finding one to fit your mission should be easy. This is some of the most rewarding flying one can do, but it is also some of the most dangerous. Train, plan, and be prepared.
lessons learned:
We don’t need the pack and play
We need smaller folding camping chairs to fit in the plane better.
More ice needed in the cooler and frozen gel packs
Bring Cash for the car and donation box
Don’t leave things out overnight because they will be wet in the morning.
Double check power pack (ours didn’t hold a charge)
Arrive a a little earlier
airport in upper leftbathroom areaSet up the tent behind the planeWomens sink area (mens is identical)Cavanaughs Restaurantone of many picnic tables in campgroundkitchen area: fridge, microwave, outlets,one of 3 fire pits with firewoodOutdoor sinkTamrak, 15 minutes away
Being a girl, raised in Florida it’s funny how differently I think about summer in the PNW. I have lived in Washington State for 5 years and its just now hitting me. The dread of winter, the lack of flying the bonanza for months, longing for a blue bird day or weekend during the gloom where we can escape short days and fill our minds with new flying memories and adventures.
Then, summer comes around. Summer doesn’t start June 21st in Seattle like most places, it really starts the 2nd week in July. That’s when one can count on the hot blue skies days to offer endless opportunities to explore. The runways are all open and not covered in snow and the back country opens up too, and the worry about icing is nearly non-existent.
This summer Sunday was a great day to meet up with our local flying family friends, The Birdies for dinner. We are lucky there are a lot of on airport restaurants within an hour of our base, S50 and KBVS (Skagit) is suggested for their on airport restaurant Flyers Restaurant and Brewhouse. It is also one of our; “where to next” airports. We land on runway 29 and park in transient parking, I look over to the right and see the restaurant, looks…. closed? Yep, closed. We are very aware most airport restaurants only serve breakfast and lunch, but this said brewery and my mind just didn’t think of it. Great, time to whip out the iPhone and begin plan B. But wait, our friends! We hear them on CTAF and they are in the pattern and are going to land soon. We tell them when the land to come up to a different frequency.
Of course Skagit is pretty remote and we didn’t bring The Little Dudes carseat for a short dinner flight. No other walking distance options with food are near. Plan B: Roche Harbor or Friday Harbor. Both are Airports with restaurants within walking distance we have been to before and within 15 minutes. The only potential issue is now we are a party of 8 with 4 kids and crossing that fine line of dinner time to hangry time. No one wants to take hangry kids and wait.
We take back off and I start calling restaurants to inquire about waits and reservations. On Roche, The Madrona has open tables and is first come first serve. There we have it we’re off to Roche!
Bonus, now we get to do some formation flying with our friends and head there as a flight of 2.
The Madrona is just a wonderful spot. Right on the water over looking the marina, casual atmosphere and the food was very fresh with lots of wonderful options. Mama pilot got the lettuce wedge salad with sirloin and papa pilot the cheeseburger, so delicious. Such a perfect evening with the low sun, calm winds, and the tranquility of the harbor drives us to wish that tomorrow weren’t Monday. But alas, we finish
dinner and it is late. We need to come back and stay some time at the resort. They do have a few restaurants, a pool and a playground.
But we take the short 10 minute walk back to the tie down areas and say our good byes as now were encroaching on bedtime. Its time to fly home as the sun sets on our tail and start planning our next adventure together.
Spring time offers limited availability for flying in the PNW. We are always looking at the weather app to see if there is a change where the weather will allow for adventure. It’s Easter weekend and our family in Oregon has offered to host us for dinner and an Egg hunt! We land at Sisters Airport, meet Gramie and its straight to dinner at the Sisters Saloon. The Saloon is a hotel from 1912 that has been restored and made into a restaurant. We dine in the dinning area and enjoy a meal of chicken wings, pasta and sliders- all of which are great quality.
If you have never been to Sisters you can walk to “town” in about 15 minutes. The town is known for its rodeo “The Biggest Little Show in the World” and quilt festival every year. We never seem to make either of the large events, but it is in our triangle for places to visit when coming to central Oregon.
After dinner as we are walking to the car when a girl runs over to us with a box! She said she is from the bakery across the street and offers us donuts. It is a huge full box( seemingly a lifetime supply of heart attacks in a box), but we are staying in a hotel for the night and its nice to have easy food around while everyone is gearing up for the day. I feel like this is the kind of thing that only happens in small towns!
We haven’t stayed at Tetherow for a while and choose it for the new pool and recreation center. The next day we have some donuts and head out for a hike in Tumalo. Nothing fancy, just exploring a few trails in the Tumalo State Park. We then head for lunch at Crux Brewery.
One of the things I really love about Bend is the chill environment, places like Crux and The Bite have open space with food trucks and yard games for kids. We enjoy just having some casual food and drinks, while the kids can move around and play. It is not always easy after driving to the airport, flying in the plane, then driving to restaurant to ask young kids to sit still for on hour sit down dinner, so we like to plan our trips focused on this consideration.
In the afternoon we dive into the pool. The website says the pool is heated; but it was a tad too chilly for our liking. We abort and go back to the room to relax. The next day is Easter and the kids get to do an Easter egg hunt!
What was really interesting about this trip from an aviation perspective was our departure. We planned to leave around mid day from Sisters. The weather looked great! It was sunny in Bend, the METAR at Bend and Redmond showed clear with nothing depicting on the radar. But as we drove from Bend to Sisters the sky started to get gray. Then Papa Pilots brother said it was snowing?! How could that be, every weather information source we had said it was only partly cloudy? Sure enough, as we get about 3 miles from the airport it starts to snow (dump actually). We sit in the truck wondering what to do. After a quick coffee break we come back and the weather is clearing. We use the windshield brush/ scrapers to get the snow off the plan before it melts and turns into ice. That small weather system lasted for only about 15 minutes but could have been potentially dangerous for us. Nevertheless, with the plane cleared off and the skies parting we made it home safe.
Finally a nice day in the PNW! A few days of sun in the Seattle area and all the pilots take to the skies! We’re up for a short lunch trip and somewhere new. Chehalis airport has been on our list since the airport is located right next to a golf course that you can walk a short distance to. It is a short flight from home base and doesn’t require a rental or courtesy car.
We’re also super excited that our friends the Birdie family are able to fly to Chehalis too and join us for lunch.
We head to the airport with the beco carrier, a backpack and a strider bike. It’s a short 25 minutes to KCLS from S50. The airport is quite busy with helicopter traffic when we want to depart, but we finally get a window. We take off north and turn south. We have to stay a bit east of our direct course to avoid the Seattle Bravo airspace. It’s one of the first nice weekend days in a while so there is plenty of traffic out. We are again thankful for our adsb and being able to know where traffic is along our route.
No one in the plane family has been to KCLS before so we approach with caution. It’s left traffic for runway 34 and we haven’t heard any one on the shared CTAF for KCLS. We enter a left downwind and notice that Chehalis is in a bit of a valley with small mountainous terrain on both sides.
We land and roll all the way to the end. The transient parking and FBO and fuel are towards runway 16. We park close to the fuel farm and notice stairs just behind the fuel farm. We wait just a bit for our friends to land and then rally the kids for the very short walk to the riverbend golf course restaurant.
We walk by the putting green and driving range and into an open dining area. It’s 1pm and we have the family dining area downstairs to ourselves. The dining area is very welcoming and we order our lunch. The kids food comes out first and then the rest. All the food was very good, the service was a bit slow, but when you are with friends that’s okay.
It’s cold outside! But the little dude brought his tiny putter to play some golf and his friend brought a ball, perfect! We let the older kids practice their putting and play in the sand trap, but it’s a bit cold for the babies. A short 2 minutes up and down the stairs across an old train track and we are back at the airport and the planes. Time to say goodbye and load up and head home.
the little dude carrying his bike up the stairsbrother and sister ready to flyStrider bike for the winfuel. picnic benches. stairs to golf course
Another throw at the map and we have had our last flight of the year. It’s 2 days before Christmas and it’s clear outside! Time to go for a a flight. The Oregon Coast is clear too; very rare. We are just going for a day trip, so we look at some of the smaller airports we don’t normally fly into due to weight concerns. Siletz Bay and Nehelam bay are the 2 that catch our eyes. We’re hoping to walk from the airport to lunch and maybe fly a kite at the beach.
We choose Siletz Bay. It’s just over an hour from Auburn. The closest airport with weather is Newport, OR just south of Siletz and shows marginal VFR, but our plan B is to go back to Seaside which we pass on the way down and know it’s clear.
We take off to the north at Auburn and turn south towards the Oregon coast. The Oregon coast is a beautiful high cliff coastline with lots of large rocks protruding out of the water.
The Siletz Bay Airport is just south of one of Oregon’s more famous city’s, Lincoln City. We planned to visit the Side door cafe once we land. The runway sits north – south and the wind favors runway 35. After we land we park at the tie down area. The airport doesn’t offer any services or have an FBO. Google maps showed we would exit the airport on road. Walk down 101 a bit, then be at the restaurant. We bring the little dudes bike and the Tula carrier to navigate the distance. To our surprise there is a set of steps that takes you straight to the restaurant and you only have to cross 101 and not walk along it. This is awesome as major roads are normally a limiting factor with small kids getting places without a car.
The food and lunch at side door was hands down the best meals we have had in a long time. The restaurant has tall ceilings and lots of colorful art and plants around. The waitress is very attentive and gets the little dudes order in right away. We order the clams, and the crab blt and crab melt. All of the food was the best quality and so much crab. It was almost like too much crab on the sanwhiches.
After lunch we walk to the beach. We’re hoping to fly a kite, but it is not windy!! We also got a later start then we were hoping and are running out of daylight. We used the world mark hotel to access the beach. And it looked like a great place to stay.
Our first $100 hamburger trip with plane girl is complete. But it was more $100 crab sandwiches. We were so impressed how easy the access was to the restaurants and the beach, next time we come, we will stay the night!
secret staircase just across from the airportfly your kite at the airport before take offmount Rainermama-daughter snuggleslogging flight time
We are on our way home and after a fun morning in Jackson Hole, we have a 3:30 flight to get home today, but, we’re going to break it up into 2 legs, and so we choose McCall, ID as our lunch stop. We have been to McCall before and know the lay of the land. Its less than a mile walk to Payette lake and there are some restaurants right across the street from the airport. We really just want to stretch our legs and take a break one more time before heading home for the night. We eat at the McCall Pancake House. They have very eclectic decor and huge portions. We then walk back to the airport and notice a shed for borrow bikes.. The Idaho Aviation Association has bikes to borrow at a few airports for pilots. I love the idea. We load up, get the prop turning and its just over an hour home. We land at Auburn with no incident. The kicker is we try to move the car from the hangar and it has a flat tire! But we will take it. Our first flight across the country and with 2 kids, lots of adventure and we end with a fat tire on the car. Thats a successful trip!
We have left Rapid City and we only have one more night of our trip before we need to return home. We have 7 flight hours left on our journey, so we could go half way or we could go 1/3 of the way and just have a longer return day stopping for lunch on the way home. When you go home it is always such a relief and worth the longer leg. We have been to Jackson Hole once before and really enjoyed it and Grand Teton National Park, so we pick KJAC!
The Jackson Hole FBO is one of the nations “overcharging” FBO’s to general aviation pilots. There are fees for the fees. It’s so difficult to travel to these airports when you feel like they over change you for everything. More about excessive fees here on this AOPA article.
Even with the outrageous costs, we wish to visit Grand Teton National Park by way of the only FBO in Jackson Hole (which is the only airport in the US within a National Park) Our rental car was ordered from AVIS in the terminal and wasn’t at the FBO when we arrived as we requested from Avis. We requested it at a time in the central time zone, not computing that there was a 1 hour time change to mountain time. After we landed and the car was MIA, the FBO loaded us into a van to go over to the terminal and get the car. But when we walk into the terminal there is a line of at least 50 people to get a car. We abort. The savings aren’t worth dragging 2 kids around. We go back to the FBO and unload the van and settle for an overpriced rental car from Sixty.
After the rental car shuffle, we then make our way to the hotel. We love staying at historic hotels and lodges and The Wort Hotel just happened to have availability. We booked a hotel in the middle of town to enjoy walking around. We grab a quick snack and plan to arrive at the town square for the old west shootout which starts at 6pm nightly (except Sundays) during the summer. The shootout is said to be America’s longest running gunfight! Everyone gathers around one intersection that is blocked off to cars. We have a seat right up front. The Little Dude had a great time, Plane girl, not so much with the loud noises, but it was worth a try.
After the shoot out we go for a drive in the national park to see if we can find any wildlife at sunset. We try to goggle different areas known for wildlife but come up with just one moose in someone’s yard on the way back to the hotel.
In the morning we are rested and go back to Grand Teton NP, where we have picked out a short hike to take the kids on. We also ride the boat across Jenny Lake. One of the perks to having small children is getting to the park early and not having to fight for a parking spot. When we left at about 11am there were cars everywhere! We stop at the little village area in town to grab some snacks. We have about 3:30 hours of flying to go to our lunch stop before home.
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