Oregon Trail Museum

As we packed up camp this morning, it rained a little bit. Then we drove a few hours and it rained a little bit more. Not a lot, just enough to make everything damp. When we stopped at the Oregon Trail Interpretive Center outside of Baker City and in the smack-dab middle of miles upon miles of prairie nothingness, the smell of the land and the sage all warm and damp was overwhelmingly amazing.

The museum was pretty awesome as well. Perched on a hill, there were all kind of displays about the Oregon Trail, buggies and games for the kids to play. As you looked out the huge windows over the land you can still see the wagon ruts of the actual Oregon Trail. So cool. That was my favorite part. The kids favorite part was this wagon that you had to "pack" with huge foam blocks all labeled things like "40 lbs. whisky" or "120 lbs. hard tack". Both of them had a ball trying to fit things in their wagons and then playing dress up in the prairie clothes. Since Miss E just read a few of the Little House on the Prairie books and I read a few to her, it was especially interesting for us.

This evening we arrived in John Day for the second part of our trip. We have said good-bye to our tent (3 nights of family tent camping is enough thank you very much) and hello to a state park teepee! It's still all one room so we are a bit more spread out and hopefully the kids, at least Mr. T, will sleep a little bit later. Mr. T has been my "morning buddy" so far this trip which means he sleeps next to me and as soon as I open my eyes at some ungodly hour of the morning I see his smiling face. Then we sneak out of the tent and eat cookies and color and make coffee before everyone else gets up. I really don't mind it, he's impossibly cheerful and I don't have that many more years left of getting up early with a little kiddo but I wouldn't mind sleeping until 7 tomorrow. Then we can be morning buddies.