Mom Life in the PNW

Our New Adventures on Wheels: The Truck and Travel Trailer Combo

Our New Adventures on Wheels: The Truck and Travel Trailer Combo

 

This past year has been all about embracing new adventures in future years, and what better way to do that than with a new truck and a travel trailer? Yep, we went all-in on family travel dreams at the end of 2024! Let me tell you how it all came together, why we’re so excited, and how our first trip went.

The Truck: First Big Step in July

In July, we decided to upgrade one of our vehicles to a Ford Ranger truck by purchasing directly from the dealer since our preorder truck was stuck in a different state for about 6 months after being built. With growing kids, outdoor-loving hobbies, and the dream of future road trips, it just made sense. Our trusty older Toyota Corolla had served us well, but it wasn’t quite cut out for what we had in mind.

The Ford Ranger we chose has plenty of towing power (I knew this upgrade was just step one!) and tons of space for our family’s never-ending bags, gear, and snacks. You know, the essentials. It’s also way more comfortable for long drives, which is a must when traveling with kiddos who love to ask, “Are we there yet?” 1,000 times.

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Big Family Vacation at Mt. Hood Tiny House Village

Big Family Vacation at Mt. Hood Tiny House Village

This year had been a little chaotic for everyone so we decided to take an end-of-the-year vacation with my immediate family. We were at first thinking we should just rent a big beach house, but the beach this time of the year in the PNW isn’t the most pleasant, so I suggested maybe going to the mountain so we could at least have some fun in the snow if we’re going to be “cold” anyways.

So I searched and actually stumbled upon Mt. Hood Tiny Village through Instagram and knew this is just the place that we all needed to stay at. We each booked our own tiny home, that way we could have our own space yet still visit in the center at the fire pit or in each other’s “tiny homes”.

These places were so cute and I knew I needed to claim the Ingrid before my family since it was spacious! When I research things, I do it fully and hard, so my family was mad that I selected that one, but hey, they did let me take charge. LOL

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Best Places for Street Tacos in Vancouver, WA

street tacos

If there’s one food that I’d never get tired of, it’s probably Mexican food. The spice, the rice, beans, salsa and carne asada is like heaven to my taste buds. When we visited Mazatlán, Mexico years ago, I had some of the best food I have ever tasted outside of the tourist town. But can you get that authentic taste elsewhere? Why yes, yes you can!

Although I haven’t tried some of these places, they are highly rated and recommended in our city.

Best Places for Street Tacos in Vancouver, WA

Now everyone’s taste buds are obviously different, so what one may like, others may not, but it seemed like everyone agreed that these are some of the best places in Vancouver, WA to find street tacos. These are in no particular order.

Just a little bit of info if you see them offer delivery services through Grub hub or what-have-you, these delivery services take quite a bit of money from the restaurants who are trying to stay afloat during this pandemic which results in all of the added fees and the higher prices on menu items. It’s best to support by picking up yourself so they’re keeping their money and it not being taken by places like Grub hub.

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What You Need When Camping With Kids

What You Need When Camping With Kids

Although camping season is just about over, it doesn’t hurt to plan ahead and be prepared, especially if you’re in the PNW where the weather is iffy at any point in time. We didn’t get a chance to camp a whole lot this year for obvious reasons, but we did do a couple of camp trips at Goose Lake and another in a yurt at the beach. 

Both of those trips usually end up in overpacking stuff that we may need but don’t really end up using. So for our second trip, we ended up buying a hardshell rooftop cargo carrier to put on our Subaru Outback since we filled the back to the brim and then some the first time. Let me tell you, this made all of the difference in the world, even if it was a big chunk of change to drop on another item that’s going to take up space in the garage.

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Beach Camping with Kids at Cape Disappointment State Park

Beach Camping with Kids at Cape Disappointment State Park

We had seen our friends previously post about beach camping on Facebook and decided to look into it a couple of years ago. But with these types of places, they only list their availability at certain times at the beginning of the year and then they immediately get booked up. We were lucky enough to snag a site at Cape Disappointment in January before the chaos ensued and thankfully our reservations didn’t get canceled.

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