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.
