If there was one movie from my childhood that reigned supreme over all others, it was The Goonies. My mom took me to see it at The Alex theater in Glendale on its opening night in 1985. I remember the trailers and the anticipation. My expectations were exceeded. I watch it at least once a year and I own two copies on DVD.. The second copy came way of my husband buying a surprise copy while out shopping on our 2016 Orlando vacation. He saw the DVD on sale at Target and we introduced the kids to my favorite childhood movie, during a much needed "stay inside and enjoy the air-conditioning" afternoon. They became fans.

Although I grew up in Los Angeles and spent many years working at Universal Studios, I never get tired of movie magic. As soon as I learned that we were moving to the PNW, I started planning our day trip to Astoria: home of The Goonies!!!

We set out on the two-hour drive from Portland to Astoria on a cool day last May. Our first stop was lunch at the Elderberry Inn Restaurant.

The Elderberry Inn Restaurant is a greasy spoon with good burgers and great pies. It also has some fun decor on the exterior of the building, which is the real reason we stopped. If you see Bigfoot and an enormous frying pan, you have to stop.

The mighty Columbia River provided amazing views during our drive. We had to pull over to take pictures.

Finally, we reached Astoria and I was super excited. SO EXCITED!!! Look, it's the bowling alley where we first meet Chunk!

Obviously the Walsh house would be the ultimate place to visit. However, after reading up on the filming sites, it seems that the woman who owns the home has gotten fed up with fans stopping by and has taken action to alter the front of the home to make it less appealing. I'm a fan, but I'm also not a jerk. I can respect her right to privacy, so we didn't even attempt to stop by the house.

Instead, we went to the Oregon Film Museum.

Which happens to be inside of the former Clatsop County Jail, which you may recognize from the opening scene of The Goonies, with the Fratelli jail break!

and also used in the film..."O.R.V.- Bullet holes!"

Admission was six dollars for adults and at a leisurely pace, it took us about thirty minutes to enjoy the museum. It's small. A majority of the exhibits involve The Goonies, however there are also nods to other famous movies filmed in Oregon: The Shining, Kindergarten Cop, Short Circuit, Animal House, One Flew Over the Cockoo's Nest, and more... They have movie props and interactive exhibits, where you can film yourself reenacting scenes on a set or in a prop car.

But before we could enjoy the museum, we had to get booked.

Inside the jail cell where Jake faked his suicide, were props from The Goonies: Data's jacket and his little sister's bike that Brand borrows.

The mailbox from the Walsh house, the skeleton key, and Chester Copperpot's wallet were in a glass case. They even had one of the David statues with Mom's favorite piece intact.

We wrote a note for The Goonies and left it on the wall. I wonder if anyone involved with the movie ever actually visits the museum?

Unfortuantely, The Goonies arcade machine was either broken or turned off. I must seek this out and play it!

Hey you guys, I'm Reenacting the Fratelli car chase scene. It was kind of awkward with one person, but I used my drama school training to play all of the parts.

And that was all there was to see. There is a small gift shop, where I bought a magnet and a few stickers.

The Flavel House Museum, located across the street from the Oregon Film Museum, served as the exterior for "The Astoria Historical Museum", where Mr. Walsh was the curator in The Goonies.

On a different trip, we visited Cannon Beach, where the last scene of The Goonies was filmed. More on that in a future trip report.

After sightseeing in Astoria, we drove across the Astoria-Megler Bridge to cross into Washington State.

Just across the state border, we took in a short History lesson, learning about Clark's Dismal Nitch.

The sun was starting to set, so we hit the road for our two-hour journey back home to Portland. Astoria is absolutely worth the visit for fans of The Goonies. It's a quaint, pretty town for those who are not fans of the film. I'd love to go back, perhaps even stay at a bed and breakfast.

We rang in 2017 with Dan's family in England! This was my first time spending the holidays in England, so it was wonderful to both be with family and to experience British traditions. Dan's sister's family treated us to a pantomime show, my first ever! We did a family trip to the Cadbury Factory and went to Warwick Castle. The weather was cold, but after spending a few months living in Portland, I handled it like a pro, meaning I finally own cold- weather appropriate clothes.

The weather was bleak for most of our time in Portland. We bought a S.A.D. Lamp (which totally works) and popped vitamin D pills. I was not prepared for the affect that the seemingly endless days of grey skies would have on both my mood and energy levels. Coming from Los Angeles, I'm used to blue skies, sunshine, and things being open.

The weather shuts things down in Oregon. We had to wait until the late spring to experience many of the local national parks and theme parks. I love going to movies, but we really struggled to find winter activities that got us out of apartment that didn't include movie theaters, malls, and coffee. Again, all things I love, but growing up in Los Angeles, I definitely took for granted that living in a city with so many things to do. Portland is small. It doesn't have good sushi. It does have superior coffee.

All of the locals told us to wait until summer. I was a little worried, because more than one local (I took an informal poll from whomever we came in contact with) told us that the summer weather starts after July 4th. Yikes! We started having nice days in May and by June, it was beautiful out. We went to Mount St. Helen's National Park ( closed sept-may) and Mount Hood. We visited Multnomah Falls, The Bridge of the Gods, and the Bonneville Dam Fishery. The Bonneville Dam is actually a really cool spot, you can see salmon jumping over locks and view Lamphrey, a fish that is made of nightmares. Look it up. We visited Astoria and Cannon Beach to see filming sites from The Goonies. The summer weather was beautiful and everyone in town seemed happier.

We did get out of Portland a few times before summer. In February, we went to our home in Big Bear and had friends stay with us. In April, we spent a week in Las Vegas for Dan's annual work trade show. He worked hard and I sunbathed. At the end of our Vegas week, we hosted friends from Portland at our Big Bear home. During spring break, our friends from Big bear visited Portland and we went on a short trip to Salem with them to do wine tasting!

Zoe and Felix stayed with us for six weeks during the summer. We had two mini-vacations during their stay. The first was one a Princess Cruise to Alaska. We wanted them to experience Alaska and glaciers, plus being in Portland, this was an easy trip for us. I thought the highlight was a rafting excursion near the Mendenhall Glacier. I've always wanted to go white water rafting and although this was a fairly mild excursion, we did get on class 3 rapids. So much fun! Skagway was a favorite town, that Dan I didn't experience during our previous Alaska cruise. In Skagway we ate lunch in a former brothel and saw one of the longest running stage plays in America. We also went to an Iditarod training camp and held husky puppies. In Ketchikan, we watched "The Great Alaskan Lumberjack Show,"= think medieval times, but with lumberjacks. The cruise also did a scenic journey through Glacier Bay National Park.

The other mini-vacation was a week in Las Vegas for pool time and extreme heat. It's just not summer with out the desert heat. We visited the Hoover Dam and saw Criss Angel's latest magic show at Luxor. In Portland, we took the kids to The Oaks Amusement Park for rollerskating and rides. They really loved the Portland Children's Museum too. A highlight was Dan's company picnic, which was held at Providence Park, home of the Portland Timbers. We were allowed to run around on the soccer pitch, where Zoe did endless rounds of cartwheels.

The same day that Zoe and Felix left, my mother-in-law arrived for a three week visit. This was her first time in Portland, so we made the rounds of the tourist sites. My favorite was having tea with her at the Japanese gardens. It was my 40th birthday during her visit, so we made a quick trip to Big Bear, so that she could see the house that was remodeled and I could be in California.

A few days after my mother-in-law left, we had our friends (Dave, Cath, and pug, Jewels) visit for the eclipse. We decided against driving twenty minutes to be in the "Path of Totality" and only experienced 99% of the eclipse. That 1% makes a difference. There was so much light. It was still neat, but not life-altering, as people were mentioning on the news.

In late August, we moved back to Big Bear. I miss our friends made in Portland, but I'm really happy to be back home. In September, I got a job in social media and marketing for one of the local vacation rental companies. Dan splits his time working from home and traveling to Portland to be in his office. I'm still working on my novel, in the revision stage after meetings with my mentor. Life is busy!

In September, I had an amazing opportunity. My friend Ryan and his wife Shawna, brought me to Oklahoma City to take part in their Ricochet: a Storyteller's Show podcast. The whole experience was incredible. It was also my first time visiting Oklahoma. I spent a day sightseeing, including the very emotional Oklahoma City Memorial. Everyone should make an effort to visit the memorial. Also visit Oklahoma City, it's pretty and the people are very friendly!

We spent our 4th anniversary at the La Quinta Resort and Spa in Palm desert. The entire weekend was spent in the sunshine, poolside in the "Ginger Rogers" pool. It's a beautiful resort with old-Hollywood glamour.

Thanksgiving was spent with a mix of old and new friends staying at our house. It was a super fun weekend and the turkey turned out. The Sunday after Thanksgiving, we went to Portland for a week. Dan had bought me tickets to see Bill Murray for my birthday and he was fantastic. We didn't see many live shows in 2017. We saw John Cleese, which was a major let-down and The Game of Thrones in concert, which was very cool. I went to a book signing for one of my favorite authors, Fredrik Backman. I also got to see a free mini-concert when the Old 97's came to the Skype Studio, just two blocks from our apartment.

This Christmas and New Years, we will have Felix with us, for his first solo-trip without Zoe. It was a last minute trip, so we don't have any plans, but I know it will be fun to have him here. He loves snow, so hopefully we will have a white Christmas. (I'm writing this early to post in the future, as I know we will be super busy when he arrives.) 2017 was an all-around good year and I'm looking forward to discovering what 2018 brings!