We went to America for a vacation in June and July in 2026. I already wrote a post about our trip to Disneyland and Universal Studios, and our train ride on the Coast Starlight from Los Angeles to Portland. this catches up on the rest, from Portland and our travels in Washington State.

2025-06-29 Sunday

We arrived in Portland June 29th on the Coast Starlight sleeper train from Los Angeles. That was a fun trip in itself, about which I’ve already written.

Dad and Jana met us at Portland Union Station a few minutes after arrived. We didn’t have enough space in those two cars for our eleven person party, so I took an Uber with Lisa and some luggage to the McMenamins EdgeField Hotel. It’s a very interesting property – it used to be a Poor Farm, and then later revived as a McMenamins property. We had a large group staying here:

• The four person Tanaka-Evans family, myself, Lisa, Alan, and Momo.
• The three person Huang-Evans family, Alana, Rei, and Scott.
• The three person Rosichelli-Evans family, Jana, Marco, and Greyson.
• Jon Rosichelli, Marco’s older brother.
• The two person group of my father and his friend Etta.

We all had dinner together at the delicious Black Rabbit House restaurant on the property. Their chicken wings were very good, a nice sweet fried chicken starter. I also had one of the locals beers, a Raspberry Stout I think. Quite nice.

2025-06-30 Monday

Monday morning we had Liz, a local professional photographer that we hired, come by for photos. We had an hour of photos from 8:30am. We all made it in time. After that, we slowly planned the rest of the afternoon. Dad, Etta, myself, Lisa, Momo, Alan, and Rei headed to Elmer’s for breakfast. It seemed quite similar to Denny’s, and was nice!

Then my car drove into Portland to go to Powell’s Books in the city, a famous and huge books store. Alana’s group was using Uber, since we also needed to pick up another car. She went to do that, and then we all met up at Powell’s. After lots of book shopping, we then took a ten minute walk down to the downtown location of Voodoo Doughnut to get some doughnuts.

We brought the doughnuts back to the hotel, and met up with everyone else. The kids played together, and later watched “How to Train Your Dragon” at the movie theater. We had dinner outside, breaking open one of our Tsillian Winery bottles that we brought with us. These were the bottles we bought last year but that didn’t reach Alana’s house in time for us to catch our flight back to Japan.

Our room was quite hot when we got back after dinner. I recommend not getting a 3rd floor room if you stay here, or check to make sure that your room has good air conditioning. It was difficult to sleep (there was a similar situation last night) but at about 5am I fell into a deeper slumber when it cooled off more.

2025-07-01 Tuesday

Today we didn’t have any early morning plans, so we took a more relaxed approach to thing. In the morning Dad took Etta to the airport, and returned with muffins and fruit, so we had breakfast. We also had some leftover doughnuts, so ate some of those.

The kids were interested in trying the bathing pool, so at about 10:30am we headed out there. It was a very warm pool – hot almost. It’s salt water so you float a bit easier. A bit past noon, we got out and went to get lunch at the Power Station restaurant which is housed in the old power station for the property.

In the afternoon the women had appointments at the Spa, so I watched the kids at the bathing pool. Eventually the kids were done, and we headed back up to the rooms. In the early afternoon the room wasn’t too hot yet – I had opened up the window as much as I could, and then prior to going to the pools closed it – but after a few hours, things got pretty hot. I called the women, and we met up in the early evening for dinner with the whole group. We finished that up at close to 9pm – so pretty early compared to last night! – and I took Momo and got her ready for bed / went to sleep. I think Alan returned at like 10:30pm from where the other kids were playing.

2025-07-02 Wednesday

Today the plan was to drive from Portland to Omak. That is about a five and half hour drive. We got on the road at about 9:30am, and made a stop at a gas station for fuel and a bio break at about 11:30am. We had lunch at Sweet Bees Restaurant in Yakima, which Lisa discovered through some internet searches. It was nice, and the staff was very friendly. We made a stop at Ephrata at a Starbucks there a bit before 4pm so dad could hop on a meeting, and we had a nice hour long break there. We got into the hotel at Omak at about 7pm. Dad and I went for a walk around where he used to live as a kid, and ran into a 17 year old who lived there (she just pulled in as we were walking past). Turns out they are selling the place. It was a fun conversation. We got back at 9pm, and rushed over to the Subway across from the hotel to get dinner before they closed at 9:30pm.

It stays light out until at least 9:30pm, so I’ve been trying to slide my bedtime later. I went to bed at midnight.

2025-07-03 Thursday

We woke up and just barely got through breakfast, which ended at 9am. We got in about 10 minutes before it ended, and some of us closer to three minutes. After breakfast Dad and Alana went for a walk around Omak and then took the kids shopping, where they bought a bunch of nail polish. In the afternoon we went to Brewster and Jessie had lots of people over for dinner. Lots of good food and conversation. We also did our laundry there. We always go over there, do our laundry, drink their beer and eat the their meat, and then go back to our hotel. Just about every year! We stayed until faily late in the evening, and got back to the hotel at about 11pm.

2025-07-04 Friday

Happy Fourth of July! We got up in time to have breakfast – about 8:30am this time – and headed out to Brewster after that. We got there with a bit of time to spare before the 10:00am Brewster Parade, which we’ve done for many years now. Lots of fun. Afterwards we spent some time at Jessie’s place (we had more laundry to do), some time down at the park where there were booths selling food and other things, and had a late lunch at Jessie’s. In the afternoon we went back to the hotel where I took the kids swimming for an hour, and then we went to Phyllis and Ty’s place (Phyllis is a friend of dad’s) who lives on a hill overlooking Omak to watch the fireworks.

2025-07-05 Saturday

We had breakfast at the hotel, and checked out at about 10:40am. Dad called a friend (Dennis) who came to pick him up after breakfast, we took a bit of time to relax and then pack up. I took Alan and Rei to pick up Dad at his friend’s place, who had some nice cars. A 1955 Bel Aire and a 1969 Corvette among them. Then we went to Jim and Maxine’s place to visit with them for a while.

We stopped for gas in Brewster, and then drove on to Blueberry Hills Farm for lunch. I found that place last year, thinking that Lisa might like it, and she liked it enough to return this year. On the drive from Brewster we saw a fire up on the hill, and a helicopter dumping water on it. Pretty crazy. We’re staying at the Apple Inn Motel in Chelan, which has been around for a long time.

Later in the evening, even though we were not that hungry, we decided to go to Tsillian Cellars (pronounced Chelan Cellars apparently?) to check out their wine and get a light dinner. Dad and Rei stayed at the hotel and went to a nearby vegetarian restaurant. It turns out – and I should have realized this – the Tsillian Cellars is very busy on the day after the Fourth of July on the weekend. So we couldn’t get dinner there. The wine room was open, but they stop serving light snacks at 7pm, and close at 8pm. It was 7:30pm at the time, so we decided to find something else.

We headed just a bit down the road to the Even Keel Roadhouse. They had a band playing, and it was someone’s 21st birthday, so that place was pretty full too. They had a nice yard for kids to play in, and a big garage so we sat down and had a light dinner. Salads and the like. It was nice. I had a glass of local Merlot which was nice, and Lisa had the Stowaway Pale Ale from the Methow Old School House Brewery. I’m surprised that so many things close so early in Chelan.

2025-07-06 Sunday

We had a slower start to the day today – I got a full eight or more hours of sleep. Alana went out and got coffee in the morning. We all left the hotel at around 11am to go to Safeway, where we bought supplies for a picnic, and then went to Dan Morse memorial park for a picnic lunch. Parking is always tough in Chelan, but we got to the park early enough that we were able to pay for parking at the parking lot. I took Dad back to the hotel after lunch while the kids played at the park and in the lake. On the way back I had to circle the parking lot for about 20 minutes to find another spot (we had paid for 2 hours parking, good until 14:30pm). Basically by the time we parked I had enough time to go down to the lake to find my family, and then start getting people ready to go back to the hotel to pick up dad.

After that, we went to Wenatchee to visit with Uncle Butch and his family, followed by a 5pm dinner at Applebee’s with Aunt Sandee and others that could make it from the family.

2025-07-07 Monday

We had a fairly leisurely morning, checked out of the hotel, and drove a few hours to Leavenworth.

On the way, we stopped by dad’s friend’s Dick and Marsha’s place on the lake. The kids got out on the lake for a bit in a canoe and a float, while Alan, Momo, and Lisa did some fishing off the dock.

We had a 13:30 appointment for River Tubing with Leavenworth Outdoor Center. We got there at about 13:10, and Dad took the car on to the Carvitto’s place, where we would stay the night.

River tubing was fun! I did that last year with just Momo and Alan, since Lisa caught Covid and had to stay behind for a week. So this was Lisa’s first time, as well as Alana, Scott, and Rei. It was a lot of fun – we took a bit over 1 hour and 30 minutes to do the float. A lot of the time — more than I expected — Scott was in the water pulling our tubes, but that is what he enjoyed so it was good.

After tubing, everyone was hungry – we drove straight through lunch, and for breakfast we just ate the stuff that we had leftover from the previous day’s picnic. We went to Viscont’s, the Italian place we like in downtown Leavenworth. We thought about trying to get a more dinner timed meal with dad and the Carvitto’s, but the kids were quite hungry so we thought this was the best course of action. Dinner was great, I have no complaints.

After dinner, Lisa and I visited the Icicle Winery tasting room and tried a flight of wine. I really liked their Merlot and Perfect Pear wine. We bought some bottles that we will have to find a way to take home, and then walked over to the WhistlePunk Ice Cream shop, where we had some great ice cream. And some of the kids bought books at the book store.

We only had one car since Dad had taken the other one, so we put the wine into the car, Alana took all the kids to the Carvitto’s, and Lisa and I had a nice hour long walk to their place. It was nice spending some time with Lisa. We have hardly had any time together since we are in separate cars we just don’t get to talk much.

We had a relaxing and fun evening with the Carvitto family before turning in to bed. Alan and I tried to get out to see the start a bit past 10pm, but it was still too early yet. We were too tired to try to get out at midnight to see the stars. Every time I come out to Washington I want to try to see the stars and every night there is a good opportunity I’m way too tired to actually do it.

2025-07-08 Tuesday

Two days left before we fly back to Japan.

We had a relaxing morning at the Carvitto’s place and Jim made excellent pancakes while Jo made amazing coffee. I wanted to leave at 11am, but we didn’t get going until closer to 11:30am.

First stop was the Weaver household. It took about two hours and a bit to get there – we were late in leaving, but arrived around 2pm. I wanted to leave at 3pm, since it would be an hour to get to the hotel and dad had a 4pm meeting he wanted to join. We visited with the Weavers, who were in the midst of having their wood flooring worked on. They kindly provided us with some ice cream and drinks before we hit the road at about 3pm. We just made it to the hotel by 4pm, and dad made his meeting on time.

At about 5:30pm we had plans to meet with Jon Evans in Lincoln Park, but stopped at Trader Joe’s to get some drinks and were a good 10 minutes late. Still, not too bad overall! We had a great pizza dinner – that ice cream really put in work in tiding us all over since we didn’t have a real lunch – along with a nice view of the Sound (apparently, it is not a Bay?) and the kids had a lot of fun playing in the water and on the swings. As the kids really started to be affected by Hay Fever, or allergies, we packed up and went to Husky Deli for Ice Cream. They’ve apparently been in that location since 1932 and making great ice cream. Definitely a new find. We said our goodbyes, and wrapped up our pentultimate day in America for this trip.

2025-07-09 Wednesday in Seattle

This was our full day in Seattle. I asked the kids what they wanted to do, and they said they wanted to go to the Space Needle. Alana found an Asian Comics: Evolution of an Art Form exhibition at the Museum of Pop Culture, which is right there down by the Space Needle, so in the morning we headed there. The kids really wanted to go to the top of the Space Needle, which we have done before so I wasn’t planning on doing that, but we did. It was expensive! It’s like $40 per person to go up! We spent more time there than I expected though, the kids liked it, and the views are great. We got some snacks and drinks at the cafe up there, which isn’t great from a price-performance point of view, but it was nice to have a drink with the view. Next time, I’ll try to remember to get food and drinks and then go downstairs – the downstairs part had tables and chairs and was comparatively empty.

After we finished our time with the Space Needle at about 13:30, then went to the Museum. This used to be a museum just focused on music, but now is more about general pop culture, which is great. We could have spent all day here for sure. The special exhibit on Manga was fun. There was also a Fantasy exhibit that the kids liked. We really rushed through things since at 4pm my family was meeting Michel Galley and his family for dinner. So we left in time for that, and had a nice dinner at the Cuidad Grill. After that we went to a park, and then a nearby Tai-Yaki / Ice Cream shop. Then we headed back to the hotel to pack up for our flight and a night of hopefully good rest.

2025-07-10 Thursday in Seattle

Thursday is our travel day back to Japan. Dad has an earlier flight, and wanted to be at the airport before 8am. Our flight was at 11:50am, so we wanted to leave at about 8:30am. I think at about 7:30am I took dad, filled up the car with gas, and dropped him off at the airport. By the time I got back, everyone else was more or less ready to go, so we packed up the two cars, and went. Car rental return wasn’t a problem, but my family and Alana’s family needed to take different busses. We said our goodbyes, and went to the airport. We were successfully able to check all our luggage, which surprised me a bit. We had two large suitcases (52 and 42 on the scale, though I don’t know what unit they were in), one small suitcase, Momo’s car seat, and a cardboard box of four wine bottles. I wasn’t sure if they would take that, but they did, and it also survived the trip just fine. There was a long security line, but we got through it with time to spare. We boarded on the 8th and final group, so had a long wait, but we got on the plane and made it home. We again were split up as 3 and 1, so I was on my own again. I watched a few movies (Mickey 17, Love Hurts, and Guardians of the Galaxy) and tried to get some rest.

When we arrived at Haneda we didn’t have any problems going through customs or immigration, though we were exhausted by the end of it as usual. The bus to Shinagawa Seaside would have been an hour wait, so we took a taxi which was like 15 minutes and 4000 JPY. We had dinner at Lisa’s parent’s place, and finally got to sleep in our bed.

On Saturday (now the next day) we head to Enoshima to meet up with Eric Han and his family and Ron DeVilla and his family for three days. With three weeks of hard travel already that isn’t great timing, but it should be fun!