To celebrate my 43rd birthday, we went to the End of the Oregon Trail Interpretive Center. We had never been, but we knew the Oregon Trail (and Oregon history in general) is taught in 4th grade, which is the grade Samson is in.
We went to the Oregon Trail Interpretive Center in Baker County last year, and the kids loved it, so we knew this would be a winner too (walking on the actual trail was genuinely cool).
One pleasant surprise: it’s a HIGHLY interactive place. For example, we dressed up in the types of clothes travelers wore, packed a wagon, made candles, wrote on old classroom-style chalkboards, built mini-log cabins, and watched some history-focused movies. It was a few hours of genuine fun and exploring. I recommend checking it out.
As an added bonus, we got paper maps, and Samson got to experience the joy of finding a location on the hood of a car.
Doing Fun Things On My Birthday
For years, we struggled with the classic problem of never visiting cool places near where you live because you can always get to it “some day.” But because you can “always” do it, you never do. I remember saying that about Silver Falls State Park (famous for the Trail of Ten Falls) when I lived in Salem... I didn’t visit until after I moved away from Salem!
So, since my birthday isn’t near any holidays, isn’t during summer break, and the weather is typically decent, it’s become the perfect excuse for us to visit some of those places. It started with the Oregon Coast Aquarium, then the Oregon Zoo, OMSI, hiking Bald Hill (we kept it simple thanks to COVID), the North American Aerospace Museum, riding the train to Portland, going to an OSU football game, driving Oregon’s Wildlife Safari, OMSI again + the USS Blueback Submarine, and now the End of the Oregon Trail.
That’s a fun list of experiences for the kids (and us adults). I’m glad my family bought into doing something fun for my birthday. I’m not sure what we’ll do next year, but I know it’ll be fun!