My weekend trip to Oregon to stay in a floating home with my cousin was a nice quick trip to just get away and try to reset.

I took this trip just a few short months after we lost my stepson to suicide and I was in desperate need of some time away from home to heal in a different environment.To catch up on what happened in our family, you can read my post WHEN MY STEPSON COMPLETED SUICIDE.

I traveled during the winter months and still during the pandemic, as you can see from my images.

A FLOATING HOME AND A MOORIDGE

While I was in Oregon, I stayed in a floating home. When my cousin told me, I thought that she meant a ‘Houseboat’ and that she was just saying it weird. But, a houseboat and a floating home a very different. A floating home is a real home that is docked in a morridge.

A mooridge is a floating home “neighborhood”. It is a stationary “docking” area for floating homes to connect to and rent space and utilities from.

And based on my research, I have not found many mooridges–or flowing homes, for that matter–outside of the Pacific Northwest. If anyone can enlighten me as to why, it would be interesting to know.

I found it fascinating to wonder about how the utilities function in such a wet environment. Again, if anyone has insight, I would love to know how it all works out. You can see the utilities in the following image gallery.

And, just the overall engineering and architecture of a floating home held my curiosity for my entire stay.

BEST TIME TO ENJOY A FLOATING HOME

Since I traveled to Oregon during the winter months, I wasn’t able to get the full ‘floating home experience’, but we were able to sit in the hot tub and watch the sunset over the river, in the evenings.

It wasn’t cold enough for nice snowy days, but winter and cold enough for it to drizzle and rain for my entire stay. So, not only was I not able to enjoy the floating home like one would do during the summer months, it rained too much to see much of Oregon, in general.

Summers on the floating home normally include cookouts on the back deck, fishing, boating and kayaking right out the back door and warm nights listening to the river boats traveling down the river to the ocean.

INTERESTING FACTS ABOUT FLOATING HOMES

• A floating home must be docked in a mooridge where you rent slip space
• One can move their home from mooridge to mooridge by hiring a company to move it up or down river
• A floating home is built on a typical floor joist system which rests on large timber logs that float in the water
• Floating homes are typically built on the water versus on land and later transported to the water

• If a floating home is not resting on log timbers, they can also rest on flotation devices or ballasts
• Floating homes are in danger of tipping if the flotation devices are unbalanced or if a large boat or barge goes by creating a large wake
• You don’t often feel it, but a floating home does rock and move on the water
• Very rarely is a floating home fully level
• The interior of a floating home looks and feels just like any other home

A floating home tipping in this manner can be the cause of too much heavy furniture on one side of the home, heavy amounts of snow on only one side of the home, or malfunctioning flotation devices under the home. The logs and flotation ballasts have to be inspected regularly to protect this from happening.

THINGS THAT I DID WHILE IN PORTLAND, OREGON

I had really big plans, but the pandemic and the weather prohibited nearly every single thing that I wanted to do. It rained so much, but we did have a short window of dry weather on a few of the days. So, we headed out every chance that we got.

WALKED THROUGH PORTLAND NEIGHBORHOODS

We were stuck indoors so much of my stay that when we saw a break in the clouds we headed back into town to walk through several of the beautiful neighborhoods in Portland. It is very steep in most areas. So, we climbed so many staircases in between the homes. I got a great workout in…and saw gorgeous architecture, as well!

And, we needed it considering that one of our other outings was to hit Voodoo Doughnut.

VISITED VOODOO DOUGHNUT

This is must. If you are ever in Portland, Oregon, you have to grab some doughnuts from Voodoo Doughnuts. The selection is insane and the flavors are so outrageously amazing.

I ended up buying four doughnuts and eating them all.

I definitely canceled out my workout! And, I loved every single bite of it.

Look at those doughnuts!

VISITED CANNON BEACH ON THE WEST COAST

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Visiting the West Coast of Oregon was the highlight for me. I did not want to go to Oregon and not travel to see the West Coast.

It was such a cloudy day, though. The forecast opened up a couple of hours of no rain. So, we jumped in the car and rushed to the coast trying to beat the next downpour. But, it wasn’t long after we got there that the rain came in from out in the ocean. I was getting too friendly with everyone, anyway. My cousin didn’t think that I was honoring the 6 foot distance well enough. haha.

Therefore, our trip was cut short.

*I did have a cute moment with this pretty dog. His owners had been throwing a ball with him while they pushed their stroller down the beach. He decided that he wanted me to play, too, and came up and dropped his ball to play.

To visit our photo session from the beach go to my portfolio post. Click on: OREGON PHOTO SHOOT

This may sound silly, but I was so fascinated by these signs that were at the coast. They are evacuation signs in the event of a tsunami. Tsunami? That sounds like something that would happen far, far away.

Or, I oftentimes think that our elevation is too high for that…I don’t know. I just never see Tsunami signs on the East coast. So, that just fascinated me, as silly as it may sound.

It didn’t take more than a two minute drive to ascend high enough to be out of any tsunami danger, though.

Why are there tsunami warning signs in The Pacific Northwest and not on the East Coast, like in Florida?

A tsunami is created by an earthquake in the water–or at sea. An inland earthquake is rarely–if ever–going to cause a tsunami.

The east coast does not have the seismic activity or seismic potential that The Pacific Northwest has. Thus increasing the potential for tsunami’s.

CELEBRATED NEW YEARS

It wasn’t how I had celebrated New Years any of the previous years, but with all that had been going on in our personal lives and with the pandemic, it was a nice change to just sit outside under the stars with my cousin.

WATCHED MY SON GET ENGAGED

I got the phone call while in Oregon that my son was going to propose to his girlfriend as soon as it was 12:01 of 2021.

He had originally planned to do a surprise proposal when I was back home and could help and, also, photograph it; but, he decided that he wanted to do it that night, instead.

Welcome to being the mom of boys…

I was so sad that I was going to miss it. Luckily, my husband was at the same New Years party as was able to Facetime with me so that I could watch it.

MY TRAVEL BUDGET

This was a simple trip on a small budget. The weather and the pandemic kept us from doing anything that would cost money, too. So, my expenses were limited to direct travel expenses and food.

We are planning on heading back to Portland in the summer for a family vacation. If you have any tidbits to help or suggestions, please add them in the comments. Also, let me know which is your favorite doughnut from Voodoo Doughnut!

And, please, on your way out subscribe to my blog to hear what we have been up to!