I’ve been missing the kind of posts I used to get to write, before I was outnumbered by my children and my craft books, so tonight I thought I would write about (but mostly post photos of) our absolutely stunningly beautiful trip down the Southern Oregon coast last week, on the way to Maker Faire. And then I have a favor to ask you at the end.

We drove to Yachats on Saturday morning and stayed 50 feet from the beach, with steps right down to the sand. The entire Oregon coastline is public, so you can wander as far as you want, rocks and cliffs permitting. It doesn’t get much better than this, when the sun is setting and it’s still so light and lovely out.

We went to Cape Perpetua to see the tidepools and hike around the cliffs. Super beautiful. If you have a chance to hang out here, I can’t recommend it enough… and it’s just $5 for a day pass.

Drove on to North Bend…

and then on to Coos Bay and deep into the woods to stay at the base of Golden and Silver Falls State Park for a couple of blissful days.

I made my magnet kits for Maker Faire and Powell’s

and collaborated with Pearl to spell out all our names with the scraps

and even got to work on my Oregon Trail cross-stitch.

Then we headed south again

to visit The Prehistoric Gardens in Port Orford.

Amazing!

After that adventure, we kept heading south

and stopped for a picnic just before Brookings.

Then it was on to Trees of Mystery, Eureka, the Bobbin’s Nest, San Francisco, and Maker Faire!

We headed back home just in time to visit our beautiful state capitol in Salem and deliver a petition Monday morning in support of SB 695, the BPA-Free Baby Bill, with a group of Oregon families. It was an amazing experience – we delivered copies of the petition to seven legislators, and met with four of them. Here we are (on the left!) with Representative Ben Cannon, a sponsor of the bill.

I’ve posted about working for a BPA ban before (in several of my 241 posts on Oregon!), when a similar bill lost narrowly in our Senate last year. This year, it passed the Senate handily, with bipartisan support (20-9, actually!) and its chances to become the law our state deserves looked so hopeful. However, through ugly back-room tactics, it has been permanently stuck in its committee instead of getting a fair chance for a full floor vote in the House, and will expire without drastic measures. Its only chance is if many House reps band together to bring it forward – a long shot, but one worth fighting for. I love our state – all of it – so much, and all of our children deserve the same access to safe products, not just the ones whose parents wear themselves out doing tedious research or live close to a big grocery store that carries BPA-free products by choice.

I know this is not everyone’s issue, but it is mine, and as a mother who wants to feel confident spending my money on safe baby products right here in my home state, I’m asking for your help. If you live here in Oregon and can take a minute to call or email your House rep today and ask him or her to help save the BPA-Free Baby Bill, I can’t tell you how much I’d appreciate it. You can read more about the bill here, find your rep’s info here, and quickly take action here. This is a big first step towards banning toxins from many other household products and it all starts with you.