Today’s giving: Picked up a garbage sack full of trash in the neighborhood before we departed for a little family tourist trip to Astoria, Oregon.

One way to make a family trip into even more of a giving (and interesting) experience is to try to work in some local history of the town or region.

Here in the Portland metro region we’re fortunate to have quite a few pivotal places in the history of the western U.S.: Fort Clatsop (Lewis and Clark’s fort by the Pacific), Fort Vancouver (Destination of the Oregon Trail Settlers), Oregon City (First incorporated city west of the Mississippi), and on and on. That’s not to mention everything one can find in the nearby metropolis of Seattle like the Seattle Underground Tour.

A few tips to make the history come alive for the kids:

• Make sure there are lots of hands-on activities. Our girls spent two hours doing the Jr. Ranger Program activity book today.
• Don’t worry about the stuff adults find interesting, go to what the kids like.
• Have fun. If one exhibit is boring, move to a new one.
• Watch the movie in the auditorium.
• Be interested in learning the history yourself.
• Make connections to what the kids see today.

After today’s trip, which included a stop at Fort Clatsop, one of my daughter’s said, “Boy, they sure can pack a lot of history into such a small place!”

And so can you.