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As promised, I am sharing with you our super awesome Goonies Adventure that we had over the summer!
My brother, dad and I all have RV’s, so we planned a family vacation traveling up through Oregon, Washington and Canada. My brother did a lot of research on fun attractions to hit along the way and just an hour and a half off our beaten path was Astoria, Oregon. We have both always been the biggest Goonies fans and we’ve passed that on to our kids as well. So naturally, we had to make a detour and visit the famous little town.
About a month before our trip, I was visiting my brother’s family in Arizona and he mentioned that he was going to dress up as “Mouth” on our trip. The wheels in my head began to turn and as I was counting it all up in my head, I realized we had the exact number of kids as there were Goonies. I guess I took the reins there (he says I stole his thunder, lol) and I wrote out a list of who each person could be for our upcoming trip. We only had 2 girls, which worked out perfectly for Andy and Steph. My boys were Mouth and Mikey, my 2 nephews went as Brandt and Data and my other 2 nephews made the perfect Chunk and Sloth. The baby was Sloth which worked out perfect because he was the only one bald and toothless. Ha ha! Obviously he’s way more adorable than the real Sloth.
With all of the kids roles filled, we had to figure out how to dress the adults in our group. We decided my dad and brother would be good as the Fratelli brothers. My dad is Italian, afterall. With limited female roles, that left me as the Mom. Ha! Obviously I’m the younger, slimmer version, lol. But it was fun to have that role and boss everyone around all day. Naturally, my sister-in-law (who is Hispanic) took on the role of Rosalita and since Jeff had a letterman’s jacket hanging in his closet, and since he’s always told how young he looks (lol) we decided he could go as Troy. Surprisingly, my dad and everyone else went along with my crazy idea and we spent the next couple of weeks visiting thrift shops with a list of clothing items we needed to complete our ensembles. It couldn’t have worked out better! The stars aligned for us and with a few alterations and a little creativity, we were able to pull off this epic adventure!
We spent the day visiting all of the Goonies spots, beginning with the bowling alley. At first, we were all feeling a little silly showing up in character. The kids were a little self conscious. I reminded them that they’d never see any of these people again, but this would make for a memorable adventure! And boy were we right!
All we needed for this scene was a milkshake. We didn’t think they’d appreciate milkshake all over their window though.
I found a visor at the thrift shop for a dollar, which I knew would be perfect for Troy! I embroidered “Astoria C.C.” on a piece of white fabric and glued it on his visor to make it legit! He wouldn’t let me baste yellow fabric over the collar of his jacket. Geesh. Some people just aren’t dedicated to their roles.
“If you do a bad job you’ll be locked in here with cockroaches for two weeks without food or water.”
Our next stop was at The Oregon Film Museum, which was also used as the jail in the opening scene of the movie. They had a 4 Runner there with bullet holes, so we had to get a picture of Chunk touching the bullet holes. The whole time, the kids were reenacting scenes and lines from the movies. It was pretty hilarious.
While we were outside taking pictures, other visitors and the museum docents were inside looking at us through the window. They were so amused by our costumes that they all came outside to take our pictures (we were stopped by several passerby-ers throughout the day for a photo shoot!) The museum people thought this was the greatest thing they’d ever seen. They said they’ve had people come dressed up as 1 or 2 characters before, but never as the whole cast. They were so impressed that they featured us on their Facebook page, AND they let us into the museum for free!! The kids ended up feeling like celebrities by the end of the day!
In the gift shop, they had to take a picture of Chunk with the infamous statue. We were all laughing so hard.
I made Data’s bullet sash thing by spray painting coin rolls, and then gluing them on a piece of felt. We used a safety pin to attach it to his torso. I thought that was pretty clever thinking, if I don’t say so myself. I didn’t have time (or money to invest) in sewing on patches like on the real Data jacket, so I found patch-looking stickers at The Dollar Tree and glued them on the jacket.
They each found their character inside the museum!
We walked around the town for a bit; it’s a really small town. Unfortunately, the people who own the Goonies house don’t like people walking up and taking pictures anymore. So we could only take a far away shot and zoom in.
We did visit the museum that Mr. Walsh worked at. There’s a scene with the Goonies riding their bikes past this museum, waving at Mikey’s dad.
We ended our day at Cannon Beach, which was a little bit of a drive from Astoria (I think it was half hour or so away). We didn’t walk down on the beach, but we took pictures with the rocks in the background; you know, the rocks where they lined up the pirate medallions. It was also the spot where the restaurant/Fratelli hideout was located, except that the restaurant was actually photoshopped into the scene. We had the boys reenact the scene skipping through the field towards the museum! Ha ha.
Of all the costumes, I think this is the one I am most proud of. I was STOKED when I found a long, yellow sweater at the thrift store. It was perfect!! I drew an “A” on a piece of blue felt and cut out arm bands as well and hot glued them both on the sweater. Then, just to be a little “extra” I embroidered Troy’s name on the sweater!! I had a hard time finding a white tennis skirt, but I found a white calf-length skirt which I bought and cut/re-hemmed. It ended up being perfect!! Aubrey was the perfect Andy!
My son, Ryder, and niece, Adri, made the perfect Mouth and Steph. In real life, these two are BFF’s. They love each other to death. They also bicker like an old married couple at times; or, like Mouth and Steph. I got really lucky finding both of their jackets at Savers. I made Steph’s scarf out of red felt (no sew!!) and safety-pinned a pink ribbon for a belt.
I had been waiting all day to reenact this scene with my brother; where Mama Fratelli smacks Francis across the face. Joe wasn’t amused.
The only costume we didn’t make/piece together was the Chunk costume. My brother found a costume on Amazon that was way too good to pass up! It isn’t listed on there anymore, but as soon as it is available again, I will link it up for you! I did come across some other cool Goonies wear, including a Sloth mask! How cool is that? (And also a little bit creepy)
So what do you think of our Goonies adventure? It was definitely an adventure that we will always remember. When ask our kids what their favorite day of vacation was, they all answer that it was The Goonies Day!
