SB: Friday

I am going to pre-apologize that this post is SOO long, but I had a hard time choosing pictures. This was probably my favorite day of our whole trip!

Friday morning, we woke up in Portland and decided to head to the coast. It was Luke's birthday too! :) Yay!! We had heard the Oregon coastline was gorgeous, so we had to go see for ourselves. :) This is a bridge that gets you in and out of Portland. I don't remember the name of it, but it goes over the Colombia River, which borders Washington and Oregon east to west.

This is a sight you don't really see in Texas! :) There are so many mountains, sometimes they have to cut a tunnel in the side of the mountain to let the highway pass through...

This isn't the best picture, but these logging trucks were everywhere. It was kindof scary driving next to them. (Have you seen "City of Angels?")

The road to the coast was windy and curvy, and went up and down and side to side, plus it was raining. It was a beautiful drive, but a little tense if you were the driver. Finally we made it to Cannon Beach! This is the cutest town I have ever been in. Lots of little shops and restaurants, art galleries, etc.

Zac, Luke, and Kayla walking down the street looking for a place to eat! Luke's choice, since it was his special day.

We passed this cute candy store, and they were making fresh caramel apples. Yum!

That's the outside of the candy store. Isn't it the prettiest thing you've ever seen? ;) If I ever open a shop, I will make sure it is very pink on the outside!

We decided to eat at Bill's Tavern, and it was a great choice...

The inside had cool murals,

and this chili-cheese dog on a cold, rainy day was awesome! I ordered this and Kayla ordered a hamburger and we split them and each had half. Both were delicious, but that burger was ah-MAY-zing! Delish!

They had a little fireplace inside, which was nice and cozy...

After our delicious lunch, we headed to the candy store. Luke bought abunch of Salt Water Taffy. I teased Zac by taking his picture with the caption (a candy bar) "Big Hunk."

We drove to a lookout point so you could see down on the beach. That large rock is called a Haystack Rock, and can be seen in the movie the Goonies! :) (that exact one! they filmed in Cannon Beach.)

Zac and I at the lookout...

We finally found a place to park and got on to the actual beach. I can not explain in words how COLD and windy it was. Brrr!

Luke and Kayla getting windblown too...

The coast was amazing. Mountains behind you, with tall tall trees, and then ocean in front of you, as far as the eye can see. It's indescribable.

We were happy, and giddy like little kids. I think the cold was making our bodies produce a little extra adrenaline too. haha.

beautiful!!!!

See that rock behind us? Luke got on it and said it was really cool, so I wanted to get on it too...

Unfortunately, it was scary to jump on it. The tide kept rushing up, plus the rock was kinda sharp and stuff, AND when Luke jumped on it, he split his pants. So I rolled up my pants (hoping to not get wet) and then I kept pulling my pants up so they would not rip. I bet I stood there a solid 20 minutes trying to pump myself up to jump on it, but I kept chickening out...

Finally Zac just ran and jumped up there, and so I did too. It was totally worth it! Look at these beautiful colorful starfish!

I always think of starfish as being white and stiff and hard, but these were definitely jiggly and moving and the prettiest shades of pink, purple, and orange! It's cool to see something like that in nature...



The big rock we were standing on was made of a million shells. I was wandering if I was hurting them by standing on them. Maybe we weren't supposed to stand on them. Oops.

Zac exploring the rock...

This is my view of the beach from the rock. See how much the tide came up?? We were stuck on the rock for awhile, and had to wait til the perfect time to jump back down. It was very fun though. :) I will never forget the hour we spent on that stretch of beach. It was the best!! :)



The wind made waves, and a bird takes flight...

pretty rocks, mountains, ocean, and birds



That says "Oregon March 2009"

Even though it was not sunny at all, the whole time we were at the beach, it started to lighten up a little on our drive home.

Woah! Look at that big momma cloud, though! Yikes!

Once we got back to Portland, to the apartment, Zac and Decided to go for a walk. These beautiful trees were everywhere in Portland, but this was at a park really close to their apartment.

This is the entrance to the park. It was cool. Very non-traditional park.

We found an entire block that was all Vegan stuff. Zac's brother Eli is vegan, so we were wishing he was with us. There was a vegan grocery store, vegan bakery, and a vegan clothing store.

When we got back from our walk, Kayla got back from Baskin Robbins, and we all sang Happy Birthday to Luke. :) He got a yummy ice cream cake with 31 candles on top. I think he was happily surprised! :)

Zac and I still had some stuff we wanted to do in Seattle that we didn't get to do on Wednesday, so after the birthday party, we packed up and headed back to Seattle. We had a wonderful stay with Luke and Kayla. Thank you both so much! Y'all were awesome tour guides, and the trip would not have been the same without getting to spend so much time with you guys! We love you! Come to Texas soon! :)

So as we made the trip back to Seattle, we crossed the Colombia River one last time...

Left Portland and Oregon,

and returned to Washington...all on one bridge! :)


At the end of the day we were pooped, but it was one of the best days ever. I didn't know you could enjoy a beach so much when the weather was in the low 40's...but it was awesome! :)

Saturday post, coming soon...

SB: Thursday

This is a map of our day...you might want to refer to it later, if you are unfamiliar with the area.

We woke up in Kent at Sharon, John, and Uncle Bill's house. We had gotten there in the dark, so it was treat to wake up and see how truly beautiful all the landscaping and nature was! They made a pond that has big fish in it, and they have just done amazing work all over the entire acre that their house is on.

Zac and I in front of the pond, with the house in the background.

The tallest trees I could ever imagine!!

Good Ole Uncle Bill is still a ladies man, what can I say?

John and Bill took us to this awesome restaurant in Maple Valley for breakfast. It is owned by a few sisters, and I loved the name of it...

We sat on this enclosed balcony that overlooks a salmon-fed river. They said in the summer it is even better, because it's not so COLD! :)

Wow! That is ALOT of food! Haha! I got the special of eggs, bacon, biscuits and gravy, and pancakes...it was delicious! Don't worry...I didn't eat it all. I probably didn't even eat half of it.

After breakfast we headed off for Portland, and Luke and Kayla. It was a rainy drive, but we got to see some typical Northwest landscape on the way down "The Five." (Up there instead of saying Highway 5, or I-5, they call it "the five"...we started doing it too!) If you look closely, you can see some bison (or buffalo...is there a difference?) in this picture.

It was so overcast, alot of times you could not even see the tops of the mountains...

We finally got to Portland! We saw Luke and Kayla's cute apartment and then pretty much immediately got back in the car to start exploring Portland, and then head to meet Kim and CreCre for dinner. (FYI-Luke and Zac are cousins because their dad's are brothers. Uncle Richard passed away last spring, but luckily his wife Kim and their daughter CreCre live close to Luke and Kayla so they get to see them often.) On the way to meet them for dinner, we made a few touristy stops. The first place was the Vista House, on the Colombia River. It is an elevated point that gives an awesome view of the mountains and water. It also provided a nice photo op...





This is what the actual Vista House looks like, but my picture doesn't do it justice...it's really neat. If you are interested, you should click on the link above.

The next stop was a little waterfall. I was impressed and thought it was so pretty.

Then we got to Multnomah Falls, and it was indescribable! HUGE, and loud and thundering. It made the previous waterfall seem like a little faucet drip, in compare. I have never seen anything like it!

It was raining quite a bit (look at the drops on Zac's face), so we didn't stay long, but it was awesome!

The drive went really quickly, due to beautiful scenery and great conversation. Before I knew it, we were in Hood River. Kim and CreCre live in The Dalles, so this was a nice meeting place. It was gorgeous too! Hood River is famous for being one of the world's best places to kitesurf and kiteboard due to it's "ideal wind and water conditions." We ate at a little microbrewery that had delicious burgers and a fantastic view...

This is what I got to stare at the entire meal. That little part of the river down there is where the water sports takes place. There were two or three people out on the water. The view reminded me (not completely, but alot) of Lake Louise in Canada. I think it's because the two mountains meet and there is pretty blue water at the bottom...who knows. :)

CreCre has grown so much since we last saw her! It was really fun to visit with her and Kim!

After dinner and a nice long visit we headed back to Portland. When we got back, we decided we all needed a walk. Zac and I had been in the car and sitting all day long. We walked to this famous Portland shop called "VooDoo Doughnuts." It was very funky and kinda gothic, and sorta reminded me of places I have been in Austin. I liked it. Funny fact: you can get married at Voodoo Doughnuts! :)



They are known for having bizarre types of doughnuts. This one Kayla got had maple syrup flavored icing, and big slice of bacon across the top. We were joking that doughnuts aren't healthy, but if you get a piece of bacon on top, the two unhealthies cancel each other out, and it suddenly becomes extra nutritious! :)

That one with the purple sprinkles is called Grape Ape. Half is sweet and half is sour. It was tasty. I think the sour side was because as the icing was cooling, they sprinkled kool-aid powder on top. It was a sweet but sour dusting...pretty good!

Finally, this was the Voodoo doughnut. it is in the shape of a person, with a stick in it. When you take the stick out, you are surprised to see that it is red and gooey on the end...haha, I guess it has some cherry filling. Very creative, people.

After our late snack we hit the sack. I tried to stay awake to watch Obama on Leno (which happens late on the west coast!), but I was so tired I think I fell asleep as soon as I laid down! Good thing I fell asleep easily...the next day was another fun action packed day. Blog to come shortly...