Monday, June 29, 2009

Rounding out the rest of the trip....

Wanted to get the rest of the trip and a few photos up before I forget...

Matt's posted a bit of a slideshow on Picasa

From the California Redwoods, we headed up the coast of Oregon, staying in Newport and having dinner at Sylvia's Beach House. It's listed in 1,000 Places to See (I didn't know that before hand) but it was a great time and excellent, if not amazing, food.

Saw a gorgeous sunset over the beach from our hotel room (thank god for hotel rooms! and real beds and real showers that don't run on quarters).


Headed up to Seattle and stopped in Portland to Nathan and Penelope (and get the good news!). We arrived to see Rebecca and Maya and grab some grub at Matador (a cool bar/restaurant with awesome seating and decor) before Jeff got home.

Next day we spent with Jeff, getting delicious coffee and pastries (double baked almond croissant!) and I picked up a Lavender cupcake along the way. Went into Pike's Place Market but alas, Matt forgot the camera that day, so no photos.


Next day, we went to Alki and got more coffee and walked around the beach like neighborhood and by the time we were done, I was done with walking! We stopped at Lincoln Park and sat on a bench, chatting and relaxing before Jeff had to go to work. Matt and I then headed out on our on downtown to REI (the original store aka the mothership) and the the EMP (where we got in free because Matt's so darned cute!). Then back to West Seattle for some amazing pizza and ice cream (cupcakes were sold out dammit!).

Then headed to Crater Lake or more precisely, our campsite at Joseph Stewart. A stop for gas had me gloating that I got to use my Safeway points to save $.10 a gallon on gas! Yipppeee!!!!! That night we went to a "presentation" on civil war guns, etc as they were having a reinactment the next day.



Crater Lake the next day was amazing! I had a tough time walking at such high elevation but we managed to walk a bit and get some great shots and great views (from a rocking chair! too). The fog/wind/coldness started to come in, so we took a short drive and then headed back towards camp, stopping at a natural bridge and a little cafe for amazing pie!

We thought we might stay for a battle (civil war reinactment) on Sunday morning, but we were ready to head home...

All in all a great trip!

Sunday, June 14, 2009

A little Road Trip to Seattle

Day 1:
Left the house by 8:30am, with car re-positioning complete! Only left-behind item thus far is my SIGG bottle full of apple juice/water.

Turned off the 101 to get to the 1 around Cloverdale at which point Matt suggested we keep going until Boonville to get gas. Also around said time, he asked what my maximum mileage was on a tank of gas. I responded 305 last time I filled up and we were on, oh, about 325.

Matt swears he saw a fake horse, to which I debated heavily, resulting in a turn around to verify, by golly, that the horse had moved and was indeed real.

Coasted into Boonville thanks to 8% grade for next 2 miles. First pregnancy comment the minute I stepped out of the car.

Stopped by the Farmer's Market where they were giving away free kittens! Kittens!!!


Continued up the 1, stopped at a beach and saw a guy bring 3 large fish, of which one was a really red snapper, to his car. Also saw a girl put her dog on a boogie board and push him around- so cute!


As we were almost to the 101, we spotted the Drive Thru Tree!! Yeah! I couldn't believe it! It's still open. We drove through, we made it, we loved it!

Stopped in Arcata for dinner and had some yummy, yummy organic ice cream. One scoop of vanilla honey lavendar and one scoop of mint chip. Delish!

Saw a few elk, including a huge bull elk, in a meadow!


Got to our campsite, which rocks and backs up to a little babbling brook/creek. Started to put our tent up and a tent pole broke. We rigged it with 2 pens, a tent stake and duct tape. Thank goodness for duct tape.

Took a walk around camp, then played cribbage (Matt won) and then off to bed!