Today I was going through the tedious process of salvaging some photos off my Facebook when I realized that I never blogged about our Oregon trip. Thankfully, I uploaded about 70 photos from our trip to Facebook, so I could save them to my computer. Phew! Flipping through those photos really made me happy. We had such a fun trip.
Mark and I decided to go to Oregon because, well, it's one of my favorite places in the whole wide world and he's never been there before. My family used to go there every year, but because of my parents' mission and my school I hadn't been there for about 5 years. It was high time to go back! This was also the time when Mark found out that the internship in Munich wasn't going to work and we didn't know if we were going anywhere for the summer. So needless to say, we needed a break. We packed up the car over spring break and headed for the coast!
Welcome to Oregon!
Blech. Nasty snow in the Blue Mountains. Exactly what my dad warned me about. This section of our trip was definitely white knuckles on the steering wheel. The scariest part was going down the summit because the road was so steep. Boy, was I relieved when we finally made it out and down into the valley where it was raining!
Headed towards the Columbia. A break in the clouds. After this, I took a few pictures of the turbines along the Columbia River, then it was took dark to take any more. We made it to our hotel in Portland around 9 p.m. and were so excited for the next day!
Mark down by the Columbia River in Portland. We went to investigate the Saturday market in the city center.
Gorgeous.
I was so excited to see green grass, blooming trees, and clear skies after being stuck in Logan for the winter. Logan has nasty inversions and black snow that won't melt in March.
The "Made in Oregon" sign is behind there somewhere.
One part of the market.
After that, we made our way to Sweetpea Baking Company (a vegan bakery) and had a delicious lunch. It was so overwhelming to eat somewhere were I actually could eat any item if I wanted to. It was so hard to pick, but I decided on a vegan chickpea melt (supposed to be like a tuna melt). It was so good. Mark got a double stacker grilled cheese. Then I picked up a carrot cake cupcake on the way out. Yum!
After that, we decided to go to Multnomah Falls because we didn't know if we would have time for it later in the trip.
We accidently came across the old highway that runs between the current freeway and the mountain. It was gorgeous and I'm so glad we found it.
We also found Wahkeenah Falls, something else I'd never seen!
We hiked up to see it closer.
Then we went to see Multnomah!
A bearded Mark! It's so weird to see him with a beard. I'm so used to him being clean shaven for his internship now.
The next day we drove to Astoria. What a cute town!
Looking out to where the Columbia almost meets the Pacific.
The Astoria Tower
The Columbia and the Pacific Ocean!
The views from up top are phenomenal.
Of course, I had to get in some shots of Astoria, too.
It sure was windy up there. The only reason there's just a picture of me is because Mark was scared of getting anywhere near the railing and basically clutched the building the whole time. haha! Oh Mark. Soon after, we walked back down the tower and were safely on the ground again. :)
Ocean ho!
Next stop was Seaside. We had fun walking around the shops and strolling the beach.
After several unsuccessful attempts at a taking our own picture by the ocean, a nice lady came by and offered to take our picture for us. Thanks, kind lady!
Seaside beach
Canon Beach!
Mark and the coast!
This is one of my favorite stops along the coast. You can see so much.
Oceanside!
Cape Meares lighthouse. Some morons decided it would be cool to shoot out the windows and even the lens inside. :(
Mark took off his shoes so he could venture out in the ocean. This was his first time, and I think he's a little skeptical!
So cold!
We walked to the other side of the sand dunes and watched the waves for awhile. This is where my shoe almost took a fateful dive off the cliff into the ocean, but Mark climbed under the fence and rescued it for me. We had this all on video because it happened while I was filming the ocean, but sadly, it is lost. :(
Tierra Del Mar, where we usually stay in our relative's beach house.
The next morning as the sun was rising, we stopped by Cape Kiwanda to say goodbye before we headed home.
We had such an amazing trip and I'm thankful that I could salvage these photos from Facebook. There is something so amazing about the Oregon Coast that I don't think I can ever get enough of. It's a combination of the relaxed attitude, the nice people, the cool air, the green forests and the ocean that just make it so magical.
