Day 6 - Happy Hump Day!

I can’t believe it’s Wednesday already!  Wow time flies.  We are having a great time.  The weather has been beautiful which makes it even better!  Today we went into Seaside to explore.  It’s kind of like a carnival themed town.  There is a carousal and some carnival games and rides.  It’s pretty fun.  We were going to ride the carousal until we saw how fast it went.  After my day yesterday of windy roads and pepto bismal, I decided it wasn’t for me.  Not to mention the greasy hands of the children who were riding it.  We took a picture in front of it none the less.

We wandered around Seaside for awhile and went into some fun little shops.  It’s very touristy of course but the views at the beach were once again pretty amazing. We stopped for a few photo

ops and ran into a VERY scary shark! He tried to bite Trent’s face off!!

Very scary shark!!

We spent some time taking in the sights and stopping in at some fun little shops.  I even bought a kite to fly on the beach!  We decided to stop for lunch at a seafood house as the guys were craving chowder.  The food wonderful!  After filling ourselves up on seafood we headed for Cannon Beach.

Cannon Beach is one of the cutest towns I have been to.  The shops are very quaint and the town alone is beautiful.  Our first stop was the fish market where we picked up some canned tuna that is local fresh tuna and canned in Cannon Beach.  It’s supposed to be the best tuna ever! Next we wandered through a few shops and headed for the Cannon Beach Farmers Market.  It was a total organic market and the produce was great.  There was wine tasting so of course we did that and bought a bottle of wine.  Trent saw a couple of puffins at sea! 

A very demure Trent and the puffins!!

 After walking around the market, we went to the beach for some fun in the sand.  Dad and Mumsey headed back to camp and to pee the girls, while we went to snap some ocean pics!

I should mention that the weather is sunny and quite warm in the sun but the wind is crazy!  One minute you are sweating and the next you are freezing.  We walked down towards the beach and the haystack rock from the Goonies movie!  

Amazing!!

It was pretty breathtaking!  We played on the beach for awhile and snapped some shots around haystack rock.  
 

We have heard from a lot of people that Oregon can be quite foggy in  September.  So far, so good for us!  There was a little fog rolling through the campground this morning, but other than that we haven’t experienced any bad weather!  Fingers crossed that it keeps up!

After playing on the beach for awhile our ears were getting pretty cold and the wind was throwing us off a bit so we decided to head back to the campsite.

Along the way we stopped at the Ecola State Park and viewpoint.  Brooke heard that the views from the park were pretty spectacular and that you could see the lighthouse in the water.

We wound through this tight little road for what seemed like forever.  Good thing we weren’t hauling the trailer through there!  The views were out of this world and not a speck of fog!  Well look at that!  Brooke and I spotted the lighthouse!

We left Ecola and headed back to camp.  Our plan was to have a weenie roast and fire on the beach so we fed the girls, had a drink and packed up and headed for the beach to watch the sunset and roast weenies.  The wind was howling, but it didn’t stop us!  We found a spot and I let Sophie off her leash.  Well that was a big mistake.  The night before she was so good but tonight…….completely different story as there were birds all over!  She chased a bird so far down the beach and into the water we honestly thought she was going to kill herself.  We were so lucky a wave didn’t come crashing in and take her out to sea!  Little Sophie of the Sea finally came to be and I snapped that leash on her and chocked her out.  She was dying to run but that’s not going to happen again! She is sooo bad ass! 

It was too windy for a fire so we stuck to a drink and kite flying while watching the amazing sunset.  It was absolutely breathtaking!!

Here is a picture of Mumsey having her hand at flying the kite with Trent and Pops.  

We enjoyed watching the sunset but had to come back to camp to roast the weenies and have smores. 

After a couple drinks, the windy day had the best of us and we were all off for bed.  But not before having a mama deer and her two babies visit us at the site!  The girls didn’t spot them so they didn’t freak out which was nice!

Today we are heading into Astoria.  There is a place with fish and chips that is supposed to be to die for.  They use fresh tuna in the fish and chips so we are going to check that out.  Rumour has it that they start lining up at around 11 so we will have to get there early! 

We are also going to check out the Goonies house as Astoria and Cannon Beach are where the movie was filmed.  There is a Maritime museum we heard was great so we will stop there as well as check out the civil war site at Fort Stevens.  It should be another fun filled day so I will post pics of our fun!  Hopefully I can find some wifi and get this shit posted!  Have a great day everyone!!

Day 4 and 5 - Fort Stevens!!

I hope everyone is having fun at work so far this week because we are!!

Dirty Flasher with a Fu Man Chu!

Yesterday we left Troutdale and headed for the coast and Fort Stevens State Park where we are staying for three nights.  The drive from Troutdale to Portland was quick and then the fun began!  Tom Tom isn’t working and he is really pissing me off.  I think he’s actually dead.  Anyways, I was able to Mapquest the fastest route to the coast so we took Mapquest’s word for it.  We had to take left exits and right exits and the route took us through the bowels of Portland.  On the upside we were lucky enough to go through China town and see a flasher!! 

The roads were very narrow and had overhanging trees which were trimmed for high vehicles.  As we wound through the streets and took yet another exit, we were finally on a straighter road to the coast.  Or at least we thought.  We wound through a forested area for well over an hour and a half.  The drive was really pretty.

Driving through the bowels of Portland

I was getting motion sickness and had a bag at the ready.  Nothing a little Pepto Bismal couldn’t fix. 

We finally hit the coast highway and rolled through Seaside.  We stopped at the Safeway to grab some groceries and left Pops outside with the girls.  When we came out, he had met a little friend friend.  A state trooper pulled up just to chat and entertained him while we shopped.  Pops found out all about his family and kids and the guy wouldn’t shut up.  On the upside, he made a phone call and made an appointment for Dad and Mumsey to get their muffler looked at today at 1:00!  After he told a few bad jokes which made it feel like an improv comedy hour, we headed for Fort Stevens.  The park is HUGE.  Our site is really nice with grass for the girls.  We had happy hour, cooked dinner and as we were cleaning up I said that I really wanted to go see the beach.  Nobody else felt like going so Trent and I drove down to the ship wreck and took Sophie for her first ocean experience. 

The ship wreck at Fort Stevens

The beach is about a mile away in the park.  We parked and within 10 feet you are on the beach.  The view was out of this world!!  

We let Sophie off leash and she went NUTS!!!  She ran as fast as she could and ran until she couldn’t see us anymore then turned back and went the other way!  She rolled and played with another dog and even had a poop on the beach!  We picked it up of course. 

We watched the sunset and the tide come in and took some beautiful pics.  It was absolutely breathtaking.

Sophie running the beach in the sunset!

There was an annoying guy who was crouched down taking a picture right in the middle of the beach and close to the ship wreck.  It turned out he was actually filming the sunset.  He was crouched for about half an hour.  Sophie ran over to him and he jumped up and ruined his shot!  Hahaha douchebag shouldn’t have been hogging the good view anyways! 

After Soph ran for a half hour straight, it was dark and we decided to head back to camp.  Everyone was jealous they didn’t come with us and we plan on going back tonight.  We are hoping to have a fire and weenie roast on the beach and watch the sunset either tonight or tomorrow night.

We don’t have wifi here, so I will post when I can.  I will take lots of shots to share!  Have a wonderful day!!

Trent and Sophie of the Sea

Happy Monday!

I hope everyone had a wonderful weekend!!

We are in Troutdale, Oregon!  We arrived at about 10:30 yesterday morning and stopped at the only RV park in town.  They don't allow tents so we had Brooke and Chad bunk in with us.  It was close quarters with the girls but it was fun none the less.

I don't have many pictures to share from our day because all we did was shop.  The outlets here were a little on the ghetto side but hey, no tax is no tax!  We managed to pick up a few deals which was great.  Gotta love Jockey $1.97 underwear!!

Sorry to keep the post short but I will post more later when the action begins!  We are hoping to get out of Troutdale on the early side today and drive the 2.5 hours to Fort Stevens.  We will be there for three nights exploring the area so there will be lots of pics!

I hope everyone has a great Monday and I will leave you with a little fun......no.....not a pic of my new hat!

Trent having a little Halloween fun in his Freddy Kruger sweater!








And oh wait!  It IS a picture of my new hat!!

Day 2 and 3!

WE ARE IN OREGON!!!

This is us in Leavonworth, not Oregon, but it's fun none the less!

We travel slow…….but last night we crossed over from Washington into Oregon!  Good thing because the 20% tax on hard alcohol was killing us!!!  We are in the land of beauty and no tax!  Woohoo!  Let the shopping begin!

I will be posting a couple of days in one because we didn`t have any internet access and once again I`m not sure when this will be posted.  Anyways…….

Play me a song piano man!

After Oroville we headed off for Leavonworth.  A stop at the Wal Mart in Omak confirmed why I hate Wal Mart so much.  The smell of people alone was enough to make you barf.  We needed groceries and were able to sift through the Mexican produce and actually find some tomatoes from Canada! The drive was beautiful and we arrived in Leavonworth in time for happy hour.  We setup, had a drink and headed into town for a German dinner.  The food was amazing!!  Everyone had schnitzel (of course) and I had Rainbow Trout.  Soooo good!  There was even a little old man piano player!  He was so cute I had to take a stalker picture of him. 

After dinner we wandered around town a bit and found the world`s biggest garbage can.  Well, I am sure there is one bigger out there but to me that shit was big! 

BIIIG GARBAGE

Brooke and Chad arrived just after 9:00, setup, had a visit and we were all wiped and ready for bed.  In the morning we got up to enjoy the sights, sounds and smells that is Leavonworth!

We had some fun at the shops, including Kris Kringl.  Obviously it`s a store dedicated to Christmas!  Since Trent and I are HUGE Christmas lovers, we picked up a few goodies which many of you will have the pleasure of witnessing this Christmas season!  I know you are saying oh god…….here we go, but I mean come on.  How could you not purchase something at a store where you find one of these in September!!

After Kris Kringl we stopped at a salt water taffy store.  Salt water taffy is probably one of my favorite things on earth.  Aside from Sadie of course.  There were about 100 flavors of taffy to choose from.  I have been holding off until we got to the coast but I couldn`t resist! 

The next stop was the hat shop.  Many, many hats can be found here.  And apparently a lurker as well……

Trent, Brooke and the Lurker

Since it was sunny and hot I figured I should probably buy a hat to protect myself from the sun.  I chose a green Bavarian style hat.  It was a little warm walking around with it on, but it definitely kept the sun out of my eyes!  As I was paying, the Mexican sales lady who I couldn`t understand, stuck a feather in my cap.  I am pretty sure she called me macaroni.  Maybe it was mama cita, but one can never be sure. 

Check out my new Bavarian Chapeau!

I must say that Leavonworth was a lot of fun.  We stopped at a German beer gardens for a morning brew and ran into a little accordion player!  Trent enjoyed his tunes.

Next stop was lederhosen and beer wenches!  We got some great shots of us enjoying ourselves at a German bar.  I will scan the pictures for you once we are back in the land of technology, but here is one of Trent to wet your whistle! I did manage to snap a few preliminary pics before I got yelled at! 

After we finished up in Leavonworth we headed out for Oregon.  We weren`t sure where we would stop so decided to go until we found somewhere nice.  The drive out of Leavonworth and down to Oregon was gorgeous.  It was about 32 degrees the whole drive which was a tad warm and it was pretty twisty but the views were amazing.  Recently there were some bad fires in Washington and we passed through a huge section of burnt area. 

As we winded our way down through the hills we saw some AMAZING views of the Columbia River and the Gorge.

We found an awesome state park to stop at around 5:00 and pulled in only to find out that they were full.  As we left and pulled back out onto the highway, Dad and Mumsey heard a loud BANG and we all pulled over, only to discover a blown muffler pipe.  The next hour was spent on the side of the road, in the desert, in 32 degrees, and it smelled like garbage.  Pops was able to get a clamp or something on the muffler pipe (ok I am no mechanic here people) and we were on our way.  

We crossed over the bridge and it brought us into Oregon.

This is where everything changed.  We haven`t been in Oregon long, but I am already in love.  The scenery is so beautiful and we aren`t even on the coast yet!  We pulled into the Melamoose State Park at around 6:30, had a bite to eat and enjoyed the breeze off the river and a few bevvies before retiring for the night. 

This morning we are headed to Troutdale which is only about an hour or so drive.  We will spend the day shopping at the outlet malls then head out tomorrow (Monday) for the coast and Fort Stevens.  We can`t wait!

Hopefully we will have wifi when we arrive in Troutdale so until then………