the northwest revisited: part 2

On our second day we went to the Oregon Coast. We went to the lighthouse at Cape Meares and had a little tour. WE GOT TO GO IN THE LIGHTHOUSE. What a dream come true. It was blistering hot up in that thur lighthouse, but the view was stellar.

We went to Oceanside and walked around on the beach for a while. The whole trip I had my phone in my back pocket and my camera bag around my neck. But for the beach I decided to ditch them both and just take my camera around my neck. Lucky I did, because that would have been yet another piece of my technology swallowed up by a body of water. Because, you see, Lizzie and I were just walking around, taking pictures, and Jake was climbing a log pole while Brian took pictures on the GoPro. The waves would come up on the beach and maybe touch our toes.

 

AND THEN. 

This gargantuan wave thrust itself upon the shore; hurling itself at everyone and everything in it's path. Lizzie has fast reflexes and booked it outta there. I saw the wave but didn't think it would be too much of a nuisance. But oh, how wrong I was. It hit my legs hard and I almost fell as I was running away. All I could do was just plant my feet there and try not to get knocked down. Unfortunately, it did knock me down pretty quickly. I had my fancy camera in my right hand. When the wave finally toppled me over I landed on my left hand (which later became extremely swollen, like a ripe tomato, but not red like a ripe tomato. More like purple like a plum). Just wanted to be descriptive in case you don't know your color wheel well. And, what do you know? I sprained my thumb.

Anyway, the water swirled around me and swept me up the beach. My first thought was, 'Oh my gosh, I'm wearing clothes and they're soaked now,' but after that all I could think about was saving my dear camera. Jake and Brian were back by the pole, both of them got pretty drenched, including their phones. (Luckily their phones made it). All they could see was my head and my camera above the water. Finally the wave slowly went back down and I felt some arms behind me help me up. Those arms belonged to this really cute guy (pictured below). It's like those stories where the girl is drowning and the cute lifeguard saves her life. Except on the extreme level that would be a ten and my story would be a two. And also he wasn't a lifeguard. And also I wasn't drowning. But still. There are similarities.

We stopped along the way home to use the bathroom. A massive pile of sand spilled out of my pants onto the bathroom floor. I got a tissue and tried to sweep it all up, but I couldn't. There was just too much sand. So, sorry guys who work there. I left a beach in your bathroom. Actually, you're welcome.

the northwest revisited: part 1

I've been dying to go back to the northwest from the second I stepped foot outta thur. So for like, 8 months. A few weeks ago, it finally happened and it was pretty fantastic. I got so excited when were driving along the Columbia River Gorge, even though it was 2 in the morn and dark as dark. But man, you could still see that tree line against the night sky from the pine trees and I love that. A lot.

Brian, Jake, Lizzie, and I left for the long stretch of driving Friday evening. We stopped at Jake's mom's house for some dinny din din and drove all night like a boss, except there were four bosses. We arrived in Vancouver at roughly 4:00 am. We dropped in at Betty's house and took a few hours to snooze. After catching those zzz's I hopped in the shower and it was ice cold. The heat was off and gosh dern it, I couldn't remember how to turn it on! But no matter, we all showered in it anyways (not together). We went to Killer Burger with Gordon and Betty, themselves! and got peanut butter burgers. Everyone was skeptical but after trying them they were totally into them. 

We drove on over a bunch of bridges to the Saturday Market in Portland. We feasted our eyes on the strangest people; a knife thrower, a hipster, two men doing some weird martial arts, bums...

We found the Cullen's house and some old guy was sitting on a chair reading by one of the massive windows. He probably hated us. Daggum nosy kids!

We went to a park and walked up this trail amongst the trees for a few miles, which was rather scenic. And then all we wanted to do was eat and sleep. So, we did, okay?

part january // the coast

For my January undertaking, I decided to go to the coast one last time before I move back home to Utah in a few weeks.
So my friend, Steph, and I ran over to Astoria and saw the Astoria Column. 

 

We ran up the stairs for a while, then walked, then stopped and breathed hard, then walked, then made it to the top. It was quite the view.

We crossed the Astoria-Megler Bridge (pictured above) over the Columbia to Washington where our destination was Cape Disappointment. Strange as it seems, we were not disappointed.
And this is why:

AND we got to meet Pete's dragon!
He's just as friendly in person as he is in the movie.
I only wish I could have met Elliot too.

We saw the North Head Lighthouse and it was so pretty. We couldn't go up because it was locked (daggum!) but we walked around and watched the waves.

 

We had some extra time so we bounced back over to Oregon and down to Seaside where we sat on the beach for an hour. It was a chilly 60 degrees. We watched the sun slowly start to go down and listened to the waves crashing. That is the best sound in the world, crashing waves.

I love the Northwest and I looove the coast. January is just so much better by the sea.

pacific city.

This weekend was a roadtrip to Pacific City, Oregon!

Coty, Josh, me, Alyssa, and Jamie on top of the mountain of sand!

Coty, Josh, Steph, Alyssa, Jamie and I all drove the few hours down to the Oregon Coast to the small town of Pac City. It gets dark at 4:30, so when we got there it was pitch black. We got a motel and walked over to the beach. All you could see was the moon behind the clouds. You couldn't even see the water! As we walked in the sand, it would light up around our feet. It was cray! If you don't believe me, look it up. It's a real thing!

In the morning, we got up early and set up a fire on the beach. It was so cozy and I loved it. I could do it all day! And so I did! We climbed up the huge sand hill and later ran down it. Coty and I went and explored the cliff over the water. It was sweet. I was barefoot, but luckily it was clay and not rock.

Them boyz.

Our little campfire setup.

I sat up there for a while, just looking at the ocean and the beach. There were even surfers! I've never seen them doing their thing in real life! It was another successful road trip. Hoorah.

multnomah falls.

On the last day of my excursion with Aleisha we went to church for an hour and bounced to go to the lovely Multnomah Falls. It was gorgeous.

Photos by Aleisha.

 We walked up to the bridge, a leisurely 0.2 mile hike.

 We took some videos and pictures and enjoyed the spray from the waterfall in our faces. But then it was like, really cold.

Along the whole trip we took little video clips to document our adventures and here is the video we made!

It was such a fun trip with such a fun friend! It was so great to see Aleisha when I haven't seen a familiar Utahn face for almost two months! In all the hours of driving (over 12) I talked that girl's ear off, so, sorry Aleisha! It was a ball.

Also, to see Aleisha's documentary of the trip, go here, here, here, and here. She has way more pictures and just has a better way with words.