Oregon Coast

First of all, another Shout Out to the Travers family -- Thank you for housing us!

And next, Shout Outs to the fine people of Warrenton, Oregon:  Howard at Staples, who helped us obtain "business" cards with our blog addresses; and Heather and Cari at tjmaxx for the road trip tips!

Here are a few photos of our trip from Astoria to Cape Lookout, Oregon.

We passed these deer as we left the Travers' house.

Me practicing the art of the selfie with Snoopy (for Annie).

Cassie on the carousel at Seaside, Oregon.  We got some people to wave at us!  They were reluctant, at first, but they caught on.  From here we went to Bagels by the Sea (recommended by Cari at tjmaxx).  I had the BLT and avocado bagel on a cheddar and bacon bagel, and it was seriously delicious. 

Indian Beach (just north of Cannon Beach).

My favorite photographer.  That purple stuff around her feet that looks like flower petals?  Yeah, that's not flower petals.  Turns out it's thousands of dead jellyfish that came there to stink up the place.

The Oregon Coast is beautiful!

And then -- Say Cheese! 

Cow selfie.  Moo.

The Oompah Loopahs of Cheese, hard at work.  Okay, actually the "factory tour" was a little disappointing.  You get to watch a video about cheese-making, but all the action you get to see is the packaging of the medium cheddar.  Maybe we were there too late in the day.    We were too late for lunch (I really wanted a grilled cheese sandwich, but I had that bagel earlier), but it's never too late for ice cream!  Heads up -- the 3-scoop "sampler" size is huge.  These are not SAMPLE sized scoops.  They are regular size ice cream scoops.  I couldn't finish mine. 

This dead tree on Cape Lookout beach  near our campsite looked like it wanted a hug.

Here's Cassie taking selfies with the hugging tree.

We're waiting for sunset.  And it was beautiful!  I didn't take pictures, but Cassie did.  Check her blog....

Dismal and Disappointing

Actually, today was great, but we did stop at Dismal Nitch and Cape Disappointment.

Me trying to look dismal on a gorgeous day.

Cape Disappointment Lighthouse

Trying out all the cool stuff at the Lewis and Clark Interpretive Center.

Photo op on the short hike up to the lighthouse.

This butterfly led the way for us!

Lighthouse!

Still need selfie practice.  Was trying to get us and the lighthouse in together.  

Overlooking Dead Man's Cove. 

St. Mary (something) church along Highway 101 between Cape Disappointment and Dismal Nitch.  Cute church.  Some historical/interpretive signs around there about an early settlement.  The church was locked, though.  Services are only held in the summer time.

We started the day at Coffee Girl and the Bumblebee Cannery Museum, then over the bridge to Washington.  

Before heading back to the Travers' home, we stopped at Big 5 and Fred Meyer so I now have better hiking shoes, and we have air mattresses for the next camping night.  Woot!

Welcome to Oregon!

Astoria is a cute little town!  So happy to see our friends, the Travers' family, who are graciously hosting us for a couple of nights here.  We enjoyed mass and lunch together, then headed to the Columbia River Maritime Museum with C.C. and Jenna.  

Here are Cassie and Jenna performing the dance of the blue-footed booby.  Beautiful choreography from both of the girls made this quite breathtaking.

My fashionista trying on the fishing gear that was bolted to the wall.  Would she let a few bolts deter her from fashion?  Not Cassie.

Catch of the day!

From the trolley (which I didn't get a picture of, but it's a trolley and it's over 100 years old), we got to see some of the 2,300 male sea lions who didn't get lucky this spring and are just hanging out here moping. They are quite vocal about their disappointment.

Also seen from the trolley -- the Goonies house (the cream-colored house at the top center-ish).  Posting this photo for Heather, who loves the movie.  xoxo

And then a stop for ice cream at Frite & Scoop (they will have french fries AND ice cream once they get approved to use the fryers -- a brilliant combination!).  It was Kristen's first day on the job, so of course her whole family had to have ice cream.  She provided excellent customer service!  Stop by there and have some ice cream.  It's yummy. I had mine in a krumkake cone!  Brought back memories of holidays in Sitka at the Horan's house.

First night in the tent!

Millersylvania State Park, just south of Olympia, Washington.  Cute little campground!  There was a lake and some trails, but mostly we just set up our tent, re-organized our bags, and relaxed.  Our sleeping bags are plenty warm, but the sleeping pad situation isn't good.  Will have to remedy that before the next camping night!

All set up!

Ready to relax.  (Thanks, Lindsay!)

Breaking down the tent in the morning took 13 minutes.  

Seattle Saturday

We got up super early on Saturday.  Found a grocery store with a Starbucks (thanks for those gift cards!), picked up some fruit and coffee, then headed for Pike Place Market. 

 Arriving very early made for very little traffic, and it was super easy to find parking!  It was fun to walk through the market while the flower and seafood vendors were setting up and there were very few other people around.  Downtown Seattle has some really interesting architecture, so just walking around was fun.

From the Market, we walked over to the Space Needle and the Chihuly Gallery.  Both were still closed, as it was early in the morning, but we took lots of photos, found a museum we wanted to go to, then walked another mile or so to a crepery (recommended by Siri -- thanks, Siri!).  A shout-out to Ruthie, whom we met at Citizen Cafe and Bar -- just wanted you to know we got our fitbits!  Excited to start using them. 

After a lovely breakfast of crepes and pumpkin bread, it was nearly time for the EMP Museum to open.  Star Wars costumes were on exhibit -- very cool.  I learned to play a song on the bass and Cassie had a guitar lesson in the Sound Lab.  So fun!  Other exhibits featured costumes and props from horror, fantasy, and science fiction films; a 12th man exhibit; and a gigantic tv screen with music and art.

Touching the turf from the Super Bowl.  Aaaaah.

After the museum it was a nice walk back to the market, where we strolled through the shops, and bought salmon spread and hummus at a deli.

Picnic on the hood of the car in an empty parking lot.  :-)

And some more pictures from Saturday that I can't figure out how to get in the right order:

Oh, look!  Is that the Space Needle?

Queen Amidala's dress!  One of many, many Star Wars costumes in the exhibit.

Cassie's guitar lesson.

One of hundreds of pictures I took of the Space Needle.

I think this was a hot dog stand.

Bellingham and beyond!

It seemed to take forever to get off the ferry, but once we did, it didn't take long for us to make our first stop.  Pizza!  This cute little area of Bellingham has restaurants and shops and it's just adorable.  We found a parking spot right away and headed straight to the pizza place.  After a very pleasant lunch, we walked through some of the shops -- the local artists market, an antique store, a bakery, a women's clothing store, and a paper store.

Driving farther down I-5 we stopped at two outlet malls, and then drove over to the casino to take pictures in front of this whale, since several people had suggested we stop there.  We did try walking inside to see the glass fish, but it was kind of dark and smoky in there, so we didn't stay long.

Heading even farther south but not quite into Seattle, we found a hotel and something quick for dinner.

A Fairy Happy Birthday

It’s my Fairy Birthday!  Last full day on the ferry before we arrive in Bellingham on Friday morning.

We slept in, had a late breakfast in the M/V Malaspina’s dining hall, and enjoyed the movie “Planes: Fire and Rescue” in the theater.

After breakfast we were warned by the ship’s crew to stay seated or hang on for an hour or so as we made an open water crossing.  It wasn’t very exciting.  Expected to see more wildlife along the way, but mostly there’s just been birds.  And floating logs and bull kelp.  And some birds sitting on floating logs. 

 

Off to breakfast

French toast and bacon.  Yum!

Happy Birthday!

Very few people seemed to be paying attention to the ferry wings, so later in the day when we returned to the dining hall for dinner, I was surprised when several people asked "where are you wings?"  Got us a free dessert, too!