Here we go for a little update:
Seth and I finally were able to escape for our first real vacation since our honeymoon. We followed the Snake River to where it meets the Columbia, then followed the Columbia to the Pacific Ocean stopping at a few beautiful places on the way. Below is Multnomah Falls- it was a crazy-steep hike, but the sight was pretty amazing. There wasn't really a lot of water at the mouth of the waterfall, but it made a beautiful spray.
After Multnomah Falls, we moved on to Astoria, OR, to check out the super long bridge that crosses the mouth of the Columbia (just before it meets the ocean). It's like a 3 mile bridge over water! There were a few HUGE ships in the harbor and as we were pulling out, the Coast Guard helicopter was hovering over one of them (inspecting? I don't know). Astoria is a cute little city. It really had me starting to crave some fish and chips (one of my faves).
Here is the baby belly, month 4 (taken at mile marker #4 in Ilwaco, WA):
There's not much to show...yet:)
From Astoria, we made our way down the Oregon coast, stopping at Nehalem Bay State Park to camp ($20 a night with hot showers! Can you believe that!?), and on to Tillamook, Cannon Beach, and Newport. Seth and I went deep sea fishing with Newport Tradewind Charters and had an excellent time. It was a little cold (ok, a LOT cold) outside and the water was even colder! 53 degrees outside, with lots of sea WIND (no breeze exists in OR). I made friends with the captain, Steve, of the Sea Adventure I (a 50' vessel) and asked tons of questions on the way out to the ocean. I hung out with him in the wheelhouse and I am pretty sure I smoked a pack of Marlboro's with him while we were out! He was a dirty old man, but he was a hoot! Seth hung out with the rest of the crew on the back of the boat and neither of us managed to get sick! Whew! Anyway, we started trolling while I was hanging out with ol'Capitan, and he yelled at me, "Fish on! Fish on! Go get that pole!" I was so excited that I tangled up my feet and tripped out of the wheelhouse, face planting it on the deck of the boat! I scrambled up and managed to get to the pole in time to pull in the first salmon of the boat! Unfortunately, the water was a little too cold for fishing, so our boat only reeled in a total of 7 fish. I wish Seth could have caught one, but the experience was totally worth every penny! Thanks for taking me out to sea honey!
Here we are on the boat and below is my beautiful fish (it will probably be the most expensive fish I'll ever eat!):
We were busted tired after our fishing trip, but we had to eat at Mo's! I was a little let down though- there are two Mo's (an old and new) and I didn't know there was a difference between their menus...unfortunately, we ate at the wrong one so I didn't get my fish and chips! FYI- if you go to Newport, EAT AT THE ORIGINAL MO'S!
We cruised down the coast, checking out cool light houses and scenic lookouts along the way. And let me tell you, Seth and I will totally stay at KOA's again! We took a tent with us and a little camp stove and tried to curtail our vacation budget. I would have to say that we did a pretty well, and we had a BLAST!
We dipped down into the redwood forest in California, then made our way back up to Oregon to Klamath Falls. Our final destination was Crater Lake- what a beautiful site! I am so glad we stopped there. The mosquitos were terrible, but it was absolutely breath taking! This made day 6 of the trip- we were both tired of being in a car all day long, and our backs were a little sore from tentin' it for 4 nights (we had a hotel one night, thankfully!). So we caught a pace car and made it home in about 11 hours. It was an awesome get away! I will put some pics on a slideshow sometime soon.
