Fun News!!

We are having a baby, due November 11!! It's been sooo hard to not blog about this, so just to warn you, get ready for a bunch of posts about pregnancy and baby white! 

Last Day on the West Coast

Our last day on the coast was bittersweet. I remember us being so sad our trip was over. We kept saying "I can't believe it's already Saturday, and we're flying home tonight." We absolutely loved this trip and it will always mean so much to us as a married couple. The memories are truly priceless and the time of us just enjoying each other and the beautiful scenery is something I will always cherish. Okay, enough sentimental stuff and on with the recap!

We packed up Saturday morning and got a quick breakfast at McDonald's. Haha, I know such a great restaurant, but we wanted to get on the road and here's a secret, I really do love McDonald's breakfast. Then we stopped at an outlook and took this fun picture. This was our last view of the Oregon coast, sigh. I must say the self timer worked great on our new camera this time, which is exciting. I will def. be framing this one. We headed east towards Hillsboro, a different way than we came down because Clarke has a cousin who lives there. Luckily it worked out that we both got to meet him for the first time.

They had this cute message waiting for us. After meeting all their pets (one a very lovable cat!) and chatting we went into Portland (about 25 minutes away). We had lunch at a little Irish pub called Kells.  It was really good, and they had the best chocolate cake.

Afterwards we got to explore some of Portland. It was really nice weather so we walked along the riverfront.

Took a picture for Clarke's mom. This is his cousin, Tom and his wife, Nancy. Since they live so far away Clarke had never met Tom, so we were happy we got to meet them and enjoy the afternoon together.

I snapped this picture of Portland as we left Oregon in the car. We drove about 3 hours north to the airport, dropped off our rental car and went back to the airport. I know I already said it but we really didn't want to leave, we just had the best trip!

I wish I could say the flight home was uneventful, but unfortunately I got sick. It was an overnight flight and I think I was just overtired and there was turbulence and I threw up everywhere. I was so happy when we finally got home!

But, I will always remember this trip with fond memories. We really loved Seattle and the Oregon coast, and I hope we make it back some day!!

betty, the bay window, and her birds

I thought I would write about something other than our Oregon trip (but I will finish my last post about that soon!) I wanted to update about Betty and her bay window.

When we bought our house 2 years ago (has it really been that long?) we loved the big bay window in our kitchen, and knew Betty would too. Now that it's spring and all the birds and squirrels are out she is glued to it.

I am trying to train her to jump up at the squirrels (like she does the birds) to scare them away. But she is just so interested in them that she just stares.

We love watching her, watch the window. It's such great entertainment!

Golf and The Oregon Coast Aquarium

I'm going to combine Thursday and Friday of our trip since we didn't do much on Thursday. We slept in and got breakfast at the resort where we were staying. I found Salishan on Groupon, I bought 3 (one for each night) and it really was a great deal, especially because they came with dinning credit.

 One reason why I thought this place would be great for us was because it has a beautiful golf course. So Thursday we played golf. This was the only day it rained off and on a little bit, which was disappointing but we still had a great time.

The back nine had gorgeous views.

Afterwards we ate lunch at a cute little deli and walked around the shops at the resort. I took a nap and we just relaxed the rest of the day. Our room was really nice, it had a fireplace so we just enjoyed it.

Friday we drove south about 30 minutes to visit The Oregon Coast Aquarium. Of course we stopped to take in the sights. Above is Depoe Bay, a cute little town along the way.

We also stopped at Cape Foulweather, which had the cutest gift shop with amazing views.

Then finally we made it to the Aquarium!

My favorite part was the sea otters. They were so cute, and would swim right up to the front of the glass. They also had seals and sea lions and really cute puffins!

The passage of the deep was also really neat. They were these underwater tunnels that you could walk through and see sharks and all different kinds of fish. The Oregon Coast Aquarium is one of the top ten aquariums in America, and I'm so glad we got to go. After a busy day we drobe back to the resort and crashed!

Our last day is up next!

Day 3

We woke up Wednesday at the B&B so excited for our breakfast to come to our door! Seriously, I had heard so many great things about their breakfast and I couldn't wait.

We were not disappointed. We had the best breakfast, everything was so good! Afterwards we packed up the car and went to explore the coast. Our first stop was 3 Arch Rocks, this was probably my favorite place we went the whole trip.

It was not only beautiful with the cliffs and water, but really fun because there was a tunnel we walked through to get to the other side of the beach.

The other side of the beach was just beautiful.

Our next stop was Cape Meares, about 5 minutes away.

The views were so beautiful!

Afterwards we went to the Tillamook Cheese Factory. I was so excited about this, I really love cheese and ice cream so I was excited for the food! Ha!

I loved all the samples, and since it wasn't too crowded we went through a couple times!

Of course I got some famous Tillamook ice cream!

Then we stopped at Munson Creek State Falls. This was definitely off the beaten path, if the B&B hadn't told us about it we never would have found it. So glad we did because it was, of course like everything else, beautiful!

We drove about an hour south to the next place we were staying. We stopped along the way to take in all the beautiful views. When we got to our room we just relaxed and ended up ordering room service because we were so tired from a busy day.

Day 4 is up next!!

First Day on the Coast

Tuesday we woke up early (we were so excited) and got in our rental car and headed south to the Oregon Coast! We drove through Portland, then the Tillamook State Forest. We stopped a bunch in the forest to take in the views and of course snap some photos. I loved all the moss on the trees, it's so different than the east coast.

Then we finally made it to the Pacific! We stopped first at Netarts Bay.

Then we stopped at Cape Lookout State Park, and enjoyed it all.

Tuesday night we stayed at a cute little Bed and Breakfast that a fellow blogger recommended. We absolutely loved the Sandlake Country Inn. It was away from everything and so quaint.

They had yummy cupcakes waiting for us, since this was our anniversary trip. They also had really good cookies! After settling in we headed to Pacific City, about 10 minutes away.

Of course we enjoyed the views. We loved this little beach town, it reminded us so much of Hatteras Island in the Outer Banks of North Carolina. Not that many shops and restaurants, not too touristy. "The Hatteras Island of the West Coast" we kept saying. Ha!

We had the best dinner that night. We ate at The Pelican Pub, and the food was sooo good. It was right on the beach and we had the best view too. Seriously, if you are ever in Pacific City, OR go to this restaurant!

After dinner we drove around some more, and of course took more pictures.

I got this picture of Haystack Rock before my camera ran out of batteries. So we headed back to relax at our cute Bed and Breakfast.

Up next: exploring more of the Oregon Coast!!

Our Day in Seattle

We woke up Monday morning ready to explore Seattle. First we walked across the street to check out the Seattle Public Library.

I really wanted to see this building, not only because it's a great piece of modern architecture and I love modern architecture, but because it was designed by Rem Koolhas, who was the first architect I studied in design school.

This was by far the neatest library I've ever been in. I would love to spend a day just reading here.

Afterwards we walked a few blocks down to Pike Place Market. This was my favorite part of Seattle. It was such a cute and fun farmer's market, and there was so much fresh food everywhere!

Seriously, anything you could have wanted to eat was there. From fresh veggies and fruit to pastries and cheese. We had such a great time walking around and checking all the cute booths and stores out, including the first Starbucks.

My favorite lunch of the week was here. I ate Beecher's famous macaroni and cheese. You can find the recipe here, seriously it is so good! We got our lunch and ate it at a cute little park nearby.

And I got a coke in a glass bottle, enjoyed this view, I was in heaven!

The weather was really nice that day. It was sunny, in the 60s and no rain, perfect for just walking around.

After Pike Place Market we took the monorail over to the Space Needle.

We didn't go up, but just walked all around and checked out all the neat buildings and fountains.

This really cool building, Experience Music Project, was nearby and I loved the wavyness to it. After almost 6 hours of walking and exploring we were ready to take a break, so we headed back to the hotel. We didn't have any dinner plans so we just ordered in and relaxed. Overall we had a great day in Seattle, it's such a fun city!

Easter 2012 and Flying Out

Last Sunday we celebrated Easter with our families before flying out to Seattle.

We all went over to my mom's after church, even Clarke's family. It was really nice. And of course there was lots of food!

This layered salad is my favorite thing my mom makes for Easter. Isn't it so pretty? I didn't want to eat it at first because it looked so nice, but it was so good.

We had a bunch of desserts, all were amazing. It was probably good that we had to leave to catch our flight, or I would have ate all afternoon!

The flight out wasn't bad at all. No delays, or lost baggage. We arrived at 9pm, but it felt like 12pm to us because of the time change. We picked up the rental car at the airport and then we were so tired and ready to crash.

Clarke snapped this photo once we got to the room. Our hotel was great. We stayed at the Executive Hotel Pacific which I picked mainly because of the location. It was right in the middle of everything, so we could walk and not worry about parking. After settling in we went right to bed.

Up tomorrow: our day in Seattle!