It's A Wonderful Life!: Washington/Oregon trip

Glade had been traveling a lot getting things going in Florida and Denver for his work. That left me alone for several days at a time for a couple months in a row. SO, we used his free hotel and airline miles to take a little getaway up north. We stayed in Vancouver, WA which is just above the state line. We spent our days traveling to different parts of both Oregon and Washington. I was always confused at where we were. Other than the driving part, which I hate, we had lots of fun. the first day we arrived, we got settled and walked to the downtown park because there was supposed to be an outdoor concert. Turns out it was a "BeerFest" that weekend. Bummer, but we had a nice walk around town and the weather was beautiful. We ate at a place called the Garage where we played table shuffleboard.

The next day was Sunday so we got up and attended a ward there. After, we drove to Mt. St. Helens. Well, we tried anyway. GPS took us to a random weird spot and we only got to see it from across the way. We spent the day just driving through the mountains looking at all the beautiful greenery.

Monday we drove to Astoria to see the beach. We actually drove more south first so we could make a train ride that was supposed to show you the beautiful Oregon coast. Lame. It went about 3 miles at 9 mph (we clocked it) and mostly drove through a small town. But whatever. We got off with just enough to time to walk down to the very cold beach and back before the train headed back. Then we drove the 2 hours up to Astoria and spent the day walking around the town and trying to see the historical stuff. Unfortunately, most things closed at 4 or weren't open at all, so we didn't get to see much. Darn train ride. We ate at a riverside restaurant and got some fish and chips for lunch. We did hike to a light house though, it was really steep, but so pretty. One funny thing was at the end of the day, we were going to go to this Ice Cream and Frite store before we headed home. We asked exactly what Frites were and she told us, but it didn't look like they had any. When Glade asked, the woman said "No, we didn't make any today, maybe on Thursday we will?" Really, it's the name of your store and you didn't even make any today!!? Crazy. So we stopped at Mcdonalds' on the way back and got Sundaes. That's when I realized that a $1 hot fudge sundae is almost as good as anything else we could get. Yum!

Tuesday we went to Maltenoma Falls to hike. First we stopped at the dam and fish hatchery. There were so many pretty daisies!! The hike up to the top of the waterfall was just about a mile and you went up about 1200 ft. It was so hard!! Seriously, I thought I was going to cry at one point. But then a nice girl let me have a pony tail holder and then I was ok. It was so steep though! After that, we went home to re-shower and Glade had some work to do so that meant NAP time! That night we went to a little Mexican place next to our hotel and then to a movie. Nice relaxing day after a crazy hike.

Wednesday we got up and went to the temple in Portland. Just as we were pulling up, there was a big group of missionaries standing outside. They were going to the same session as we were! Of course I took a pic of them and posted it for their families. It was really awesome to be in the temple with so many sweet kids out serving the Lord. After, we drove up to Centralia to meet Pam and Ioane. They happened to be visiting family in Seattle so we decided to meet for lunch and some shopping. Pam is a friend from Hawaii who I met because Stephen served in her ward for several months.

Thursday was pack up and go home day. We tried to do some site seeing in Portland, but that is one crazy place! We pretty much just walked around town and had lunch at a food truck. We decided that if you didn't fit in anywhere else, Portland is your place!!

We tried to become selfie masters, but in the end, we pretty much just suck at it. Glade says I'm getting a selfie stick for Christmas. ♥

Lunch in Astoria

Portland temple

This is from the top of the waterfall we hiked. We started down where those cars are.

If you really look, you can see the trail in three places below where we were taking this picture. That's how steep it was. Near the beginning, we stopped to take a breather and there was a sign that said "switchback 1 of 11". OY!!