Happy Campers

Winter time in Portland.  It's a perfect excuse to get cozy on your couch with a movie and popcorn (every night...), go to Starbucks and read a book (I cried when they no longer had caramel brulee hot chocolate) or do nothing at all (cause, you know, it's raining outside...). Or at the same time, motivate you to actually write a blog post. So hello world! In light of this wet and cloudy winter, I thought I'd do a throwback to the warm weather and sun, and share the detes on the camping trips we went on last summer and fall.

CAMPING TRIP #1

Coming out of the gates, we started with the exotic campground of our comforting home! (you got to ease into it, you know?) But living room camp outs are actually my fave. Complete with roasting mallows on our grill, and watching a movie indoors :)

CAMPING TRIP #2

Welcome to McKenzie River! We spent one weekend camping with Payton's grandparents, which is always the best. We hiked to a couple of waterfalls around the area, played some golf, and went to the Blue Pool which is amazingly beautiful. Payton and I finished the trip with canoeing in Clear Lake on our way home.

BREAKFAST

Waterfall #1 (it really was this green!)

Waterfall #2

On our way to the Blue Pool...

OH MY GOSH

YOU'VE GOT TO BE KIDDING ME

WOULD YOU LOOK AT THAT

IT'S SO BLUE

Yeah so that lake was pretty cool I guess...

Golfing with the grandparents!

Clear Lake

(with this hottie)

CAMPING TRIP #3

The weekend after McKenzie River, we went to Tillamook to do some coastal camping. When you mix not being allowed to have a fire and not having his grandparents join, you kind of end up with no meals...but who wouldn't mind going out to eat when you are on the Oregon Coast??

We went to The Fish Peddler at Pacific Oyster for dinner...

And for lunch the next day, we went to the Tillamook Cheese Factory!

(love this guy)

We spent our morning walking on the beach, drinking hot chocolate (Payton also had banana bread french toast for breakfast, which is BRILLIANT), and hiking later in the day before we headed home.




CAMPING TRIP #4

For this camping trip, we actually headed back to the coast, this time to Cape Lookout with some friends.  We spent the night roasting marshmallows, eating joe-joe's, playing card games, and walking on the beach. The next morning, we hiked to Cape Lookout and saw some whales!

CAMPING TIRP #5

Our camp outings ended with a trip to Mt. Hood National Forest. Although I don't totally recommend camping in November, I 'd definitely recommend a weekend of hot springs and fishing.

Bagby Hot Springs!

Payton and I each caught a fish that we had for dinner the next day!

So there you have it. Happy Sunday and dreams of summer!

Love,

me

Seattle

Introducing our adventures in Seattle!

DAY 1:

First things first: top of the Space Needle! The morning was sunny and the view was beautiful!

We also went to PIKE PLACE MARKET. Aka the mother of Farmer's Markets, aka a little slice of heaven :)

 Lots of fruit...

 Lots of veggies...

Lots of seafood...(and fish being thrown!)

 And lots of flowers...

(sunflowers are becoming one of my new favorites!)

PIROSKY PIROSKY for lunch! Treated ourselves to Smoked Salmon, smoked mozzerella/mushroom/broccoli, cherry white chocolate, and a chocolate cream hazelnut roll!

With some Ginger Beer for dessert :) Big fans of the Pink Guava and White Peach!

Made it to the GUM WALL to give our offering to the gum gods... (like they needed it)

And if you weren't already grossed out, here's a close up version for ya (with my offering included :)

DAY 2:

Walked around the Seattle Temple grounds!

yada yada yada....BISQUE

(but on a serious note, we went to PIKE PLACE CHOWDER for lunch and it is bomb! Clam Chowder, Smoked Salmon Chowder, and some seafood bisque for lunch. YUM)

After lunch we went to the ORIGINAL Starbucks which is in Pike Place. After getting our hot chocolate there, we spent a lot of the evening walking around downtown Seattle, and visiting two other Starbucks that day...

One even had a roastery inside!

DAY 3:

We spent our last day hanging out at PIER 54, feeding seagulls our french fries (hilarious btdubs!), and enjoying a great BBQ before heading home!

And now for some SEATTLE BLOOPS:

Let me just say, blowing a perfect bubble isn't easy my friends. At least I got an A for effort (work shown below)

At least mine turned out good here.... ;)

And I would like to call this next piece, "The Many Faces of Feeding a Seagull"

I started out with the closed-eyes approach. But then I thought, if I don't see it, did it really happen? (for all I know, maybe Payton was hungry and would take it for himself??) So then I gained the courage to take a look....

Aaaaand nothing. Okay seagull, just fly right by acting like I'm not giving you FREE FOOD which is practically MY DREAM.

But then BAMB. I am suddenly french fry-less (and sporting a golden smile!)

So okay, back to business. Worked on my form and went with the "Relaxed Arm" approach. I wanted to seem more inviting, you know?

Okay okay TOO INVITING. This guy caught me by surprise, causing us to get off on the wrong foot...

So we had a little chat, discussed how it was a whole misunderstanding, and I handed the french fry over. Yay for feeding seagulls!

 And dare I say, the winner of them all. I'll let the picture speak for itself.

Until next time Seattle!

Me