VACATION!!! Adventures in Oregon & Washington

oy it's been awhile since i updated, but i have good reason - i went on VACATION!  i survived year 2 of working @ kayhi, haven't left the island since last june, and needed a break before coming back to work & start school...what i needed most was to see my amazing friends, who can make me laugh without fail, so almost 3 wks ago i ferried out on the M/V Columbia & headed south...

the scenery leaving ketch was amazing, enough that i honestly wondered why the hell i was leaving.  but shucks, it was too late now!  the first night there was a GORGEOUS sunset that i viewed from my lounge chair in the solarium (an open but covered deck on the back of the ferry - free place to camp, beautiful views, & heat lamps when the weather's cold)...

can i just say, i love alaska?!?!  it was pretty quiet on deck, i was pretty much the youngest person around - surrounded by elderly couples who, i found out during disembarkment, were headed to bend, OR after spending time north with their kayaks.  another group had bikes, and yet another posse were on motorcycles.  needless to say, i hope i have that much adventure when i'm old!  day 2 consisted of grey, foggy, misty weather the whole trip.  we passed some canadian places, like a lighthouse and fishing community, and supposedly passed by several whales/porpoises, but i never saw anything & didn't take any pictures.  just chilled & read, worked on my quote book.  it was definitely "me" time.  day 3 was an early wake-up (day 2 was too, since the sun was up @ 4:30 am), as we pulled into bellingham bay & docked at the alaska marine highway ferry terminal at bellingham, WA.  i drove off the ferry, confusedly and apprehensively followed the sparse signs for I-5 south, having absolutely no idea where i was going except that i wanted to end up in auburn. 

within 5 minutes on the freeway, i remembered that i HATE driving on freeways!  pretty much white-knuckled it all the way down through seattle, of course missed the exit i needed for auburn (side note: i have an amazing sense of MISdirection.  it's a good day if i only have to turn around once), but eventually made it.  that whole weekend was spent shopping & eating with my cousin (pseudo-sister) alicia & friend kristen in the bellevue/seattle/federal way/kent/auburn area, which was amazing.  and exhausting!  i, however, am allergic to alicia's cat so i was kind of glad to leave on monday & make the 3-hour trek down to portland/hillsboro...i can't even describe how much my heart swelled when i drove across the WA/OR interstate bridge and saw the "entering oregon" sign - i was home!!  as soon as i made it through portland, crossed the fremont bridge, made it up the hwy 26 tunnel/hill (which my car still hated, btw) and got to the tanasbourne/185th area, i made a bee-line for the nearest dutch bros coffee stand to sip the sweet nectar of my beloved kahlua kicker freeze...

in the comical words of alicia, oh sweet bessie!  it was delicious, even though i had to wait an eternity in line (not a common thing for dutch bros, but after subsequent trips to this particular stand on TV hwy in hillsboro, it seems cursed with a 10-20 min wait).  i later met up with my internationally-versed "nunnery" friend sophie, with whom i was staying, met her wonderful mother, and had a wonderul meal cooked by sophie before stopping by jill & zach's apartment to say hi.  jill is my homegirl, i missed her so much, & within minutes i was laughing so hard my stomach hurt!  i left in the late evening, and met her the next day to come with me to the airport to pick up david, who was flying down from anchorage.  we managed to pick him up just fine, but once again my sense of misdirection got the best of me as we were trying to drive back to beaverton to meet up with zach for dinner @ olive garden.  so i took the roundabout way through clackamas, saw the office building that i used to work in, remembered how much i hated it & how much i appreciate the job i have now, and moved on! we had a whacko waitress who managed to spill zach's beer & then commended herself on how calm she stayed (even though it kept spilling & she didn't move a muscle to catch it; jill had to do that). 
the next day was pretty low-key, as david was transitioning from working night shift & had been up for about 26+ hours...in the evening we drove into portland and somehow managed to find the mcmenamin's crystal ballroom, where the brett dennen concert that david got us tickets to was.  it's a beautiful venue; mcmenamin's acquires old historical buildings and then renovates them, putting in artsy fixtures and pubs/restaurants/etc...the ballroom floor is kinda warped wood, so you jump on it & it's bouncy - very cool!  we enjoyed mcmenamin's hammerhead & ruby ales while waiting for and during the concert, which featured the band dawes as an opening act...great music, great people-watching, great company...

the next day, jill, david & i "roadtripped" down to woodburn to visit the outlet mall there - and scored some mad swag!  shopping fix: greatly decreased.  favorite purchases: north face down jacket that doesn't make me look like a marshmallow, and a white house black market 50's-inspired halter dress.  after the shopping trip, we headed back to hillsboro, where david & i made an alaskan salmon dinner for jill, zach & sophie as a "thank you!" for letting us stay with them...actually, let me correct that: i bought the groceries, david & jill & zach cooked; sophie & i sat & watched!  the salmon was yummy, with lemon, rosemary, pepper, basil & garlic, baked in foil.  along with that, jill made crepes!  originally they were for dessert with cream cheese frosting, nutella & bananas, but jill also made a spinach/onion/mushroom/ham mix for savory crepes.  the thing about jill is, she is an amazing cook but makes enough food to feed an army - we ate until we couldn't move!  soooo delicious.

friday, the weather perked up a bit (from grey-ish & low-60's to blue skies & low-70's), so david & i headed out to the coast...we drove through forest grove to catch hwy 6, stopped by my fav dutch bros stand (no owner lagrand that remembered my drink order during college - sad day!) we stopped on campus for a pit stop at the athletic center, would've said "hi" to my profs & swim coach but nobody was around. off to tillamook! driving through the milk fields means some pretty strong eau de cow manure, which i was ok with since i'm swiss & love cows, but david was close to dry heaving (haha). we drove out on nehalem hwy to oceanside, where we parked & explored the beach for a while.

from there, we drove around cape meares & the coast, headed back to tillamook to catch up with hwy 101, and took the scenic pacific coast route all the way up through bay city, garibaldi, rockaway beach, and nehalem before stopping in manzanita beach.  there was a farmer's market going on, but we bypassed that for a little burrito shack called left coast siesta that theresa had taken me to last summer - yum yum!  we continued along the crappy, deeply pot-holed road up to cannon beach, where we walked along the beach to haystack rock and explored the marine garden that was exposed due to the low tide...it was beautiful, & we got some awesome shots, especially because we were willing to wade knee deep into the "tide pools" to see sea stars, anemones, & hermit crabs while the other tourists would barely step in ankel-deep water!  it's the tough alaskan genes, don'tcha know...

ahhhh i love nature...we eventually walked through cannon beach, found one last store that was open to buy some saltwater taffy (the old guy that checked us out had a son in fairbanks - small world!), and drove up to astoria since it's just pretty up there.  by that point, the sun was setting so we didn't stop anywhere, but we did drive across the bridge and crossed the OR/WA state line again so david could say he was in 2 states - managed to snag this pic as we were driving...

the next day was pretty low-key; we drove into portland for the saturday market and to catch the pride parade that was supposed to happen...ended up being no parade (david misread the date; parade was actually the day after), but we had fun walking the booths and wandered the pride fest booths as well.  however, tom mcall waterfront park has some pretty gnarly mud that seeped into my vibrams, stunk up my car, and still smells funky after being washed twice.  eeeeewwww.  that night, jill & zach threw us a dinner party at their apartment; david & i picked up some alaska brewing summer ale & were an hour early, which meant helping to put together the food jill was making...the amount of food was insane - worse than the salmon dinner a few days earlier - but soooo delicious!  i suck at wrapping springrolls, theresa learned how to make spam musubi, and david ended up eating for about 3 hrs straight.  the menu: springrolls, spam musubi, banana lumpia, korean chicken, cream cheese/onion/bacon dip w/ bread, veggies & ranch dip, chow mein, strawberries, sweet potato haupia pie & vanilla cake w/ raspberry filling & lemon frosting.

FOOD COMA FOR 12 HOURS.  no joke.  sunday, obviously, was a low-key day with a little bit of shopping & wandering, but nothing major since we could barely move still.  buuuuuut it was worth it, bcause i got to see joanne & theresa!  sunday afternoon david & i met up with julia, a friend from high school that had just moved up to the portland area from LA the day before for med school rotations.  we met at the mcmenamin's fulton pub in the sellwood area, had delicious food, then decided to get donuts at the infamous voodoo too - always worth the wait in line!  david & i had voodoo dolls, and julia got the old dirty bastard...

monday was a last little bit of shopping before i dropped david off at the airport so he could head back to juneau & visit his family; i later met with sophie & theresa at paddy's irish pub in downtown portland for dinner before packing up my car & saying goodbye...driving across the vancouver-portland bridge was the hardest thing i've had to do lately, i almost cried as i kept going.  coming back to portland won't ever be the same; zach & jill are headed to hawaii in the fall, theresa's headed to vegas, sophie wants to teach internationally in a few years...our nunnery group is breaking up, but i find solace in the fact that i know we'll always be friends, no matter where in the world we are. 

back in auburn, i took my car into the shop for a check-up since my parents were there visiting on their way back from NY, and got some bad news: the rear differential was shot, my rear brakes were almost metal-on-metal, and my head gaskets were cracked & leaking so fluids were mixing which was causing my lack of power.  on top of that, the rear differential parts had to be over-nited from new jersey.  total cost?  just under $4000.  yeahhhhhhh there goes the little bit of savings i had built up to help pay for grad classes...i got my car back in time to catch the ferry, but before that alicia & i ventured into seattle: dinner at dick's burgers...

after that, we backtracked to qwest field (soon to be renamed century link field) for a seattle sounders vs. new york red bulls soccer game.  AMAZING!!  the sounders won 4-2, we were part of the largest sounders audience ever (46,065 ticket holders), and i paid a whopping $8 for a budweiser in a plastic bottle.  i still don't know all the soccer traditions, but the sounders fans are DEFINITELY passionate people - which is great to see since the rest of the world is so soccer-oriented and the usa isn't...

the next day, i started th trek back up to bellingham to catch the ferry home, but first i stopped in shoreline to have lunch at sushiland with kristen & her twin brother karl.  i thought i'd be late for check-in since traffic in everett was a b**** but i made it & still ended up waiting in line for about 2 hrs!  got on the ferry, the solarium was full to capacity with tents sprawled across the back deck, and i almost ended up sleeping on the floor - but then the lounge chair next to me opened up so i snagged it.  definitely glad i bought a camping pad, those chairs aren't very comfy after a few hours!  my view for the 38 hours on the M/V Columbia:

the weather was pretty much the same as coming down 2 wks earlier: nice & warm the first evening, grey & cloudy the whole second day, and then fairly decent the last morning.  despite the dismal weather, we passed the same beautiful views as on the way down & this time i actually took pics:

finally made it HOME to ketch a few days ago, where i've been doing laundry & catch up on life ever since.  back to reality in a week with working summer school, as well as hopefully starting grad classes...good thing i'm housesitting indefinitely and will have a (semi) quiet place to work!