Thursday, August 25, 2011

Day 2: Seattle- Oregon

Today we left the Flora's home after an awesome breakfast and pulled ourselves away for our next stop: Astoria, Oregon. We wanted to see the Lewis and Clark National Park and Fort Clatsop, the winter camp for the group. I think by the time we had arrived at the Fort we were more interested in staying along the coastline so we headed out of there and continued on route 101 towards our hotel, the Elizabeth Street Inn, in Newport. The drive was much longer than anticipated and stopping every few minutes to take some awesome photographs didn't help! We stopped at Canon Beach which is a cute town but also home to Haystack Rock, which I swear is the part of the rock formation from The Goonies. All I could picture was the pirate ship coming out of the cave and passing through the rocks! We walked down the beach and saw some cool things but felt like we had to get on the road again rather quickly.

Today was a great day for my friend Jennifer, who gave birth to her son Kody Alvarez. They are both healthy and she is recovering from a stressful day but they are doing well and I can't wait to meet the little meatball!

Mount Saint Helen's
Mount Rainier

On our way!

Lewis and Clark's winter fort: Fort Clatsop. This is not the original fort but a replica based on their drawings.

At Haystack Rock

Awesome sunsent




The beach of our hotel room. Fell asleep to the sound of the waves crashing!

MOMMA'S NOTES

Eliza has told me a few times now that I need an "attitude adjustment" because I can't seem to believe our good luck. Great weather, views of Mt. Rainier and Mt. St. Helen's, sunset at Canon Beach with an other worldly light as the clouds rolled in, a gas station just before we hit "empty". Also a long day and it's wonderful to have a fire going in the fireplace in our room while we can hear the waves crashing on the beach outside. Good night's sleep ahead.

And congratulations to Jen and her husband and Kody on becoming a family today.

DAY 1: Seattle, WA

Hey Folks,
Mom and I arrived in Seattle, WA around noon, picked up our FABULOUS cherry-red Mustang Convertible and met up with some of our favorite family friends, the Flora's. John, Brenda, and Sarah took us around downtown Seattle and Pike's Place market and then we returned to their beautiful home where we enjoyed a fantastic feast and the best coleslaw I've ever had! Kristen, Jason, and Ana joined us for dinner and it was great to catch up with them since I haven't seen them (and hadn't met Ana until then) in at least 10 years! It was great to spend time with some familiar faces before we embark on the rest of our trip. Here's some of the highlights from today:
A view of Mount Rainier from the plane


Our ride: Tabasco



Pike's Place Market
Beautiful bouquets everywhere!

The first Starbucks.... I wonder where the first Dunkin Donuts is....
Downtown Seattle
Mom with Brenda and John Flora
Two little hookers and their spicy car!

MOMMA'S NOTES

Great launch to our adventure, thank you fabulous Flora family.
I had forebodings at the car rental check in line. We hadn't seen a convertible in the lot. Eliza told me to think positive and sure enough, an almost brand new, red-hot car was pulled up for us, now dubbed Tabasco. The GPS we've renamed a few times but is now Queen Anne. A crazy pairing but then so are we.