Warning.
Expect way too many pictures in this post...
So as you may already know, the "mystery" vacation was to the Pacific Northwest! We landed in Seattle (but I didn't know where we were yet, thanks to giant headphones and blasting music). Then Christopher took me straight to the city center, where I opened my eyes and beheld the beautiful Space Needle and Seattle skyline! It was breathtaking & I was SO excited! I had never been to this part of the U.S. before and I couldn't wait to explore it.
We didn't have much time on this vacation - so our pace was speedy express! We visited the world's FIRST Starbucks.
Then we explored the Public Market Center at Pike Place.
There were TONS of beautiful, fresh, colorful flowers for super cheap. Christopher wanted to buy me some so badly, but I said no. We had no way to preserve them and they would have quickly died with not too much time to enjoy them. So I took lots of pictures instead :)
We watched the famous "fish throwing" which was entertaining for a little while. Plus we got some free samples of smoked salmon... holy delicious.
Then we visited Kerry Park (again) for a beautiful view of the Seattle skyline. I loved this place both day and night!
Then our adventure continued down the Oregon coast on Highway 101. We saw beautiful countryside along the way and stopped every so often to take pictures and enjoy the little towns.
In Long Beach, Washington we made a quick stop at "The World's Longest Beach" but I found that hard to believe so I looked it up. Apparently, it's just the world's longest drivable beach, so regardless of what that means.... it was still beautiful.
Then we made another quick stop nearby at Cape Disappointment to see the North Head Lighthouse. Don't be fooled by the name...it was definitely not a disappointment!! It was gorgeous!!
Then we ventured on down to the city of Cannon Beach, Oregon where we enjoyed some fish & chips, and a fresh clam chowder bread bowl. Yum, yum, yum!! I LOVE seafood and it was probably some of the best I've ever had.
Next up was exploring Cannon Beach! I loved this beach because it was so huge and there were hardly any people there. The amount of sand really surprised me and they even let people have bon fires there at night. Christopher visited this beach as a kid and remembered making s'mores at night. I hope someday we get to come back here with our kids - it was so much fun! We found lots of sand dollars, crabs, sea urchins and my favorite....
STAR FISH!!!! I have never seen them in the wild before so I was super excited. They were really bright and vibrant. I expected them to be more squishy but they were actually really hard like a rock. Then we watched the sunset. It was beautiful over the ocean horizon and reflected in the water.
The next day we woke up and traveled farther down the coast to Cape Perpetua, Oregon for some more extreme tide pooling.
After some more fresh fish and some saltwater taffy at the local restaurants, we continued our trip down the coast. It was cool to see the foggy forests with bright green moss and ferns growing everywhere. It was definitely a different climate than I'm used to.
After a few hours of driving, we stopped again - this time at Bandon Beach, Oregon - just in time for low tide. Christopher found quite a few dead sea animals, like this crab and two dead starfish (all the others had been alive). This beach must have been full of hungry seagulls!
It was definitely a different type of "beach trip" than normal. Most of the time we go to the beach from about 11am-4pm but on this trip we timed our beach visits to match up with low tide (for better tide pooling and exploring) which meant 8am-11am and 7:30pm-9pm. It was definitely fun for me to be at the beach for sunset. I went totally camera crazy. I just couldn't get enough of the bright sun contrasting against the large boulders and rocks, reflecting back into the water. Crazy beautiful.
I know it looks somewhat fake... but it's totally real! I couldn't believe that Redwood trees can grow up to 378 feet tall! That's like... a 30-story building, or a 1.25 football fields!
It's hard to capture how TALL these trees really are. When you're walking through and look up... they just keep going up. Christopher said, it feels like we are walking through New York City except instead of skyscrapers, they are trees. It's really true though. I probably said, "Wow. They're SO tall!" at least 25 times.
No, but really... I know why they call it the "Avenue of the Giants"!
And some of them aren't just tall, they're super wide too!
Christopher was so thoughtful while planning our trip. He planned the whole thing around me and my life goals. He could have chosen anywhere Southwest flies and he chose the northwest because he knew I had never been before, so it counted as 2 more states for me (toward my life goal of visiting all 50 states). And then he took me to the best beaches for tide pooling so I could see lots of star fish (second life goal) and then he drove extra far down into northern California so I could visit the Redwood Forest (third life goal).
Then on top of all that, he surprised me by bringing a bottle with a cork, a piece of paper and a pen so I could accomplish a fourth life goal of writing a message in a bottle!! (I had completely forgotten about that one!) Such a thoughtful husband I have :) I sure love him.
So as you may already know, the "mystery" vacation was to the Pacific Northwest! We landed in Seattle (but I didn't know where we were yet, thanks to giant headphones and blasting music). Then Christopher took me straight to the city center, where I opened my eyes and beheld the beautiful Space Needle and Seattle skyline! It was breathtaking & I was SO excited! I had never been to this part of the U.S. before and I couldn't wait to explore it.
We didn't have much time on this vacation - so our pace was speedy express! We visited the world's FIRST Starbucks.
Then we explored the Public Market Center at Pike Place.
There were TONS of beautiful, fresh, colorful flowers for super cheap. Christopher wanted to buy me some so badly, but I said no. We had no way to preserve them and they would have quickly died with not too much time to enjoy them. So I took lots of pictures instead :)
We watched the famous "fish throwing" which was entertaining for a little while. Plus we got some free samples of smoked salmon... holy delicious.
Then we visited Kerry Park (again) for a beautiful view of the Seattle skyline. I loved this place both day and night!
Then our adventure continued down the Oregon coast on Highway 101. We saw beautiful countryside along the way and stopped every so often to take pictures and enjoy the little towns.
In Long Beach, Washington we made a quick stop at "The World's Longest Beach" but I found that hard to believe so I looked it up. Apparently, it's just the world's longest drivable beach, so regardless of what that means.... it was still beautiful.
Then we made another quick stop nearby at Cape Disappointment to see the North Head Lighthouse. Don't be fooled by the name...it was definitely not a disappointment!! It was gorgeous!!
Then we ventured on down to the city of Cannon Beach, Oregon where we enjoyed some fish & chips, and a fresh clam chowder bread bowl. Yum, yum, yum!! I LOVE seafood and it was probably some of the best I've ever had.
Next up was exploring Cannon Beach! I loved this beach because it was so huge and there were hardly any people there. The amount of sand really surprised me and they even let people have bon fires there at night. Christopher visited this beach as a kid and remembered making s'mores at night. I hope someday we get to come back here with our kids - it was so much fun! We found lots of sand dollars, crabs, sea urchins and my favorite....
STAR FISH!!!! I have never seen them in the wild before so I was super excited. They were really bright and vibrant. I expected them to be more squishy but they were actually really hard like a rock. Then we watched the sunset. It was beautiful over the ocean horizon and reflected in the water.
The next day we woke up and traveled farther down the coast to Cape Perpetua, Oregon for some more extreme tide pooling.
We were hoping to find some giant crabs, an octopus or some type of unique ocean creature... but only found more mussels, star fish and sea urchins. But that was OK, we still enjoyed our morning beach explorations.
After some more fresh fish and some saltwater taffy at the local restaurants, we continued our trip down the coast. It was cool to see the foggy forests with bright green moss and ferns growing everywhere. It was definitely a different climate than I'm used to.
After a few hours of driving, we stopped again - this time at Bandon Beach, Oregon - just in time for low tide. Christopher found quite a few dead sea animals, like this crab and two dead starfish (all the others had been alive). This beach must have been full of hungry seagulls!
It was definitely a different type of "beach trip" than normal. Most of the time we go to the beach from about 11am-4pm but on this trip we timed our beach visits to match up with low tide (for better tide pooling and exploring) which meant 8am-11am and 7:30pm-9pm. It was definitely fun for me to be at the beach for sunset. I went totally camera crazy. I just couldn't get enough of the bright sun contrasting against the large boulders and rocks, reflecting back into the water. Crazy beautiful.
Our last full travel day was spent in northern California, venturing through the Redwood forest. The trip started out with a crazy, mossy jungle...
And transitioned into GIANT, skyscraper-tall trees we could drive our car through!!
I know it looks somewhat fake... but it's totally real! I couldn't believe that Redwood trees can grow up to 378 feet tall! That's like... a 30-story building, or a 1.25 football fields!
It's hard to capture how TALL these trees really are. When you're walking through and look up... they just keep going up. Christopher said, it feels like we are walking through New York City except instead of skyscrapers, they are trees. It's really true though. I probably said, "Wow. They're SO tall!" at least 25 times.
No, but really... I know why they call it the "Avenue of the Giants"!
And some of them aren't just tall, they're super wide too!
Christopher was so thoughtful while planning our trip. He planned the whole thing around me and my life goals. He could have chosen anywhere Southwest flies and he chose the northwest because he knew I had never been before, so it counted as 2 more states for me (toward my life goal of visiting all 50 states). And then he took me to the best beaches for tide pooling so I could see lots of star fish (second life goal) and then he drove extra far down into northern California so I could visit the Redwood Forest (third life goal).
Then on top of all that, he surprised me by bringing a bottle with a cork, a piece of paper and a pen so I could accomplish a fourth life goal of writing a message in a bottle!! (I had completely forgotten about that one!) Such a thoughtful husband I have :) I sure love him.
To end our trip, we drove back up to Portland, Oregon to spend a little bit of time there before flying back home. We got to see a lot in our short time...
The Portland LDS Temple
Voodoo Doughnuts (YUM!!!)
A little bit of Portland's personality & charm
The Official Nike Store (previously "Nike Town")
And the International Test Garden for Roses. They have over 7,000 rose plants with 550 varieties! The best part was all the bright, vibrant colors and the amazing scent. It was great to take some time to stop and smell the roses before we rushed off the airport. (hah, pun intended)
I sure loved this little getaway with my sweet husband. Can't wait until it's my turn to plan the next MYSTERY vacation!!!!
Wow!! That is pretty cool! Way to go Chris on helping you accomplish so many life goals. I love all the pictures that are awesome! Especially the one of you jumping on the beach! Looks like a fun trip!!
ReplyDeleteHow sweet! I love that it was a surprise! I'm impressed he pulled that off! Glad you had a fun time- it looks beautiful!
ReplyDelete