Whoops, We're in Portland and Seattle

Our family is super boring. We don't do go anywhere for holidays. We don't really plan vacations every year.

But when we do, they are pretty dang awesome.

After much planning and fighting about where we were going to go and what we were going to do, we decided that the Portland/Seattle area was the place. Get ready for an overload of pictures :) And I do mean overload. All pictures were taken on a Droid Razr Maxx, besides a few Macquel took on her DSLR something fancy camera. I put F's next to those pics. F is for fancy.


Saturday-

First stop, Nampa, Idaho Costo so that we could get lunch and one of these!!

Vineyards somewhere along the Oregon/Washington border along the Columbia River.

"Whoa, that's a big Dam!"-Macquel

There were many dams and locks along the Columbia. Many, many Dam jokes ensued. One of my favorites is as follows.

What did the fish say when it ran into a wall? Dam

Or everything we'd pass would be that dam thing. Like the dam bridge, town, telephone pole. We thought we were HILARIOUS.

It's cause we WERE!

Must be a barge coming through! (Every time I tried to get a good picture of a barge, nature would get in my way. Cuz it hates me. So this is as good as it gets. DEAL. I have.....)

After the all day drive through I-dee-ho and most of Oregon, we stopped at place called Multnumah Falls. It was actually a lot cooler than I thought it was going to be.

EVERYTHING is covered in moss!

Weeeeeee!!!!

Selfie! BAH!

There was this tiny space in between these two trees that Macquel decided to climb in between. She barely fit. I'm glad we didn't have to leave her there. I would have missed her.

So we finally get to the town we're going to be staying in, but it's like 11 at night and we haven't had dinner. So, we stop for dinner at Burger King. Let me preface this by telling you that at the beginning of the trip, Mom had brought a whole head of iceberg lettuce. Not to make into a salad or to use on sandwiches. Just to eat. So, after ordering her food, she goes back out to the car to get her lettuce, and whilst waiting for her food, starts shredding her lettuce so that she can have about 10 times the regular amount on her burger.

Think she was a little tired?!

Sunday-

After going to church with the family we were staying with, we went to the Portland, Oregon temple.

Bite size version of the Christus.

Aren't these doors SWEET!

I love how the Portland temple is completely surrounded by trees. 

Selfie Sunday! HAH!

Selfie Sunday take 2. HEH HEH!

The whole fam-damily. :D

We were actually super lucky to be able to go on the grounds and look around because the very next day they were starting some renovations on the temple spires as you can see by the gold circle around the spire on the right.

Basically, we have perfect timing.

We hit up the visitors center with the missionaries that attacked us for the tour after the temple grounds. Can you tell I'm a phlebotomist?

After the temple, we told the GPS to take us over the International Rose Garden.

Rah. We made it!

F: Thanks for holding my hat statue guy!

Me being a creeper.

F: The whole time they were there, they had different people performing. Orchestras, dancers. Neato.

I felt like I was in the Secret Garden. But that a lot of people knew about it.

This is my favorite rose in the whole garden. I wish I knew what it was called.

See what I mean? Secret Garden!

Can you tell flowers are totally Kyle's thing?

These flowers are seriously cool too.

Jurassic Park anyone? These things were huge. And I wants one.

Hey, wanna buy a sundial?

Thanks Will. You da bomb.

There were these people having a picnic, complete with wicker basket, sitting on the grass just to the left of this picture. I wish I would have been a creeper and taken a pic of them. It was seriously awesome.

F: Faster!

After the Rose Garden, the GPS was having us go in circles. No, really. I think it was as confused as we looked. But as we were driving around, we drove across this bridge. I saw this written....

........and asked my dad if we could turn around to so I could get out and see the bridge. It turns out it's a jumping bridge in Portland and people write encouraging messages in chalk all over both sides of the bridge. They leave notes tied to flowers, and light candles. They even have a guy, not sure if volunteer or paid, that patrols the bridge to try and talk down jumpers.

"I know you're worth living for."

"Where there is life, there is hope."

"There is an ancient PEACE you carry in your HEART and HAVE NOT LOST."

We each decided to add our own. This is mine.

"The hardest things in life can be the greatest source of strengths."

I love the lighting on this one. How it's just peeking through the columns.

Macquel with hers. Live.Laugh.Love.

Again, the lighting on this is incredible. Absolutely perfect.

Unfortunately, this one became a source of a joke for the rest of the trip. As she was writing this, my Dad came over and I leaned over to him and said, "Look up *pantomimed looking up* AH! Piano!"

Name of the bridge. Vista Avenue Viaduct.

Monday-

This was our day in downtown Portland. We started the day going to visit our friend Rob (the guy we were staying with) at his office in the heart of the city. After telling us some cool stuff about the city and letting us see the awesome view from his office, he let us see a shoe. A really cool shoe.


Shaq's shoe.

F

F

After the amazing time with the shoe, we headed over to a place called Powell's books. Which was supposed to be super cool. But was actually a super disappointment. But, this is one of the aisles.

After the letdown of a bookstore, we went up a few blocks to a city block that just lined with food carts. Glorious food carts. YUM! I had to walk around them TWICE before I could decide on what I wanted to get. I got a really good jiro from a Greek cart that I devoured before I thought to take a picture with it.

They had a waffle cart though. I can't remember what this one was called. But it had nutella, bananas, candied pecans, and caramel all over a waffle on it. It was decadent. I daresay scrumptious.

All day, we used the public transportation because it was just easier than trying to find and pay for parking everywhere. On one of our trips, I got stuck standing next to this awesome black girl that saw my earrings and told me that they were hella fine.

After parading around the bigger part of downtown Portland, we headed over to a different part to go to Voodoo Doughnuts! This place is open 24/7 and it pretty much always has a line that is at least an hour wait.

But it was so worth it.

F: And this one isn't even that fancy. :)

F

Rob told us that bums take baths in this fountain in the early morning. And there are kids playing in it...

It's super pretty though.

That's probably why the bums like taking baths in it. Because it's esthetically pleasing.

To finish off our Portland day, we went to The Grotto. It is a Catholic Sanctuary on the outside of Portland.

I freakin love stained glass windows.

They had this upper level you could pay like 5 bucks to go up this huge elevator to ride up and on top was a second part of the sanctuary.

This reminds me of something that would be in a Star Wars movie.

This was an actual convent. Where actual nuns lived. They wouldn't let us go inside though. :(

The whole time we were up there, I kept just wanting to sing Joseph Smith's First Prayer.

Sorry it's a bit blurry...

If you don't want to interpret the picture above, this is what it says.

Use the labyrinth as a meditative walk, as a spiritual pilgrimage or a healing journey. As you begin your walk, open your heart and mind to the presence of God. Follow the single path at your own pace in silence. If you encounter others, simply step aside and let them pass. The path leads to the center, a place of prayer and insight. Return when you are ready, following the path out. May God be with you as you journey through life.

This actually took a lot longer to walk than you would think. But it was a cool experience. Every religion has ways that they find to be closer to God. To meditate and find peace. And it was cool to be able to tap into another way of doing it, if only for a moment.

Isn't this beautiful? I want to paint it.

When we finally got home, I was actually hungry for my Voodoo doughnut. And oh my my, it was goooood.

Good things come in pink boxes.

Maple BACON goodness.

Tuesday-

Started out super early so that we could go to the Tillamook cheese factory. CHEESE! I love when my parents act like this. And that is not sarcastic at all. I actually LOVE it.

I love this girl.

The actual factory was pretty cool, but the pictures we took of it are super boring. So you don't get to see them. HA!


Next we venture out to the Cape Meares Lighthouse. This has to be the tiniest lighthouse I've ever seen.

F

F

F: He sat on his scooter and rode the brakes the whole way down. Silly kid. Not the smartest thing he's ever done. But he got down super fast. 

After lighthouse.........BEACH!!!!!!! This was one of my New Year's Resolutions. And now I've completed two!

I wish pictures of the beach could accurately capture my feelings of being there. I can't even really describe it. It's just the feeling of being home I guess.

I love my chacos, and I LOVE the beach. It was a match made in heaven.

I also love flying kites. I brought this Dora kite the WHOLE way just so I could fly a kite at the beach. HOLA DORA!

Even though I love the beach so so much, I only took about 5 pictures. I just didn't want to waste my time taking pictures of the one place that I wanted to soak up all I could. We actually all grabbed our towels and books and took naps on the beach. It was HEAVEN.

After the beach, we were hungry. Duh. So, we drove a ways up the coast and found the place where they filmed the Goonies and ate dinner and this dive of an Asian Buffet and was over the water on a pier.

Our view as we ate dinner. Super spectacular, I know.

This shows you how thrilled he was with our choice of dinner....

Wednesday-

We slept in super late, did nothing, absolutely nothing, laundry, made dinner for our hosts, packed, and went to bed.

Thursday-

SEATTLE!!!!

We bought Seattle City Passes. Which in my opinion, was totally worth it. The first place we went to was the EMP museum. Which is like, a Rock and Roll/Sci-Fi/Pop Culture all in one.

Kyle looks like he has devil eyes. On the highway to hell.

F: Trying to take a serious picture, and Macquel shows her true colors. Perfect.

So cute I could gag.

They had this GIANT screen where Macklemore was rapping and these jellyfish things would move up and down on the ceiling with the music.

Prepare to Die

6 fingered glove

Father Christmas presents from the Narnia movies.

EMP museum done and over with, we went over to the Pacific Science Center.

The center was geared more towards little kids. If I'm going to go to hands on places like that, I'd rather go to the Exploratorium in San Francisco. But they did have a really cool butterfly house.

We see everything!

This is how they feed the butterflies.

After our exhausting first day in Seattle (ha) we decided to fulfill our craving for sushi on the coast. So Yelp helped us find the BEST sushi place in Tacoma. Seriously, the sushi was as big around as my palm. Best sushi ever. And best service too!

Friday-

Woke up to this at the place we were staying at. Right?

This was Dad's play day. We went to the Aerospace Museum and spent quite a lot of time there. My favorite were the WWII planes. Made me think of one of my favorite movies. (Flyboys)

Kid in a candy store.

This was mounted on a wall, sideways.

Boom, gigantic plane.

After the planes, we went back downtown to do a bit of shopping and get our tickets for the harbor cruise.

I really wish I would have gotten this.

I have a thing for ferry boats..... :D

They make you take a picture before you get on the cruise, so I was smart and took a picture of the one picture raping us.

Dream come true.

Begin Creeper Pictures.

Oblivious to Creeper taking pics of them.

Still not paying attention.

Becoming aware of creeper sneaking pics of them.

Becomes creeper.

Gushy lovey *hurls*

The same process works on the parents too!

Well, half of them.

F: Get off of me.

F

F: Macquel, you wanna swim with da fishys?

F

F

F

F

F: Awe.

BARGE!

I wonder how soon it's gonna be before they make a movie about this ferris wheel and how it's gonna collapse into the water. HA!

Space Needle time!

Panorama shot from the top.

F

Saturday-

Aquarium!!

F: Tide pool where you could touch stuff.

F

F: Kyle in the Jellyfish.

Touchin stuff!

I found Bloat!

Seahorses!

And I found Marlin!

And finally, we got to go to Pike Place Market. I would have liked to spend a lot more time here. And I was SUPER sad we forgot to go to the gum wall, but I'll go back someday :)

Super yummy baklava and chocolate chip whatever that thing is called. I can't remember right now.

After that it was back to Tacoma so that I could hang with KELSEY! And seriously, that was pretty much the best part of vacation. Okay, maybe not THE best, but one of the very top highlights. I can't believe how much I miss that girl. Ah. I thought I was only going to get to have lunch with her, but lunch turned into going back to her place to play with her dog, and then going to play on the lake I was staying on, to her showing me where she goes to school (which is pretty much a big kids America version of Hogwarts), to making presents for peoples weddings, to making and having dinner, and then her finally taking me back to where I was staying.

The only sunny day the whole day we were in Tacoma/Seattle.

The almost fiasco that was Mom and Dad going out on a canoe.

F: This is the only pictural evidence that I have that Kelsey and I spent the day together. We did take a Snapchat, but it disappeared. :( I freakin love that girl.

Sunday-

Drive home. Vacation over.

But one last stop on the way. A place called Snoqualmie Falls. Which was super pretty, misty, and loud. Perfect way to start our drive home and end our vacation.

Selfie Sunday!!

One of the awesome headbands that Kelsey made.

Blog over. I think we'll have a lot of good material for this year's Chirstmas card. Hope you enjoyed the overwhelmingness that is self appreciation of my camera skills.
.ashley.