I can hardly believe all that has happened since I last blogged on Thursday before we went to Salem. Soooo I am going to try to sink back into my mind and remember the moments to share. Once we (Ainslee, Ashley, and myself) made it into Salem we stopped at the gallery my aunt works at, ( Mary Lou Zeek Gallery). I cannot believe it has been basically a week since that day. We met up with a local named Mike and he helped tour us around Salem. We walked over to the water front and crossed the bridge, ate our lunches, went and had great gelato, purchased local bars of soap, and stopped in random unique boutiques. Got a parking ticket lol yup... $ 15, cheaper than I thought it would be! Then headed to the state capitol played a bit of frisbee in the front lawn to practice my hardly existing frisbee skills ;). After playing frisbee for a while Ashley started to crave a hamburger, so we tried out the local burger place the (Willamette Burger Company). They had really good onion rings!
On Friday we headed to Cape Lookout! This hike you need to started in the mountain and hiked down towards the beach! What a great destination right?! We took the dogs and they had a grand time chasing each other in the sand. While Ash, Ains, and I had fun taking fun pictures and soaking up the moment. The view was breath taking. This hike has been my favorite hike so far in OR. After we got done scarfing down the snacks we brought, I was craving creamy clam chowder. Which, I did find along with fresh rock fish, topped mango salsa tacos, and an onion ring tower! After we were done looking at Hay Stack rock we went to a more deserted beach where we watched the sunset melt into the ocean. Although I won't forget the interesting random entertaining dog that went crazy with energy chasing the waves back and forth. :)
Saturday, wow where do I start on this day?! Ok, welllllll we started with Ashley missing her morning coffee so, we stopped at Broadway coffee in Salem. They had at least 4 different kinds of chai you could try!!! I got a green tea chai! I am very excited to be able to try all the kinds and determine my favorite! :) After off we went to the Portland Saturday Farmers Market!! The street was having a college graduation where the normal market was usually hosted, so we had a quick hot flash of sadness until a few seconds later a lady told us that the market was a block the other direction. The street was bustling with busy people looking, smelling, tasting, and eager to find the next treasure for their kitchen and taste buds. I had a ice cream sandwich that had a lemon sugar cookie with honey lavender ice cream! It was WONDERFUL, it was from Ruby Jewell's a local ice cream shop in Portland! Then I had a home made artichoke and cheese tamale with pico de gio (sp) salsa, sour cream and cilantro. My goodness it was so good with delicious pear cider to help wash it down. My aunt spotted out lemon dessert bars. Wow, the zesty flavor pinged around on my tongue! There were also tons of singer song writers along the walk ways of the markets that floated music to our ears the whole day half of our day. Then we headed over to the water front merchandise local vendors. There was so much to see! We were all pleasantly overwhelmed by the tempting options. We walked by the famous Voodoo doughnut shop, the paying customers were flooding the sidewalk and wrapping around to try to get a fresh unique treat. Then after we went into the restaurant PIN, I had the best Taiwan food! We tried an assortment of dishes, it was made family style, (better for sharing)! This was the first time I had duck, it was dark brown around the edges and a rosy pink in the middle with a wonderful, powerful, juicy flavor! Then we went in and out down the streets and saw an intriguing place for drinking chocolate! We took the sample platter, it had dark chocolate chili, cinnamon milk chocolate, and dark chocolate with a hint of cinnamon drinking chocolate! Talk about rich, but ultra smooth sips of deep delight. Next, we went into this massive book store called Powell's book store. I bought a book made to write your pros on one side and cons on the other for help decision making. The book was a much needed purchase for as much I contemplate my choices. Then we headed home...what a great day! :)
Ohh... the day hasn't ended! Once we got home us girls were talking about Olympia convention and decided at 11pm that night to get up at 6, to pack, get the address, and go the following morning. Once we decided we were going to Olympia we made it into another road trip and whet to Seattle and stayed with Ashley's aunt for the night! Our adventurous spirits wanted to tour Seattle's Pike Place Market on Monday! Along with the Snoqualmie Falls (sp)!
Sunday we go up earlyyyyy to make sure we had everything packed and ready to go, but before we could really get going we needed to get some fuel for the car. I had no idea that on Sunday OR shuts the pumps off until 7pm. We wanted to leave Salem by at least 6:00 - 6:30 ish. Finally by the third gas station we could fill up. (The law in OR doesn't allow the public to pump their own gas.) Ainslee took the reins and drove while Ash and I passed out in the car for about an hour. We made it to convention with about 45 mins - 1 hour to spare, perfect timing. We felt so out of place not knowing one person, quite an unusual feeling for me, (who loves to be a social butterfly). Soon after lunch I could no longer be shy, I went up to a circle and made some acquaintances from WA, then about an hour and a half later I met some of the friends from Portland. The new acquaintances we made invited us to go to Red Robin to hang out a bit after convention. It seemed like there was about 20 or some of us at the table. The hang out time was a lot of fun, but when it got to be around 8pm we decided that we better head to Seattle. Ashley took the driving seat to thrusted head on into the aggressive driving in Seattle. We made it to her aunt's safe and sound and hit the bed as soon as we could.
Monday morning was very relaxing and headed downtown Seattle around 9:30 in the morning. I thought Portland's farmers market was big? This market was HUGE! There was food everywhere! Of course we went to the gum wall, that was insane! I have never seen so much gum! It was not the best idea to go and see it before we ate though lol . While we were looking for the taco place that Ash was wanting, we stopped for some superb greasy doughnuts! Ahhhhhhhhhh food is soooooo wonderful! The weather the whole time since we had come over to the west coast had been perfect! That day in Seattle they had predicted rain and it was super sunny and gently warm! We couldn't of asked for a better day!!!! Then after we had the taco's, the Space Needle was the next destination! We couldn't wait to get to see and take pics of the famous architecture! It was very cool, I now see why it is such a big deal! :) After the eventful day were were pooped out! We headed back home and basically died on our beds.
Tuesday we were up bright and early again! Kayaking down the Willamette River! The friends we met from Portland were teasing us about choosing the Willamette to kayak, but honestly I do not think they know what they were talking about. The river was beautiful! We did have a bit of confusion with our soon demoted tour guide Ashley lol. Poor Ash, we had some comical ( to Ainslee and I) dilemmas. Did some switching of the kayaks and headed against the current for at least 3 1/2 miles that took about 2 hours and 15 mins and then 3 1/2 miles back that took about 1 hour. From the time we got the the rental place and back was about 4 hours. We ended up taking the wrong route, all of us were wrong in the direction were were supposed to be going, hahah. Athough, it was actually tons of fun and I can not wait to get to do it again! :) To relax Ashley's and my arms, (Ains was fine) we searched out for some food! We went into Sellwood, OR and ate at Jade which I had a coconut milk, shredded chicken, shrimp, and rice noodle soup for lunch, lovely. Bought wonderful alligator sock and over the knee high socks at this AMAZING store called Dream Socks! We ran a few errons for my aunt and then headed home! We were soooooo wonderfully exhausted!
Today was an adventure trying to get all of Ashley's things into her bag! We succeeded! Then we headed to Portland and ate at Por Que No a hole in the wall eatery , best taco ever! I had a calamari and a pork taco that blew my mind away and a strawberry, cantaloupe, and peach juice that was wonderfully light! While walking around we saw the ice cream shop that had the honey lavender ice cream I had at the Sat. market, Ruby Jewell's! Yes, we stopped in and I had a excellent vanilla waffle cone with salted carmel and dark chocolate fudge scoop of ice cream! Ahh the smell of the vanilla cones wafted outside along with the cool sweet cream! I can not wait to try other flavors! My aunt got a scoop of mint chocolate flake and they used real mint in the ice cream! After meandering the street and picking up raw green coffee beans that you can toast yourself, we had to head back to the car to go to the airport. :( We made it just one hour before the girls had to catch there flight, which was plenty of time for them to get to their gate! They texted me not too long ago and said they had a safe flight! :) I miss them already :( , but I know they are extremely close to me, no matter the distance.
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