An Adventure of Epic Proportions

My good friend Kristen (Kabbs) came up to Washington to embark on a very epic adventure. 

She flew in a Tuesday and away we went.

Our first stop was a little town called Leavenworth.  It is a little town that at the beginning of the 20th century was losing logging business and decided something needed to be done or the town was going under. 

So they decided between a wild west theme and a Bavarian theme. 

They went Bavarian and we were so glad they did!

Everything is German theme.  The buildings, the uniforms, the food, the music.  It was awesome!

Just a view of the street.

Eating a bratwurst! D-Lish!

Well, after our little stop there, we continued our journey north… Way north! We crossed the Canadian border around 9 pm that night. 

The whole reason we were going to Canada was to see the fireworks show that they do out over the bay of Vancouver.  Well, we missed it.  And then the hostel we were staying in lost our reservations.  Luckily it was caught before it was too late so they said they could fit us in somewhere.  Come to find out they fit us in with 2 guys!

When we got to the room I took one look at Kristen and said, “Does it smell like dude in here?”  And it sure did. 

Needless to say, after requesting a different room, it turned into a very interesting night.  Our roommates didn’t get home until about 2. Unfortunately they took shifts coming in and out.  But when they did come, they undressed, down to their skivvies. 

Needless to say it was a very unique night in my life.  Will I keep staying in hostels, yup. Coulda been worse I’m sure!

The next day we woke up bright and early.  We went on a walk around this beautiful park right on the bay.

We saw totem poles

We went to an Indian Village.

I tried out life as a squaw…  Didn’t feel right! :)

I got the biggest high five ever!

We met the chief.  He was very nice.

Later that day we ate at a place called the Twisted Fork.  It was very delicious!

We headed a little further north to a place called the Capilano Bridge. It was incredible.

This is the bridge.  It is longer than 2 jumbo jets side by side and about as tall as the Statue of Liberty’s chin. It was awesome.  (We also we the minority amongst the asians! :)

Once we crossed the bridge they have this whole section of bridges that are high up in the trees.  This is one platform built around a tree.  The trees were obviously huge.  I decided tree hugging was not all it is cracked up to be! ; )

They also had this crazy walkway that came directly out of a rock wall.  It was awesome to see the engineering behind all of the different bridges.

Nothing above, below or to the sides.  It was really cool.

We finished the day by walking around this beautiful park where I took lots of pictures of flowers (if you’ve ever traveled with me, you know I love my flower pictures!)

We finally drove down to the ferries and headed to Victoria BC.

First time ever on a Ferry.  It was about what you would expect.

We got into Victoria that night and headed to the world famous Butchart Gardens. 

It was breathtaking.

So many flowers and colors and greenery. 

A-Maz-Ing

We were in Canada on the west coast, so of course, it rained. It wasn’t bad though and umbrellas were everywhere!

Now this is a story.  It had kind of been a crazy whirlwind trip trying to do more than we could do and missing out on a few things that I had wanted to do.  So we pulled up to the ferry going from Victoria to Port Angeles in Washington we came to find out that we might not make the ferry, but we would just have to wait an hour and a half to see.  So we took a chance. 

I was feeling pretty stressed out about it and was just wanting to get back to the US. 

We were the last car that made it onto the ferry and I won’t lie to ya, I was so relieved that we didn’t have to wait another 3 hours to get back to the US that I cried.

Hence the fist pump of making it on the ferry!

Oh what stress’ll do to a person!

All in all, Canada was AWESOME!  I would love to do it again with just a lil more time.  Vancouver was a beautiful city, especially at night.  It looked kind of sci-fi as we drove in.  Everything was white lights and there were lots of globe lights.  It was beautiful!

For the Beauty of the Earth- Palouse Falls Edition

About an hour and a half south of Spokane is one of the tallest waterfalls in the United States (Yes, taller than Niagara Falls!) And we were just lucky enough to get to go!

The surrounding area wasn’t too picturesque, but it really was beautiful!

We had to hike around the back way to get to the falls and these were some of the mini falls we saw on our way!

Selfie of Collin and I

It doesn’t look like much, but just behind me is a 250 foot drop off where the waterfall is. It was also kind of a climb to get up there!

We had probably hiked a mile and a half to get to this point

We had a very treacherous journey to the very bottom of the bottom of the waterfall!  The trail does not actually go to the bottom of the waterfall (Apparently there are lots of rattlesnakes so they discourage really hiking down to the water… we did see one) It was also extremely steep and had a lot of loose gravel. 

But we made it!

LauriAnn, Collin and BJ.

We made it all the way back to the top!

We found a short cut just straight up this little crevice here.  It took us about 5 minutes and no rattlesnakes!

Overall, it was a really fun trip! 

Apparently this is the highest ever free fall in a kayak ever.  Its on Youtube.  People are a little intense aren’t they?!

For the beauty of the Earth! :)

Oregon- My Heart Belongs to You!

The wonderful holiday of Memorial day arrived and LauriAnn and I decided we could use a little coast time, so we hopped in my little Nissan Sentra and away we went.

Being from Utah, I had never really seen a river until I saw the Colombia!  Holy Crap!  This picture does it no justice! It is huge! 

We stopped on our was at this huge waterfall called the Multnomah Falls.

It was beautiful and Busy!

We got very wet just walking by.

We found this little cave and I decided if grad school didn’t work out, I could always make a little home here. I apparently was feeling a little Gollum at the moment!

Our next stop was the thriving metropolis of Portland Oregon!  It was so fun!

They have all of these food carts throughout the city and you pretty much decide what food you want to eat and then you find it!

We ate Gyros from an Egyptian cart.  The guy who helped us just couldn’t keep his eyes off of LauriAnn.  Those blue eyes he just couldn’t resist em!

That night we got all ready and went out on the town.  Our first stop was the cutest little Italian restaurant called A Cena which means “Come to Supper”.

I got a delicious pizza and LauriAnn got rabbit stew!

This above picture is me about to try the rabbit stew. (I was a little worried!)

BUT to my great surprise, it was DELICIOUS!  I’ll eat rabbit again for sure.

We stopped at the world famous VooDoo Doughnuts.

If you haven’t heard of it, it is a little doughnut shop that has all sorts of creative doughnuts (and really inappropriate names).

I got a triple chocolate penetration, which is a chocolate cake doughnut with coco puffs and then drizzled with chocolate.  (It was pretty darn good).

We got a couple others, but I’d be too embarrassed to write their names for the whole world to see! :)

Yes, that is a huge line waiting to get into VooDoo Doughnuts.  Apparently they’re always pretty busy!

After that exciting trip, we swung the other way and visited the Portland temple!

It was beautiful!

Did you know that the Portland temple doesn’t have any windows?  They’ve just cut the granite super thin so it lets light in.  Crazy!

The we took the scenic route to the coast. It was beautiful!

And guess where we went?

The Tillamook Cheese Factory!!!!!

Seriously, one of the highlights of the trip!  It was so much fun!

We ate lunch here!  That happy, little guy is fried mashed potatoes!  They were so good!

This, my friends, is the most delicious burger I have EVER eaten! 

Fresh cheese, fresh beef, fresh bacon!  Seriously A-MAZ-ING!!

We are sooo cool!

And of course Tillamook ice cream!  Soooo Good!

Then we continued down to Seaside. And of course, it is the Oregon coast, so it rained and rained!

It was really breathtaking at times though!

We stayed in the Crown Pacifiq Motel!  It was so ghetto, but it was cheap! 

The day was so moody, but it stopped raining long enough to really enjoy the beauty of it.

(Seriously, if you’ve never been to the Oregon coast, please put it on your bucket list!  Remember how much I loved Seattle?  Not even a comparison!  So amazing!)

This is what the Oregon coast does to a person!

You feel so free! :)

 

When we checked into the Motel, the clerk told us that during the month of May they contract local glass blowers (which there are a ton of glass blowing shops in that area of the world!) to make little glass globes that the city purchases and then drops into the ocean. The tide then brings in the globes and you can just walk down the beach and find then as they wash up on shore.

The last morning we were there we woke up super early to go down to the beach and find ourselves a glass globe.

We were serious die-hards, because it was raining pretty hard, but we walked about 3/4 of a mile down the beach in hopes of finding one.  Unfortunately, there were no globes to be found!

Although it was an adventure ending with 2 very soaked girls, but it was still a lot of fun and very peaceful!

Dear Oregon, I love you.  Please let me come back soon!