Flashback Friday: The Oregon Coast

I am participating in another Flashback Friday - if you would like to join in or visit the host of this awesome weekly event, please go on over to Christopher & Tia. :)

***I apologize that this post is actually on Saturday...I tried to get it done before midnight, but it didn't happen due to the sheer volume of photos in this post.  Enjoy anyway! :)

Since we went back to WA for John's spring break in March, I thought I would do a flashback of my spring break last year.  Last year was my senior year in college and John wasn't in school but rather working full-time for the state of WA.  We decided to go on vacation for my spring break and took Johnny to see his great-grandparents (John's paternal grandparents) in Oregon as well as go on a road trip down the Oregon Coast and then a tour of the University of Oregon (it was one of the schools John applied to for Graduate school, and he was waiting to hear back from schools).  This wasn't the first trip that we had taken to the Oregon Coast (we honeymooned by camping our way down the Oregon Coast - future Flashback Friday), and not even the first for Johnny (we had gone the previous May after my school got out, when he was 9 months old...he was 20 months old on this trip).  The trip was a blast and we're bummed that it has been over a year since we have been to Oregon.  We hope to get back there as soon as we can, but thankfully we will be seeing John's grandparents this June when we go to Nevada for one of John's brother's high school graduation.

Now for the photos & story:

We were gone for 6 days on this vacation.  On the first day of our vacation, we drove from our home in eastern WA to John's grandparents' house in McMinville, OR, which is about an hour outside of Portland.  This was our first trip with the portable DVD player in the car, and it was great for times when Johnny became restless in the car.  We arrived at John's grandparents' house around dinnertime and spent the rest of the evening letting Johnny run around and chatting.  It was a lot of fun. :) 

The next day we were supposed to spend the day in Portland, but we ended up not getting on the road until late in the morning, so we were only really able to spend the afternoon there.  We love Portland and it is one of the places we are considering settling down once we are out of school and buy/build a house.  We took Johnny to the Children's Museum in Portland first, and he had a blast! {They have a Children's Museum through the same company here in Denver, but we haven't gone yet.  We're hoping to go there really soon though!}

Johnny playing in the construction/rubble pit

 Playing with puzzles in the Baby Garden

Johnny and daddy playing up on top of a wooden ship

 This was Johnny's favorite thing in the whole museum: splashing in the water!

 They had a Bob the Builder temporary exhibit that Johnny liked

 It started raining while we were in the museum (I miss rain!)

After the museum, we went to Powell's Bookstore in downtown Portland, which I loved loved loved!!!   Mazes and mazes of books - it was wonderful!  Except that Johnny was pretty grumpy in the bookstore, so I was only able to spend about fifteen minutes in there.  But I did end up finding a children's book in there about the ocean for Johnny.  We had wanted to check out Voodoo Donuts (since it is pretty famous in Portland and is on the Travel Channel all the time) but we didn't get a chance to before we needed to head back (we were trying to avoid the heavy rush hour traffic...we weren't successful).  

Downtown Portland

We spent the rest of the evening with John's grandparents and Johnny spent his time trying to get into everything he could get his little hands on.  The first time we visited John's grandparents, Johnny was learning to crawl and it was at their house that he successfully crawled for the first time (he was trying to chase after their dogs).  This time he had been walking/running for about seven months, so he took the opportunity to explore and get into mischief.  The next morning we left bright and early for the Oregon Coast: we drove from McMinville straight across to Lincoln City, which takes almost two hours, if I remember correctly.  

Me in the car on the way to the coast

 The Pacific Ocean!!!!!!!!!!!

Once we got to Lincoln City, we spotted the ocean, but we didn't stop here (we spent time in Lincoln City during our honeymoon and also during our first trip with Johnny).  We continued on down the coast and stopped in Newport.  We sought out the Oregon Coast Aquarium. 

"Where it's ok to be weird" 

 A sting ray that I was dared into touching and then screamed when it moved

 Look, it's Nemo and his dad, Marlin!

 Johnny and me in front of a waterfall

 Johnny watching a sea otter eat and swim

 The underwater tunnels were nice until we got to the one with the sharks...I couldn't go into it for longer than a second because it felt like I was underwater with sharks swimming around me

 THIS is why I don't like sharks

After we were finished at the museum and got Johnny some things from the gift shop (we ended up getting him a t-shirt and a post card from every single major place we stopped; we also got him one toy - a stuffed sea otter from the Sea Lions cave and then a bottle of wine from Oregon for my dad and a mug with the picture of Multnomah Falls for my mom), we headed down the coast again until we ended up at the Sea Lion Caves, outside of Florence.  We had gone to the Sea Lion Caves both on our honeymoon, but we had never taken Johnny.  John wanted to see if Johnny would wrinkle his nose when he smelled the sea lions (he did), so we spent the exorbitant amount of money and went.   

The beautiful ocean again

 Getting ready to go down into the caves

 John had to take a bathroom break, so Johnny was chilling in the backpack carrier on the ground :)

 Headed down to the caves - you can see Heceta Lighthouse in the distance

 The stinky, loud sea lions down in the caves (best picture I could get)

 A view of the lighthouse from inside the caves

After we were done with the Sea Lion Caves (it was very cold & windy and we had been driving all day and had already been to the aquarium, so we were getting tired) we headed down the coast again.  This time the drive was pretty short, because we only had to drive into Florence.  Florence isn't right on the ocean; at this part of the coast, the highway is about a mile inland and you can see the dunes and the river and such.  We ended up staying at a fabulous little hotel right on the river in Florence and our room had a great view of the river too.  Once we got everything into our hotel room and relaxed for a little bit, we headed back back across the river into Florence to eat dinner and do a little bit of sight-seeing.  

We ate dinner at Mo's seafood restaurant (they have one in most of the Oregon Coast cities) and it was delicious! The restaurant was right on the boardwalk and the river and it had great views all the way down the restaurant.  After dinner we headed down the little boardwalk that was empty of people (it was almost sunset) and got some ice cream (even though it was cold) at a little place called BJ's (horrible name).  It was good ice cream though, and we happened to get in there right before they closed.  All the other little shops were closed in the historic district right there on the boardwalk too, since it was so late in the day, so we ended up heading back to the hotel.  We wish we had time to have looked in the shops, but we had to leave early the next morning, so we didn't.

Johnny in the car enjoying a snack, movie, and his own toes

Johnny at Mo's - he happened to be whipping his head back and forth really fast when I took this picture and it just happened to get him with a very impish grin.  We love this photo. :)

 The boardwalk on the river in Florence

 Eating ice cream on the boardwalk - Johnny had already finished his!

 Florence had these cool signs throughout the town that pointed in the direction of another town somewhere in the U.S. or the world that was also called Florence and how many miles away it was (of course they also had Florence, Italy).

  

The next morning we got on the road early and left Florence.  We headed down the coast for a few hours until we arrived in Bandon, which is only a couple of hours north of California.  Bandon was where John's grandparents (the ones near Portland that we visited) used to live until they moved to McMinville a few years ago.  This was my first time south of Florence on the Oregon Coast (we didn't go farther than Florence on our honeymoon), and I fell in love with Bandon.  The ocean is so beautiful there and it is an adorable little town.  I love it so much, but I can't see us ever living there because of how remote it is...they didn't even have a Starbucks in this town.  And I'm sure the closest Starbucks was at least a couple of miles away (this is a legitimate travesty for me, and I don't care if you don't sympathize).  Bandon was a lot of fun though.  We checked into our hotel, which was right near the ocean, and then went downtown and went into shops and had lunch at a little deli.  

After lunch we drove outside of Bandon to this game & safari park that had wild animals.  We didn't really enjoy that at all; the animals were living in really poorly constructed cages and it didn't seem a) safe or b) humane.  John carried Johnny on his back in the backpack carrier and we walked around and looked at all of the animals, but we were much happier when we left.  The only fun part was looking at the baboon baby that we saw.  He kept whining and trying to get away from his mama who was eating and she kept going and getting him and trying to keep him in one place (sounds familiar...).  The male baboon in the group kept giving the little newborn death threat looks and the mama would come and rescue him, but she seemed bored with the whole situation.  Eventually she took him up the tree and made him sit on a branch next to her while she ate, so he couldn't escape anymore.  The whole thing made me laugh and I got it on video. :)

By the time we left the game & safari place, we only had enough time to take Johnny to the hotel and let him nap for a bit before we walked down to the ocean as the sun was beginning to set.  It was so amazingly beautiful on the beach in Bandon; I wish we could go back there soon!  It was really windy there too, however, and after a bit we walked back to our hotel room to drop off the stroller and then walked to a restaurant near our hotel to eat dinner.  It seemed a little fancier than the other restaurants we saw in Bandon and we had some good food.  It had huge windows and we had some great views of the ocean and the setting sun during dinner.  Afterward we went back to our hotel room and hung out and then finally crashed that night.  We had a very busy day ahead of us in the morning.

Downtown Bandon 

 We love the ocean in Bandon!

The goats and birds wandering free at the game & safari

 The baby baboon that didn't want to listen to his mama

 The view of the beach and ocean on our walk before dinner

 My two guys trying to enjoy the beach even though the wind was very very strong

 I could live next to this ocean forever

 This was our picture trying to illustrate how windy it was: John merely let go of the stroller and it would start moving by itself down the beach...with a toddler inside!  THAT is how windy it was! {And no, mom, Johnny was NEVER in any danger; we had control of the situation, so I don't need any comments about us needing to be more careful. :)}

 Johnny in the restaurant in Bandon for dinner

The next morning we had to get up super early and drive for several hours east - away from the ocean (sad...) - to Eugene, which is where the University of Oregon is located.  Eugene is a pretty decent sized city, mainly because of the college.  We had an appointment for the late morning to take a guided tour of the campus, so we had to be there on time.  We made it just as they were leaving the building for the tour, because parking was atrocious.  The tour lasted over an hour and we walked all over that darn campus: John had Johnny on his back in the carrier and was trying to pay attention to everything while I followed behind them trying to open up snack containers and peel mini oranges to feed the grumpy toddler (this was not part of the plan - I had full intentions of enjoying the tour as well).  The campus was really nice (albeit huge) and John was really excited about the school and the program and everything.  We hadn't heard back from them or any of the other schools yet, and though it would have been great to live in Oregon, John ended up making the hard but important decision to go to school in Denver instead.  So here we are, and I think John is better off with the program he chose, even though we hate the location (keep repeating the mantra that this is only temporary!).  

After our tour of the school, we were exhausted, but had to hurry back to our car, eat quickly, and hit the road again.  The next several hours were spent driving up the Willamette Valley (which is also very beautiful, but in a different way than the coast - trees and hills and mountains and green and farms, etc.).  I slept through most of that drive, so I don't really have a lot of pictures (no photos of the campus tour either, because I was feeding the human garbage disposal).  The end destination ended up being John's grandparents' house again outside of Portland.  We got there around dinner time and spent the evening with his grandparents' again.  It was our last night in Oregon before we headed home.

Part of the Willamette Valley 

 Downtown Portland again

The next morning we had to say our farewells to the family and drive back to WA and home.  We left in the morning and then stopped at Multnomah Falls outside of Portland.  We stop here every time we go to Oregon because it is so beautiful and has some nice hikes around the waterfall.  After our little outing at the waterfall, we got back in the car and drove the six hours home with the exhausted toddler (he actually did really well after spending a week in a car a lot).

John and Johnny walking to the waterfall 

 Multnomah Falls

 My two handsome guys

 Me in front of the falls

All in all we had an amazing week in Oregon - it's still one of our favorite places! :)  We are so thankful that John's grandparents are so much fun and are always very welcoming and let us stay with them and everything when we go there to visit.  We always have a great trip when we go there and we hope to go back there this summer as part of our visit home, or at least very very soon.  We miss the ocean! And trees! And rain! And Portland! And family!