In April, Jess took me (and Reed, since he's still nursing and I'm not ready to be away from him overnight yet at his age) to Oregon. I've always known I would love Oregon. It seemed like something out of a fairy tale, not to mention I love cloudy skies. I've never understood the love for sunny days. I honestly don't think I could get tired of the grey weather. Since our ten year anniversary was coming up, Jess decided it was a good excuse to take me to Oregon, to finally see it in person.
We went early, in late April, since we weren't sure if our anniversary would fall during graduations and things, like it usually does. So we worked out babysitting for the big three, and feeding for Gia, between the grandparents and aunts. On Wednesday morning, we headed for Vegas and the airport. Reed was good, and also wide awake, for the drive there. We had an easy time getting through the airport, and Reed was such a cute little traveler, wearing his own backpack and carrying Moono through the airport. He was still awake and cheery as we boarded the plane. He waved to everyone on the plane, already in their seats, as we made our way down the aisle.
We were next to a young single guy, who did a good job hiding the fear he probably felt at sitting next to us with our toddler. I have to say, I was pretty nervous myself. Reed is fantastic and so good natured, but he is active, not hyper but busy. We also chose the hardest age I can imagine for having to fly. Big enough to want to be independent, and move around, but not big enough to understand why he has to sit still. Thank goodness he played with his toy Moono...
...and happily organized all the papers and magazines in the pocket of the seat in front of me, until it was time to take off.
...and happily organized all the papers and magazines in the pocket of the seat in front of me, until it was time to take off.
Once we started moving I fed him, hoping he'd fall asleep. He was awake, but starting to look sleepy. When we got off the ground, the rougher movements of the plane got him excited at first, and he balled up his hands into fists against his chest and started sort of growling. I think he was trying to mimic the sounds the plane was making. Then, pretty quickly, it actually lulled him right to sleep.
I held him as he napped, and tried to read a bit. He woke up just as we started the descent, and he was calm and happy for those last few minutes of flying. It was such a relief that he did so well. He cuddled me for a minute just after waking up,
while looking out at the sea of clouds.
He liked looking out the window with us as we came into Portland.
while looking out at the sea of clouds.
He liked looking out the window with us as we came into Portland.
We got our rental van, and went straight to a restaurant. Jess had planned ahead a bit, and wanted to try a place called Gravy. Breakfast food for lunch, which I love. I later regretted ordering pancakes, even though they sounded good. They were great, but I should have been more adventurous, since I think pancakes are good everywhere. Jess had a really good and unique biscuits and gravy though.
Reed picked at our meals, and had some fruit and fresh apple juice.
Reed seemed to decide he was king of Portland, on the walk after lunch.
Before leaving Portland, we went to the Japanese gardens. We put Reed in the hiking pack, which turned out to be good because we had a decent hike to get there, uphill, and the gardens themselves involved a good walk.
It was SO pretty.
Reed liked the fu dogs best. :)
When we left the gardens, we headed for Corvallis for our first night, where we stayed. We drove around a bit..
...and checked in to our hotel. We walked from there to a cute little downtown area and had dinner at Laughing Planet Cafe. This was probably the place where we ate our most interesting meals. I had a Bollywood Bowl, which was really good, and Jess got one that I thought was amazing. It was a bowl with mashed potatoes and kale, topped with kielbasa and a mustard-stout salsa. It blew my mind. I couldn't stop eating from his. Ha!
The next morning we got a muffin and coffee from a really cute coffee shop. This was about the time we started noticing how incredibly friendly everyone was. People told us all the time how nice the people in the midwest would be, but I did not find that to be true. Everywhere I went in Oklahoma I smiled at people, and very rarely had anyone acknowledge me, let alone smile back. Our neighbors were amazing, but other than that I was not impressed. In Oregon though-every single place we went multiple people smiled and chatted and were just SOOOO nice. Every time it happened we just looked at each other like "WHERE ARE WE?!!"
After our muffins and coffee, we drove a bit more around town, and then headed for the coast. Corvallis was such a cool town. It ended up being one of my two favorite cities out of the places we stayed. After exploring, we headed for the coast. We had a little drive to get there, and Reed was great for it. The views everywhere were beautiful. So green, with so many trees, and mist.
We had fun at the coast-it was chilly and grey, and so we were just about the only people around most of the time, and we loved it. We walked around, looking for shells, and found some tide pools. I took some cool pictures of the tide pools and they seem to have disappeared. :(
We had lunch nearby at a Mexican place, which was pretty good. The waitress thought we were crazy when we asked to sit outside, because it was so "cold and windy". We were confused, because there was barely a breeze, and it was nice and cool, but far from cold. I guess their version of wind doesn't compare to Kingman's.
From there we headed a little farther down the road to Cape Perpetua. This place was amazing. Rocky, and the waves were smashing into the rocks. It was raining on us, which only added to the experience. The whole area felt sort of tropical, and there were crazy plants all around us, the coolest trees and ferns. Since this is getting a bit long, and because I'm having trouble finding all my pictures, I'll stop here for tonight, and leave you with a video and a picture of the boys at Cape Perpetua.
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