Vacation in Oregon

I wanted to give an update of my vacation to Oregon with my college roommate Janene. I hadn't seen Janene in 5 years, so when she suggested getting together and doing something I jumped at the chance.

Wednesday 8-20
My dad's birthday, I flew out of Madison arriving in Missoula, Montana around 2 in the afternoon their time. I thought I missed my plane (see post below). Janene and I jumped in the car and headed to Oregon right away. We spent the next 7 hours driving and talking the whole way. We spent the night in The Dalles about 30 min. from Multnomah Falls, our destination for the next day.

Thurdsay 8-21
We sleep in a little and then head toward the Columbia River Gorge area to see Multnomah Falls. We stop along the way to see Horsetail Falls and then continue to Multnomah. We hiked about a mile to the observation deck at the top of the falls and then continued hiking up the trail aways. There had been some sort of a landslide and the trail was blocked, so we turned around and headed back down to the gift shop area. We also stopped at Wahkeena Falls and hiked another 1/2 mile there up to the bridge and back. We stopped in Portland for about an hour and then traveled to Ft. Stevens near Astoria for the night.



Friday 8-22
This day we headed up the coast to Long Beach, WA for the International Kite Festival. That was really neat to see and the kites were very colorfull. We walked around the downtown area for a while to before heading down the Oregon coast. We stopped in Cannon Beach, which was beautiful. The beach was wide and sandy with large rocks jutting up from the oceam. We also stopped in Tillamook at their famouse cheese factory. I know, I had to travel all the way to Oregon to see a cheese factory. For dinner we ate at the Pelican Pub and Brewery in Pacific City, OR. The restrant is located right on the beach and had a spectacular view of the ocean. I really enjoyed eating there. We stayed the night in South Beach State Park in a Yurt. We could hear the ocean and sea lions most of the night.



















Saturday 8-23
We woke up a little early and headed into Newport for the day. We walked around the Historic Bayarea, watched California Sea Lions, visited a wax museum, Ripley's Believe it or Not, the Undersea Gardens, held live starfish and touched an sea annenomie. All this before lunch. We ate a picnic lunch at Yaquina Head National Park. We climbed to the top of lighthouse, walked along the beach, saw harbor seals, and walked through the visitors center. We then headed to the first lighthouse in Newport, which is suppose to be haunted, but I don't believe it. Dinner was early this day as we ate at Mo's which is famouse for it's clam chowder. If you know me at all, you know that I am not a big fish/sea food eater, but Mo's clam chowder was wonderful. I really liked it. After dinner I went for a dip in the Pacific Ocean. Needless to say it was freezeing and I basically ran in, dunked underwater, and ran back out.




















Sunday 8-24
This was another travel day. It was an 11 hour drive back to Missoula, so we took off early and drove most of the day. We talked, took pictures at a couple rest stops, saw Mt. Hood, and laughed at some funny signs in WA. My favorit was the sign that read "Don't Litter, It Will Hurt You", and "Don't Throw, Men Below". That one was near a bridge that was being worked on.

Monday 8-25
I flew home. I had a great time on my vacation and was glad to see my dear friend after such a long time.