Oregon Vacation days 6 – 8. End Of the Vacation.

 

To read about days 1–3 click here.

To read about days 4-5 click here.

Day 6: Tuesday

Day six we, well I am ashamed to admit this but we went antiquing. It started innocently enough! I wanted to find an antique bottle opener because Landis’s mom still has one and the simple old device works wonders! so much better than all the various piece of crap bottle openers I have purchased and received over the years!

Anyway, the entire coastal area we visited had TONS of antique stores so I thought I could find one here. I didn’t really realize that I was committing the gayest of gay stereotypes until the day was over. Yes world, My boyfriend and I went antiquing along the coast. OMG I think I am going to be sick.

I did find my bottle opener. And got it for a steal in my opinion considering the cheapest bottle opener I have purchased was like 6 bucks and it SUCKED! My fabulous antique was only 2 bucks woot.

Landis found a wonderful gift for his mother a magazine that was published just before her birth. How cute is that? And then I found an Ansel Adams book for a good price. I also found another out of print book that my mother had when I was a teen and I seem to have lost at that time. So I was happy to be able to replace it for her.

After a day full of shopping we returned to the hotel and found the family was ready to head out to Devil’s Punchbowl so we decided to tag along again.

Day 7: Wednesday

The following morning we found that low tide was rather late and decided to go explore some tide pools. BTW I think they need to reconsider their tide systems. Apparently they are 2 low tides and 2 high tides a day. But really I think it should be Low tide, semi low tide, high tide, and semi high tide. hehe but I am anal like that.

Anyway, we returned to the nearest tide pools: Devils Punch bowl and proceeded to explore.

  Devil’s Punchbowl from the bottom Starfish inside the punchbowl. Low tide is kind of freaky.

Sea Anemone Crack Clam Rock. That’s right all those little things are clams… or muscles… but I think clams.

  More random texture shots. I guess the beaches inspired me.

After our morning of exploring the tide pools we had to prepare to leave the hotel. I don’t know about you, but this is even more stressful for me than leaving the house for a trip. If you leave something home, it will be there when you get back, but if you leave something in a hotel room… not so much. Anyway, after that we had to kill some time before meeting Landis’s sister in McMinnville. So we did our final gift shop runs, I bought my rather expensive set of hand tuned wind chimes. SO worth it. They sound amazing!

Then did the old highway 101 loop again.

   I have decided I like this better when it is more gloomy.

We still had a lot more time to kill so we pushed up north as even if we made it all the way to Tillamook, there was still a direct route to McMinnville from there. We stopped at Neskowin Beach to have lunch. This is actually a rather pretty beach.

I guess this is called Proposal Rock.

We had killed enough time to finally start heading towards McMinnville. On the way out we noticed a sign for Drift Creek Covered Bridge so we decided to go for it. After we turned off, we recalled Drift Creek let out clear back by where we stayed. Uh oh! Luckily this was not a long detour as will soon be explained.

This covered bridge was originally over Drift Creek. After reading the little paper that was located inside, and suffering though a terrible overtly religious story (let me save you the agony) This was the oldest covered bridge in Oregon (not verified) and was scheduled to be torn down. Crazy fanatic woman is rather distraught by the news of this and tries to stop it. (I actually would have too personally) but fails over and over. Here's where it gets crazy, then god speaks to her and tells her to measure her own bridge in front of her house. Miraculously it is the same size and shape! So she manages to convince them to let her move it there. Almost bankrupt her, then broke up the family, More religious crap, it finally happens and is reconstructed on her private driveway. All in the name of god! No lady, I think your own wishes to have your name go down in history is painfully clear. But I do thank you for saving a piece of history. Now let me give you some advice. Shorten your rag, remove all the crazy personal life crap, and the god business and you have a great story about how the state didn’t care about destroying a piece of history and you stepped up and worked very hard to save it, and then go on to have it recognized by the historical society. Good job! You saved the history, your name goes down in history, you helped preserve it for future generations,  and you don’t sound like a nutter. haha k end rant. hehe.

We then made it to McMinnville and met up with Jill and Susie. I love every single relative of Landis's I have met. They all have that good ole fashion Southern hospitality that is so rare to come by anymore. They decided to take us out to eat at this wonderful little restaurant on top of the tallest building in McMinnville a 6 story hotel. hehe. But the food was great, the beer was better, and the company was best. I took a few photos while up here, but none of them speak to me.    That is except this random outhouse on top of a roof… seriously, WTF?

They then decided to take us on a small tour of their town. So we walked around downtown McMinnville. I found the local Stone Mason haunt.

I have decided that this little town is to Portland as Logan is to Salt lake. Cute college town that is an hour or so from the big city. I could totally live here I decided.

We then stayed up way too late drinking Ginger Infused vodka, strait up. It’s actually quite delish. Considering I am not a vodka fan, I cannot believe I sipped strait up vodka. YUM!

Day 8: Thursday

The next morning as we drove back, going back and forth as to whether or not we wanted to suffer through Portland again to see the Japanese Gardens. We finally agree that we are both obviously interested in it enough that if we don’t, we will regret it. I am so so stinking happy we did. At $10.50 a person it was well worth seeing what has been credited as being the most authentic Japanese Gardens outside of Japan.

Another sign that made me giggle. Only in our litigious America.

The first thing we visited was the view of downtown Portland with Mt. Hood in the background. I am not sure if this was done on purpose or was just a happy little side effect, but I LOVE how the most authentic Japanese gardens in the US happens to have a view of a Volcano very similar to Japan.

I love these trees! The lighting this time of day made this waterfall very hard to capture, but, like the entire area I am sure it is absolutely breathtaking in the early hours. Biggest Zen Garden I have personally seen. Gorgeous!

    Obviously I rather liked the random stair cases hehe.

From there we patiently made our way through Portland and decided to give the Multnomah Falls area another chance.

This is Wahkeena Falls. I had PERFECT lighting. I am really proud of these shots!

 

This is Horsetail Falls. While offering some creative shots, it too had the sun behind it so was hard to photograph.

It was starting to get late, and while I really wanted to go back to Multnomah Falls we had planned on driving strait through to home, only 14 hours away. So we left this rather beautiful area and headed towards home.

  Also part of my Drive By Photography this is a parallel forest. I SOOOO bad wanted to go running around in it, but I don’t think the owners would like that. Sigh, they are awfully cool though! and would make for some great photography!

Anyway, 14 hours later we made it home. LONG LONG drive, and I don’t think I will ever do that again. 6-8 hours is about the maximum amount of time I can handle sitting in a car. oi.