We woke up to the sound of airplanes overhead. Our hotel room was very nice, and it seemed quite new. The location was interesting, as it was right next to a large Boeing Plant, with an adjoining air field. We started the morning a little slower than we expected, but made our way to the Pike Place Market in downtown Seattle fairly early. We enjoyed the market. It was very colorful and entertaining. The Pike Place Fish Co. was our major entertainment, and we must have watched the "fish throwing" show for at least 20 minutes. I also spent some [View Full Entry]

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Last night we all slept heavenly in the heavenly beds. The Westin was REALLY nice. We got up and moving, had breakfast in the hotel 'bucks and headed out. Our first stop was across the Lion's Gate Bridge, the Capilano Suspension Bridge Park. This place was very cool. It had a lot of history about the suspension bridge, a series of tree adventures, and some great views. We got out maps and walked around collecting stamps at all the "sites" we visited. Then it was time to head across the bridge. This was interesting. The bridge was very wobbly and [View Full Entry]

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We all woke up sweaty from sleeping in the steam room last night. We all took showers and headed out. Eileen headed for the Buchart Gardens and we planned to pick her up late. Amy and I headed to the Blue Fox Cafe for breakfast, it was delicious. After that, we decided to go to the Pacific Undersea Garden in the Victoria Harbour. The Garden was cool. We saw tons of cool fish. Then we saw a diver show, where the diver grabbed fish and showed us each one. We saw lots of huge crab and a huge octopus. Our [View Full Entry]

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Our day started at the crack of dawn this morning! We wanted to be on the first ferry from Port Angeles to Victoria, BC. The alarm clock rang at 5:30am and we were in line for the ferry by 7:00 am. We left the car and grabbed some to go breakfast. I stopped and talked to Bill at the tourism booth for some recommendations on what to see in Victoria. The ferry took about 90 minutes and we drove right to our hotel and parked the car. We set out to see the sights of Victoria, starting with the Parliament [View Full Entry]

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Pacific Northwest Emily Ponto The Sun woke us up this mornng very early. We were up and out on the town before 8am. Last night, we stayed in Pacific BeachWA on the Olympic Penninsula, which has a population of about 10 people. This morning we had breakfast in a little coffee shop across from our hotel. It was a very cute, modern shop in the middle of this tiny, deserted town. Susan, the lady working at the coffee shop recommended we see Ruby Beach today, so we added that to our list. After stocking the cooler at the local Save [View Full Entry]

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Pacific Northwest Emily Ponto We started our day very early today in order to beat the crowds to Mt. St. Helens and make it to Seattle before 1pm. We were out of our hotel at 7am, when we noticed one of the rental car tires was low. We stopped at the gas station in Castle Rock to fill up the tire, and I ended up closing the door on my finger. OUCH!!!!! Once the tire was filled, we were on our way up the moutain. We were literally one of the first people up the road. We stopped at the [View Full Entry]

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We started today with a few prayers at the Sacred Heart Church, the local Catholic Church. We then headed to Tillamook Cheese Company for a tour and tasting. The cheese factory was not producing cheese, since it was Sunday, but we were able to see them packing the cheese and get to taste test some of their varieties. My favorite was the extra sharp cheddar. We also got ourselves some Tillamook Ice Cream, which was AWESOME! I had Udderly Chocolate Brown Cow in a waffle cone. It was choc ice cream with white chocolate swirls and choc chunks... After our [View Full Entry]

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Our breakfast this morning, took us to Stumpertown Coffee Roasters. When we asked for the key to the bathroom, it came with own personal security system. A full size duck decoy was attached to the key. There is no sneaking out with that key. We then walked over to the Portland Farmer's market. The market was great. We found lots of interesting items for sale and interesting people buying them. We stumbled upon a great irish band, Circling Hounds. They were playing on the stage in the international food section of the market. We spent a lot of time looking [View Full Entry]

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I am not sure if we were really excited to sightsee today or if our motel was super scary, but we were up early and moving. I finally got a internet connection and was able to update the blog and send a few emails. After some time surfing, we headed to the grocery store to pick up some drinks and snacks. Next, we headed back to Hood River and headed to the post office to grab some postcard stamps. We asked the clerk for her recommendation for a place to eat breakfast, she said go see "Bette" at Bette's place. [View Full Entry]

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Today, we decided to sleep in a little, not remembering that the sun actually rises around 4:45am and our curtains were not quite drawn tight enough. We got ourselves up and ready and packed our bags. We rented our car with Budget and they came and picked us up at our hotel at 10am. After signing away my life and left arm on the rental agreement, we were on our way south on I5. We quickly decided the best route and headed right for Mt. Rainier National Forest. We arrived at the main gate of the park around 12pm. After [View Full Entry]

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