{summer vacation, part XVI, portland <3}

Ladyhawk and her wolf in Grants Pass, Oregon. Y

If you haven't seen the movie Ladyhawk, you've missed a classic love story. She had to wait two years to be with her love as well. Hence the nicknames. :)

My weird eye was squinting in the sun. I have to wear sunglasses even when others don't have to as too much light goes in that eye (the pupil doesn't constrict enough).

The look on our faces says it all though - even when there was car trouble, it was so relaxing and fun to be on our trip.

Silly picture of me in our lovely hotel room in Portland. I was so happy to finally be in Portland that I had to snap a picture.
Day 9. Portland, Oregon.Y
Spent some time in downtown. Walked around and just felt happy being in Portland. Me atleast. :) We went to Finnegan's Toys store.
Then the Japanese Garden which was beautiful. If I lived in Portland, I'd get a season pass so I could go there often to relax and to soothe my soul. Lovely place. I'd love to see it in fall colors.
Our day in Portland ended much too soon and the next posting will prove that.
I have three years to try to convince Jay that Portland is THE place to live. :) The poor guy hasn't heard the end of it already. :)

{jabbawockeez}

LOVED this tonight on So You Think You Can Dance!
Sad to see Melissa go. Brandon's & Melissa's solos were awesome last night!

{summer vacation, part XV, grants pass, portland!!!!!!!!!}

Day 8. Driving from Crescent City, CA to PORTLAND, OREGON!!!! My mood at this point was very excited. Why? Ever since I was about 16, I have had a feeling that I need to live in Portland. This was before the internet (yes, I'm old) so I couldn't just do a google search to find out about Portland. I basically knew hardly anything about Portland. But something inside me kept being totally fascinated by Portland. Weird, huh? So on this day 8 of our trip, I felt like bursting from excitement. I finally get to see Portland!

My sister's husband got all nauseated from the winding mountain roads. Thank goodness the road straightened out after a bit.

At 12.15 we were driving through Grants Pass, OR. We stopped at the red light and...

...our van went dead!

Yep, gotta have one of these experiences on your vacation, right?

Thank goodness it happened where it happened. We had to push the van just a few meters to a nearby gas station. Some very friendly guys came to give our van a boost.

Nothing.

Great.

We called AMA and started looking for a mechanic to fix our van. The problem was that it was Sunday. Nothing was open!

The AMA tow truck came and he said first too that nothing was open and that we'll probably have to wait until the next day to get the van fixed.

Right about this point I was panicking a bit as I'm thinking "what? i don't get to see portland today?!!!"

It would have screwed up our hotel bookings too. Double charges for hotels.

Then the AMA guy hears from his radio that there is ONE place open and he tows us there.

We leave the van to get fixed. We had a feeling the problem was the fuel pump, the only thing they didn't check before we left on our holiday, we were right, they had to replace it.

We went to this cute restaurant by the river for lunch and then went to enjoy the beautiful river park next to it. It was a nice, warm day and the break ended up being really nice. Good food at the restaurant, Sienna played at the play park, geese, Jay and I got to snuggle under these big trees and relax while Sienna's uncle watched her.

But we were happy to be on our way again after four and a half hours.

When we were almost to Portland city center, we saw the Portland temple. It was gorgeous!!! We just saw it driving by. Next time I will go and see it more closely. Go to a session and everything.

Our hotel in Portland was awesome. Jay had got a great deal on a more expensive hotel. Due to our mishap on the road, it was too late to do anything in Portland that night. And we only had a few hours there the next day too. But it was allright. I was in Portland!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! :)

{summer vacation, part XIV, paul bunyan & indian museum}

Day 7 still.

The roadsides in Redwood National Park are dotted with these miniature tiger lilies. It was beautiful!

We stopped at "Trees of Mystery" in Klamath to see Paul Bunyan and his Babe the Blue Ox. Paul Bunyan talked! And he was funny too. He talked to all the visitors. Answered everyone's questions. Paul Bunyan is an American folklore hero.

There was a gift shop that also had a Native American museum in it. All sorts of Indian artifacts. It was very interesting. My sister bought the big $400 dragonfly necklace. The sales lady asked her if she realized that it was an expensive necklace. :) I got Sienna a cute necklace made with dried up juniper berries and a decorative fan (viuhka) made with feathers for my mom.

Back in Crescent City, Sienna played at a fun playground and then we ate at a seafood restaurant.

{personal history binder}

Becky Higgins (www.beckyhiggins.com) has done a personal history pdf file which is available at her blog. You just print it out, fill in the blanks, add pictures and then put it all in a small binder. You can decorate the cover and add any other decorations you want. This would make a great gift to your parents, grandparents or any special person in your life.

(The pdf file link can be found in her July 20, 2009 posting)

{summer vacation, part XIII, redwood national park}

Day 7. Redwood National Park, California.

What an amazing place! So magical. The trees are unbelievable. The drive there was so pretty. Mist/fog made it feel like you were in a dream.

We hiked a long trail in the forest. So refreshing for the soul. 96% humidity. There was a nice refreshing mist all the time.

My goal for the summer (enjoying lots of nature) is definately being fulfilled.

The banana slugs were so cute napping/snuggling together. They were big.

Loved this place! Y

Don't miss the funny detail on one of the trees in picture #3. It might be hard to see in that picture but we sure got a good laugh when we noticed it. :D

And do you see what I see? Find the heart. :)

The Redwood trees live so long because they have tannic acid in them that protect the trees from disease/pests etc. Did you know that the roots actually don't go very deep? Storms don't topple them down because they wind their roots tightly with other trees. They are all connected and support each other. Isn't that neat? We can learn lots from nature.