Happy Birthday in OREGON!!!

Jason had to be out of town on my birthday this year.  That wasn't my favorite.  Until he got me a ticket to go with him.  Woohoo!  We headed off to Oregon with Lucy.  Mom and Dad watched the boys.  Lucy did pretty good on the flight there and once we landed we headed to Eugene so Jason could do some work while Lucy and I napped and watched TV.  When he finished we walked to dinner and then to get a VooDoo donut in lieu of birthday cake.  Mine was a maple donut filled with cream and Jason had a maple one with PB and Oreos.  We sat by a fountain and Jason sang Happy Birthday to me and we ate our donuts.  AWESOME!

The next day Jason had work in Hillsboro.   

So we drove 2 hours and he worked while Lucy and I hung out in the car and read and napped.   We had lunch at Panera Bread and it was delicious.  Lucy got a taste of strawberries, broccoli soup, and 7UP while we were there.  We had planned to spend the rest of our time in Astoria where Cannon Beach is but to my surprise Astoria and Cannon Beach are about 20-30 min away from each other.  So we drove to the beach first and saw the Haystack rock and walked in the sand.  So fun and pretty and windy.

We left Cannon Beach and drove to Astoria.  We had to stop for gas and that was when I learned that in Oregon you don't pump your own gas.  That's someone's job.  For dinner I had picked out this great place to eat from Trip Advisor but we got a good laugh when we realized that it was in Cannon Beach.  Note to self:  Don't ever let me plan the trip again without a map.  We ended up at a dive pizza place that was...well, a dive.  We walked around that evening and saw some sea lions and then decided that all we really wanted was to get in comfy clothes and watch TV.  So we did.  Our room looked out over the Columbia River and had a door that opened up onto a little patio so we left the door open and enjoyed the view and the fresh air and it was awesome.  The next morning we were able to take a long walk into town and check out all the greenery.  Some serious moss was growing on everything.

On our way out of town we saw a sign pointing to the Astoria column so we thought we'd check it out.  It turned out to be a big TALL column with engravings on it telling about Oregon/Astoria's history.  It was cool, we took some pictures and were getting back into the car when I noticed people were standing at the top of the column.  So we jumped back out of the car and about 100 circular stairs later we were at the top and boy was it windy.  On the way out we stopped in the gift shop and noticed a postcard with a pic of the house from Goonies.  That house is in Astoria!  We were super excited and wanted to go check it out until we read that you have to hike up to it and we were pooped so we went and got yummy bread and cheese for lunch instead.

We drove back to Portland and I was so excited to see Mt. St. Helens along the way.  We paid $10 to park in downtown Portland and started heading toward the park where it looked like something was going on.  It didn't take long to realize that something was not family friendly.  We walked around the block and headed right back to our car.  Jason drove me by the hospital he visits and we made a stop at the Taco House before heading back to the airport.

It was a great trip and it had an especially happy ending when we got upgraded to first class for the flight home.  Lucy was a superstar until we had to circle the SLC airport 2x before landing.  She was wailing pretty good by the time we landed.  The boys had an amazing time with Grandma and Grandpa.  They got to go swimming, fishing, watch movies, play video games, stay up late, take turns choosing take out, play basketball and hit golf balls.  They wished we had stayed away longer.  

Thanks Jason for a fun and memorable trip!