Road Tripping to Lincoln City

Robyn and I recently got back from a fabulous road trip to Oregon.  It was quite the adventure, and we had a fabulous time.  Over the next few posts, I will chronicle some of the highlights of our trip.

The first destination on our trip was Lincoln City.  Fun fact: Lincoln City, Oregon is really far away from Lehi, Utah.  It took us about 14 hours of driving to get there.   I actually really enjoy road trips.  I love the time alone with Robyn.  I love just putting it on cruise control and watching the world go by.

And, of course I love sing-along time.

Robyn prepared a packet of fun for the road.  She had such things as Mad Libs, the license plate game, a list of get to know you questions and other madness.  I should note, we rocked the license plate game.  We saw the license plates of 45 states (including both Alaska and Hawaii), but we also did some extra credit and got 4 Canadian provinces.  With our extra credit included we have 49/50 which is 98%, a solid A.

I told Robyn we should drive to the east coast to pick up the last few we needed.

I mentioned above that I really do enjoy road trips.  However, the 14 hours to get out there was just a little much.  (We did it over 2 days.  We drove to Twin Falls, Idaho after work on Friday, but that was still 10 hours on Saturday.)  When we pulled in to Lincoln City, I told Robyn that I was done driving for life.  I made her drive the 1 mile from our condo to go out to eat.  Luckily, I was over my hatred of driving by the next day so I was able to drive again.

Once the road trip part was over, it was time for the fun to begin.  Lincoln City is such a chill place.  Our condo was right on the beach, so we loved to just sit and look at the crashing waves.  We opened the windows so the breeze could come in, and it was amazing.

This was one of our favorite things.  It's like a picnic on the beach without the sand.

Of course, we loved relaxing in the condo, but I clearly wasn't going to be that close to the ocean and not get wet.  One of my favorite things on this trip was waking up early while Robyn was still sleeping and going on walks along the beach to discover all the various forms of life.

I learned this is called a moon jellyfish.

There were some tide pools not far away.  I liked to walk over to them and see what I could see.

A starfish chillaxing

An open shell where a mussel once lived.

Lest you think that Robyn didn't enjoy the ocean either, she did come to the tide pools with me once as well, it was just later in the day after she was done sleeping.

Just hanging out with a whole bunch of mussels.

I even got her to touch the ocean once.

Lincoln City was even amazing at night.  As the sun started to get low in the sky, campfires started popping up on the beach near our condo.  Naturally, we had to participate at least once.  We just gathered drift wood on the beach, and we didn't have a ton of it so our fire didn't last long, but I feel we got enough of the experience.

I make this cute little baby fire look good.

Robyn makes it look even better.

I think one of my favorite things was watching the sunset over the ocean.

 One night, Robyn captured the moon and venus shining in the sky during the sunset.

As you can see, Lincoln City was pretty fantastic.  But probably the coolest thing in Lincoln City was when I went crabbing.  So stay tuned for the next post when I tell you about that.

A Road Trip and a Candied Me

I wrote last week about how Robyn surprised me for our anniversary.  I also promised you that I would tell you how I surprised Robyn in turn.  Well, the time has come for all to be revealed.

Every year in October, Utah has a few days where they give teachers (and students) time off for Fall break.  We were married the week before this break so that Robyn (being a teacher) would have the time off for us to take a honeymoon.  So, it works out for us to take a trip every year the week after our anniversary.  This year, I surprised Robyn with a trip to Lake Tahoe.

First, I should tell you there were things she knew about the surprise.  She knew I was taking her on a road trip.  She knew it was 8ish hours away.  She knew we were going to visit a temple.  She knew we would be doing some hiking.  (It's clear that I'm not that good at keeping secrets.  Those are all the things that I had leaked in the preceding months.)

We began our road trip on Wednesday night.  I worked a full day on Wednesday, and we were going to make the first half of our road trip that night.  As we were driving, I told her I wanted to hear guesses about our destination.  Before she would say anything, she waited a few minutes to see which direction we were going.  As we started going north on I-15 she said her guesses were Montana and Lake Tahoe.

She really wanted it to be Lake Tahoe, but she was trying to not make me feel bad if it was Montana.  I told her we were on our way to Lake Tahoe.  She was very happy.

We had gotten off pretty close to on time.  Unfortunately, after driving about 20 minutes I realized I had forgotten her present.  So we had to turn around.

On the second try, we were 40 minutes later than planned.  But I had her present in tow.

Our stop off was in Elko, Nevada.  There's not much there, which is why I had brought her a present.  I figured that could make an unexciting evening a little exciting.

Her present was a bunch of M&Ms with our faces on them.  I've always wanted my face on an M&M, so it was just as much a present for me.  But it was a fun surprise for her as well.

Robyn showing off her new present.

The four types of deliciousness.

A bowl full of us.

Robyn is happy about her surprise.

If you want to see her open it, just watch this handy dandy video.

The next morning, I had found a fun place online to go to breakfast.  The deliciousness was overwhelming.  Normally I would just say that there was bacon involved, and that would be enough said.  But the pumpkin pancakes were amazing, and the hot chocolate overwhelmed me with joy.

This is what Robyn looked like, drinking my hot chocolate.

After an amazing breakfast, we continued our road trip.  That afternoon we made it to King's Beach, California.  We were staying in a super cute little cabin with a beautiful view of Lake Tahoe from the back porch.

Here are some views of the place.

This was our first view, what it looked like when we got out of the car.

A few feet closer.

Boulderdash: that's what the kids are calling the cabin we stayed at.

The front porch.  Totem pole included at no extra charge.

The back porch with the hot tub.

The view from the back porch/hot tub.

After getting settled, we went grocery shopping and had dinner at the cabin.  Then we did a short hike down to the lake.

Robyn is always cute.  Her time at Lake Tahoe is no exception.

Robyn enjoying the view.

The sun beginning to set over the lake.

Some silhouette views of the sunset.

Once the road trip part of the trip was over, the adventure was able to begin the next morning.  But, I'm tired, so I'll tell you more about that later.

Roadtripping to Seattle

As many of you know, I recently returned from a super fantastic trip to Alaska.  We did a lot of things, so there will be multiple posts chronicling our many adventures.

The cruise ship started in Seattle, Washington.  That meant that if we wanted to be on that ship, we needed to be in Seattle.  Unfortunately, my house is in Lehi, Utah.  A little known fact about Utah is that it's not in Washington.  In fact, my house is a little under 1,000 miles away from the port where our ship would be leaving from.

Several members of my family were going on the cruise with us.  They are all normal.  So, they all took the normal form of transportation when you need to go 1,000 miles.  They all flew on an airplane.  (Airplanes, rather.  They weren't all on the same plane.)

Robyn and I are not normal.  In fact, I really like road trips.  Plus we figured we didn't want to buy plane tickets twice this year, and we want to go to California for Christmas.  We prefer to drive in summer rather .than winter.  So we decided to drive to Seattle.

The key to a good road trip is making stops on the way.  To make this possible, we did our road trip in 2 days.  That gave us the time to stop and enjoy a few places on the way.

I worked a full day on Wednesday, July 3rd, and then we hopped in the car and headed to Twin Falls, Idaho that evening.

I love Twin Falls.  There is a beautiful canyon just outside of town.  It totally sneaks up on you, and you don't see it until a few hundred yards away.  But it is fantastic.

We spent the night in Twin Falls.  Of course, we stayed in a La Quinta, because I love their breakfast.  It's super good.  The me of a year ago would have eaten about 5 of their waffles plus loads of other stuff.  The new me splurged a little and had one waffle with some eggs and sausage on the side.  I was full when I was done.  The new me is a strange creature.

After Twin Falls we headed back out on the road.  That's when the real road tripping began.  The reason I love road trips is because Robyn and I are stuck in a car together, just the two of us.  There are no distractions, all we can do is talk.  It's super good quality time.  We talked about everything we could think of.  Then we talked about more stuff, without thinking.

Then it was time to turn on some tunes and sing our hearts out.

"Bye bye Miss American Pie!"

Eventually we made it out of Idaho into Oregon.  Oregon took about 1000 years to get through, because their speed limit is ridiculously slow.  Apparently Oregonians are unable to control their vehicles at 75 mph on perfectly straight roads, so they have to keep it at 60.  Also, Oregonians are unable to pump their own gas.  I got to experience someone else pumping my gas for the first time.  I only had to pay an extra $.50 per gallon to enjoy the privilege of waiting 5 minutes for the girl to make it over to my car to begin pumping.

Lest you think I didn't enjoy my time in Oregon, let me share with you the Dusty Spur Cafe.

As we passed La Grande, Oregon it was time for lunch.  We asked Foursquare to suggest a good place to eat.  The Dusty Spur sounded like an adventure.

When we first pulled up we were skeptical.  But who wouldn't want to eat in a barn?  So we went inside.

On the inside, it was actually a really cute little restaurant with a rustic feel to it.

Even if we were the only ones there

Not to mention I got to sit with a really cute girl.

Sorry it's blurry.  Apparently I couldn't hold still to take this picture.

The food was really good as well.  It was a pleasant surprise.

After the Dusty Spur we got back in our car and exited the state as fast as we could.

Once in Washington, we decided to take a little detour from the highway and hit up Snoqualmie Falls.  It's a beautiful waterfall.  So, naturally we took a beautiful selfie.

I should have worn sunglasses

Clearly, I had to take an animation of it.

After Snoqualmie Falls we finally made it into Seattle.  We checked into our hotel and called my mom.  We met the family for dinner in a little seafood restaurant near Pike's Place Market.  After that it was bed time.

The next day we got on the ship.  Stay tuned for more posts about the rest of the trip.