Sunday, March 7, 2010

SISTERS TRIP TO THE OREGON COAST

This past week I took a trip with Rick's sisters. We left Monday morning and returned Friday evening. We flew into Portland and rented a van so we could all fit. Before heading off to the coast we stopped at the tram and took a ride. It offered a beautiful view of the Portland skyline. While some wanted to stay in the car and rest..... Karen, Darla, and I enjoyed the ride:) Before going back down we stopped at the lookout point gardens. In this picture if you look real close right between our heads is snow-capped Mt. Hood. (It's very hard to see in the picture) We also had a great view of Mt. St. Helens from here.
Next we headed off to Lincoln City where we stayed in a cute house right on the cliffs of the ocean. It had a great view, and that first night the waves were very ferocious no doubt from the earthquake just a few days before in Chile. After we got settled and freshened up we headed out to Kyllos Restaurant. Here we all are enjoying our dinner! Fom left...Kathy, DeeAnn, Ruth, Janell, Karen, and Darla.

This is our view off of our wonderfully huge balcony! WOW!

On Tuesday after enjoying the morning we headed out to Newport. Lincoln City to Newport is just a short 30 miles but we stopped along the way many times to get out and enjoy the fantastic views . Here we are in Depoe Bay where we stopped at a little shop for a bowl of homemade clam chowder and some fresh cut fries.

Once we got to Newport we went looking through the little souvenir shops. We had to stop and watch the sea lions sunning themselves at the wharf.
They are very interesting creatures. And loud!

The girls found the leather shop and had a heydey. They each bought a new piece of luggage. Dee Dee bought way more than that. I know it doesn't look like much but add that to the 12 OTHER pieces of luggage we already had it was crazy! We had a whale of a time fitting everything in our van when it was time to leave on Friday. We were stuffed in that minivan like sardines but we truly got everything home in one piece. What a MIRACLE!

On Wednesday we didn't do much. We lazed around and got ready by Noon. Did a little shopping and then came back to watch a movie. We watched a show called "Bells on Their Toes". I had never seen it before but what a cute show. It is the sequel to the old "Cheaper By the Dozen". I want to watch it with my fam! That night after lounging the day away got dressed up and went to dinner at Tidal Raves. Good Food and Great Company!

Thursday morning low tide was at 9:00 so we went exploring on the rocks. The tidal pools are amazing and we saw some neat stuff. This is a picture of our little house from the beach. It's the smaller house right in the middle of the pic. To the left are the 101 (by my count) steps that we came down to get to the water. It was nice to have the steps just off of our deck. We climbed those steps many times during our stay!

DeeAnn, Karen, and Ruth exploring the tidal pools! The rocks are covered with mussels and barnacles!

Lots and lots of Sea Anemones!

And HUGE Starfish! Hundreds of them!

That night for our last hurrah after dinner we climbed the steps one last time for a bonfire.
Personally I was dreading it because I just wanted to stay warm and not go out in the cold again but actually it wasn't too bad. Kathy and Darla after an few attempts got the fire started and we had a nice time. Some made s'mores and then we ended the night by singing campfire songs. What a great way to end a good week!

Friday morning we packed up and headed back to Portland. We had originally planned to stay in Portland on Thursday night so we could get to the temple Friday morning but we loved the coast so much we adjusted our schedule and stayed in Lincoln City an extra night. I am so glad we decided to do that. We actually had enough time on Friday to get to the temple befor our plane left so it worked out great! Thank You sisters for a wonderful time together. I LOVE YOU ALL SO VERY MUCH! You are such a strength and help to me. The one advantage to being married to the youngest one in the family is that I get to learn from your experiences.
Let's do this again next year!



5 comments:

  1. love the Oregon Coast! Newport is probably our family's favorite vacation spots. I recognize the beach in one of your pictures, we stay in a timeshare in that area when we go. So jealous, but glad you had a great time :)

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  2. What a wonderful thing to do with your sisters. We have never taken an opportunity to do something so fun. Maybe we'll have to organize something one day. You have inspired me. Looks like a beautiful vacation and so much fun. Like Natalie said, "I too am jealous".

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  3. Oh Janell--
    Thank you SO MUCH for posting this synopsis of our WONDERFULLY FUN trip, so PROMPTLY like this!! We had such a GREAT time, and it's so nice to get to see it all laid out in story form--PICTURES AND ALL--like this! THANKS for having this available for us to see. I, too, LOVED our time together. It's hard to find the words to express what wonderful feelings we had and what a marvelously GOOD time we all had, but you did a fantastic job of it. Thanks. It was SO FUN to get to be with you and everyone. Lots of Love, Karen

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  4. Looks like such a FUN trip! You guys all look like you're having a fabulous time. Glad you're all such good friends. Thanks for sharing all the fun pics. Those tide pools look amazing.

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  5. Thanks for posting about the trip Janell! It looks like you guys had a very fun time. I know my mom enjoyed it last year. I felt bad that she didn't go this year! I should've pushed her more and came along myself. :) I love Oregon! It's so beautiful. I'm planning on a trip up there in the next month or two! YAY!! I'm glad you all had fun...love you all so much!

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