Western Adventure

Matt and I just got back from our week out west. Since my dad moved out to Portland, OR last year, we decided we would make our way out there-- and then up to Canada during the week.

We flew in on Saturday and were met by Dad and Carrie at the airport. After we got our rental car, we headed up to Hood River, a little town just outside of where their property is in Washington that they plan on developing. On our way, we stopped at Multnomah Falls. It was literally a falls on the side of the road, like a rest stop-- but still very pretty. Of course, we hiked up to the first bridge. So back to why we went to Hood River... it is apparently the perfect wind and kite surfing place because it's protected from the ocean currents, being on the river, and as the river flows one way, the wind blows the other-- perfect conditions. These guys were crazy-- it was so windy and the water must have been FREEZING, and here they were, catching major air! The town is also very cool, a lot of little shops, but after dinner we were so tired (we had been up since 4:30 central time), so we crashed.

The next morning, we ate breakfast at this little Frech shop before going up to see Dad and Carrie's property. As we were driving through the hills, we passed these deer in a stream on the side of the road. AND... we also drove by this artist's stand on the side of the road selling his goods. He welds a bunch of found objects together to create his sculptures, like this cat. The road had been good to us. Matt asked Dad to pull over so that we could take some pictures with the background that goes on and on and on and, well, you get the point.

Matt was completely blown away at the site of their property (I told him he would be). While we were there, we found these GIANT dandilions that we proceeded to try to blow to bits, even though the tendrills managed to stay on through the 20 mile/hr. wind gusts. I practically hyperventalated trying to blow them all off-- it was like blowing out the joke candles on a birthday cake that just wouldn't completely blow out. Matt cheated. He stood in the wind and let the wind help him. Cheater.

Monday, we started the next leg of our trip up to Whistler, Brittish Columbia. Though we stopped in Vancouver to check out the Cappilano Bridge. We had a whole lot of fun goofing off and being complete tourists! On the other side of the bridge, they had an "Ewok Village" set up in the trees. There were a bunch of mini suspension bridges strung out between the trees and below was a walking path so that you could enjoy all of the "extreme nature." Even though we left our gorilla pod at home, we were still able to prop up the camera and evoke the self timer! So then came lunch. When I thought Matt was being kind and moving the camera off the table. Nope, he was catching me off guard. So I indulged him. Again and again. Then, I got him back... several more times!

Once we got to Whistler, we were blown away at how grand our hotel, the Pan Pacific Mountainside was. We were again, goofing off, as we waited for the lifts to open to take us to the top of Whistler Mountain. Then we took the Peak 2 Peak lift over to Blackcomb Mountain. THEN, we took another lift up to the peak of Blackcomb to see the glacier, where they have summer snowboard and ski camp.

(... to be continued)