Run Long

Run Long & Eat More Cake.

That is what my half marathon running shirt said last Saturday.  It is a bright and cheery shirt (bought from runprettyfar.com).  It makes me smile, and that is what I needed to get me through my race.  If I'm gonna run 13.1 miles I gotta look cute.  So to go with my yellow striped shirt, I bought a blue athletic skirt from runningskirts.com, and it is super comfy too. 

Matt didn't run with his iPhone for this race, so thanks to my mom we have these two pictures.

I wish I had a picture of my new running shoes.  I am running in Newtons this year.  Here is what they look like.

I'm liking them a lot.  I'm trying not to heal strike.  I'm learning to run with a natural gait by landing on my forefoot.  I'm still not perfect at it, but I'm getting there.

This is our second time running the Salt Lake Half Marathon.  This year I ran it in 2 hours 11 minutes.  That is 7 minutes slower than last year's Ogden Half, but I'm happy with the time anyway. 

Matt and I flew down to Utah for the race, but it was also in conjunction with our 19th wedding anniversary.  We had a great time together.  I love that guy.... even if he keeps signing me up for these long distance races.  

Voo-Doo and A Mystical Waterfall

Matt's brother, Hebe, told him that we should stop at a doughnut shop in downtown Portland on our way back through the city.  It's called Voo-Doo Doughnuts.  Josh had seen it profiled on a tv foodie show, and Chelsea had heard about it from friends at school.

Hebe said that we had to try the bacon maple bar.  Are you nuts?  Bacon doesn't belong on a doughnut!  We got there at about 12:30 on a Friday afternoon.  The line to get in was pretty long.  Thankfully it wasn't raining.  We waited for a half hour.  Before arriving, we looked on the iPhone at the menu.  Super original names for super original concoctions.  There's the Voodoo doll, the Portland Creme, Captain My Captain, The Loop, Grape Ape, Diablos Rex, Dirt Doughnut, Maple Blazer Blunt, Miami Vice Berry, etc.  There's a couple that have names I won't repeat that are a little off-colored.  Hey, if you eat a vegan diet, they have quite the selection of vegan doughnuts just for you.

We got the VooDoo Dozen which is their 13 most popular doughnuts.  And yes, the bacon maple bar is one of them.  See it there in the top of the box?  I had two bites of it, and it was surprisingly good.  It was similar to the taste of maple syrup on your bacon at breakfast.  We pieced on the doughnuts the rest of the day.  We over did it on sugar that day.  Way too much!

Remember the waterfall I said we drove past on our way to the coast?  It is called Multnomah Falls.  Gorgeous!  It was raining cats and dogs when we got there, so once again, we didn't stay very long.  We wished we could have hiked up to the bridge.  Check out these pics.

What a great way to end our Oregon adventure.
Thanks Oregon for a great week!  We forgive you for all of the rain, for that is what makes you so green and lush.  We will come back again, but maybe next time you can hold off on the rain part and show us some blue skies.

Astoria

Our view out of our hotel bedroom window... 1st one is before the clouds lifted.  Where did Washington go?

 There it is.

Finally we arrived in Astoria.  Have you heard of it before?

Lewis and Clark spent the winter of 1805-1806 near Astoria at Ft. Clatsop.  It's by the mouth of the Columbia River.  It was the first permanent settlement on the Pacific coast.

Astoria has been a place of film making.  Free Willy, The Black Stallion, The Guardian, and Kindergarten Cop are some of the films.  The Goonies (1985) is the one I'm most familiar with.  Have you seen it?  Here's the original trailer for the movie.  

Our kids had never seen the movie before, so they didn't know what we were talking about when we told them it was filmed here.  We had a map of the town that showed where the Goonie House is located, so we ventured out in the rain to find it.  Easy peasy since the town is pretty small.  It looks quite similar to the way it did in the movie 25+ years ago.

So glad we had our boots in the back of the car because it was WET!

Later, we rented and watched the dvd in our hotel suite during the afternoon downpour.  We all recognized the house, front porch, town scenes including the city jail, and the scenes filmed down at Cannon Beach.

We spent some time at the Columbia River Maritime Museum.  It was quite interesting learning about the history of the river.  Did you know that the mouth of the Columbia River is one of the most dangerous in the world?  Many ships have sunk over the years trying to get to and from the Pacific Ocean.

At one point in the day, the clouds lifted a bit, and we hurried up to Coxcomb Hill where the Astoria Column is located.  Completed in 1926, it was constructed to salute Astoria's explorers and early settlers for their important contribution to the expansion of the United States.  The beautiful artwork that encircles the column was done by an italian who specialized in sgraffito technique, carving through colored plaster.  The scenes depict the area's history beginning with the indians and Lewis and Clark and ending with the railroad arriving in Astoria in the 1880s.  There are 164 steps up to the top.

That's Washington State on the other side of the bridge.  That's the bridge by our hotel.  Notice the barges about to go under the bridge on their way out to the Pacific.  When looking in the other direction, we could see beautiful, green countryside.  I'm sure on a clear day we would see so much more, but we were happy that the clouds lifted a little bit for us.

We really wanted to try to get a look at the mouth of the Columbia.  So even though the rain kept coming down, we drove over to Fort Stevens State Park and found the best view from the South Jetty Observation Deck.  Because of the low clouds, our view was limited.  But it was cool to see how the water went from normal flowing river water to more turbulent ocean water as they collided.

Ft. Stevens was a primary military defense installation from the Civil War until the closing of WW2.  Now it's a 42 acre park where people picnic, camp, bike, hike, fish, and play.  There are old gun batteries to explore.  We weren't there at the right time of year to go into the underground command center or take a jeep ride, but we did play around on another creepy battery.

While in Astoria, we ate at Subway the first night- boring.  We also ate at Bridgewater Bistro for lunch- very delicious and great ambiance.  For dinner the last night, we ate breakfast foods at the coastal chain called The Pig and Pancake- yum-O and awesome waitress who impressed us with her ability to not write a single thing down.

Friday morning, we awoke, at breakfast, packed up, and said good-bye to the charm and beauty of the Oregon coast.  We were homeward bound.  But first, we had to make a much anticipated stop in Portland, once again.  Could food be involved?

The Best Darn Cheese and Ice Cream

We said good bye to our Lincoln City beach house and headed north to Astoria.  It was time to see another part of the state.

On our way, we saw a couple more lighthouses and more cool beaches and towns.

Here's Cape Meares Lighthouse.  It sits up high on a cliff so it's a shorter lighthouse.  Very windy.  This was another great place to look for whales.  The volunteer that was there said that one was spotted just 30 minutes before we got there.  We watched for awhile, but we weren't lucky.

This last picture cracks me up.  The wind whipped my bangs in my face just as the picture was taken.  Plus, Josh's big smile makes me smile.

Here's Cape Kiwanda beach captured on Matt's film camera in black and white.

We drove the Suburban out in the sand (because we were allowed to) while it was pouring rain.  Matt did a "doughnut", but that freaked me out.  I was paranoid we get stuck or something, so I made him stop.  Josh was bummed.  It was a really cool beach with a big sand dune hill that would have been fun to climb up if it had been a nice day.

Our highlight on the drive north was a stop at the Tillamook Cheese Factory.  If you've ever lived in the west, then you probably have had Tillamook cheese.  I've been buying the medium cheddar for the past 12 years since I discovered it while living in California.  We were even able to buy it at the commissary in Guam but not in North Carolina.  Now that we live in Idaho, we can get Tillamook ice cream, yogurt, sour cream, butter, etc.

They have self-guided tours where you can see the cheese being packaged.  What a cool assembly line.  The area where the cheese gets made wasn't quite as interesting because it all happens in large stainless steel vats.

After seeing and reading about cheese making, we went through a taste testing line.  And then they have you walk through their store where you can buy all things Tillamook.

Finally, we got what we really wanted... the ice cream.  They had a ton of flavors that we can't get in the stores, so we all got something different in waffle cones.  On our way out, we piled into this funky Tillamook van and had our picture taken.

Our last pitstop before getting to Astoria was the famous Cannon Beach.  I know you have all seen pictures of this beach.  It has also been in some movies... like the 1980s movie The Goonies.  The weather was still horrible.  The wind was so cold and strong.  We stopped long enough to go to the bathroom and take a couple of mandatory pictures.  What a shame that we couldn't enjoy this beautiful place.

More Coastal Fun

We went to a kite store in Lincoln City cause that's what you do when you want to fly a kite in Lincoln City.  Ha.

These people really knew their kits.  They make them right there in the shop.  Being uneducated about kite flying, we asked for a little help.  We chose to buy an easy stand-there-and-hold-the-string type and another one that takes a bit more skill using two hands.  Kites can be expensive and we hoped not to break it on the first day.  One did break, but they had told us to bring it back in and they'd replace the broken part.

Here are some pictures.  The weather cooperated a little.  We had plenty of wind but not too much.  It rained some, but not too much.  We were determined to get some kite flying in while we were in Oregon...cause that's what you do on the Oregon coast.  Didn't you know?

Chelsea fell down backwards when she was trying to keep it up!  

We continued our drive down the coast after visiting Yaquina Lighthouse for the second time.  We hoped to get down to the Sea Lions Cave in Florence before it closed for the day, but we only made it to Newport.  We ate a late lunch there at the famous Moe's.  There are several Moe's along the coast of Oregon, but this one is the original Moe's.  When we'd tell people that we were going to the coast, most everybody said "You have to eat at Moe's and get their clam chowder."  So we did.

Or shall I say that Matt ate the clam chowder.  Nobody else cared about the "when in Rome" saying.  I didn't want to be a big seafood party pooper, so I ordered the grilled tuna salad sandwich.  Can you even call that seafood?  I grew up on eating tuna sandwiches, so it's not that big of a stretch for me.  It was really good and fattening.

Here is the harbor in Newport.  We walked along the street smelling the fishy air and listening to the barking sea lions.  We found them out on a pier.

 We stopped into a candy store that had salt water taffy in bins.  We filled a bag full of just about every kind they had.  Who can pass up taffy when you're at the beach?  Especially the good kind made right there in the store.  We bought way too much because I still have some up in the cupboard.  The taffy excitement has worn off.

We did a lot of driving on this day.  The rain was a bummer, but we still had fun.  A movie and a game of UNO by the fire was how we spent the stormy night together.