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Thursday, October 23, 2008

Oregon Trip Day 4

Day 4 was our museum day. We started out with the World forestry Center Discovery Museum, then we went to Portland's Japanese Garden (amazingly beautiful!), and then we ended with the International Rose Test Garden.

Here's Michael trying to look like he knows what he's doing. :)

Climbing up to the entrance of the Japanese Garden.

I loved the Garden. It was sooo beautiful!

We decided when we build our home, our backyard is going to be an asian garden.

I love the cherry blossoms there. Definitely a must have at our home.

The car my godmother lent us. It was awesome! It had a nav and everything!

Here's the Rose Test Garden where they test over 10 million roses for commercial use!

Wednesday, October 22, 2008

Oregon Trip Day 3

Beach day! Kind of... we drove to the beach... but it was too cold to get out and walk on the beach... It was once again a gorgeous day. I would have never believed that oregon rained 80% of the year from the looks of our vacation!

Here's the drive to the oceanside! Once again, beautiful!

Part of the beach view.

Bridge... there were sooo many bridges all over Oregon!

Here we are at the entrance to the Oregon Coast Aquarium at Newport.

The Jellyfish.

One of my favorites! The Japanese Spider King Crab! They were awesome!

The seals and sea lion. We got to see them feed it and train.

Shark!

Yes, we look a little tired...

The absolutely cute sea otter... until they started feeding him. They're kind of feisty!

The coastline on our way to Tillamook!

Another...

And another...

And more...

Here is the view from Cape Meares at Tillamook.

We were lucky to see the sunset from the coast.

Gorgeous!

My favorite!

Tuesday, October 21, 2008

Oregon Trip Day 2

Day 2 was quite the exciting day for us. We started out the morning with a nice drive through Lake Oswego, the city just south of Portland and where we were staying at. The roads were absolutely a treat to drive on... no potholes!

Absolutely gorgeous roads... and it has its own scenery!

This was the road up to Crown Point Viewpoint!

Here is the view from Crown Point.

Another view.

Here we are at the lookout point.

And another view... it was pretty cool!

After Crown Point Viewpoint we drove up to the Multnomah Falls, the second largest water fall in the United States. One of the top five in the world! It was absolutely gorgeous and the weather was perfect!

Here is the fall!

And another...

Yes... it was a little chilly. :)

Isn't he cute?

It was an absolute treat to get a chance to see the falls!

After seeing Multnomah Falls, we drove to the Bonneville Dam to see the salmon hatchery and the sturgeons. Before the trip... I had no idea what a sturgeon was, I was in for quite the surprise!

This is where they hatch and breed the baby salmon.

Head of a sturgeon!

This thing was huge! It said they can get up to 20 feet!!!

They kind of look like sharks.

This is where they fed and grew the salmon before they started their swim upstream.

Here is where they simulated a swim "up stream"... it was pretty amazing at how strong the salmon were and how far they could jump out of the water!

When we were finished at the Bonneville Dam, we drove up the loop to see Mount Hood. It was gorgeous!!! We were so excited to see the peak of the mountain as we were turning the bend!

I couldn't believe how much snow they have already gotten here!

The Timberline Lodge, where we went up to see the sunset.

It was an amazing day, I was completely exhausted afterwards, but was waaay excited for the adventures of tomorrow!

Monday, October 20, 2008

Oregon Trip Day 1

For my birthday trip this year, Michael and I decided to check out Oregon and Washington (since we were considering Oregon or Washington as possible future places to move to). We got there Monday 10-20 at about 12PM. My godmother came and picked us up and we went out to lunch and drove around Portland. I have to say, I was very surprised at how gorgeous Portland was. The last time I was here was about 10 years ago, so I was genuinely surprised at how beautiful and green the city was. We went to the river that runs right by downtown Portland, the Willamette River. There was a little walkway and we walked down the harbor and then drove around downtown and the Pearl District.

Here is the boat harbor on the Willamette River.

Here we are atop a roof in the Pearl District of Portland.