December 6, 2019

Oregon & Washington Trip!

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I am lucky enough to be able to travel a lot. I love to travel, growing up in a military family with divorced parents, I spent a lot of time in cars & airplanes. I have never been to the Pacific Northwest, and it was a huge bucket list item for me to visit there. There were places I’ve seen people shoot before that I wanted to visit, and also wanted to shoot myself. Luckily this trip it wasn’t my work trip, like my two previous ones. Ellie came with and we alternated “outing” days with chill days at the hotel, for my sanity & Ellie’s nap schedule. My mom’s conference was Monday – Thursday, so after she was done you may see where I get my silly ways!

So here’s our little trip out west!

Day 1

On the first day, I got up bright and early! I ended up walking around Downtown Portland for 4 hours, exploring all the must to stops, like the Waterfront, Voodoo Donuts & Powell Books!

Day 3

I rented a car and drove done the Columbia River Gorge! So many overlooks, waterfalls and pulls off. After I left the Rowena Crown Overlook (dreaming of an engagement session there!) I headed to Mt Hood! It dropped 20 degrees on the drive and was freezing, but got a beautiful shot of Mt Hood with a lake in the foreground. I drove back to Portland with a quick stop in Vancouver, WA for dinner! The waterfalls I swear are never in the sunlight, and it was so dark with terrible lighting so excuse some of the editing!

Day 5

My mom was done with her conference, and after some debate, we decided to check off one of my bucket list items. Go to Forks, Washington. OF YES, I was one of those girls. If you had met 13-19 year old me, you would’ve seen my Twilight covered walls. I met Stephenie Meyer, had her signed all my books. I even read Twilight in French. My 16th birthday was Twilight themed, it was so bad. I saw EVERY SINGLE MOVIE at the earliest possible show time. So being the closest I have ever been we decided to make the drive out. Forks is a far drive from both Seattle and Portland (it’s almost the same difference) so even if I did make a trip back out to go to Seattle, I wouldn’t have to worry about making that bucket list trip out there. I also stopped by Ruby Beach for sunset. It was full sun the last 3 days we were there, my mom kept making comments about seeing fast running sparkly people (oh moms). I’ve only seen Ruby Beach via my beautiful best friends elopement, and I didn’t tell her I was going until I was there and sent her a picture. Needless to say she cried, and I hope to come back there with her some day! After the sunset all the way, we jumped in the car and drove down the coast to Seaside, Oregon.

Day 6

Up at the crack of dawn, feeling like a travel blogger, taking pictures next to Haystack Rock on Cannon Beach. The lighting was PERFECT before the sun came over the mountain. It was just dreamy, and also fog covered. One thing about Washington & Oregon, is there is SO much fog. We explored Cannon Beach and the little town. Visited some Elk that were hanging out next to where we had breakfast at Pig N Pancake, before heading back to Seaside. We went to the beach and shopping area before we went back to Portland.

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