What a Long and Fantastic Weekend!

I know you all agree: the best weekends start on Thursday and end on Monday. :)

So Thursday morning, I got up, packed my truck and drove down the street (literally like 7 houses) and picked up my best friend Audrey for an 8+ hour road trip from Boise, ID to Keizer, OR. We probably stopped to go potty 4 times each way. Given, Audrey is about 23 weeks pregnant, but we both have small bladders already. TMI. Onward we go.

I wasn't in the food photographing mood, but definitely had some yummy eats and great adventures. Thankfully, I had transferred my pictures to my computer before my iPhone decided to call it iQuits. I know saying that is so cheesy and not exactly original, but hey, I am easily amused. There might be a lot of random tangents in this post. I'm a little tired from driving at least 18 hours in 4 days. You've been warned. You can't blame me. ;)

That night, after dinner we went for a walk with my mom around the neighborhood and I took these two shots:

Calla lilies just don't grow like that in ID.

These people took an interesting twist on their fence.

Our first day there, we went to see some iris and rose gardens. My mom is a big gardener so I grew up around lots of flowers and planting. (Unfortunately, I didn't inherit much of the green thumb, just a little) Most of the iris were done blooming, but there were lots of other flowers to see too.

Then the rose garden.

This one is called Playboy. It was so bright and cheerful!

My cute little mommy. :)

This rose is called Blue Girl. It's my favorite because of the lavender color.

This one is as big as my hand!

A rose named Margaret. (which is my actual full name) :)

After some lunch, Audrey and I struck out to make the drive out to Silver Falls State Park. There's lot's of trails to hike on to see the waterfalls. We saw a few of them but since we got a late start (and were stopping every 30 feet to take pictures) we turned around before so we wouldn't end up hiking back in the dark.

The coolest part was that we could actually walk on the trail behind the waterfall.

Look at all the moss and greenery!

Then we came across this awesome stump.

Fall #2

Tons of moss on a tree near the fall.

If you look closely, you can see the dots of people on the switch backing trail.

Back at the first fall.

We went to this pizza joint called Home Place in Silverton on our way back. No pictures. Oops. The pizza was really good though!!

We started Sunday morning with Yaquina Bay lighthouse.

Here's a view from the lighthouse.

The original lighthouse floor. Boats would come up from California, and then dump all this brick at the beach and so the builders just picked it up and carried it up the hill to build the lighthouse.

Then we went to lunch at this little place on the side of the road. I split a halibut and chips and a bowl of clam chowder with my mom. Yum.

Then we went to the aquarium.

Isn't Audrey the cutest pregnant lady?? :)

We met this lovely albino python. I actually touched him, and he was soft like leather. He still gave me the heebie jeebies though.

Jellyfish

Anemone and Sea Star. We got to touch them and the anemone feels kind like a cat tongue. The sea stars feel sort of hard and bumpy and also soft and slimy.

Sea otters are my favorite. They've got so much personality!

There's a part where you go through a tunnel and can see the sharks swim above you.

After we left, we went to a cafe and saw all these sea lions hanging around on a dock.

Then we went to the beach, where I got my phone wet and it started freaking out, which made me start freaking out. :(

We went to dinner and I had halibut again with a salad and rice and some sauteed vegetables. The fish was so good, it cheered me up a little bit.

That's where it ends since my iPhone was on strike and I have to take it in today. But all we did was drive back yesterday. Oh and we stopped at Multnomah Falls on our way back.