You Capture - Green

Hi You Capture! I've missed you! I missed posting for a week or two while my schedule was all topsy turvy, but I'm back this week...with vengeance. :)

So, this week, we got to pick one of three themes - I chose green. As it turns out, this was the best possible theme for me this week. You see, I'm on vacation - in the beautiful lush Oregon. I'm here with my best friend, and without my husband or my child. Yes, you heard me correctly, that means I've had a week of girl time. I know you all understand how monumental this is.

We have done so so so so much this week - and every day we captured things that were green. In fact, it is harder to find things that are NOT green up here. Not even kidding. So, with that in mind, you will understand why I am posting a lot of pictures this week, right? Cause I've taken about 1500 pictures, and I just pared them down to like 15 for y'all. You're welcome.

So here are my submissions for this week's capture - some of my faves from this week of vacation.

blackberry bushes in the park

seaweed on the coast

haystack rock

mountains

my first sushi track experience

if you saw the doughnuts I ordered from here - you'd be green with envy. ;o)

yeah, we pulled over to capture this bridge just because it was green.

Columbia River Gorge

view of the gorge from Crown Point

we saw so many waterfalls!

I really like the mist zooming by in this picture

what's Not green in this picture?

mossy tree

more waterfallage

and what better way to end a good vacation day than appletinis? :)

Thanks for stopping by! This was a fun week for me - capturewise and vacationwise. If you want to jump in and play You Capture with us or go see what other pictures people took this week, go visit I Should Be Folding Laundry.

a perfect day

Day 4

Yesterday was a nearly perfect day. And I certainly want it documented, so here we go. :)

Our day actually started on Monday night, when we were back at home watching DVR'd episodes of So You Think You Can Dance. Once midnight rolled around, we broke out the stuff for a little midnight snack.

yes, yes we did.

It's been a loooong time since I've made rice krispie treats, but they were good. Billie Jo whipped up some hot chocolate and we settled in for some late night chatting and tv watching.

(don't worry, we didn't eat the whole pan)

We stayed up kinda late but eventually fell asleep. We both slept in a little in the morning and took our time getting our day started. Once we were up and dressed, Billie Jo took me down town for breakfast. Voodoo doughnuts is a pretty famous little tourist spot up here. It's just a little tiny doughnut shop where they serve a variety of unusual pastries.

Billie Jo and I both got the Voodoo doll donut (chocolate frosting with raspberry filling and a pretzel stake in his heart). I also decided to try the maple bacon bar (yes, it has slices of bacon on top). We ordered our donuts and walked down to Stumptown Coffee - another local favorite. We took our time enjoying our Voodoo dolls & some very yummy lattes....as well as taking a hundred pictures.

poor guy - has a stake in his heart. ;)

isn't that gorgeous?

Pretty soon, breakfast was over (it was actually a lot closer to lunchtime). We headed out of the city and started a scenic tour of waterfalls and outlooks.

beautiful, no? The tiny building on the right is called Crown Point

a view from Crown Point

We kept driving down the scenic byway until we came to our first waterfall stop. I can't even tell you how many pictures I took throughout the day - paring these down was really really hard. But, alas, nobody wants to scroll through 700 pictures -so I hope these will help capture the essence of the trip.

I think this picture is kinda cool - the camera focused in on the water droplets of mist zooming past us.

This was the last waterfall we saw - I think, if I remember right, it's the tallest year round waterfall in the US.

The whole waterfall tour was great. The weather was, again, near perfect and we didn't have a time frame or set schedule. We just enjoyed ourselves. We hiked around each location, took pictures, basked in nature, and moved on to the next spot. It was nice to just be outside and how could you not enjoy yourself surrounded by that kind of natural grandeur?

We eventually made our way back home and, because we're gluttons for pain, decided to bite the bullet and go to kickboxing class again. You see, we've done really great about working out everyday - but my body isn't acclimated to that kind of activity and I was more than sore. In fact, my legs kept randomly buckling under me all day while we hiked around - much to Billie Jo's amusement. Anyway, kickboxing was about the last thing I thought I could do at that moment - but we went, and we survived, and we both felt good about going in the end.

And then it was time for more fun. We had some down time to cook a little dinner, shower and get a little dressed up to go out again. We decided to try a place called Portland City Grill. It's on the 30th floor of a building overlooking the city. Happy hour was at 10, so out we went. The last time I left for an event at 10pm had to have been in college. We found a table and ordered a few things to munch on and a few drinks to sip on. I had the best calamari that I've had, and I also tried a lavender infused cosmo - which was interesting, and good.

pomegranate margarita & a green apple martini ;)

it's hard to take low light pics of yourself, we discovered.

We sat there and chatted away until the bar closed and we had to go home. We had so much fun. We just chatted and laughed and enjoyed each other's company. Once we got home, we stayed up for another hour or two chatting and laughing some more until we both fell asleep.

It was a very long, jam packed, tiring day - but it was fun, beautiful, rejuvenating, and good for the both of us. Thanks Billie Jo for the great memories. :)

just pictures

I've been taking tons and tons of pictures up here (shocker, I know) and there is no way to share them all - but here's a post of a few of my favorites from the weekend. Enjoy!

blackberry bush

haystack rock

old lighthouse - think about what it took to build that out there.

depth of field, anyone? Yes, thank you.

Oregon.

Oregon coast

Hi, again. :) In case you couldn't tell from the picture, I spent the second half of the weekend touring some of the Oregon coast. The weather was supposed to be the sunniest and warmest of the week, so we decided it was our best bet to head out on Sunday and spend the day doing touristy coastal stuff. I want to be sure to document the trip as best I can - but I know these posts tend to read more like scrapbook captions than real bloggy-blog stuff. And that's ok, right?

So, before we went coastal, we put in our time at the gym and walked the dogs, got ready and headed to lunch. Billie Jo took me to a little BBQ place that had some pretty yummy ribs. Mmm. It took an hour or so to drive out to the coast and it was beautiful the whole way - very scenic. As we approached the beach town where we were going to stop, things started getting overcast - of course.

By the time we were on the beach, things were a little chilly again, but that was fine after a while - you get used to it. Billie Jo took be to a place called Haystack Rock - basically, it's a huge rock (that looks like a haystack) right on the beach. It's impressive and kinda pretty too.

Haystack rock - much bigger than it looks in the picture

We took some time to take silly pictures of each other, draw in the sand, and walk along the beach. I'll spare you most of the silly sand pictures, but it was a lot of this kinda thing.

So, we went back to the car, and drove down the scenic highways along the coast. We stopped every so often to peek out over the lookout and designated view spots. At one lookout - there were these kids selling lemonade. They were too cute. Donations only please. So, we bought a glass and asked for a photo op. The kids have been living in Spain and are moving back to OR - they were just raising money for something they might want one day. They were really really cute.

Next thing we know, the blue sky is back, out of nowhere. So, we made sure to stop again and take pictures to prove that the oregon coast does see some sunlight on occasion. :)

After a little bit, we made our way to the Tillamook Cheese factory - known for their cheese curds, ice cream, and homemade waffle cones. It was my first cheese factory to visit. Kinda neat to see all the machinery and the workings of how things are processed and packaged and such.

the factory working' away

(ok, ok, so we went on a Sunday and there actually weren't any workers there - but this picture of a poster is, I'm sure, what the factory Would have looked like had it been open)

We got to sample several different cheeses - my favorite was called Squeaky Cheese - which squeaks when you eat it. It made me laugh.

So, the cheese was great and all, but you really go to Tillamook for the ice cream. We ran/walk 5 miles that morning for this purpose alone. I had a scoop of Rocky Road and one of Carmel Toffee Crunch. Yes. Yum.

After the cheese factory, we headed home and enjoyed the car time to just chat and talk about life. I was exhausted, again, by the time we got home. I think I was a tiny bit jet lagged still, but also just worn out from seeing so much cool stuff.

I have so many pictures of the scenery and landscape from our trip to the coast - I think I may just make a post of those pictures. Stay tuned.

Till then, just know I'm still very much enjoying my time with one of the best friends a girl could have. Like really.