Gig Harbor & Seattle, September 23 - 28, 2010

We have absolutely fallen in love with Gig Harbor!! It is awesome. If we were going to move away from San Diego this would be one place we would definitely consider!! We loved the small town feel but being right across the bridge from the city. We loved all the water around, the harbor the lakes, the sail boats! We loved all the green everywhere! The boys said this was their favorite church we have attended since we left. We just liked it all!

On Saturday we went into Seattle and went up in the Space Needle. That was a lot of fun. What a gorgeous view from up top! We did a lot of walking along the waterfront and ate dinner there on the waterfront. Fun!! We went to Pike Place Market but they were just closing so we will be back on Monday.

Well, Monday came and we went back to the Market. It was a lot of fun with lots to see. My favorites were the fish market and the flowers. At the fish market, every time someone would order a fish they would yell out the order and then the guy out front picks up the fish and throws it to the guy behind the counter to wrap it up. It's fun seeing those huge fish fly through the air!! The flowers were incredible!! There was just bouquet after bouquet. They were beautiful!!

Later we went to the locks where they raise and lower the boats from Peugeot Sound to the lake. That was very interesting! We watched as they raised the boats about 20 feet so they could enter the lake. We also watched the salmon swimming up the ladders. They have an underwater viewing area and you can watch them swim upstream. The boys loved that!!

Port Angeles, WA September 22, 2010

When Christopher woke up this morning he jumped out of bed and said, "It's a fishing day!" He was so excited to be going fishing. We have been seeing pictures of these huge fish people are catching all around this area so he wanted to go catch one.

Well, after several hours on the river fishing.... No luck! I felt bad for him but he says he's not giving up! He said he has a score to settle with those fish!! We'll try again another day!! The only thing he caught today was a long stick! He thought he had one on because it was pulling on his line but when he reeled it in it was just a stick!!

La Push, WA & Sol Duc Waterfall, Septerber 21, 2010

About 15 miles from Forks, WA is La Push, WA where there are some beautiful beaches! We headed there and it was so nice to be back at the beach!! Just the smell of the ocean was heavenly!! We hiked down the side of a hill to get down to the beach and play around. The boys loved all the logs laying on the beach and tried building tee pees out of them. They had a lot of fun.

We went to Sol Duc Waterfall in Olympic National Park. That was a lot of fun. We had to hike about 1 mile into the falls through the forest. It is so green and lush with tons of moss and ferns everywhere! It is so calm and peaceful in the forest. Very quiet. It is a beautiful hike and well worth the effort to see the falls.

The drive on into Port Angeles took us by some beautiful lakes and lots of rivers that made Christopher want to go fishing all the more. We decided that tomorrow has to be a fishing day!

Looking across the straight of Juan de Fuca from Port Angeles you can see Victoria, Canada and the mountains. We are anxious to go see some of Canada but we won't be headed over there yet....

Hoh Rain Forest, Forks, WA September 20, 2010

Finally!! We saw the sun today for the first time in about a week!! It's about time because I was becoming one cranky gal!! My guys can all verify that!! It has drizzled on us all week.

Today we headed to the Hoh Rain Forest in Olympic National Park. It was sunny until we got close to the rain forest and then guess what?? Of course! Rain!! It was amazing to see. It is so green with moss growing everywhere and ferns all through the forest. It was beautiful!! If you ever get a chance, go see it!!! They get about 144 inches of rain each year.

Tonight we stayed in vampire country! Forks, Washington. This is where the Twilight series took place. I was surprised at how small the town is. I didn't really know what to look for since I am not a Twilight fan but I did take one picture of the school.

Aberdeen, WA September 18, 19, 2010

We drove on up the Oregon coast and it was still beautiful. It was kind of sad to leave Oregon. We loved it a lot!! Our last stop in Oregon was Seaside. We LOVED that little town!! The boys were begging to stay there but it was only just over an hour from Portland. It had tons of little shops and lots of restaurants all right on the beach! The street lights had a starfish out of lights on each pole. It was so cool!!

We stayed in Aberdeen, WA Saturday and Sunday night. When we went to eat dinner after first getting into town Saturday night, the boys spotted a Star Wars store. It was closed but we did get to go there Monday morning before we left town. They were in heaven!! I have never seen so much junk in one store in my life!!! They had everything Star Wars!!

All over downtown Aberdeen they have these aliens in cages. I'm not sure what the significance of them were but we enjoyed seeing all of them.

The boys loved the hotel we stayed in. They had there own separate bedroom that had bunk beds and a TV in their room. They had a blast!!

We attended the Grays Harbor Ward on Sunday. It was a very friendly ward and we enjoyed it a lot!

Portland, Oregon September 15, 16, 17, 2010

When we first drove into Portland we saw a huge tram that went to a building at the top of a hill. We decided then that we wanted to ride it so that was our first outing after checking into our hotel. It was a lot of fun and gave us a great view of the city. I was a little nervous because it was so high up.

We went and saw the Portland temple. It was beautiful. It was all marble and the flowers there were gorgeous. Everything here is so green and lush!!

Portland is called the rose capital of the world and we definitely found out why. We visited the rose gardens and they were just beautiful!!! I think they have every kind of rose there ever was. They were gorgeous!! We spent a lot of time just walking and looking at all the roses. There was also a holocaust memorial in the park that we visited. Amazing!! There is no way you could read all the comments and walk away with dry eyes. It was very touching.

We went to the OMSI (Oregon Museum of Science and Industry). What a blast!!! The boys loved it. We couldn't get them to leave. We had planned to go to a huge corn maze but the had so much fun at the science museum that we ended up staying there all afternoon.

More Oregon Coast, September 14, 2010

I just can't believe how beautiful the Oregon coast is!! There are so many things to see and so many photo opportunities! I am loving it!!

There are little towns all up the coast. We stayed the night in Coos Bay which was a cute little town on the bay. Steve says he thinks we should move! There sure were some neat little towns.

We are now in Portland and it is a really neat city. There are lots of trees and very green. There are also flowers everywhere. It is very pretty. We rode a tram and had a great view of the city from the tram.

Oregon Coast, September 12 & 13

Gorgeous, gorgeous, gorgeous!!! That's the only word that describes the Oregon coast. It seems like every mile we would have to pull over to take a picture. It almost sounded like we were watching a fireworks display with all the oohs and ahhs each time we would round a curve and see more of the Oregon coast. It was absolutely beautiful!!!

We stopped in Trinidad and found a beautiful little hidden beach. It was a long hike down to it but there were wild blackberries all over the hill going down so we enjoyed the berries as we hiked up and down the hill. Wow! Were they good!

Redwood Forest, September 10 & 11, 2010

It is hard to believe that trees could be so huge!! We enjoyed seeing all the big trees and feeling so small standing in the middle of the redwood forest! We stopped at the Grandfather tree and tryed to see how far around the tree we could reach. Needless to say we didn't even reach half way around the tree!

One of the highlights of the last couple of days was dinner Saturday night. We ate at the Samoa Cookhouse. It is an old logging cookhouse that is awesome. It is served family style and is delicious! Christopher says it is the best place he has ever eaten. I'm not too sure I don't agree with him. It was great!

We stayed in Arcada, CA on Saturday night and attended the Eureka 2nd ward church. It was a very friendly ward and we enjoyed it a lot.

Wednesday & Thursday September 8 & 9, 2010, San Francisco, CA

San Francisco! What an amazing city!! We went down to Pier 39 for dinner and to play around. When we were here last spring the boys both bought puppets and they wanted to get their puppets each a son! So we added 2 new puppets to the family!! What excitement!

Day 2 in San Francisco found us riding the cable cars!! What fun!! We rode to Chinatown and ate lunch. We then walked around and looked at all the interesting things in all the shops. They had some weird fish swimming around in buckets that you could buy. Christopher wanted to take one with us!