Where's Abby (+ Dylan and dogs)

 One of the things that has surprised me the most about Oregon is the fairytale forests on the coast. Before moving here, I think I had a vague image in my head of these coastal hikes being rocky, steep cliffs, and pine trees all around. You certainly get those sights, but these other ecosystems have been so magical and unique. A trail may start out with a woodsy area with spruce trees, cedars, alders, transition to neon green moss covered grounds and trees before reaching a whispy grassy meadow leading you to views of the Pacific Ocean down steep cliffs. Keep on trekking up through these wildflower fields up to reach another pine forest. That's Cascade Head.  Then Bob Straub State Park and takes you through these mossy forests with views of Nestucca River to the west and ocean to the east. You can make it all the way down to the river mouth to be greeted by some curious seals. I think Sitka Sedge will have its images burned in my heart forever. One of my favorite places. You get t

One unique story out here is the story of Bayocean . The tiny strip or "spit" of land between the Pacific Ocean and Tillamook Bay. This little area sparked some investors' interests in the early 1900s and long story short-ish, (because click that link for deets), they built up this whole resort town with a hotel, fancy pool, bowling alley, tennis courts, dance hall... a full set up for such a tiny town. It sounded like a blast for the wealthy to come vacation here (with quite the excursion to make it here at that time with lack of roads, trains, boat troubles). The one name to share is F.D. Mitchell, the guy that put all his heart and soul (and investments) into this resort, only to have it totally destroyed by nature. The homes, hotels, store... everything is totally gone now. And it looks like this!    The unfortunate thing is this F.D. needed a north and south jetty put in to protect the spit from the water coming out from the bar into the ocean and make boat passage e

For both of our birthdays this year, we found ourselves in the wonders of Washington.  We celebrated Dylan's 37th with a trip to the Olympic Pensinsula with the first hike up to our campsite at Lena Lake. It was a beautiful hike and lake spot, but the camping aspect was not the most comfortable with two big dogs. Luckily we kept them out of the lake so they weren't two big, wet, stinky dogs. The next morning, we hiked on down and drove up to Port Townsend where we stayed two nights at the Palace Hotel.  It was the cutest little room that we could've lived in. This little lofty apartment had a view of the Port Townsend Bay's ships and historic street. Its history was entertaining too, as it used to be a brothel, with the rooms named after "the girls." Port Townsend was quite a cute town as well with good walks, gardens, views and friendly kids.       The second day, we were awe-struck by our Badger Valley hike in the Olympic National Park. From the slightly sca

Well hello, all! Remember back in May 2021 when my goal was to write a post a month? Here we are, 11 posts behind. BUT I think I've actually gotten the motivation now, folks. I've got a slew (?) of posts written and saved in drafts to grace your eyes in no time. You just wait. You can read all about our Washington birthdays, our Fairytale Forests, visitors' escapades, the peculiar story of Bayocean, Portland times... it's coming. So thanks to friends, Kaila and Chad, we made it on a skiing trip in January 2022. We were all booked for a lovely stay in Leavenworth, lift tickets purchased, dogs booked for their stay to just drop off for the weekend. It was just all so convenient! We were set!  Then the snow just kept on falling til the roads were closed to the mountain and resort, foiling our whole plan! We had a late, complicated night of 6 people trying to coordinate a new last minute plan. The crew came up with and followed through with a trip to Crystal Mountain the ne