Things We Did

I have no pictures on my computer at the moment, but thought as an alternative, I would catch up on what we actually did with our days. We seem to have left off in Seattle - which was a long time ago! Here's what happened next:

We left Seattle on Thursday morning with the intention of driving to the Northern Oregon coast, via Rainier. We got about 60 minutes into our trip when we realized that we'd left Mike's dry cleaning back in Seattle. Biiiig oops. So we turned around and made the trip back to town. 2 hours later, we picked up where we'd left off on the road to Rainier and kept on. I would say we crossed through the entrance gate at around 4:15ish... Made our way up the scenic road to Paradise, where the Rainier Lodge and Visitor Center are. We pulled in right as the center was closing, snapped some of the pictures you see below, and continued on our merry way. We still had quite a drive before us to get to Oregon!
Pulled in to Seaside, OR around 10 or 11pm, made a little blog post (below), and hit the hay.

Friday

First thing we did was wander around the town of Seaside, which was really cute/really touristy. In one direction were cute shops, bakeries, and the like. In the other was the beach, and something like any other boardwalk/seaside tourist area you've ever seen (New Jersey, New London, CT, etc.). It was pretty chilly, and we stuck around for some scenery pics before hopping in the car to go up to Astoria, where the movie Goonies is based. Again, some picture taking and driving around, and then we headed back south to Cannon Beach, home of Haystack Rock. The beach was pretty chilly still, and there was a good breeze coming off the water. We took a little beach walk and picked a spot for a little picnic of Bremner Wafers (ode to Ta), Truffled Goat Cheese with Lavender and Rosemary, a different goat cheese with Mt. St. Helen's Ash and a paprika stripe, and roasted garlic. Deeeelish. After bugging Mike about being really cold, we hopped back in the car to start our winding trip in to Portland.
Took about 90 minutes to get in to the city, but when we finally did, we were pretty excited. Our hotel, The Ace, was awesome. It is a small chain of boutique hotels in Seattle, Portland, New York, and Palm Springs. Highly recommended for a cool hotel experience. It has a definite hipster feel, but there were guests of all walks. The lobby spun vinyl 24-hours a day of all genres; there was a coffee shop (Stumptown Roasters) to one side, and a restaurant (Clyde Common) to the other. The lobby also boasted an old-school photo booth, which was obviously a big hit. **We never got to take pictures in the photo booth as it was out of order by the time we got around to it.**
Our room (photos later by Mike) was decorated with torn out pages of a dictionary papier-mached to the walls, which was perfect. The bed had a really cool Pendleton blanket (which you can actually buy), and the best mini-bar snacks I've ever seen - including beef jerky which Mike bought. Clawfoot tub in the bathroom, witty signs around, blah blah blah. At some point, after we marveled over the hotel, we went out for food/drink.
We decided on Widmer brewery/pub, which we walked to - through the Pearl District and over the Broadway Bridge. It was a little bit of a hike... Widmer hit the spot, and we called it a night afterwards.

The next 2 days were really fun times in and around Portland, so that makes this a good stopping place before we get in to those stories. You'll just have to come back later!