a little rytting roadtrip fun

preface: I have to warn you this is easily the longest posting of our blogging career. im sorry, you're more than welcome to scan through it quickly, but i took lots of pictures, like hundreds. and it was hard for me to narrow down. so buckle up because this is a posting marathon unlike any other.

Last week we two ryttings set off on a much anticipated roadtrip to the Pacific Northwest. We have been talking about making a trip to Washington for years and we finally decided to go! We have major enthusiasm for this part of the country, and we wanted to check it out together. Having been born there i use that as an excuse for my obsession with Washington, I'm in love with the place and have always dreamed of living there one day. With its cool temperatures, green, green landscape and lots of outdoor activities it also seemed like a perfect fit for Mckay's personality.
We had a few reasons for going. We haven't been on a trip just the two of us since our 1st year anniversary, (we are quickly approaching our 3rd). Mckay is also planning on applying to UW for graduate school so we thought it would be a perfect time to take a trip just us and visit the campus. We took a few detours on the way, taking our time driving up the coast of Oregon, which made for one amazing trip.


Knowing we were going to be spending hours and hours in the car we checked out some audio books from the Library. I have to say this saved us, and i would recommend it to everyone with a roadtrip in their future. no matter how gorgeous the landscape is you get antsy being in a car for hours on end. The Count of Monte Cristo was up first and provided us hours (19 to be exact) of Edmond Dantes entertainment. In an effort to save money and snack healthy we brought lots of 'good for us' munchies and PB&J ingredients to save us from fast food restaurants. We even made our own roasted almonds, so easy to make, healthy and addicting.

The first day was somewhat uneventful, but we were both super excited for our little getaway. We drove almost 9 hours to Pendleton Oregon where we watched the Lakers win the Championship :( and played at the pool.





Outside my window looked like this most of the way on day one.


{DAY 2-Tillamook and Seaside}
and on day 2 the roads started looking more like this.

We drove the historic highway which took us past beautiful waterfalls that were right on the road, or a short hike from it. This area was full of campsites, so we made a mental note to come back again some time.

Horse Tail Falls

We finally reached the coast and made our way to Tillamook Oregon, where we overindulged big time in the dairy department. We first made a stop at the Blue Heron French Cheese Company for free samples and a quick trip through the petting farm.

"I wonder if they still have brown cow icecream led to a spontaneous stop at the Tillamook Cheese factory. we had no idea the wonder that lay beyond the doors of the visitors center.

Inside we enjoyed free cheese samples of cheese. which led to the buying of some cheese curds.

We watched humongous blocks of cheese being cut, sorted, packaged, etc..

Mckay was overjoyed to discover that they did in fact have his favorite childhood icecream "Utterly Chocolate" formerly known as "Brown Cow". happy boy.

perfection.

After leaving Tillamook we continued making our way up the coast.

Aftre awhile we decided to pull off the highway and go exploring, trying to find our way onto the beach. We climbed up an unassuming sand dune only to find this lovely on the other side.

Miles and miles of twisted wood scattered all over the beach on both sides.

We finally made it to our hotel in Seaside and quickly made our way down to the Promenade for some delicious seafood and a sunset stroll.

We went to Norma's for their 4 different kinds of fish n chips.

Apparently Norma's clam chowder was named one of the top ten soups in the country. We hate clam chowder. hate. but we decided to be adventurous and try it, anyways. It was surprisingly better than expected but in our opinion not a top ten soup.

such a wonderful day :)