Oregoned Out

What a crazy couple of weeks we have had!  We had our own mini vacation down the coast, the Speths came to play, and we got to hang out with our pharmacy friends.  JD has traveled all but about 34.7 miles of the Oregon Highway 101 of 346 miles total in less than 2 weeks and a total of 3 ocean trips.  We have done a ton of new things, seen a lot of animals, trees, beaches, ocean, a new temple, and where JD will be doing a few rotations as well.  Last night I asked JD what he wanted to do (it being Friday and all) and his response was 'nothing'.  I said that is fine, do you want to watch a movie or something? He just looked at me and repeated 'nothing'.  That should give you an idea of just how busy his break has been.  Regardless of our current physical state, we are both so grateful for the time we have had to spend together and with our family as well as the incredible things we have been able to see and enjoy.  We feel truly blessed to be here in Oregon.

Speth Trip Day 6: The Gorge and Home

Today was the final day for the Speths to experience "our way of life" here in Oregon.  They packed up and drove out to The Gorge with JD driving separately.  They got to see Shepherd's Dell, Bridal Veil, Wakeena, Multnomah, and Horsetail Falls.  When they were all done exploring, Speth's continued east on 1-84 and JD came home and took a nice nap. It has been fun, but also crazy the past couple weeks.

Coast Trip Day 4: Crescent City & Redwoods to Ashland

We had a pretty amazing day today.  We started at Ocean World, it is a quirky little aquarium that has been built into an old boat.  They have a lot of different animals to touch and resident harbor seals and sea lions.  When we were in the hull of the boat looking at the seals swimming around I started feeling not right, I got dizzy, ringing in the ears, a bit of tunnel vision, and I felt like I wasn't getting enough air.  I sat down while the guy was talking about something-who knows what and prayed that I wouldn't pass out in the hull of the boat aquarium.  We made it out of the hull and I still wasn't feeling very well so I leaned against a table while JD got to pet some Leopard Sharks, I was able to do the same after a few minutes but still felt queasy.  We got a little sea lion/seal show and then we were done at the aquarium and I was feeling better.  The only thing I can guess was I had locked by knees and cut of circulation because it was weird. 

 

After the aquarium we went to the North Coast Marine Mammal Center.  This is a place that they take sick, injured, or abandoned marine mammals for rehab.  We got to see an elephant seal, 5 baby harbor seals, and a few sea lions during feeding time.  The volunteer worker was super nice and told us a lot about the animals and why he was doing things the way he was.  We loved watching him shove fish down the baby harbor seals-they are just like little puppies only fat, wet, and floppity.  One of the seals they had was actually kidnapped by a kindergartner from the beach, they were on a field trip and he put it in his back pack.  When the parents got home they found a baby seal in their bath tub. 

We went to Jedediah Smith State Park/Redwoods National Park on our way up to Medford/Ashland. This place is amazing.  It is kind of hard to put how tall the trees are into perspective while walking amongst them until you take a minute to look through pictures and realize we looked like little ants wandering around these gigantic trees.  In Sequoia the large, massive trees are not quite as common and are spaced out a bit compared with an entire grove of varying aged trees.  We loved hiking around them and enjoyed the 'old grove' where the older bigger trees were located. 

After the Redwoods we drove up to Medford and dropped our stuff off at the hotel.  We went to eat in Ashland and walked around the town.  It is the location of Southern Oregon University and the Oregon Shakespearean Festival.  The main street is decorated all cute Shakespearean style with names like the Windsor or pubs like the Dragon.  There is also a beautiful park down town the boarders the river, we loved walking through Lithia looking at the rhododendrons. The last stop of a busy day was stopping for icecream with our friends Chris and Haylie Weston.  Haylie went through pharmacy technician training with JD and I and also graduated from Pacific University a few years ago as a pharmacist.  It was fun to see them for a bit and we are excited to see their new baby when he comes.

Coast Trip Day 3: Coos Bay to Crescent City

The sun came out today! We loved driving down the coast from Coos Bay.  We stopped at Cape Arago and saw a ton of sea lions basking in the sun and playing in the water. Arizona Beach is unique because it has black sand, you have to cross a small river to get to it so I had to go solo and take a picture since JD didn't want to take his shoes off (I always wear flip flops when at the ocean). We also make several stops in Samuel H Boardman State Park that included Arch Rock.  We relaxed on Harris Beach State Park for a bit before crossing the border into California.  I love the Redwood Highway, while they are not old growth trees, it is still fun to drive on a highway lined with younger Redwoods.  We went straight to the National/State Park Visitor Center to get some maps for our Redwood adventure and then followed with going to Battery Point Lighthouse.  I had been watching the tide and knew we needed to get over there quick, the lighthouse is only accessible when the tide is out, but we were more interested in the tidepooling by the lighthouse.  We saw crabs, hermit crabs, star fish, and other fun things.  I wish I were has talented as JD at balancing and hopping around rocks.  I had to go very slow and even then I wasn't super stable.  After dinner we went to Crescent Beach and watched surfers (yes we are now in California) and the sun set.  It was super pretty and the weather was great.

Coast Trip Day 2: Lincoln to Coos Bay

It was a rather rainy day for us, but the sun would occasionally peak it's head out and the weather didn't do anything to change our plans.  We got to see the waves crashing into the ocean wall at Depoe Bay, Sea Lions coming in to rest on the rocks in the sea lion caves, JD found his first agate on Agate Beach, we saw some lighthouses, and had fun enjoying the coast line.  Below is a clip of a 'spouting horn' a formation in the rock that when crashing water is funneled through it is forced up through small openings in the rock, the more water and pressure, the higher the spout.

Coast Trip Day 1: Lincoln City

After a rather long day of getting a 3 hour glucose test, work, and driving, we got to Lincoln City to start our trip.  I love Lincoln City, my family would spend hours crabbing in the bay and enjoy hiking and eating at Mo's.  While we didn't crab, we did go to the D River Beach.  The D River is the shortest river in the world (at high tide).  The water is slightly warmer than the ocean so it is fun to stand in the water there.  It had been raining all day so we were thrilled to enjoy a break in bad weather as soon as we had finished unloading our car and were headed to the beach.

Four States

So our house hunt has begun.  We drove through nothern Utah, Idaho, Oregon, and are just across the Columbia River in Washington for a quick detour to see the Columbia River Temple.  It is actually pretty exciting being in the Beaver State, hopefully all goes well and we know where we will be living for the next few years!

Miner Bear Lake Reunion

We had the Miner Family Reunion at Bear Lake this weekend and it was a lot of fun.  We played games, boated, ate milk shakes, swam, movies, watched all the little cousins play, and had fun spending time with family.  I am definately grateful we could go to the Hewlett cabin to sleep at night, with 24 grandchildren, it could get pretty crazy.  JD got pretty sick Day 2 which was not fun at all :(.  It was nice to be up there with no set schedule or ability to plan things out because from here on out it is going to get interesting.  It was a great time with the Miners, Marbergers, Durrants, Mikolashes, Murrays, Speths, and Neffs! (the Bryant, Jared, and Jason Miner families that couldn't make it were missed too)

Temporary Post

 This is a preview of sorts, I use this blog for my personal journaling more than anything else, which I print off at the end of the year, so I will be going back in time to post some of the adventures I had with Erin this past week in Yellowstone, Island Park, and Lake Hebgen.  More to come!

Addendum: I am not going to delete this post because I think it is crazy that it took me until July 4th to catch this blog up by documenting our amazingly fun trip. Not so temporary.  So as of today, all caught up!

Mesa Falls, Rexburg, & Home

 Unfortunately, vacations wouldn't be vacations if they never ended.  So today we headed home, but we are not into the boring, just drive home idea. One year we drove through Yellowstone, Grand Teton, Jackson, and the Teton Scenic byway, this year we did the Mesa Falls Scenic Byway.  It was SO pretty!  I can't remember being there when it was so sunny to the point that you could see multiple rainbows off of the falls.  We went to Rexburg and explored our favorite stores: Artco & Porter's.  We found some cute deals, stopped at the temple, and then continued on our way home.  We had so much fun!  We relaxed, explored, photographed, napped, read, cooked, stoked fires, hiked, walked, 'hunted' moose, drove, talked, laughed, and had an amazing time.  I am grateful to have such a great kindred spirit for a friend. 

Snowy Sabbath

Happy Snowy Sunday!  We woke up to lots of pretty snow on the trees as we went on our way to church, it was a pretty winter wonderland.  Church was great.  We went to Big Hot Springs afterwards and saw Johnny Sack's cabin while there, it was cool to see how warm the water was there keeping everything near it green and free of snow. 

Erin was really sick, probably after doing so much the day before, so we stayed at the cabin most of the day.  The cabin was toasty from our fire, we watched Anne of Avonlea, I read a lot, and Erin had 4 1/2 naps.  We really did have a very nice and relaxing day.  I don't know the last time that I had such a quiet day watching the snow fall, reading, and poking logs.  It was AWESOME.

Yellowstone

Today was National Outdoors Day which means free entrance into Yellowstone National Park.  We had a blast today!  We saw tons of baby buffalo, a marmot, a momma and baby elk, and bonus: NO SNOW.  The forcast looked terrible when we set out, but while it was pretty cold, the weather was great.  We drove up to Mammoth Hot Springs, then down to Old Faithful, we loved the new visitor center, the waterfalls, and our all time favorite spot in the Old Faithful lodge with a perfect view of Old Faithful and perfect napping spot for sick friends.  We took pictures, snacked, played, napped, and ran all over the park that we have come to know so well.  Having done everything we can now be picky and go to our favorite parts.  Pizza at Pete's in West was delicious, and we made it home just before a very cool blizzard came through, I had fire down at this point so we didn't mind, we got cozy in our blankets and snuggled down into them as we watched Anne of Green Gables. 

Hebgen & West & Fires

 We drove up in Montana today and it was so pretty!  Quake Lake and Lake Hebgen were beautiful.  We found a Beaver pond that was pretty cool too.  A stop at Erin's favorite place per tradition was great, the water was really high this year so no dancing around in the duct going to Quake.  After our adventuring in the 'wilderness' we went into West Yellowstone and walked around pretty much all of the shops.  It was kind of weird to be there and have the town be so quiet.  We had dinner at the cabin and I got really good at maintaining a fire to warm up us and the cabin, it is cold up here!

We Made It!

Back in January before school had started, Erin and I had spent a long night chit chatting about all kinds of things, when it turned to what we wanted to do when we were done with Grad school we pulled out planners, pencils, and wrote down a few things, including a trip to Island Park June 7-11.  We laughed even that far in advance knowing it would most likely never happen.  However, after a long day of work and Erin arranging her clinical externship, we set off for Island Park.  We are here and it is wonderful, beautiful, happy, and fun!  Another adventure!

Memorial Weekend

 

 
We escaped up to Bear Lake this weekend.  Crazy weather best describes our experience.  It was very rainy the drive up but sunshiney at Bear Lake.  The next day it seriously snowed all day long.  The only time it may have stopped was when we were in church because the rest of the day definately consisted of snow, and very muddy roads.  Then today was another beautiful day of sunshine and warm weather.  I even went out and read some Sherlock Holmes on the porch.  It was fun being up there with my cousins, JD, and relaxing.

Last Day

Today was JD's birthday and we had a great time at church and at the ocean.  We also spent a last bit of quality time with Gordon, the Clarke family dog.  It is not going to be very much fun going back home tomorrow.

Happy Birthday JD!

Beach Day

Relax day!  We slept in, didn't have to be anywhere or do anything and it was so nice.  JD got a bit fried on our Anacapa adventure thanks to his hatred of suncscreen so it was probably a good thing that we didn't have any set plans.  We drove down to one of my favorite places in the world: Oceanside.  We ate at Ruby's Diner and walked the pier.  While we were waiting for our table to be called we watched dolphins surfing the huge waves there which was super cool.  Thanks to how burnt JD was, he spent most of the beach time on under a towel to stay away from the sun, whom he isn't on good terms with at the moment.  On our way back to the Clarke's we stopped at the Mission Viejo mall to see the Lego Store, and bought some cheesecake from the Cheesecake factory.  It was a nice, chillaxing day.  One more left before we make the long drive back home.

Channel Islands National Park

We went to Anacapa Island yesterday, the smallest of the Channel Islands National Park chain.  It was amazing.  We rode on a boat out of the Channel Islands Harbor to Anacapa.  On our way there we had some dolphins swim along side us, and right before we reached the island, a humpback whale surfaced near our boat, so we followed it for a while.  It was hatching season on the island which means a lot of nervous momma birds on their nests, everywhere.  We hiked around the island for some beautiful views on a sunshiny day.  We could see sea lions swimming through kelp forests and sunbathing, and there were flowers everywhere.  On our way back to the harbor our boat went through a pod of dolphins somewhere in the range of 1,000 according to the captain.  It was crazy cool having hundreds of dolphins swimming all around the boat and jumping along and in the wake.  If I can get the footage I took to work, I will post what I got, though, as usual, photos and film just don't do it justice.  We are looking forward to a couple of relaxing beach days, and celebrating JD's birthday on Sunday before heading back to Utah.

Sequoia & Kings Canyon National Parks

It was a super wet and rainy day today while we were up in the mountains admiring giant trees.  It was kind of strange driving through clouds and having them wisp about the trees as we hiked around.  The park was amazing though, we saw General Grant: 3rd largest tree in the world, and General Sherman: largest tree in the world.  That is by volume, not height.  We walked inside fallen down sequoias, and groves full of them too.  Upon reaching the other side of the park we saw the sun peak out as we scaled down the mountain, giving us a beautiful drive to Oxnard, we went past a ton of farms again, and they smelled divine, especially the orange groves. Channel Islands tomorrow!

Yosemite National Park

We went to Yosemite National Park today and it was amazing!  We hiked around sequoia trees that were huge, hiked up to Lower Yosemite Falls, road the shuttle system around the valley.  Got rained on a lot and just sat under trees until storms passed through, and had a great time.  I watched the Ken Burns National Parks: America's Best Idea documentary a few years ago and ever since I have always wanted to come to Yosemite, and it lived up to its reputation.  I can say it was nice being in the park this time of year, from the looks of it, the valley is probably completely packed during the summer months, but the cool weather and rain made the park relatively quiet, enough for JD to stalk a mom and her baby deer for a while.  Super great day!