The Itinerary

I thought since I didn't show pictures of every thing we visited I would give you a day by day itinerary. 

Day 1
Leave Cola - 4 hour layover in Chicago
Arrived in Sea-Tac around 2pm. Grab rental car and head to Snoqualmie Falls less than an hour north of Seattle.
Enjoy the view. Eat dinner in the quaint little town of Snoqualmie. Andrew said life seemed better in this town. I agree. Families were enjoying each other...it would be a great place to raise a family. Then we drove south to Mt. St. Helens.

Day 2
Visit Mt. St. Helens and we made several stops around their. A viewpoint that had a trail in the woods and a place to get out on the river where men were fly fishing. Drive to Portland, walked around water front park and went to Saturday Market.

Day 3
Mt. Hood/ Columbia River Scenic highway - Horsetail Falls, Multnomah Falls, Oneonta Gorge, Crowne Point, Bonneville Dam, Barlow Pass (part of the Oregon Trail). Drive south to Smith Rock St. Park.

Day 4
Smith Rock State Park - spend the morning - drive to the beach around Newport. Put my toes in the Pacific Ocean for the first time.  Drive to Depoe Bay.

Day 5
Drive leisurely towards Cannon Beach...stopping to look at tons of lookout points.  Take 3 capes scenic drive around Capes Meares and stop to see the light house.  It was so foggy you couldn't see the ocean.  We got to Cannon Beach and absolutely loved it. It wasn't foggy, but was chilly.  Drive north to Westport...eat well.

Day 6
Drive to Hoh Rainforest in the Olympic National Forest/Park.  See ferns that were almost waist high. Very lush and green and had some trees as tall as the Redwoods. P.S. we didn't go to the Redwoods b/c we wanted to be able to take our time on the coast and get to see the Olympic Peninsula.  Then we make our way to Forks (for me) and Rialto Beach and Port Angeles. It was my mini Twilight tour. 

Day 7
Drive to the bay that separates the olympic peninsula from the Seattle area, take the ferry. We went to Chateau St. Michelle and toured the winery.  Had a nice little tasting and we learned a ton.  Did you know that they have to stir the barrels and test the wine three times a day. Crazy right? The grounds were beautiful. the we headed to Seattle and walked around a bit to get our bearings.  We actually went to see a movie...we were exhausted and just wanted to veg out. 

Day 8
Go to Pike's Place eat breakfast and walk around.  Walked to the Space Needle for lunch. Walked back to the market. We loved that place.  We loved many of the goods for sale...soap, leather books, the flowers were amazing and cheap, fresh fruit, and of course fresh seafood, the original Starbucks, I mean what's not to love. We did a go shopping...we went to Northface, Patagonia, Columbia, and Mountain Hardwear.  We loved clothes, but were like um no. We did make two purchases...a bag from Northface to replace one of the bags I was carrying that ripped. A purple and orange sweatshirt for Andrew's sister's bday.  Then we ate at Pike's Place Chinese Cuisene and caught the Mariner's game.  Andrew loved the game...a sweet fan let me use their blanket cause I was freezing and then I loved it too. 

Day 9
Pike's Place for breakfast and then we headed out to Snoqualmie again. We loved this place too. We spent much of the day here reading, and relaxing, and enjoying the view. We then ate dinner at a little brewery with great food. Then headed to spend the night close to the airport. 

Day 10
Travel day. United/Continental employees in Houston severely disappointed us. We made it to Charlotte around 7pm and then to Columbia to get our luggage and were home around 10:30.  Not too bad.  It's a Sue and Paul story, but theirs is better. They have the worst/funniest honeymoon story ever. This day was very sad anyway, due to the horrible loss 10 years ago.

P.S. It took us a full week to sleep well again...crazy! Totally worth it...if you have the opportunity, take this trip.  I told Andrew somewhere around day 5 that everything made me think about God. There is something about being surrounded by the beauty of our Creator that expands your understanding of Him.  He is way more complex than we can imagine, and His beauty is magnificent.