A trip to Seaside, 11 years together

It's hard to believe, but I have now been with my sweetie for 11 years and one day.
:) My very best friend in the whole world.



We'd been wanting to get away for a while, so we thought what better time than the weekend before November 9th....the day we starting dating. As Travis put it, the day I finally said yes. :) He'd asked me out several times a day for about a month and was getting used to me saying no. It wasn't that I didn't like him, it was just hard for me because we were best friends, and I didn't want to ruin that friendship. I'm so glad I finally decided to give it a try though, because it's turned out to be the best relationship ever. Our friendship has only made it that much better!

Anyway, we decided to take a weekend trip to Seaside last weekend. We found a really cute little hotel....with only 14 rooms, that was right on the promenade. It came complete with an ocean view, fireplace, kitchenette, and a temprupedic mattress. They also provided the most comfortable robes we have ever worn. Someday, we want to buy some!!

So, we planned our trip! We planned to leave Saturday the 7th at 8am, drive up through Tillamook and stop at the cheese factory, and finish the drive up scenic 101, through Cannon Beach, and then Seaside. The night before we left, we had a few drinks with Erika and Darin and Shelby so we didn't end up leaving until 9am. Which was just fine! We stopped at McDonald's to get a mcmuffin and a couple coffees and we were on our way. We hit a huge storm on our drive over. It was really cool! At one point it was raining so hard that everyone pulled off the road because you couldn't see in front of you at all! We were on a windy road between Salem and Tillamook that we'd never been on, so it wasn't worth it to even attempt to stay on the road when everyone else had pulled off! It was exciting.



We toured the Tillamook Cheese factory, which is always fun! We sampled the cheeses at the end and in the process discovered a new cheese that we loved. It's vintage aged sharp white cheddar. It is so good! We bought a block and brought it with us!



The drive on 101 was so beautiful. We stopped at a couple viewpoints to look at the ocean.

We were in Cannon Beach in no time! We were hungry and we saw a sign for Mo's so we stopped there to eat. I've always wanted to see the big famous rock in Cannon Beach, but I had no idea which beach it was on. I figured we'd look on our way back the next day, but when we pulled up to Mo's....there is was! Right on the beach Mo's was on!! It was so stormy that we couldn't walk over to it, because the storm had brought the tide all the way up to the parking lot! There was no beach to walk on!

We got seated right away, and at a window seat. We ordered our lunch and were just talking when we noticed that the tide was coming right up to the restaurant.

We figured it was normal, until we looked around and noticed the waitresses looked a little panicked. We asked ours if this was normal, and she said no. They were thinking about evacuating! We got another big wave while we were there....it knocked some big logs against the building causing it to shake. It was awesome! They "messed up" my order too and gave me a huge order or free fries. :) Everything was going our way!

We continued on our way to Seaside. It was only about 15 mins from Cannon Beach. We found our hotel, and we were about an hour early.

We went it just to let them know we were there, but they said we could check in. Our room was SO nice. Better than the pictures! It was so cozy!

They even had a balloon bouquet on the table in the bay window that said Happy Anniversary and had a card from them with taffy and home baked chocolate chip cookies!!

All because when Trav called to book the room, they asked what the trip was for and he said we were celebrating our anniversary! We felt so special. We loved the room. We turned on the fireplace and then went out to take a walk on the promenade while it was still light out. We took our umbrellas because the weather was a bit iffy.

Right when we left for our walk, it started sprinkling. Out came the umbrellas. It was pretty windy too, and Trav was having the hardest time controlling his umbrella. It was so funny! It kept catching the wind and pulling one way or the other! He was holding a coffee in his other hand but one hand just wasn't enough to control this umbrella!! The wind caught it good one time, and flipped it completely inside out.

I was dying laughing. We decided Trav's umbrella needed to find a garbage!! We huddled under mine for a few minutes,

but then they sun broke through the clouds and it was beautiful for the rest of our walk! The "prom" went probably a mile and a half each way, and we walked the whole thing! It was such a nice walk.



On the way back we walked a good portion of it on the beach. We also stopped along the popular shopping strip to check out a bunch of the little stores. We found a hat store that had every kind of hat you could imagine! We looked at the restaurants to get ideas for where we wanted to go for dinner and for lunch the next day. There were lots of nice places. There was a Mexican place called Taco Shark that actually had shark tacos. We knew we'd have to come there for lunch the next day!

We got back to our hotel right when it got dark....perfect timing!! We got into our robes (did I mention they were the most comfortable robes ever?) and turned on the Beavers vs Cal game! We got great news that Stanford beat the Ducks, putting an end to their winning streak! It was especially good news, because we beat Stanford. Woot woot! The Beavs vs Cal game was great! The Beavs won!! We opened a bottle of champagne to celebrate, and then we opened 2 more. :)


We sat in the most comfortable robes in the world, sipped our champagne, enjoyed the fire and the sound of the ocean out our window, and watched the Transformers movie we'd borrowed from the hotel. It truly was a perfect evening.

The next day we slept in and then got ready for the day! Starting with a great shower and great shower products! They has TempleSpa products, which I'd never heard of before, but fell in love with! The soap made me feel so soft! It made the shower so relaxing. We were sad to check out, but excited to spend another day at the beach! First stop: Taco Shark for lunch!! We got 2 shark taco's, and a salmon burrito and split them. The shark taco's were SO good. I wasn't sure if I would like them, but I really did! The salmon burrito was wonderful too, but the shark taco's were the best! After lunch we walked to the aquarium. We bought some food to feed the seals, which made the whole trip to the aquarium worth it. It was so much fun feeding the seals.

They were hilarious! One of them would splash anyone with food, another just sat in the back and hit his chest over and over making a clapping noise and just had this look like, "hit me dawg". A couple others would do flips and little tricks. I could have stayed all day and fed them. We read about them later and found out that they have NO training to do tricks, but they all have their own little things that they do. After feeding the seals, we walked through the aquarium. It was pretty small, but fun, and with Trav reading all the signs, we learned a lot!

When we were done at the aquarium, we headed to Cannon Beach to check out the art festival they were having. First we stopped at the beach with the famous Cannon Beach Rock. It wasn't stormy anymore, so we were actually able to walk out on the beach.

Then we walked through several little shops, and went through a couple art galleries. I always feel like I'm going to break something in art galleries! There was some beautiful artwork. After a couple hours, we decided to head home. We had one final stop to check out the Inn at Arch Cape.
We've looked at staying there a few times, but it is very expensive and they have a 2 night minimum and we usually only want to stay for one night. We were close to it though, and wanted to see it up close and personal. It looks really cool. We'll stay someday!

We had a great trip! We LOVE the hotel we stayed in, and will defiantly be staying there again!

Monday was our actual anniversary, and we had a little money left over from the trip, since we ended up staying in our cozy room Saturday night instead of going out to dinner! So, we decided to go out to dinner on Monday. When we got home from work, Trav surprised me with a really sweet note, and a gift!! I didn't expect it at all! He got me an OSU beanie. It's so cute and so soft and warm! I love it!

We had dinner at Carino's and finished the night cuddled up on the couch enjoying some hot chocolate with whipped cream on it. I can't believe it's already been 11 years. They have been 11 years full of fun, happiness, and lots of love.