Because life's too short not to have fun.

We're back from our (very late) honeymoon! Before we took off, Roy surprised me with a new toy...an iPod Touch! Neither of us have laptops anymore, so he thought it would be great for mapping out routes and checking our email while we were gone.

We decided on a random location, and drove seven hours to South Bend, WA before finding a little motel called SeaQuest and calling it a night. Unfortunately, the first day of our vacation and my body decides it's a great time to catch a cold. As a result, I spent most of the early morning watching the local news while Roy mapped out a few areas to go. We drove out to a little fishing village in Willapa Bay. Lots of interesting things I'd never seen before had washed up on the shore... I'm not familiar with ocean life, but I thought this pillowy bit of seaweed looked cool.

No clue what this is. But it's awesome.
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Afterwards, Roy and I drove up to Grayland Beach. On the way there, Roy pulled over because I've never seen the ocean in person before! I'm serious. I've seen bays and sounds as a child, but never the real, actual ocean. I immediately kicked off my shoes and ran in! Boy, was it cold!

The cliché footprints-in-the-sand shot.

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Yes. Yes, I do.
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Here's me, still dumbstruck at the beauty of it all.
Two seconds later a sneaker wave came in and my pants were soaked. Sneaky ocean!
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Afterwards, we drove off and showed up at Grayland beach. 

No clubbin' the baby seals!
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I spot a sand dollar... but Roy gets to it first!
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I found some broken sand dollars on the beach and Roy helped me find an unbroken ones (I wanted to make Christmas ornaments out of them for our family members). Roy is far quicker than I am; within minutes, he had quite the nice little collection going. The sea air was fantastic; within hours, my sore throat was completely gone.

Roy looks quite happy with his find.
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An eagle we saw while driving on the beach before dark
(yes, they let you drive on the beach).
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We saw some guy with an axe and a shovel and figured he was burying someone he killed, but it turns out he was just scoping around for driftwood. Eh. I was able to get some shots of an eagle. It rained every day, so there were rainbows everywhere. We went back to South Bend through Raymond and spent another night at the hotel. Roy bought me some tea, so I began to feel much better.

The next morning, we took off for Astoria, Oregon. I had never been in Oregon, so it was a bit odd when we pulled in to buy gas and we weren't allowed to pump it ourselves. We went to the museum and then to the Rogue Public House on the pier to grab a bite to eat. The hummus and pita bread platter I got was absolutely delicious. We heard seals barking in the ocean, but we didn't see them. Roy surprised me with a pirate magnet he had bought me and a necklace made of brown leather and an assortment of blue rocks, squashed blue pearls, and beads before we left.

We were exhausted by the time we reached Kennewick, and it was going to be another four hours to get home, so I begged Roy to stop at a hotel. All the hotels and motels were booked up for a soccer event, and there was only one hotel in the city with a room left... with a whirlpool. And fairly decently priced, too! So we stayed the night. Roy thanked me later, as he hadn't realized how tired he actually was... and the whirlpool was awesome! The next morning, I drove the rest of the way home. Surprisingly enough, it felt really good to be home. We were ravenous, so we stopped at Super China and then rushed home to see our kitties. Evie and Ringo meowed nonstop and wouldn't stop circling our feet and purring.

All in all, it was a great trip!