West Coast Tour

Back in April, Megan and I took a trip down the West Coast, starting in Seattle and finishing in San Francisco. We rented a car and drove down the coast. It was out last big vacation before the big "event" :) We enjoyed it immensely - it was just adventurous enough to see some amazing sights, but relaxing enough for those of us who needed to carry an extra person around every where we went (boy were my arms tired). Without further ado - the trip: We started out with a day in Seattle. While we didn't get any great pictures of them, the city is surrounded by mountains, with Mount Ranier towering over everything. It is an impressive sight. Here's a quick picture.

We stayed downtown, and spent the majority of our day around Pike's Place market. It may be a big tourist destination, but it was for good reason. There were tons of interesting things for sale - Megan
took lots of good pictures

They were throwing fish all over the place. Should have got a video.

We took some of the smoked salmon in that picture on the road with us. It was delicious. We also bought some salmon jerky. Not quite as tasty, but a good road food that would last a couple days without refrigeration. They had tons of fresh flowers for sale. Megan got some really good pictures of
the flowers

Probably the most impressive people we ran into were Thor and Jim Parsons.  Who knew they hung out together?  Thor was a little intense - Jim was a little more laid back.

Other Seattle highlights included the infamous gum wall.  Don't ask me why they have a famous gum wall - it was gross enough just witnessing it.

The next day we were on the road, and the real sights started to pop up.  The next few days were spent along the Oregon coast, which was amazing.

Below is a picture of Cape Disappointment, where Lewis and Clark ended their push West (since they couldn't go any farther West).  It is where the Columbia river enters the Pacific ocean.  When Lewis and Clark first arrived, they were rained on for nearly four months straight.  We had beautiful weather.  You can see a ship navigating its way into the mouth of the river.  While it looks wide open, there are many shallow areas where boats can get stuck - it actually takes quite a bit of skill to navigate the opening.

Here's a cove we found a little farther down the road.  Megan and I both agreed it was the most beautiful place we saw on the trip.  To get there, we had to hike about a mile and a half through thick Oregon rainforest, which then opened up into this beautiful beach, surrounded by the rocky shore. 

While it seems like Oregon wouldn't be the place for a rainforest, the coast gets so much rain that it is considered rain forest.  And when you walk through the woods, all you see is dense foliage and green everywhere.  Pictures below were of a hike to a waterfall.  The waterfall doesn't look as impressive as it did in person, as it actually was over 200 feet tall.  But the pictures do give you a good idea of how thick the forest was.

Once we hit Northern California, we ran into the giant redwoods.  They are beasts.  We also ran into some banana slugs, which Megan thought were pretty cute.

Lastly was San Francisco.  We were lucky enough to be able to stay with our good friend Alejandro and his girlfriend Ryane.  They were great hosts, and showed us all around San Francisco.  We had all the local specialties, which included some delicious coffee and ice cream.  We wrapped up the trip with a hike to the Golden Gate bridge.

It was a great vacation!



That's My Spot

Any of you watch The Big Bang Theory? If so, you'll know that Sheldon has his spot on the couch that no one else can sit in. Apparently Henry feels the same way. All I was trying to do was play a little Wii, and he decided he wanted his spot back. The end product came out like this:

Happy Mother's Day!

We really need an updated picture as this one is six weeks old, but the mom-to-be is on a plane to Florida right now, so this will have to do.

Old Man Birthday

Luckily this birthday party had some good pictures of young people so there was something to share. Megan made the delicious pie that you see Leah and I eating with relish.

Just to be clear - the wine glass is mine and the sippy cup is Leah's. Before dinner we were reading The Little Mermaid. I assured her there were no bad guys in the entire story.

Who do you think is the better looking guy? I'd go with the bald one, although the hair profiles will most likely reverse as the years go on.

December Trip to Costa Rica

As some of you know I took a little trip down to Costa Rica in December with my friend Jenny to attend a wedding for her family friends that live down there. The first part of the week we did some sightseeing on our own and the second half of the week it felt like we were graciously accepted as part of the family as they prepared for the festivities! It was a very fun and relaxing trip even while working through the goods & bads of the 8th week of pregnancy.

Here are are few photos of Costa Rica. If I was asked- I would go back in an instant!

Not pictured is our trip inside of the "Bat Jungle" where we learned alot about bats and saw them awake during the day. We learned that bats are pretty much extinct in the east coast and europe due to a white nose fungus that is transmitted from cave to cave. The disease is moving it's way across the country with 100% mortality rate in some caves. (See this link for more info)

Also not pictured is our trip to the local Monteverde cheese factory (my favorite cheese was the Monterico- sadly it isn't sold in the US :( )




I'll leave off with a video from the Hummingbird garden in the Monteverde cloud rainforest:

A Little Trip to Colorado

Labor Day weekend, Casey and I flew out to Colorado to go to a wedding. Below are a few highlights of the weekend. Enjoy!

At the Cabin

Megan, Henry and I spent a weekend at the cabin with my parents, Adam, Katie, Annie, aunt Julie, Uncle Jeff, and cousin Nick. It's actually Julie and Jeff's cabin, but they let us squat for the weekend, which was nice of them. Megan and I were also too lazy to drive three hours up to Leech Lake, so Adam flew us there in his family's Cessna! And yes, Henry joined us on the flight.



Megan and Adam sat up front and did the flying.



Adam had to look at the map right as we were picking up speed down the runway, so he asked politely if Megan would take over for a second. Megan didn't miss a beat, and pulled us into the air. The only thing she didn't realize was that if you turned the controls with your hands, the plane turned as well. So as soon as we took off, we started going in a circle. Adam proceeded to ask Megan why she was going in a circle, which since she didn't have a good excuse, put us on track for Walker, MN. Henry was a little scared when we took off, and spent some time on my lap.



Eventually he relaxed and took a seat next to me.



Here's the cabin. Julie and Jeff own five acres on Leech Lake. It's a great location.



The lake front is part bog for quite a few feet before the water starts, so a long dock is needed to dock the boats.



Henry and I walked out to the end when we got there, and Henry, being the curious pup that he is, thought he could walk off the end of the dock onto the nice green looking carpet and check things out. Little did he know that that nasty green carpet was actually the lake, and in two seconds I had a panicked dog splashing all over the place. With the help of my dad, we were able to pull him back onto the dock. He learned his lesson after that.



Good times were had by all. We did lots of swimming (at a sandy beach close by), rode the four wheeler down some wooded paths, ate good food and sat by the campfire at night. Annie was very busy the entire weekend. She LOVED coloring with Auntie Megan - here she is in action.



Annie also put me through some kind of yoga workout. I tried my best.

And finally, a little dog humor. Henry wasn't used to so many flies hanging around, and got really annoyed if one landed on him. When he wasn't swimming or running around, he was usually doing this.