| oregon & washington |

i am happily typing this from the comfort of my amzingly-comfy-too-many-blankets-and-pillows bed. i spent the past four days driving 2,000 miles from sacramento, california to tacoma, washington and then back again. it's the longest amount of time i've ever driven but it was probably some of the best days i've had. 

we started our adventure on sunday at 7am. we both couldn't sleep the night before so we were texting until 4am talking about our trip and how excited me were. i finally dozed off shortly after 4am and woke up when my alarm went off at 6am. two hours of sleep under my belt and a 12 hour drive ahead i drove to austin's to pick him up. we made a few pit stops to grab breakfast and some groceries and then we were on our way. 

my yay we are driving face

we kept ourselves busy (and sane) by dancing to backstreet boys, playing the alphabet sign game, cracking ourselves up to mad libs, and eating a disgusting amount of hot cheetos. the road was lined with gorgeous, shadow casting green trees and austin let me listen to my "sleepy time" music. i cranked up penny & sparrow, rookie of the year, and florence and the machine as we curved our way through the mountains.

i mean, come on, who wouldn't fall in love?

 the plan was originally to drive to astoria, oregon so we could go see the film locations of the movie the goonies but 30 minutes shy of our destination we passed through a little town called seaside. i was fading quickly from exhaustion and after a solid 12.5 hours of driving, that last 30 minutes sounded like a death sentence. we passed a cute hotel that we both took a double take at and decided to turn around just to see how much it cost. austin ran in and came out looking sad. he told me the rooms were running $250 a night which was definitely not in our budget. my heart sunk. i went to turn on my ignition again when he started laughing and told me it was only $70 a night which was cheaper than our hotel in astoria and much nicer. not to mention i didn't have to drive anymore! we unloaded our things, checked in, and made plans to go down the street to grab something to eat and drink. 

i didn't take this picture but seriously, how inviting does that look?

as we were passing a safeway i saw an arrow pointing to the downtown area. with my cutest smile i asked if he was okay with driving by to see it. he agreed and we made our way the less than half mile towards downtown seaside. this part ended up being almost one of my favorite parts of the whole trip. downtown was ADORABLE. there was an arcade with lights and sounds pouring out onto the street. restaurants with names like bagels by the sea, pig 'n pancakes, and the crabby oyster were lit up by streetlights shaped like sea stars. we were both blown away. we wrapped ourselves in sweatshirts and walked to the beach entrance. on the beach were little lights from camp fires and swing sets scattered on the sand. i have never seen a place i fell in love with so fast. i couldn't stop giggling. maybe i was going crazy from the drive but i was so unbelievably happy and at peace. we walked around the resorts, snuck into a game room in a time share, and finally decided to head back to our hotel. 

this picture was taken at 10pm and the sky was still that gorgeous blue. those lights are from the bonfires. even looking now my heart is swooning. 

  we both took turns taking long hot showers and washing the drive off of our skin. after watching a few episodes of family guy we both passed out. i woke up refreshed and spent the morning getting ready in the overcast light pouring in from the bay window seat in our room. we loaded my car with our things but not before eating some belgian waffles and orange juice from the breakfast bar at our hotel. i was sad to be leaving but we had more things to do. we spent an hour walking around downtown seaside during the day, stopping in a old time candy store to get some jawbreakers, walking around the carousel mall, and taking pictures by the beach. 

apparently the end of the lewis and clark trail

he was trying to pose like the statue 

my attempt at a panorama picture. check out that swing seat and foggy, overcast sky. my favorite :)

carousel mall is named rightly so. check out those cool kids in the top mirror. 

cheesy smiles 

once we were done with seaside we said our goodbyes and hopped on the freeway again. we made our way to cannon, beach to see haystack rock. it's a huge rock that is 235 feet tall and can only be reached during low tide. it was seen a few times in the movie goonies and it is absolutely amazing to stand next to. we hiked our way across the beach and walked with our toes in the water along the shorelines. once we made it to the base we looked around in the tide pools, took some pictures, and stood for a long time amazed. 

we were about a half mile away at this point. you can't even see the people standing at it's base

this thing was huge!

little cave inside

these are called the "needles" which are right by haystack rock

i look pretty rough in this picture but it's the only one we have of both of us together

this is my oh-my-gosh-im-freezing-and-barefoot face. also, my i'm really happy face.

once we were done with our pictures we walked back to the car, grabbed our ice chest, and had a picnic on a little hidden spot i found on a sand dune. it was probably one of my other favorite times on the trip. 

you can't beat that view

austin is obsessed with a game called hearthstone and we saw this sign in cannon beach and had to stop. the lettering almost looks identical to the game. he was so happy!

after we finished lunch we hopped back in the car and finally made it to astoria. not that astoria isn't nice by any means, but i am so happy that we had decided to stay in seaside. if we had originally drove all the way up to astoria we would have missed out on so much.we navigated through the windy hills and eventually found the house where the mikey and brandon from the movie the goonies lived. a sign at the base of the long driveway was way too cute to not take a picture of. 

so cute!

where the truffle-shuffle took place

the goondocks 

once our goonie loving selves were happy we got in the car once again and made the drive to tacoma, washington to austin's families house where we were staying the night. we ate a delicious dinner and decided to take a walk to the water since it was literally feet away. we watched the sunset for a long while and i fell in love with the coast once again. 

seriously?

i never wanted to leave

we stayed the night is his second cousins beautiful house and after handling some business in the morning we drove around tacoma so i could show him where i use to live when i had my internship in tacoma in 2010. after much consideration we decided to start heading back home instead of killing time to meet up with some of his friends much later in the evening. after a few bumps in the road (missing our exit twice and a grumpy kate) we found ourselves back in seaside, oregon. we went back to our old hotel and ended up getting upgraded to a suite for the same price we paid for our first, very small, room. austin took a nap while i went shopping through the little stores downtown and we ended the night swinging on the beach swings, ordering a pizza, and watching a fresh prince of bel air marathon. 

last night of our trip

we slept in for the first time yesterday morning and while i got ready and packed, austin ran downstairs and got us breakfast. we checked out as late as we could and with a final deep breath, i said goodbye to seaside. unfortunately, not even 20 minutes on the road i got pulled over for speeding. the cop wasn't very nice which made me mad but the ticket isn't horribly expensive so i will survive. we spent the next 13 hours singing, listening to weird al songs, stopping by the university of oregon, and playing games. the drive home always seems to go by faster which is good. i finally dropped him off at his house at 1am this morning and came home and crashed. it felt so good to be back in my own bed but typing this now makes me miss the coast. it was such a long yet fast trip, only four days, but i am so thankful i went. i got a lot closer to my friend and have some awesome memories and pretty pictures. i'm not sure when i'm going to want to road trip again haha but now i know i can successfully cross two statelines and survive 2,000 miles. 

i miss oregon so much and i hope one day soon i can go back. and maybe, just maybe, live there some day. the foggy coast, cold air, and lush green trees absolutely stole my heart.