Keepin' it real in Longbeach

Sean, Eddie and I took a little trip to Longbeach a couple weekends ago to celebrate our "three-year anniversary."
Sean and I take many trips together, but they usually include camping in a tent, sleeping in a car, or multiple days of driving (i.e. very little time for straight chillin'.)
The only other time we stayed in a hotel for over 12 hours was "Adventures in Lars' Vegas Wedding" two summers ago... but I feel like Vegas doesn't even count because "chillin'" in V-town consists of desperately fending off impending hangovers, lots of walking in the blazing hot sun, and little-to-no relaxation time, (unless laying by the pool surrounded by a million strangers with blasting dub-step counts...?)

AND we almost never get to bring Eddie with us (even when we're camping) because Eddie is an odd-ball and has dicey relationships with other dogs...  

THE POINT BEING, this trip was quite different than any other weekend getaway for us.

We booked an ocean-view condo, where we stayed - IN A BED - for three nights. There was a full kitchen. A fireplace. A deck. And a large, jetted tub. And Eddie got to come! It was perfection.

I realize that to most of the world, this probably doesn't sound like the most exciting vacation of all time (Longbeach in the middle of January is slightly ghost-townish) but for us it was precisely what we wanted.

We relaxed, cooked food, ate food, explored the sites, walked on the beach, read books, took naps, watched TV, and just simply enjoyed each others company without another care in the world.

And here are some pictures from our fairly scenic trip:

This is the view from the bathtub of our pimpin' condo. (I took a bath every day we were there.)

Sean and Eddie at the beach. Because of the aforementioned "dicey behavior" we kept Eddie in a muzzle when other off-leash dogs were roaming the beach nearby.

Crazy dogs need love too! I like to think of Eddie as the fun-loving, furry version of Hannibal Lector.

smooches, pooches!

Eddie very happily enjoying muzzle-free time.

Grey Whale Skeleton!

Buffy and I at Leadbetter State Park

Hazy afternoon at the Ilwaco Lighthouse

Eddie and  I at the Lighthouse. Zoom in to view Ed's hilarious facial expression.

Sean taking a pinhole shot.

More views from Ilwaco.

Ilwaco Lighthouse

Sunset view from our condo.

And, of course, some LOVE! (anniversary post has to have at least a bit of sap, right?)

THE END!

Thanksgiving!

Here's a quick and dirty post about my super awesome, luxuriously long, Thanksgiving weekend.

It started with a verrry verrry long drive- about 2 hours longer than usual because of damn holiday traffic.
But surprisingly, Sean and I didn't kill eachother on the trek to his family's cabin spot on Devils Lake (near Lincoln City, Ore.)
We actually had fun!
But I didn't take any pictures of that.
We got to the cabin late - about 11:30 p.m. the night before Tofurkey Day.

But, this is what we got to wake up to:

 Let me just say Sean's mom knows how to party ;) 

Here are the guys of the cabin, having a pre-dinner toast. From left to right - Sean's stepdad Jerry, Uncle Mark a.k.a. 'the lowrider,' cousin-in-law Jason, and Sean. 


Here's the rest of the gang, excluding Aunt Donna (taking picture) and little brother Avery (napping.)
The girls are cousin Emma (center), me, and Sean's mom Christine (the one who knows how to partay!)



The food was amazing! I got to make my very first Tofurkey Roast, and whipped up my signature gravy (which everyone loved, as always. Not trying to brag, just saying).

Sean made some tasty yam and apple dish, as well as a hippie-infused focaccia bread (I naively bought the "healthy" unbleached whole wheat flour over our usual all-purpose flour for this recipe not realizing it would drastically change the usual fluffy texture Sean takes so much pride in. But it was still pretty good.)

I will say I am a proud member of the completely clean plate club, which I actually photographed, but later decided not to post because I think you all know what a clean plate looks like.

 Sean's cousin Emma and her husband Jason. It was so fun getting to know these guys over the weekend! We had a blast. 

Buffy and I in our matching red hoodies...  at the ocean, btw.

     More shots of the ocean at the very nearby Road's End state park. Our cabin was actually on the  lake, but we were so close to the Pacific you could actually hear the ocean from the deck!

  Sean, Christine and Avery.

After spending the morning at the ocean and briefly touring Lincoln City, Sean and I headed back home, where we were greeted with yet another Thanksgiving!
Since my mom always works Thursdays (aka always works Thanksgiving) and my sister was unhappy with her leftover ratio, she suggested we have another dinner Sunday night in honor of Thanksgiving as well as my upcoming birthday! (Which means I got to invite friends!!!)

I didn't take as many pictures this time around, but we had another amazing meal (where everyone loved the vegan stuff, yet again), and a super fun time laughing with literally (most of) my favorite people in the world.

My sister Rachel and her husband Chris, the fucking cook.
(Not sure if he actually cooked anything but whatevs).

Three of my best girls: Kat, Court and Tay. 

Also in attendance, but not pictured, Janis, Jim, Justin, Julian, Grace and Camden. 

Yipeee! 

Wild West roadtrip recap!

Out on the wide open road!

(fig. 1)

This is my friend Courtnay and I about halfway through Montana... and about halfway through our "Wild West" road trip.

Court, a traveling nurse who decided to leave the East Cost via car to head back to the Pacific Northwest for a month (before taking up her next assignment in, oh, i don't know, wherever the hell she wants...) was looking for a little company on her excursion, so naturally, I hopped on the first plane to Sioux Falls South Dakota to meet her half way.

Before you say "Sioux Falls?!? Why would you ever fly there?!!??" (Just like a handful of people during my layover in Minneapolis horrifyingly asked) it was simply a natural stopping point for me to meet up with Courtnay, and we were there only long enough to get gas and a crappy tasting 20 oz black coffee.

After that, we starting flying through the vast countryside of South Dakota, stopping for scenic photo ops at such geographical wonders as a) the Badlands and b) Mount Rushmore.

A) the Badlands

Jagged striped rockage as far as the eye can see! (Which is far in South Dakota.)

Token "cute flower" shot. Made all the rattlers seem much less scary.

Love the sharp cuts through the crisp blue sky (quick disclaimer- all these shots are naked.)

 

Rainbow rocks!

 

Court and I loved these rocks so much we had to stick our heads out the sunroof and take a picture to capture our true excitement! (Really not being sarcastic here...)

Seriously, we were stoked about our drive through these immensely beautiful rock formations.
Not into beautiful rock formations? Then don't go to South Dakota.

B) Mount Rushmore

Another beautiful, though not entirely natural, rock formation.

Those are four of our "founding" fathers: Washington, Jefferson (?), Roosevelt (Google which one if you need to) and Lincoln.

In all honestly, it was a little underwhelming. We stayed there all of 15 minutes before making a pit stop at Crazy Horse monument (I'll return in 50 years when there's more than a forehead and nose sticking out of the side of  huge-assed rock) and hurrying to what we had hoped would be the "cracking" city of Sturgis.

For those of you who don't know, Sturgis is a destination biker-city that hosts thousands of leather-clad Harley enthusiasts every year for one of the biggest HOG events in North America.

Sounds pretty cool right?

That's what we thought, and why we chose to stay there instead of our other option of Rapid City.

We got into town about 9:30 p.m. and had to race to even get a bite to eat before everything shut down.

Moral of the story?

Sturgis is a snoozer any time the rally isn't going on.

NEXT.

Deadwood.

We didn't realize that this historic gem of a gambling oasis was just a stone's throw away from our Super 8 lodge in Sturgis when we arrived (otherwise, we definitely would have stayed here.) But we made a pit stop in the morning to tour the few blocks of the city which feels like it hasn't changed a bit since the good old cowboy heyday of the Western expansion - other than the hum of hundreds of electrically powered slot machines.

We had drinks, played a few rounds on the Buffalo machine, got some coffee, and hit the road once again. 

 (fig. 2)

After leaving South Dakota, we began to weave in and out of Montana and Wyoming before taking a jaunt into Yellowstone.

Both countrysides were scenic and serene. There's not much there in the way of civilization, but the untouched landscapes of these states are (for lack of a better word) awe-inspiring.

At one point during the drive, we decided to take advantage of the nothingness of our surroundings and set up some self-timer pix along the expanse of long open road (see fig. 1 and 2 above, as well as the one of us rioght hurr in front of the green fence.)

After hours of driving, we finally made it into the gates of Yellowstone, via the freaking terrifying mountain pass called "Beartooth Loop."

Don't get me wrong, the drive was absolutely gorgeous, but there's just something damn unsettling about getting higher and higher onto a mountain along a very narrow and very windy ridge with little more than a foot-tall "guardrail,"  with a driver who is sweating profusely through her extremely vocal anxiety attack.

Me (who kept offering to drive but was secretly SO GLAD she never took me up on my offer) tried to remain calm, and take her mind off her fear by asking her things like "So... what's your favorite food?"

Her response "Um.. well... I don't know. I like a lot of things.'
Me: "Well what's you're favorite? Just pick one... humor me."

Her (suddenly sounding much more tense): "OK.. like pick one? Like my favorite food I would eat for my last meal? LIKE IF I WERE GOING TO DIE?!"

....

 

Needless to say, that portion of the drive wasn't exactly relaxing. And our suffering  probably lasted much longer than the average visitors' because we stayed a steady 25 mph on the 70 mph winding road.

But, like I said before, it was a beautiful site to see and it led us directly into what I had been hoping to see the entire trip:

An ass load of wild bison!

As you can see, this portion of our trip took the stress level down immensely.

(NOT!)

Before we got to Yellowstone, I was starting to get nervous that we wouldn't be driving through the "right part" of the park to "really get to see" the wildlife, particularly the bison.

Apparently, I was wrong! 

These big hairy beings literally take over portions of roads in the park-  blocking traffic, rolling in brush, kicking up dirt, grunting, staring menacingly into your car...

you know, all the normal stuff you would expect from thousand pound wild  animals with a tendency to gore unsupervised travelers.



So... I'm going to pull the "gorgeous" card again.
And the "we made it out alive" card, is always a plus, too.

We wearily made it into Bozeman that night, about four hours past schedule due to all the unforeseen, slowing-down circumstances, and slept hard.
We woke the next morning and made our way to Coeur D'Alane, Idaho early enough to finally enjoy some fun in the sun!

YE-HAW!

 Us on the beach with our matching hats (in case you didn't notice them earlier.)

 View of the lake from our lovely room, thanks to the sweetest lady ever - Doris "Grams" Weaver, who certainly helped show us girls a good time.
Thanks, Doris!


And that pretty much wraps up our Wild West roadtrip - 
now mosey on, lil' doggies!