A Trip to the West Coast

Ahh vacation! It was long overdue! Isaac and I took two weeks off to venture out to the west coast.

We drove to Boise and stayed there the first night. The downtown area was surprisingly quiet and pleasant. And we found a nice restaurant and distillery called Bardenay, where we enjoyed dinner and a beer after 12 hours of driving. It had a great atmosphere and space and good food.The beer that we had was nice--an oatmeal stout of some sort. Then we walked around the downtown area and the capitol building. It made for a very pleasant evening.

The next morning, we went off to Seattle. Our main goals here were to: 1) have good coffee and 2) meet a buddy from my Masters program, Andy. The day we got there, we had dinner near the bay with Andy and walked around. We saw some jellyfish and local art. It was nice and laid back. However, we didn't think much of the Washington drivers...

The next morning we left to head to Olympic National Park. But we stopped for coffee, first.

Isaac did some research and we ended up going to Cafe Vivace in Seattle. The coffee was delicious! And pretty:

Truly wonderful coffee!

We made it to Olympic National Park and went for a shorter hike (because my ankles are still giving me problems). Here are some pictures because it is beautiful:

Very tall trees.

Gotta love temperate rainforests!

The water here was SOOO clear!

At the park we stayed at a lodge (Kalaloch Lodge) right near the beach so we spent the rest of the afternoon and evening there:

Sea gulls everywhere

The lodges in the distance.

 

Sunset!

The next morning we went up to Ruby Beach to see the tide pools:

Gorgeous!

Starfish were everywhere

Hermit crab

And then we began our drive to Eugene, Oregon! We had to stop in Portland briefly (no time to go to Powell's bookstore, sadly) to grab lunch and more delicious coffee at one of my favorites: Stumptown Coffee Roasters:

Love latte art

And we made it to Eugene in time for a little family dinner! It was great to see everyone again! 

I will write about my Eugene adventures in the next post or two.