The rain hasn't started in this neck of the woods. But some friends did come visit me! Mary Ellen, Jessica and Allie all came for a long weekend of fun and adventures. As Jessica always says, "When is doing stuff with you not an adventure, Hunter?" It was really good to see familiar faces again, but I was especially happy to see Mary Ellen again. The last time I was with her was when Jessica and I went to Africa.
This picture was taken on the same day that we went snorkeling off the coast of Africa, had a picnic on the beach and went swimming with whale sharks. I made memories on this day that I will no doubt tell my grandkids about in 50 years.
So, needless to say, it was so much fun to create new memories and have new adventures in my new city. We packed a whole lot into a three day stretch. We started out by going camping. Now, understand that while I have been here for a few months, I'm still no expert about what to do and where to go, so a lot of what we did was very much shooting from the hip. I had asked all three of them if they wanted to do anything in particular so that I could plan accordingly. Mary Ellen wanted to camp and see the coast, Jessica wanted to go to the Tillamook factory and watch the Bama game, Allie wanted to see trees and stars. So with all of that in mind, I asked around for good places to camp. I got a lot of feedback about national parks and places on the coast, but my landlord gave me the most off the wall recommendation. She said that there is an abandoned state park that is on the Columbia River about two hours from here. She dropped a pin on my phone and said that you could see the stars better there than just about anywhere in the world. I trusted her on it and told the girls that I had a plan - to pick me up from work and to bring the camping gear with them. I didn't spend much time thinking about it, but if I had, I would have realized that "two hours from here" and "on the Columbia" mixed with "seeing the stars" meant that we were going over the mountains and into the desert portion of the Oregon/Washington coast. So, imagine my surprise when we show up to this so called "camp ground" that is not green, has lots of rocks, and is just kind of ... not a camp ground. In my heart, I had a really bad attitude about it, but having my friends there made it better and it turned out to be really fun.
Obviously, the self stick was taken out of retirement. It is truly one of the best $10 I've ever spent.
Allie really appreciated that she could take pictures easily from all different angles.
Allie also really wanted to take a picture with the shrubbery. I just need everyone to take a few moments to look at each individuals face in this picture. I was dying because Jessica's hair was being eaten by the shrub. Mary Ellen jumped in like a boss without knowing that it was prickly. Allie is just being Allie. This picture perfectly sums up the ridiculousness that was our camping trip.
Another fun part of our camping trip included us forgetting the little piece of metal that connected the fuel to the actual camping stove. That led to Allie and me going on a recon mission to find an alternative way to cook our dinner in a place that has a burn ban.... We found a place called the Mini Mart that had charcoal and lighter fluid and we ended up making a friend there and cooking our dinner on a grill. Our friend from the Mini Mart told us that she had coffee brewed at 7am every morning and invited us back the next day. So when we all woke up from a not great night of sleep (remember I said there were rocks everywhere ....) we packed up camp and went to get some breakfast. Come to find out, the people at the Mini Mart know how to make some mean hashbrowns and eggs. It was such a good gift to be able to share a really good meal in the middle of nowhere at the Mini Mart
After breakfast, we started our drive back with the intention of going to Multnomah Falls. It's a pretty well known waterfall that was on our way, so we figured it would be worth the time to go and check it out. Because it was a three day holiday weekend, so did fifty million other people.
Because it was so crowded, we didn't stay long. Instead we decided to go to another place that was pretty close by called Oneonta Gorge. It also had a good bit of people there, but unlike Multnomah Falls, it was worth sharing the space. It was a really cool hike that required you to walk on logs and decide if you were going to just walk through ice cold (literally, because it was snow run off) water or try and scale a wall. Then, at the back of the Gorge was this beautiful waterfall. I'll let the pictures below do most of the talking, but needless to say, it was worth the time and effort required to hike it.
For some reason, when we got to the end, Allie and I decided that we needed to jump all the way in.
It was a half mistake half best idea ever.
After we hiked the Gorge, we went home, showered, and went up north to watch the football game with some friends the Mancil's. They are a family that is up here for three months while Clint learns about the timber industry out here. They are renting this awesome house that is on a creek that currently has salmon running in it. I sadly didn't think to take any pictures while we were there, but it was awesome nonetheless.
On Sunday we went to church and really just had a laid back day where we caught up on life and relaxed.
Monday was our coast day. We woke up an went and got coffee at a really cool place in North Portland. We took our time drinking coffee and eating breakfast before heading to Canon Beach.
After breakfast we made a pitstop at the Tillamook Cheese factory.
It was such a great weekend full of fun and adventure. We made so many new memories and got to talk about and relive some old ones. I'm so incredibly blessed to have friends that are willing to fly across the country and take a bus from Canada to come spend time with me!
