Northwest Ski Trip -- Day 3

We spent the final day of 2017 doing something we all love and enjoy -- skiing!  The day started just before 7:00 a.m. with breakfast (a banana and lots of milk), getting ready, and an approximately-two-hour drive to Stevens Pass Ski Area, nestled in Mt. Baker-Snoqualmie and Wenatchee National Forests.  We were on the slopes by 10:30, enjoying lots of fluffy snow.  There was over four feet of the lovely white stuff on rocks!  For the most part, we circuited blacks and double blacks, charging hard on seriously steep and bumpy terrain, which grants us an excellent workout and makes for better skiing abilities.  I love being able to enjoy runs like these -- and not just an occasional one, pretty much for an entire day.  Temperatures ranged from the upper teens to about 30 degrees, and we dealt with quite a bit of clouds/fog.  Fortunately, there wasn't any blowing wind or bitter cold, and there were quite a few clear sections.  We're grateful for what we had!

Lunch at Outer Limits Grill was a black bean veggie burger, homemade chips, chili (split with my dad), and hot cocoa.  Stevens Pass offers night skiing on part of their mountain, so we enjoyed skiing for a bit longer than we normally would, ending right as the last bit of daylight left the sky.  By 5:00 p.m., we were packed up and heading down out of the mountains.  We decided to detour to Bellevue, Washington, for dinner at the Mediterranean Kitchen.  A word of advice in case you ever happen to visit -- we could easily have ordered ONE entree and had more than enough for the three of us!  I have never seen such huge portions of food.  The meal started with fresh pita bread, a lemon-garlic dipping sauce, and green lentil soup, then I ordered a seafood couscous.  If you didn't know better, you'd think I took every bit of it home in a takeout box!  The plate was brimming with lots of seafood (shrimp, clams, calamari, scallops), vegetables (carrots, peppers, onions, olives, and zucchini), a homemade tomato basil sauce, and tender couscous.  Our final night before we check out will definitely be a dine-in-on-leftovers supper, and I'm thinking we should invite everyone else staying in our motel to join us!

It was a 30-minute drive back to our motel after the dinner experience, where I quickly pulled up a live video of the NYC New Year's Eve celebration -- the festivities were in full swing, and I enjoyed seeing the ball drop.  The best part?  It was only 9:00 p.m. our time, so I can get a full night of rest and still be happy that I "celebrated" the new year.  Happy 2018!

One of the clear moments at Stevens Pass 

The mystical fog; on the horizon you can just see the tips of mountains peeking out

~Anna

Northwest Ski Trip -- Day 2

After a full night's rest, we got up around 7:45, had breakfast (a biscuit, cranberry muffin, scrambled eggs, herbed potatoes, fresh fruit, almond milk, pomegranate-blueberry-acai water), and made some changes about our skiing destinations.  We had originally planned on skiing at Mt. Bachelor and Mt. Hood, but the predicted snow never reached them; in fact, rain came instead and caused ice and slush, which is not something we are interested in skiing on (especially for a vacation).  So we made some adjustments, got a plan in place, and headed for Fort Clatsop, where the Lewis & Clark expedition overwintered from 1805-1806.  There is a lovely museum, movie theater, and replica of the fort (built in 2006 after the first one burned), as well as several hiking trails.  We walked through the museum in less than an hour, caught a 30-minute show that gave a brief overview of the expedition, checked out the fort, and hiked 3.5 miles on parts of the Fort to Sea and Kwis Kwis Trails.  The lush greenery, towering evergreen trees, and fresh scent of recent rain awakened all my senses.  It is beyond words to be surrounded by nature, drinking in the beauty of God's creation with my family.  Lunch was at Dooger's Seafood & Grill, serving every kind of freshly-caught seafood you could imagine.  Feeling British, I tried the fish (cod) and chips, served alongside garlic toast, coleslaw, and outstanding clam chowder.  We also visited Sunset Beach in Warrenton, Oregon, which can be driven on due to the moist sand!  It was so funny to see cars zooming around right alongside families playing, dogs splashing in the water, and people walking and running.  The crashing waves, happy shouts and laughter, and squawks of seagulls brought me back to the time we visited a New Jersey beach just five short months ago (August).  Much has changed in my family since then, notably the death of my mom on October 17, but we are determined to stay close and continue traveling together.  After the beach, we drove to the Salt Works, where a few members of the Lewis & Clark party spent the winter tediously boiling down seawater to get salt.  As it is very close to the ocean, we walked out to it again; this time, we enjoyed watching dozens of people clamming (searching for clams)...and we also found plenty of broken shells and sea stars, and even a crab!  Finally, it was time to head for North Bend, Washington, where we are staying in the North Bend Motel.  Dinner was picked up from Frankie's Pizza -- a lemon pepper chicken pizza -- and we also dropped into a Safeway to grab a few things for breakfasts since our motel does not provide anything.  It is now time to shower and get in bed so we can have a fun day of skiing tomorrow!

Fort Clatsop

This seaweed was probably seven or eight feet long!

Matthew and me on Seaside Beach

Seaside Beach

Salt Works

~Anna

Northwest Ski Trip -- Day 1

This is a day late in being posted, but we had a full day of travel, so I wasn't really thinking about blogging last night!
Friday, December 29, 2017
Today started at the lovely time of 4:15 a.m. so we could get to the airport in plenty of time for our 7:30 flight.  Checking bags and going through security was no problem (save for my dad dropping his license into one of our carry-on bags right before he needed to show it to a TSA officer...fortunately he found it!).  Matthew and I got a little something from a Starbucks near our gate, then we waited for our flight to Dallas, which was right on time.  From Dallas, we flew to Portland, touching down right around 12:45.  We were unable to get a nonstop flight to Portland, but at least we will on the way back!  Our bags took quite awhile to come out, but after they all arrived and we got our rental car, we made our way to La Costa Mexican Ristorante for a late and welcome lunch.  A fajita salad, brimming with shrimp and vegetables, and a unique refried bean dip and salsa with chips set us for the drive to our Best Western in Astoria, Oregon, which we arrived at just after 5:30.  Coincidentally, we arrived with a storm bearing sideways, pelting rain and 50+ m.p.h. winds!  Needless to say, we unloaded the car faster than you could blink, got settled and relaxed, and headed out for dinner after the storm calmed down at T. Paul's Urban Cafe.  It was such an eclectic and funky place, offering up live hammered dulcimer music, unique artwork, delicious food, and attentive service.  The curried chicken-apple-walnut quesadilla with a side of fresh fruit was excellent, and we also all shared a four-berry cobbler topped with a scoop of French vanilla ice cream.  Bedtime followed at 10:00 p.m., much welcomed after hours of flying and driving and a two-hour time difference.