By the time the fourth day rolled around, I was ready to start looking for a house. I seriously did NOT want to leave. How could you want to leave someplace with a view like this???
Plus,there is still so much more to see. We will definitely be visiting Oregon as often as possible. Eventually, I'll find the perfect small town out there to suit Ryan, me, Mom, Will, and all the dogs.....and then all of you will have a free place to stay.
We spent a lot of time Saturday just cruising around seeing the town and some of the mountains. We did some shopping. There's a trendy little area on Hawthorne Avenue that has a lot of cool shops and restaurants. They had a vintage music memorabelia store that I could have spent days in.
This mural was outside the vintage music store. I wish I would have taken more pictures while we were in that area. I was so distracted by everything that I kind of forgot.
I found a little info that I thought was interesting about the Hawthorne district in Portland:
per Wikipedia:
Hawthorne Boulevard was named after Dr. J.C. Hawthorne, the cofounder of Oregon's first mental hospital. The road was originally named Asylum Avenue. In 1883 the Oregon State Hospital moved to its present location in Salem. The street was renamed in honor of Dr. Hawthorne. The change from the "distasteful" name was at the behest of the local residents.
Everywhere we went you could see Mount Hood. It is the largest mountain in the Cascade Range. We never actually went to visit the mountain. We really didn't have time, but like I said, we'll be going back.
I made Jeff stop on the side of the road so I could get some pictures of the mountain. We did get a few others from a different spot that turned out pretty good.
Yes, I was standing on the interstate, facing traffic taking pictures.....damn tourists!!!!
Blackberries grow like crazy everywhere out there, so we all picked a few while we were on the side of the road. Most of them weren't completely ripe, but they were delicious!!! We had blackberry slushies with a twist later that night!!!!!
Another thing that was kind of interesting was these water fountains on the sides of the roads. You would see them at the bottoms of the mountains, and you can stop and fill jugs of water with fresh glacier water. We saw people with several jugs filling them all over the place. The water was freezing and tasted so pure...it was awesome!!!!
This was just another beautiful highway we drove down. It had the best views of Mount Hood that we saw all week. I could be perfectly happy just driving all day in Oregon.
This is Jeff and Karen's house. I think it's funny they live in the burbs...that's so not like them. But, they have a beautiful home!!!!
The nieghborhood they live in is gorgeous. You can see Mount Hood from the back yard and part of Mount St Helen's on the clear days. We were all out walking the neighborhood checking things out when I took this picture of Ryan and Karen. Then we went and picked more blackberries.......YUMMY!!!!!
There will be one more entry for day four of Portland. I just couldn't fit it all in one......so next up is the Japanese Garden and Rose garden....and then our trip home.
.................I'll be back soon!!!!
We got up early on the day we were leaving just so we could go to Voodoo doughnut. it's a rock and roll doughnut shop that's open 24/7 and they play hard rock really loud inside. It's pretty cool. Ryan had a doughnut that was made of pancake batter with bacon and syrup...........I went the traditional chocolate and peanuts.
There was a black cat hanging out on a window sill right above Voodoo doughnuts. Pretty cool, huh?
Got some pretty good views from the plane. This is the Columbia River.
I got lots of pictures of Mount Hood.
We also went to a rose garden before we left.
These next few pictures were taken in the Japanese Garden we went to.
I climbed underneath this tree to get this shot. The moss is so pretty.
This was taken from a rest stop in the Japanese Garden looking out over Portland.
Rock Garden.
Super cool.
My baby rocks!!!
That was probably my favorite part of the trip.
We took a scenic route called Sunset Highway on the way to the coast. We drove through a few tunnels as we crossed through the Cascade Mountains, but the majority of the ride was all mountains. We saw a few small waterfalls on the drive there, and lots of beautiful flowers and trees. Everything is in full bloom right now.
We took the dogs, Django and Mia, with us. They had never been to the beach before, so it was an exciting day for all of us!!
The water was warm up to about your calves. Then it got pretty cold. We did see a few people venturing out, but not us!!! In the shallow water though, it felt like bath water. Ryan and I sat in the water and laid in the sun for awhile. The sand was like powder...it almost felt like it was melting underneath you.
We took some blankets and snacks so we could relax on the beach for awhile. Even the dogs were worn out by this time. So, we all just laid out in the sun for awhile. It was really warm when you were laying on the sand. Even the wind from the water didn't cool you down too much. So as far as laying out goes, this was the perfect spot!!!
This is my little Boognish. He's from the band WEEN. I had to make him for Clint since he is such a huge WEEN fan. I couldn't help but think of Clint while we were out there because the only other time I've ever been to the Pacific Ocean was when I went to California with Clint a few years ago......so of course I was thinking of him, and I wanted to let him know somehow. So we printed this picture out and sent it to him as a post card.
Here's a good picture of the gang. This is Karen, Jeff, Mia, and Django. Don't they make a beautiful family!!!!
This picture is facing North on the coast. It shows a few rock formations in the distance. I guess the Oregon coast is full of those areas with cliffs and rocks and stuff. There was also a lighthouse way off in the distance that Ryan got some decent pictures of with his 35mm.
Standing in the water looking back at the shore was astounding. It is truly unbelieveable to have the ocean right behind you and mountains right in front of you. It has got to be the most beautiful part of the country I have ever seen.
After spending several hours out by the water, we headed into the town of Cannon Beach for some dinner. Ryan and I were hoping to get some fresh seafood since we were right on the coast. We found the perfect little restaurant for that. They also served great desserts including home made ice cream....Yummy!!!!
There was a little shopping area called Sandpiper Square where we bought some gifts for a few people....and for the dogs. We bought the weiners one of those bun costumes that makes them look like a hotdog with mustard on their back.....too cute!!!!!
We all found a perfect spot on the balcony where we were all able to see....and the bar was right behind us. Jeff and Karen introduced us to some of their friends who also came to the show. We had a lot of fun with everyone.
This is one of my favorite pictures of all of us. We were having a blast!!!!
And last but not least, a photo of me and K-Rock, as we call her, right before the end of the show.
It was really cool to see the whole process of actually making glass. Karen is kind of the mad scientist, if you will, behind the recipes for certain types of glass. She mixes all the chemicals to make certain colors and certain types of glass. They manufacture glass for big companies that make furniture, windows, mirrors....the normal types of things you think of when you think of glass. What I thought was really cool though, was all the glass they custom make for artists all around the world. They make huge sheets of glass that is used for stained glass pieces. The glass is all tested after it cools completely, and any sheets of glass with any weak spots is set aside for other types of art. 
I can't take credit for this picture, but it looks just like the work they were doing in Karen's factory. After 16 hours of melting at about 2500 degrees, the glass is ladled out of the tanks by hand. It is then spread out on a conveyor belt that runs the galss through rollers to flatten it and even it out. It looks like the picture below as it rolls through.
This is a small area where they had several of the glass sheets stored for future sales. 
I thought this piece was really cool. I have no idea what kind of process the glass has to go through to make it look like pewter, but this Batman statue is in fact made from glass.
Even the little sprout looking things on the side are made from glass. Each one was just a tiny little sliver.
I thought these dishes were beautiful. The colors reminded me of something Andrea would like. 
