September 22, 2013 Eric and I celebrated our seventh anniversary.
Time for the seventh inning stretch, or the seven year itch, or something of the sort, right?
Well it just so happened that the second to last wedding, the final getaway wedding, we had over the summer was Eric's cousin Cody's wedding in Portland and it was the day before our anniversary.
We decided to take a week off of work and head up to Portland. We drove up on Wednesday morning and stayed in Portland Thursday and Friday with the kiddos, going to the park, feeding ducks, and relaxing at Grammy and Papa Dentist's house.
Everything in Portland is infinitely more beautiful than everything in Idaho. You can be in the all out ghetto of downtown Portland and it is still beautiful because of the trees and water. This park that we fed ducks at was beyond beautiful, we were there for at least three hours just walking around, eating a picnic, and feeding ducks.
Denny and Kelly also live right next to a HUGE grade school and super middle school that have a great playground and backs up right next to a nature reserve with gorgeous walking paths so we spent plenty of time at the school walking around too.
Saturday morning Eric and I got up, packed, and drove out to the Portland Temple to his cousin Cody's wedding. Once again, camera-less. Sad really because it was a beautiful day and I had never been to the Portland temple before - the grounds are breathtaking.
After the wedding we loaded up in our car and made the two hour drive to the coast to stay at the Salishan Golf Resort just outside of Lincoln City. On the way out we stopped and got sushi. This is kind of our little tradition - we load up on sushi whenever we can.
My last trip to the coast was right before Paxton was born in 2011, the trip when I found out my dad had been in a bad accident back in Idaho and was bleeding internally, so it wasn't the best trip and my mind was justifiably preoccupied so I didn't really get to appreciate my surroundings.This time was different. There was nothing weighing on my mind (with the exception of homework), no kids, who although I love them to pieces, require so much energy, attention and advanced planning. It was just Eric and I from Saturday through Tuesday. We had been watching the weather report for a few weeks before and in true Oregon Coast fashion it was supposed to rain all weekend and there was actually a "severe weather advisory" in affect for the surrounding area.
Saturday when we got into town though it was gorgeous so we took advantage of the time to walk around the Salishan shops and even picked up a puzzle to do since we believed we'd be stuck in our beautiful suite the whole time. We knew we had an "ocean view" but that doesn't even do the view from our balcony justice, it was beautiful and we got to watch the tide come in and out every day.
Later Saturday night I asked Eric to go for a run on the beach with me. Our room was right next to a path that walked you right onto the beach. It was the most beautiful setting for an evening run I ever could think of.
We woke up Sunday morning and did the same thing. Morning run along the beach. Only this time we saw Santa Claus.
It's sad that I already don't really remember the course of events for our trip. I do know that Sunday we ran on the beach, took our time getting up and ready for the day, went to Tillamook and then came back and got cleaned up for put put golf right before our anniversary dinner reservations. You know that weather advisory we had? Never an issue for us! I'm not going to say it didn't rain, but it never rained when we wanted to be outside. I'd like to think Mother Nature was being good to us but I'm sure it was just good luck. The only time it was pouring rain when we would have been okay with it not was when we had to run from he parking lot into the Tillmook factory, and you know what, we had umbrellas so it was okay. And rain makes it green!
We had our anniversary dinner at the super nice restaurant inside of Salishan. It was beautiful. And one of those dinners that no matter how good it is you only can do it on special occasions because it costs that much! The only picture we took was of our appetizer shrimp cocktail for some reason but I do remember that I had chicken crab oscar and Eric had halibut and it was probably the best thing I have ever eaten.
Monday morning we got up and went on a quest to find WHOLE crab. It's insane to me that being right on the coast it was so hard to find crab. I mean there's crab in everything there. Crab cakes, crab sandwiches, crab salad, eggs benedict with crab on them (which I ate every morning and it was so delicious), but finding a whole crab or even just crab legs was the most ridiculously hard task ever.
We ended up driving thirty minutes to Newport Beach where we heard whispers of restaurants that fed you whole crab. I have never wanted to move to the coast so bad in my entire life. I cannot even explain it. What a perfect little coastal town. We parked on the pier and walked everywhere. Ended up in adorable little coast-side shops where we actually talked to a real-estate agent about moving, and walked along docks looking at sea lions and the gorgeous site of a harbor full of boats.
And yes we even ended up finding at the Fish Peddler's Market - whole crab and it was delicious!!!
That night we went back to Salishan, ate Pizza in The Attic Lounge and finished our puzzle. Tuesday morning we got up and made the drive home to Portland. It was a beautiful trip, all that I ever could have asked for plus some. It's important to me to spend time being husband and wife outside of the daily grind and everything we have to do. We came back stronger together and as better parents ready to tackle the world and whatever comes our way!
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