You know how sometimes you have weekends that are just good for the soul? My weekend with my old roomies from college was just that. We met in the middle of Seattle and Portland in the tiny beach city of Long Beach, Washington (home of the world's longest beach - hence the name) which is just past Astoria, Oregon and it was lovely. We had good weather, good food, and great company. If you are in the Long Beach / Ilwaco area make sure you wander all the little shops, check out the longest beach front in the world, and have dinner at Depot Restaurant and Pelicano Restaurant.
And I am not talking about this kind of Couples Retreat:
Ok, so actually it wasn't a couples retreat at all. More just a group of friends that happened to head to the beach in pairs for the weekend. I promised I would have photos of our weekend at Cape Meares and here they are!
The small group included me and Bradley, my brother and his girlfriend Rachael, and our friends Tyler and Justine.
We stayed at Tyler's parents' beach house and it was wonderful. The house does not have wifi or cable, which I really enjoyed. Instead we got our Jenga on, read, played cards, and just had plain ol', good conversation. And laughing, there was a lot of laughing.
That has to be record height, no?!
We even shot a music video for the next up and coming Boy Band: Beach Boyz 4eva. Might have made that part up.
We got to enjoy experience pretty much every type of weather from fog, wind, rain, sun, and even hail throughout the weekend. So, basically, your typical Oregon day. We tried to sneak in walks when it was calm, but definitely got stuck in a downpour during one of our outings.
There were multiple logs along the bank that had random paintings on them like the one above.
This weather def made me realize Hunters are in my future.
A hint of sun after rain is always my favorite.
It was awesome to see what the community has done along the beach from building forts like this to community fire pits (where we tried to make one, but it was raining and it ended up being an epic fail, because all the logs were soaked, but that's neither here, nor there.).
The BB4Eva in all their glory.
It was a tad windy and cold, but we braved the beach anyway.
The house in the middle is the one we stayed at and and I loved it...but I am hoping the one next to it goes on the market soon so Bradley can buy it for me ;) I wish.
I am writing wrote this post while I sat at my friend's beach house just outside of Tillamook, sipping on a glass of wine in the window nook with an amazing view of the ocean and setting sun after a downpour ... It was quite..... perfect
I needed this weekend:
To Unwind To Recharge To Slow Down
There was:
No TV No Internet No Facebook No Instagram (ok, there might have been a tiny bit of insta, but it was taking forever to load - so I stopped)
Instead there was:
Great Conversation Card Playing The Happiness Project Good Music Good Food And many walks on the beach between the storms.
There were also lots of photos taken with a real camera, but that would have involved me uploading them last night and I just didn't have the energy. Forgive me, but I was still on beach time.
Friday, I needed you. Although I didn't need your alarm to come quite so quickly this morning. This girl had every intention of getting up early for a morning workout, but when that alarm went off there was no way I was getting up. Kind of like how I have been meaning to stretch / yoga every morning and night too....yeah that hasn't happened either.
Good news: I brought my running clothes with me for a lunch time workout! Win some, lose some.
Double good news: As long as I get through this work day I get to head to the beach for the weekend. The weather is maybe even going to be decent! Say it isn't so?! I am hoping to play with my camera on the beach some and eat cheese curds at the Tillamook Cheese Factory! Wish me luck.
Anyways, Happy Friday! Here are links to get you through the weekend or at least your afternoon of work.
Don't be a dummy.
Are you addicted to social media?! (Speaking of insta you can easily follow me by clicking the little pic on the upper right hand corner) shameless plug
Happy Monday. Hope everyone had an enjoyable weekend. I know I did! Brad and I escaped the Portland heat and headed for the coast to hang out with some pretty lovely people.
Highlights of the weekend included:
::Brad and Jason winning money at the casino
-I can neither confirm nor deny losing 20 of Brad's dollars at Black Jack
::Mo's famous Clam Chowder
::A morning run on the beach
::Playing with my new camera
::Reading a good book
::The Newport Aquarium
::Rogue Brewery for lunch
::And did I mention Clam Chowder ?!
Here are a few pics I snapped over the eventful, yet relaxing weekend. *Not sure if that is considered an oxymoron or not, but that is how I described my weekend and I am sticking to it.
This was my first time hitting up the Rogue Brewery, so I was pretty excited. We didn't get a chance to tour it, but I would definitely like to come back and take the tour. At lunch I went with a sampler so I got to try a small portion of a few different options. The Hazelnut Brown Nectar was my favsies and the Chit Happens was just an awesome play on words.
So I definitely still have a lot to learn about my camera and the Lightroom software I was able to score. I'd say it's currently about 1 decent picture to every 7 not so decent pictures, but I have to admit I was pretty excited when I saw how well this picture turned out. PUPPPPPPY!
Brad and I wanted to take advantage of our time at beach so we tried to get up early enough to get a morning walk or run in. I am happy we did, because I was able to play with my camera on our walk. (Ignore our tired eyes, please.)
Brooke's token artistic back to the camera photo.
I think these two photos really capture Brad and I.
Really got into character for them.
Don't mind me just creeping on their precious moment.
Here is Brad getting his glamour shot on at the park, while small children play around us.
Starfish.
All in all I was very happy with and thankful for our weekend and can't wait to sneak off to the coast again soon.
.JPG)
.JPG)
