Thursday, August 11, 2011

Playin' & Stayin' down the Pacific Coast Highway!


Greetings from sunny California - where we are happily taking a day off to relax and catch up on some laundry!!!  After 12 hours of driving in one day (mostly down the Pacific Coast Highway), we rolled into the San Francisco area.  We will be staying with Tracy’s Aunt Cathy for a bit as we explore some wonderful local sites.  Trace has her nose in a book right now, so I thought I'd catch y’all up on some of our recent travels!  We hope this post finds you well and that you have enjoyed hitting the open road with us :)

Glacier National Park:
While T loved Yellowstone b/c of all the wildlife, I fell in love with Glacier National!  The beauty of the snow-capped mountains emerging from the lush green forest was breathtaking.  Not to mention there was some form of water - creek, river, lake, waterfall, etc - around every turn and it was the clearest water ever and the rocks were so colorful!  We took the infamous "Going to the Sun" drive through the park and it certainly did NOT disappoint! 

Clear glacier water
Pretty waterfalls around every corner

Rushing water is so beautiful



Loved the colorful rocks on the river bank


Enjoying a cool bridge over the river
Arch tunnel through the rock


Waterfall streams down and right under the road
"Wall of water" splashes onto road


Snow-capped mountains command the sky


Washington State:
While we didn't spend too long in Washington, we had a fantastic time catching up with our friend Jennifer over dinner...hadn't seen her in 5+ years and it was an evening of laughs!

Crappy waiter - but good food and
good company!
Loved seeing the ocean again, but
it was a bit brisk near the water!

Portland, Oregon:
Our trip to Portland was like old home week for Tracy who got to see many of her former colleagues at Nike!  A visit to Headquarters allowed me to see why she always loved coming out here for business trips...what an inspiring place to work!  The campus was crawling with employees taking advantage of the countless opportunities Nike gives them to be active during their day at work:

multiple soccer fields * lap pools * climbing wall * spinning room * yoga
weights & cardio room * beach volleyball * tee box & putting green * biking/running trails (and they supply the bikes!)...and so much more!

A stroll through the city to see some sights and then an AMAZING dinner at 3 Doors Down with her friend Mark was the perfect way to end a very nice visit in this area...despite not having any Malibu in the house!

Mia Hamm building - I had to stand here
just to show how huge this picture was!

Pele - King of my favorite sport
C'mon in, the water's fine!  Nice view, too!

Mini-cupcake break in the city












Oregon Coast:
Stunning!  I have always felt incredibly lucky to live in a state with a beautiful coast.....but I have to say, Oregon may have Maine topped on this one!  Leisurely traveling down 101, we stopped and enjoyed various sites and activities – including Sea Lion Cave which was really cool, but the highlight was probably sandboarding in the dunes (check out our videos - yes, you can laugh out loud - we did)!!   We even got to stay in 2 campgrounds that were just steps from the beach :)

Catchin' some good sand!
http://youtu.be/XL-Uf8BKqFE

http://youtu.be/jHHGeyC0xRw








We actually took an elevator down
to the cave!
They were cute, very vocal, and super stinky!  But fun to
watch the ones playing in the water.
Beautiful sea stacks
The waves here remind me of fireworks

 
Sunset over the ocean from our campground

















From Oregon, we crossed into Cali and visited the amazing Redwood National Forest.....we'll share that adventure in our next post! 

Until the next exit...

Amy & Tracy

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