Haystack Rock and Ecola Park

I love taking advantage of opportunities to sit and enjoy nature, mostly because of the way it soothes my soul.  People often ask what I do when going on trips with Dan.  Mostly, I spend time exploring, learning and seeing new things.  Which are all things I definitely get excited about.  So, one of the days we were in Seaside/Canon Beach I spent the day outdoors and thoroughly enjoyed myself.  Below are some pictures from the Ecola Park viewpoint looking down on Haystack Rock and the surrounding ocean/beach area. 

Since moving to the Northwest, I've learned quite a bit about the Lewis & Clark expedition as well as Sacajawea.  This picture is one of many, many tributes to the three of them and their journey. 

Sailors and lighthouses . . . kindof funny things to like, but for some reason, whenever I see them, they just make me happy. 

Not the cutest picture - It was cold!

Some elk we saw while spending some time in Ecola Park. 

The infamous Haystack Rock.

Pretty profound, I know. . .

I really like this picture because it shows Dan in his element.  He loves water. The times we have spent at the beach or at a pool always seem to leave him more relaxed.   When we are at the beach he usually takes some time to savor and enjoy the experience and just take it all in . . . a bit like he is below. 

Astoria and Cape Disappointment

Most people know Astoria, Washington for various movies that were filmed there.This spring while Dan was working in Seaside, I decided to take a tour of some things in Astoria.  On the top of my list were: #1 - the house where Goonies was filmed (seen below)

and #2 - where the Columbia River and Pacific Ocean meet, which is a pretty awesome sight to see. 

Here is a zoomed in view of a boat of some sort making it's way into the Pacific.

The zoomed out view.  The tiny spec kindof in the middle there - that's the same boat. 

To get to this spectacular view, lots of twisty roads, not great signs and a one mile hike are required.  It leads to what is known as Cape Disappointment.  There are a couple of theories on how it got this name, and no one is sure which is true.  Some say the cape was named on April 12, 1788 by British fur trader John Meares who was sailing south from Nootka in search of trade. After a storm, he turned his ship around just north of the Cape and therefore just missed the discovery of the Columbia River.  Others believe the cape may have been named in Nov. 1805 by a member of the Lewis & Clark Expedition, which had recently succeeded in reaching the Pacific, when he found no ships in the vicinity, according to the journal of the expedition as recited in the Ken Burns documentary.  Whatever the reason for the name - the view was well worth the trip!

Zing!

Have you ever had an urge to write to your favorite (or maybe not so favorite) athletic team?  Well, you might just want to think again before doing so . . .

A few months back one of Dan's friends said something on facebook about his favorite NFL team being the World Champions and that they should start playing like it.  Most people would read this and probably either 'like' it or silently agree with it.  But for Dan, it was a call to action. . . he wrote them and told them just that.  Below is the letter torn up and sent back to us in the original envelope it was sent in.  As you can see, they didn't appreciate the letter.  Classy, right?!?  Probably won't be cheering for that team anytime soon.

Mile-marker moment

This is a horrible picture . . . however, it marks a monumental moment.  While driving to Walla-Walla a few weeks ago, Dan hit 100,000 miles in his car - something we were both pretty excited about.  Neither of us have ever had that high of mileage on a car we have owned.  We have used his car a ton in the last year and hope it keeps going strong. 

Memorial Day, 2011

We found out, not too long ago that Dan has family who was buried in the Portland area.  So, for Memorial Day, we decided to venture and see what we could find. We found one grave, but almost overlooked it because the tombstone was a large stone tree trunk, carved by an organization called The Woodmen of the World. 

We saw that there were other Hammonds at the cemetery.   However, when we got to the plot where they were supposed to be, we didn't see anything.  We asked one of the caretakers and they said that, due to the disrepair of the cemetery, it's possible that the grass may have grown completely over the grave markers.  They suggested that we bring a long screwdriver next time to stick into the ground in order to find headstones.  We thought it was odd, though, because there were supposed to be over half a dozen Hammonds in the plot, but didn't find a single Hammond tombstone.  Hopefully we will go again soon (with a screwdriver) and seewhat we can find.