A trip years in the making....

First of all (in case there is any confusion), I should say that we've been back from Washington for weeks now - at least a month in fact. While it looks like we're still out traveling we are actually happily settled back into our lives. It's just that in our two weeks in Washington we had so many great experiences that it's been hard to contain them to just a blog post or two....but this, my friends, is the final summer travel post.

We were so happy that Marie and Todd could come join us for the last few days of our time in Washington. We've always wanted to take a trip/vacation as couples and (with the help of an awesome Uma on Marie and Todd's end) this was the perfect opportunity. (Is it TOO dramatic to say it was a dream come true?) We spent some time in Seattle, toured beautiful Victoria, watched a meteor shower from Olympic National Park, played on the coast, saw the original home of Twilight and experienced the Hoh Rain Forest. Not bad for 3 1/2 days. SUCH a GREAT trip.


Seattle-


Victoria-


The Meteor Shower-

The Coast- A definite highlight and fave




Forks, The Hoh Rainforest and one last walk on the coast-



C and I then wound our way through Oregon and visited the fam in Idaho and Utah on our way back to the mighty state of Texas. 2 months + 9,000 miles in our car = an absolutely EPIC summer.

Washington's Best Folks...

Not only are the views beautiful in Washington, but the people are beautiful too. We had a fantastic time catching up with family friend Damaris and loved every minute with Cass as we toured around the Northwestern tip of Washington (one of the more gorgeous places you'll ever see). So much awesomeness.

Apparently I love food and water...

As we looked through all of our Washington pictures I found myself particularly drawn to pictures of favorite meals and favorite water vistas - and sometimes both in one. Enjoy!

A Washington State of Mind....

It didn't take long for me to fall in love with Washington. The weather. The trees. The water. The mountains. The fact that Cass lives there. The list of Washington benefits seemed to get longer every day.

We stayed in Port Angeles - a fantastic little coastal town that has the audacity to also be snuggled up against the Olympic mountains! Blew. My. Mind. We stayed at the home-grown family-owned All-View Motel (with our friend the garden gnome) that lived up to it's name (the All-View...not the gnome). As you walked out of our room if you looked to the left you had a great view of the coast and to the right the mountains took your breath away. Not a bad deal.

We spent our days in Olympic National Park for C to do his research. WE! (Just in case you missed that part....I was indeed C's research assistant - hiking around and tracking marmots like I owned the place.) In the evening we'd stroll the coast or drive around a nearby historical town. Life was good. Oh so good.

I'll try to keep my posts about our time in Washington to a minimum....but I make no promises....I feel it my duty to do it's awesomeness justice.

If you're like us, you might like....

We interrupt your normally scheduled summer-catch-up-blogcast (What? You guys aren't done talking about your summer yet?) for these quick re-caps/suggestions.....

Last week C and I had the opportunity (Thanks Russ and Chow!) to go see the documentary "Waiting for Superman." Since it hasn't been released nationwide yet I'll keep our promise to the director and won't go into too many details or my thoughts on the matter. For now I'll just say that I thought it was really good and definitely worth seeing. More thoughts to come....


Last night we saw the Punch Brothers in concert (you might recognize Chris Thile on the mandolin from Nickel Creek) and they were AWESOME. So fun. So different. We loved it. If you like bluegrass, stringed instruments or just music in general check them out. (PS How did I not take ANY pictures of either of these awesome events? Shameful.....and very unlike me.)

Punch Brothers - New Music - More Music Videos

Feliz Dia de Independencia do Brasil!

On our way...

It was now time to head to Port Angeles, Washington for C to do research in Olympic National Park. However, we couldn't pass up the opportunity to visit Mount Ranier National Park (beautiful, but SO crowded....like insanely-can't-be-there-for-long crowded) on the way and visit Cass in Seattle. What can I say? We love the opportunities afforded by a good road trip!