MEGA Review V's Epic Road Trip was a huge success even though we had to cut it short due to low funds (we didn't count on so much delicious beer available for purchase). Despite mrtr33's constant attempt to buy everything for us, we will need to postpone the remainder of ERT until my hand-modeling paychecks come in. 1 ERT stop down, 14 to go... Vancouver Mark you are officially on notice.
We stayed in a beach house for a few days on the coast, driving up and down from Astoria to Florence - hiking, taking pictures, seeing tourist attractions, etc. We stayed a night in Seaside, checked out Fort Clatsop, Portland, Cannon Beach, Tillamook, Lincoln City, Salem, Depoe Bay, Newport, Eugene, and more that I can't remember. It was a little rainy on some days and chilly, but we welcomed the change from Tucson's current 105. We hopped over the Cascades to Bend and spent the remainder of our vacation with Mark and his beautiful family.
Bend was a very cool town and we will definitely be back... Alina will probably be able to convince me to move there (she totally loved Bend). We walked all around down town, little hike along the river, visited some local breweries, did the tour of Deschutes Brewery, ate some fantastic food including some delicious Mark beer crepes (Alina is bugging me... PM will be sent shortly to obtain the recipe), and got to see a bird's eye of the town from Pilot Butte. Even got to enjoy a nice cigar in Mark's backyard.
It's cool how you can join an online community like this and then go stay a couple nights with someone you've never officially met before - and it's as though you've been good friends for a decade. Mark and his wife are awesome. Their daughter Ruth is absolutely adorable. I mean adorable. We already miss you guys, thanks so much for your hospitality and for showing us around town! We hope to see you guys real soon. In the meantime I'll be practicing drawing frogs.
Some waterfall pics:
https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-o...800/falls1.JPG
https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-n...512/falls2.JPG
https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-0...512/falls3.JPG
(notice the double water falls and the double murse)
https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-Q...512/falls4.JPG
https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-V...512/falls5.JPG
(that gray spec to the left of the water fall is me)
Drift Creek Falls suspension bridge:
https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-A...riftcreek1.jpg
https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-l...riftcreek2.jpg
https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-Y...riftcreek3.jpg
(Alina wasn't happy about that)
Some elk/deer pics:
https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-q...s800/deer1.JPG
https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-r.../s800/elk1.JPG
(herd of around 30 elk)
Astoria Column (125 ft):
https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-S...2/astoria3.JPG
(164 steps, Alina wasn't too happy about being up there)
View of the Columbia river from the top of the column:
https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-A...0/astoria4.JPG
