I'm baaaaack.

Alright so I am almost positive that this will be the longest blog that I have ever written, but it is all worth it. The pictures and words that are to follow are in regards to the amazing trip that I just took. In case you didn't know (or did not read the post right before this one) I went to Portland, OR over Spring break, making stops along the coast of California on the way. I have decided that the best way to do this would be to break it up into days. So without further ado, I give you Spring Break 08: The Portland addition.
Day 1
We left for our trip on Easter. It took quite a while to get everything together and jam everything that we had into out little Honda Civic, but we did it. There were a few pieces that traveled everywhere with us. The first was Portland; not the city but the bear head:You will see him later on in a few of the pictures, but Portland was the reminder of where we were headed. We saw a lot of beautiful things in California, but we couldn't slow down too much or else we would have never made it to Portland. The next few items sat on our dash:
The first is the navigation. That things got us everywhere! We borrowed it from our good friend David, so we only found it fitting to name the little computer David. The gnome on the dash went by the name of Bleaker, and in the far right corner you see a wing that belonged to a bird that Angi bought in San Fran. We put all of out polaroids along the glove compartment. And lastly we used my ipod transmitter until the very end.
We drove all day until around 10:30 when we reached San Jose. After passing Los Angeles, things got beautiful.

So we got to San Jose, slept and got ready to make the 45 minute drive to San Francisco in the morning.

Day 2
We woke up around 10 (which would soon become a common occurrence throughout the trip), loaded up the car and took off. We arrived in San Fran around 12 and went straight to the Fisherman's Warf for some good lunch!We ate some good clam chowder in a bread bowl and then headed up a big hill to China Town

We walked around China Town, grazed the edge of North Beach (the Italian part of town), and then headed toward Market, which is where the intense shopping was. We hung out there for a little bit...and then took the bus back to our car, which was on the other side of town. We had some disagreements on where to get on the bus, but in the end Angi and I were right. She was really happy about that.That night we stayed at my great great uncles house. Him and his wife were incredibly hospitable and told me that they wanted to take us out to Ruth's Chris Steak House the next day, I had actually never heard of it before, so it is ok if you haven't, but as I learned it was incredibly nice steak house. Well we didn't really bring suitable clothes for a very nice steak house so it looked like a large portion of our next day would be devoted to shopping.

Day 3
Of course, we woke up around 10. W got ready quickly and made it out of the house. Angi and Lehua had heard about a photography exhibit. We drove for about an hour and a half around San Fran because David was taking it us in the completely wrong direction. Well we finally got there, and waited in a very long and cold line. While we were in the line we realized "hey, we live in LA, one of the art capitals of the nation. The show is BOUND to come there. We aren't waiting in this line ANYMORE!" So we decided to leave, but before we did, we took a polaroid:
For the rest of the day we drove and drove, shopped and shopped and then ended the trip at Ruth's Chris with my relatives.

Day 4
Again, woke up at 10am, frantically packed the car and took off (but not without leaving some flowers and a nice note). Our goal for the day was to make it all the way to Salem, OR taking the 101 Hwy. That is a very long, but BEAUTIFUL drive. To leave San Fran, we had to drive across the famous Golden Gate Bridge!
So we started the drive. First we passed Hoppland where we saw the "Hopp" trees and beautiful skies!


Then we stopped for lunch in at a very small vegan extra healthy fast food restaurant (which sounds like an oxymoron). We got burritos. They were good.
After lunch we kept driving and then we hit the redwood forests! This was one of the main things we wanted to see on the trip so we were pretty excited. We drove down the "Avenue of Giants" and here are a few of the things we saw:

The trees were amazing. And to think that we didn't even finish that drive. There were probably even bigger ones farther up the avenue.
So we kept driving North, stopping in Arcata to eat dinner and then in Trinidad right before the sun went down because Taryn wanted to see her great-grandparents old house. Now Trinidad itself is a city only because of the homes. The homes that we say were on cliffs directly over the water. They were amazing. I am pretty sure that we weren't supposed to drive down the road, but we couldn't help it. So here are some pictures:

So we kept driving up the 101 which took us out of Trinidad and into Crescent City. Crescent City would connect us to the 199 which takes us on a winding, dark road to Oregon and the I-5. I was going to be driving so I made the observation that we would definitely be needing coffee to get us through the night, and also gad because the needle was getting very close to "E." We stopped at Dutch Bros. coffee, which is a small drive through coffee place that they had all over Nor Cal, got some espresso and started the long drive. Now maybe if I had been writing this out then I would have realized that I said we needed gas, yet I never said that we got it. Well, we didn't. The 199 was 70 miles long; 70 miles of trees and darkness. So, naturally, I flipped out. I was convinced that we would be stranded in the middle of the forest around 11:30 at night. None of our cell phones had receptions and David told us that the next gas station was in 45 miles. So all we could do was keep driving, since I didn't figure out the gad dilema until 15 miles in. Well, obviously, we made it alive. We got all the way to the last of three gas stations we had checked and they were open and ready to pump our gas (which is the way it works in Oregon. You don't pump your own).That night we made it to Salem and stated in a cozy Motel 6.

Day 5
We were finally in Oregon and only 45 minutes away from our final stop; Portland. We packed up and drove over. The city is wonderful.That night we would stay in another Motel 6. It had a weird shower, so I took a picture of it.
This one was right off of Powell, which is two streets away from Hawthorne. Hawthorne street was where we spent most of our time. Our first day we spent a lot of time shopping and drinking Peet's coffee. I love Peet's coffee and tea. it is amazing and if you have never had it, then you need to. End of story.
That night we decided to see a movie and National Treasure was playing at the Bagdad. The Bagdad theater is an old theater in Portland that consists of only 1 theater. Each row has a long table in front of it so you can eat and the walls and lighting at beautiful. The Bagdad is also reffered to in Donald Miller's books. It is in front of that theater that he saw the person playing Jazz music, which led to Blue Like Jazz. We got in line to buy our tickets and they carded Taryn who was first. We though it was weird and kinda funny that they thought Taryn was too young to see a rated G movie. It turns out that you have to be atleast 21 or with a gaurdian because they serve alchohol at the theater. It was funny, but still strange that they wouldn't let us in to a G rated film. Luckily, Lehua's roommate was there with her mom and she bought the tickets for us.
We then went to an incredible desert place called Papa Haydn's. The deserts were not only good, but they were beautiful. We actually didn't even eat dinner because we knew that that desert would be good enough. We then went back to our Motel 6 and slept some more.

Day 6
Well you guessed right, we woke up a little after 10, when we sere supposed to leave by 9. Our plans for the day were to eat breakfast at a little place that was recommended to us, go see the beautiful waterfalls and then meet Angi's friends for some dinner and desert.
We were going to skip over breakfast because it was so late, but Lehua insisted that we go and I do not regret it whatsoever. It was called the Cup and Saucer Cafe:The breakfast was AMAZING! It was this small little cafe that had incredible breakfast and great service. Plus there is no sales tax in Oregon which made it a million times better!
After breakfast we started driving out the falls. It was raining/ hailing all day, so we were scared that it was going to ruin our visit, but it didn't.



After the beautiful water falls, we drove back into the city and did a little more shopping. That morning I had picked up a handy little book that had a list and description of every store in the city. Taryn made us drive for about an hour trying to find a certain store that ended up being just like Savers next to our school. But we dont blame her (that much) for wasting our time because the description made it sound amazing. After the shopping we met Angi's friend for dinner at this awesome place called Montage. It is underneath a bridge and it looks like the filmed movies on the streets and alys around it (you know the movies where people sell drugs or get shot but for some reason it wasnt scary at all). The specialed in Macaroni and Cheese and they wrapped up your left overs in foil creations. Once we got inside there was screaming and dishes clanging together. Someone took out a camera to take a picture and immediately from out of the kitchen came a very loud, very angry yell, "NO CAMERAS!" Because of this, I have no pictures of the montage.
After dinner, we went to another amazing place called Rimsky's. It is inside of an old victorian house in South East and the serve desert and coffee. Every night there is live music and the entire place just has random stuff everywhere!



The weirdest/best part about this place was there bathroom. Taryn and I walked up the stairs, turned the corner, opened the door and Taryn screemed because she saw this...
on the floor. It was kinda creepy. The entire bathroom was sea themed, to the point where you are under water. This was on the ceiling.
It was a pretty awesome bathroom at that. So then we got in the car and got ready to drive all the way to San Jose by morning. Taryn drove the first three hours, Angi the next 3, and I took the last 4 from 4am to 8am.

Day 7
Well once we got to San Jose, we crashed in Taryn's aunts pool house and slept all day until dinner. It was nice to rest. We had dinner with their family that night and then just hung around the house, catching up on the internet and playing the piano.

Day 8
We woke up around 9 (surprise surprise) and got ready to go to church in Santa Cruz. The Fragrance (some good friends of ours) was playing at a church there by the name of Vintage Faith. We went to service there and then got some lunch at this place called The Saturn Diner. It served burgers, but everything was VEGETARIAN! It was weird. I mean it didnt taste bad, but it wasnt something that I would want to give up for the rest of my life. I love meat too much.
That night we would be having lunch at our friend Mason's house (who had been traveling with the Fragrance) in Bakersfield, which was about 3 hours away. So we started driving and stopped along the way more then once to take lots of pictures.


Well we had dinner and the Wren family was incredibly nice an they fed us very VERY good mexican food. Then we started the drive home; home to Biola. The closer we got the sader it became. The trip was over.

And to be honest, I am still sad. Every chance I get, I go off campus because it is nice to be reminded that there is more than Biola, in fact more than Southern California.

So I hope that you enjoyed this blog and that it inspires you to get out of your everyday life and do something different, go somewhere exciting and remember that God created a beautiful world, not just a beautiful southern california.