More beautiful sights-Oregon Day 2

This blog is totally driving me NUTS!! I still can't type on top of my pictures without it getting underlined. I am so obsessive-compulsive and want to type before the pictures....UGH.

Anyhow, our first stop in Portland before we made our way to the coast was the temple. The above picture is of the doors, which I thought were soo pretty. The whole place was gorgeous-the grounds, architecture, the whole thing. We loved it so much. We walked around the whole thing. You can see it over the tree tops when you are almost to it-kind of like DC-well not as huge, but it is right on the freeway-only thing that separates it is a fence. Good thing it isn't like the freeway in DC.

I didn't know much about this temple and was so surprised. It is simply beautiful. I took lots of pics. Because of the grounds, it is a little hard to get a shot of the whole thing-it is surrounded by trees.
The stone work is so pretty. Very ornate and just so cool. Click on the picture to really see the detail.


Our second stop was Astoria. It is where the Columbia River enters the sea. Very cool and historic little sea town. We went to this place called the Astoria Column. I am still not sure what the purpose of the structure is, but it was cool.

Jordan and I walked to the top, and in so doing, I realized that there is a correlation between the increase in my age and the increase in my fear of heights!!! Jordan was cruising up the 150 odd steps and I was practically crawling-especially the closer to the top we got. I was worth the trip, though, because the view was so amazing. My legs were a bit on the rubbery side when we got down. Spencer was too afraid to go up and so Darin stayed at the bottom with the boys. Landon tried to go up the steps numerous times, but Darin caught him and brought him back. I know he would have got half way up and wanted to be carried the rest of the way.
A view of Darin and the boys from the top. Darin and Spencer are the duo on the left and Landon is the tiny spec in the in front of them.
A view from the top.
Jordan when we made it down safely.
Jordan and I at the top-it was very windy.

After we left Astoria, we worked our way down the coast to the town where Darin's family was having the reunion. We stopped and looked a couple cute little sea towns-one is very famous called Seaside. We then found a really awesome state park called Ecola State park. Incidentally, I cannot believe how much of Oregon is a State Park or National Forest!! You can't drive 5 miles without seeing signs for a State Park.

Oh, and the whole state is also one huge RV park!!! I still laugh at how many RV parks we passed-one every few miles and all of them full. We did follow a lot of RVs on the road, as well. Funny. But I did get to the point where I wished I had been riding in one so I could lay down....

Anyhow we went to Ecola State Park. There was a fabulous lookout area. There was a lighthouse way for out on a big huge rock and the scenery was awesome. It reminded me of the beach where they filmed "The Goonies." Isn't there a huge rock in the water in the end part when the ship comes sailing out of the cove-I swear it was filmed there. It was soooo pretty.

This is the one I think was in "The Goonies."
Lighthouse way out on a rock.
More of the coastline. Sooo gorgeous.


I loved this tree. If you look, you can see a big rock in the background. My attempt at a cool shot.

The views on the drive up to the lookout were enough to make me happy....well, I really loved the lookout as well.

Look at this tree...simply gorgeous!
These flowers were everywhere. I loved them. The pic doesn't really do it justice. They were all up and down the coast. Some individual ones, and some big groups of them. We read the name in a flower book in one gift shop, but I forgot it.
We made it to Manzanita where the family reunion was. The whole reason for the trip. The kids were so excited to see all the family. We had a blast...more on that in the next post!!