Visitor's Log (Part 1)

*Note- I had issues getting pictures to upload so I'll be back to finish this when I get more time*

Barely a week after I returned home from the reunion, and long before I had recovered from my trip, my uncle Todd came for a visit. He was here for 8 days, and what a busy 8 days it was..

Luckily for me, he had caught the early flight so he was tired once he got into town. We had lunch at one of my favorite places, Jerusalem Cafe. The staff there is wonderful. It's a family run business and not only do they remember me when I come in, they even often remember where I sat and what I had last ordered, and they are always so much fun. The fact that the food is wonderful doesn't hurt... After lunch Todd just wanted to take a nap and hang out at my house..

Saturday it was time to head to the coast. It was going to be our long driving day and I wanted to get it done on the day when I'd have the most time.. We made our way up to Astoria, visited a lighthouse, and stopped by to see the sea lions (which weren't there). Then we had lunch at an awful place and vowed to make up for it at dinner.. From Astoria we headed south, though Cannon Beach. It was such a lovely day on the coast!

When we got to Tillamook I offered to stop at the cheese factory, but Todd wasn't at all interested in doing that, and because I knew we needed to escape from the car for a while, we stopped at the Tillamook Air Museum. The size of the wooden hanger alone (the largest wooden structure in the world) was worth seeing.

After the museum we went down to Lincoln City where we'd thought about spending the night. Instead of paying for a room, we chose to find a nice restaurant and treat ourselves to something special. When we walked into The Bay House we were uncertain if they'd let us actually sit down and eat. We weren't exactly dressed to be in this kind of place. There was a host who took our names for the book and a maitre d' who showed us to our table, pulled out the seats, and unfolded the napkins. Then the "wine steward" brought the wine list. I was quickly overwhelmed by the size of it (not to mention the prices). The list was at least 50 pages long, and the prices ranged from $8 a glass to $750 a bottle. It seemed odd that there were hundreds of kinds of wine to go with the dozen or so choices for dinner, but I have to say, the meal was amazing. Todd had a crab cocktail followed by halibut stuffed with crab and shrimp. I had steamer clams followed by coconut toasted marlin with mango salsa.. We left feeling so content that we didn't mind that we still had to drive back to my house..

On Sunday we went to the Oregon Garden. There were so many plants and flowers to look at that it would have been easy to stay there all day. But it was kind of warm (it must have been 85) so we didn't stay too long.

We then went to Silver Falls State Park where it was nice and cool and hiked to two of the waterfalls, the Upper North Falls (65 feet high with a great place for people to swim)

and the North Falls (136 feet high with a trail behind the falls).

There are 10 falls that you can hike to and miles of trails (the loop is almost 9 miles), but I had to get home in time to go to work. I'm looking forward to the day when I have time to do the entire loop.

On Monday we went to the day center. They were having a BBQ in the park so I didn't have to transport food. This meant that I got to take Alex along. She wasn't having fun since she had to stay on a leash, and she always acts like a monster when she's tied up. However, Todd had a nice time visiting with everyone, and it was perfect weather to be out at the park (75. Try not to be jealous Leaner).