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This is what Portland is about!

We are going to the NC beaches in May...

Yesterday we were fortunate enough to visit Astoria, Seaside, and Cannon Beach.  All told, the round trip was 2.5 hours.  On the way to Astoria we had clear views of Mt Hood, Mt Adams, and Mt. Saint Helens.  About an hour outside Astoria the skies grayed over and the rain came.  We made it to Astoria and got some pictures.

It is right on the sound and pretty impressive even if we didn't have much visibility.   Aside from the natural scenery there are a couple famous spots in town.  Well, famous if you grew up on the Goonies like I did.  Goonies was set in Astoria and nearly the entire movie was filmed in the town.

You can walk right up to the place, just park on the street!

Above is me in front of Mikey's home.  Below is Mikeys home with Data's place and his booty traps next door!

 

 After seeing the sights of Astoria we headed 30 miles south along 101.  I should add that there are no Interstates in this part of the country.  The weather had continued to worsen as the wind was really blowing.  I have experienced hurricane winds before and I think this was the worst wind I have ever experienced.  It really was something amazing, and the scenery was absolutely amazing!

That is the sand blowing over the beach.  It was eerie but amazing!

MG in front of the "Goonies Rock" (AKA Haystack Rock)

Haystack Rock is only accessible at low tide!

And we made it out their, I apologize for the wind finger on the lens, I was just trying to hold on to the phone!

Video on Cannon Beach.  Below is the sand blowing across the beach

Keeping a blog current is hard work...

We planned to continue writing in the blog about our experiences in Portland, however, it hasn't really happened.  We planned on the updates being less frequent, but not to this extent.  Between Jared starting a new job, Mary Grace's full-time job and job search which nearly amounts to a full time job, neither of us have found the time.  So now it is the first day of a new year, maybe we write more, maybe this will be the last entry.  Here are a few of the highlights of the last 40 days

• Got all our furniture in the 1st 5 days of living here;
• We both had our first Ikea experience
• Went to a winter beer festival;
• Gone to restaurants in our neighborhood (Nob Hill) and the Pearl (newly redeveloped downtown hood);
• Experienced three eastside (of the Williamette River) neighborhoods, had some good pizza, pho, and Christmas Lights (a 2-block street with an ordinance that mandates Christmas Lights);
• Went to one of our neighborhood theaters and had some local beer and split a popcorn;
• Celebrated Christmas and New Years; 
• Thank you for all the presents and cards, each one was wonderful;
• The plan tomorrow is to go to the Oregon Coast 
• Astoria (where Goonies was filmed) is 1:45 minutes away;
• Maybe we'll go visit Mikey's House
• Ocean temperature is 42 degrees
• Polar Bear Plunge???

"I love Portland"...

Mary Grace makes that statement, sometimes a period follows, sometimes an explanations of why follows.  But, one thing is certain she is loving Portland five or six times a day!  Oh, and for my mom & anyone else wondering about me, I love it too!

Pictures and video links

We are safely in Portland on a sunny Monday afternoon.  The weather is great, the sky's are clear and we are nearly all settled into our new home.  The TV is working properly (I've been enjoying it nearly all day), which was purchased Saturday.  The couch also arrived today.  The bed, two dressers, night table, entertainment center, side table and mirror arrived Sunday morning.  We purchased the furniture from IKEA, so we had a couple days of assembly and bonding.  But now we have all our furniture needs and only need to hang a mirror and a couple paintings.  

Here is a link to an album of many of the remaining pictures. 

Here are a couple links to a couple YouTube's of the journey

Blog update

The internet at the coffee shop we went to today wasn't working, and we have internet now at home but it isn't working exactly right.  Hope to have it all figured out tonight and will be blogging over the thanksgiving weekend. 

Hope everyone has a great holiday and we miss all of you!