Trip to the Northwest

Justin and Bridget decided to take a trip together before we started graduate school, part two. And, we knew that the kids would be in great hands since they've been used to living with the Lees. So, we took our rebate from Uncle Sam and headed to the northwest to stimulate the economy. We started out in Eugene, Oregon where this year they had the Olympic Trials and they annually have the Prefonatine Classic.
This Olympic street sign is outside the historic Hayward Field. Bridget made Justin strike a pose and continued to force pictures throughout the trip.
Yeah for the Olympics!
Here's the amazing field that the University only uses for track and field. They also have a separate warm-up track with football facilities nowhere to be found. It was amazing to be where the best runners in the country come every year.
Then we headed up the Oregon coast to enjoy the amazing scenery of the Cascade Mountains and Pacific Coast Highway. We stopped to see these bug eating plants that cover a local bog.

There were many lighthouses that dotted the coast. Here was the tallest in one in Oregon.
We took this looking out from one of the caves.
One of our favorite stops was Cape Perpetua where they have beautiful tide pools where you can check out the different marine life when the tide is out.These next two pictures are not ours, because we couldn't get the timing right, but they also have "spouting horns" where the incoming waves make the water shoot out through small gaps in the coast. They were so fun to watch and try to guess when the big ones would come.
We also checked out the sea lion caves, which are home to the biggest gathering of sea lions in the world. There were hundreds of these huge animals there and it was amazing to see them in this huge cave. They are so strong and the larger males annually swim all the way to Alaska!

We saw some pretty intense signs on the trip, but this was by far our favorite.
We tried to go to the Seattle Temple, but our impeccable timing found that the Temple was closed for repairs. It was still beautiful, even with the scaffolding.
Then we headed to downtown Seattle to check out the sights. Here's the humongous Space Needle.
Seattle is very walking-friendly and they have great parks and fountains downtown.
They have a fun sculpture garden where they have huge versions of some everyday items (along with many more traditional sculptures as well).

And the reason that we thought of going to Seattle in the first place - the Mariners were playing the Twins! We proudly sported our shirts as the Twins gained a great win over the Mariners. One of our favorite things about this game, was a group of old people (who Justin believe attended the first-ever recorded baseball games) made hilarious commentary throughout. Every time a batter was up, "watch for the ball!" When their pitcher was about to pitch, "throw the ball!" If a runner only got to first, "they could have made it to second if they would have fun faster!" They were so funny and kept us very entertained.
The great view from our seats. A foul ball even made it to the row below us.
After the game we headed to the Westin which was our splurge of the trip - a $130 Priceline booking. When we got there they informed us that Priceline guarantees you a room, but not a specific room. Because they were full they had to give us a different room at no extra charge. We were shocked when we arrived at our suite on the 42nd floor (a room we later found out goes for $480 a night). It was probably bigger than the apartment we will shortly occupy in Logan. We loved it and considered moving in permanently.

Our view from the wall-to-wall/ceiling-to-floor windows.

The next day we checked out the Japanese Gardens before heading out of the city. They were so peaceful and made us miss good old Como.
We then took a ferry to Victoria, British Columbia for a couple of days. Here we are by the ferry overlooking the stunning capitol building.
There are lots of totem poles around this beautiful city and you can try to track down Justin in this picture.The Chinatown in Victoria is really fun and here is the smallest and here is a picture of Fan Tan Alley, the narrowest street in Canada.
Before the trip back, we checked out the Chinese Temple on 8/8/08. We were the only visitors at the time and after a little lesson on the luckiness of the day and the significance of the numbers to the Chinese, Justin and I received a traditional blessing at the shrine. We felt like it was especially lucky since it was the day of the amazing Opening Ceremonies. We had so much fun on this trip and we would love to go back to this region someday. Maybe around 12/12/12 - just to strengthen our lucky streak.