Vancouver, WA - Seaside, OR 2006

Ok, this is a long one. But remember, its all about my journal. We had the best weekend getaway (just the 2 of us!!). Before we left I realized that I wasn't getting a paycheck that day but it was coming the next friday, soooo the plans for bills and spending this weekend had to be altered and fanagled. Then david locked the bedroom door somehow and the house alarm went off and the keypad is in the bedroom. David had to take the doornob off to get into the room. That was a bad way to start the weekend. On friday we went to Vancouver, WA. We stopped off at a really good jerkey place (soft and chewy!) and stayed in the new Holiday Inn Express. I slept an hour on the drive there. They even had granite showers and counter tops - and they didn't have our reservation so they put us in a 'suite' with a separate room for another tv and sitting area. That night we drove down to Portland and went to dinner at a cool mexican place, and then hung out for a couple hours at Powell's Books "the City of Books". We had so much fun because its like a city block, and two stories of a book store - new and used books! We bought about 10 books and it only cost about $47! At the hotel I went down to the hottub but it was full of people. So i just went back to our room and took a hot bath and read my book.

On Saturday morning we woke up early and ate at the continental breakfast at the hotel and then drove over to Battle Ground, WA and set up our pop up canopy at the Iron Ranch Bike Swap Meet. We saw a bunch of friends and even sold some stuff! At about 12:00 we packed up and drove out to Astoria, Oregon and went to see some friends who own a bike shop. (I took another nap while David drove). The friends are old and funny and love to see David's restored bikes. Then we drove down to Fort Stevens to visit the beach and see the wrecked ship Peter Iredale. Then we drove ON THE BEACH back to Seaside, Or. We had fish n' chips and went to david's favorite crab shop. We went to the Boardwalk and stopped at the Candyman for saltwater taffy, and shopped at our favorite antique shop. I got a couple of colored glass trinkets for my kitchen. We stayed in Vancouver again that night and slept in the next morning. I think david fell asleep that night at about 8:30 when I went to the hottub. I swam laps for about 15 minutes (some guy was in the hottub so I was wasting time until he got out... he never did) and then I soaked in the hottub for 10 minutes. I got really hot so I just went back to the room. David slept until 8:30 the next morning! He was probably wiped out from doing all the driving. I sat in the tv room cuddled up in my blanky and watched a marathon of Dog: the Bounty Hunter. Don't ask me why. Its like a car accident. You can't not watch.

On Sunday we went in the hottub and had breakfast. We left at about 11:30 and stopped by a R/C car track to watch the race and eat hamburgers with some guys we met at the hotel. They were from Canada but originally from Hong Kong. Funny guys. One was really hyper. We stopped a couple of other places on the way home up I-5. I slept for an hour on the ride. One of them was the Puyallup Fair. We had a long heart-to-heart sitting in the fair parking lot which we had needed to do for a long time. Yes it was Sunday and yes we totally broke the sabbath being at the Fair. We bought scones and caramel apples to take home. We ate corndogs and bar-b-que and corn on the cob. We saw pigs and dogs and cows and goats. We saw crafts and quilts and flowers and vendors. We got home by 8:00 and put everything away and were in bed by 9:30. Gotta love it!