A mini Spring Break trip to Oregon

I have been on Spring Break the past week.  It was a little sad this year with nowhere to go and nothing really important to do.  I did get to spend some quality time with Coda and Rascal though, and that is always fun!!  Plus, getting to sleep in until 8:30 every morning was a real treat...thanks puppy and kitty!  Jason knew that the week was going to be slow for me, so he planned a little 2-nighter getaway to Oregon for us and Coda.  Needless to say, I was VERY excited to finally be getting out and doing something different.

Jason had planned out the entire weekend.  Lots of hiking, some visits to the beach on the Oregon coast, and some sightseeing.  It was going to be great!

We left Thursday after Jason got off work, which ended up being later than we thought.  We made a quick stop for dinner (turned out to be a little harder with a dog), which ended up being eaten in our car.

Coda's little dinner/bed setup

Such a good little car rider!

After dinner we hit the road and also rain.  We were just hoping that this wasn't a sign for how the rest of our trip would go.

We arrived at our first stop, Troutdale, Oregon (near Portland) for the night.  Coda was not so sure where he was and didn't really take to the hotel experience all that well.  After all the lights were out he finally settled down with us, but boy it took a while!  Did I mention the rain is still coming down at this point?

Friday morning arrives and we start off our day with a puking puppy (2 gigantic times all over the hotel floor to be exact) who didn't look so good.  By this time it is dumping buckets of rain and all of our fun hiking plans start flying out the window.  Did that completely stop us?  NOPE!  We still made an attempt at seeing Wahkeena Falls and Multnomah Falls.  We were SOAKED by the time we quickly saw both of those!

Jason and Coda at the bottom of Wahkeena Falls

Coda and I near the top of Wahkeena Falls

Multnomah Falls...and soaked!

After getting soaked, we dried off and loaded up in the car and headed to Portland.  Next stop...POWELL'S BOOKS!  I must have died and gone to Heaven in the Children's Book section!  Once we left the bookstore and some sunny weather in Portland, we headed off to see the Skinner family!  We had a wonderful, but quick visit with them.  Jefferson was again back in doggie Heaven.  He really liked that we let him walk Coda all the way to the park.  Thanks for the amazing lunch Kristina!  It was delicious!

Coda and Jefferson at the park

I did forget to mention that we had scare #1 while at the park with Coda, when a little kid (not Jefferson) let go of the leash and off Coda ran down the street with Jason running quickly behind.  The good news is...Jason was able to get Coda!

After the rain started to come down again, we left the Skinner's house and headed on our roadtrip to the Oregon coast.  Next stop, the Tillamook Cheese Factory!  The factory was sure busy with lots of cheese being processed and packaged.  So fun to watch!

Coda and I at the factory

Jason and I eating some Marionberry Pie ice cream

Once we left the factory, we were finally on our way to our next stop...the hotel on the coast!  We unloaded all of our stuff and hit the beach for the short time that it was not raining.  Now I didn't say it wasn't cold as heck and windy!!!  But boy did we have fun running around!

Family beach fun!

It finally started to rain again just as we were done at the beach.  We went back to our hotel room and sat inside watching movies and eating pizza while we watched it RAIN AND HAIL outside!!  We were beginning to see our hiking plans for day two fly out the window again!  The good news was...Coda adjusted to this hotel much faster and we even had our own little sliding glass door out back for potty breaks (for Coda, not us).

Coda watching the rain come down

Hail?  Isn't this supposed to be Spring Break?!

Yup...plans had to be changed because the hail and rain would just not stop!  We canceled our hikes in the Ecola State Park and decided to just stop whenever the weather wanted to be nice to us.  We drove through the cute city of Seaside and already decided this is a place we want to return to when it's sunny and nice out!  We then found a beach just North of Seaside that we could drive out on, so we stopped and played with Coda. 

Coda digging a hole in the sand

We drove out onto the beach...so cool!

Scare #2 happened at this beach.  Jason had Coda up in the back of the Highlander while he was cleaning him off.  Coda somehow wiggled his way out of Jason's hands and off he ran without a leash down the beach!  As I look behind me I see Jason running as fast as he could to catch him.  Coda was not turning back!  I get out the treat bag and call Coda and back he comes and sits for a treat!  Boy that puppy loves his freedom!!!

We finally left the beach, with puppy in tow, and headed on home.  Our last stop on the trip was the Astoria Column.  We climbed 164 stairs to get to the top and what an amazing view we had up there...until it started to rain AGAIN.  We had had our share of rain for one trip and were so ready to be home!

The view from the top

Me at the bottom of the Astoria Column

The lessons we learned from this trip are as follows:

• Be flexible!  The weather doesn't always work in your favor!
• Traveling with a dog is not as easy as you think it will be!
• Make the best of the situation you are given!