on august 18, 2007 two things happened:
– matt & i got married!
– a category 5 hurricane slammed our honeymoon destination.
we scrambled around to create a plan b and ended up in the mountains of north carolina in the beautiful vacation home of some friends of ours. our jamaica getaway was rescheduled for two months later. after that we started a business and vacation was a little bit of a foreign idea to us for a while… ;)
fast forward two years. we struggled to do it, but we successfully blocked off three (consecutive) precious summer weekends. we were finally planning a trip together! just matt & me, heading out west to explore a new landscape, relax & rejuvenate! but then, just before we booked airfare, we found the perfect little home for us and welcomed baby stella into our lives. it was SUCH an exciting time for us but before we knew it those three weeks were over and we were still surrounded by boxes and discovering little ‘gifts’ stella was leaving all over the house. love her.
SO THIS WAS THE YEAR! we blocked off three weekends without looking back and booked airfare as soon as we could to cement our plans. june 28th snuck up on us and before we knew it we were sipping coffee in seattle- shortly after we found ourselves surrounded by snow on mount rainier, followed by a rainy day in astoria before walking cannon beach and hitting up portland including an afternoon exploring the columbia river gorge. from there we stopped for fresh veggies in eugene, oregon on our way to crater lake where we breathed deeply before wandering down the coast to petaluma, napa and sonoma. we followed that with a couple days in san francisco before leaving for big sur and landing in orange county to catch up with old friends where we threw on hoodies for an afternoon in laguna beach before finally crashing in san diego for a couple of days and catching a flight home. oh you guys, it was AWESOME! we saw some of the most beautiful landscapes we’ve ever seen, ate some of the very best food we’ve ever had and generally vacated life in georgia for 15 days of exploration! there is no way to recap it in one blog post- it was hard enough to narrow our pictures down to 900! but here are a few of our faves:
ace hotel, seattle, washington:
we were so happy to have some of our favorite people EVER join in for the first week of the trip! erin & sean moved to california last year and we miss them so much. kerry park, seattle, washington:
gas works park, seattle, washington:
mount rainier, ashford, washington
judge if you like but i couldn’t help but be reminded of stephenie meyer’s description of the forests in the pacific northwest- everything covered in green moss and ferns- even tree trunks. i couldn’t help but fall in love with the emerald, foggy landscape as we hiked and wandered all over the area:
goonies, anyone!? cannon beach, oregon:
we stopped to smell an overwhelming number of roses at the international rose test garden, portland, oregon:
crater lake, crescent lake, oregon:
tasting wine and wild plums at bartholomew park winery, sonoma, california:
cave tour and tasting at gundlach bundschu winery, sonoma, california:
thrilled & overwhelmed at baker creek heirloom seed bank in petaluma, california:
golden gate bridge, san francisco, california:
bird rock, monterey, california:
we loved this little cottage! it reminded us of how we always pictured shell cottage in the order of the phoenix, nerdy much?
bixby bridge, big sur, california:
really i could go on for days about the amazing experience it was to see all of this but i’m cutting myself off now. i hope you enjoyed some of the images as much as we enjoyed living them! thanks so much for making it all the way through our trip ramblings- we’ll be back to regular scheduling starting NOW, so watch our for kayla & newton’s photobooth in the near future!