Best Freaking Day........despite my poor car

Wednesday night I almost met my girl Victoria in town for a show.  I was waiting to hear back from her when I thought maybe I'm tired and just want to go to bed.  So I did.  My result:  I got up early ready to take an adventure!!!!

I chilled for an hour drinking coffee and eating a bowl of granola with Tommy boy, then set off for the coast.  I decided to take the Tillamook way which spits me out of the Tillamook Forest a little farther south on the coast.  Upon this windy drive I kept seeing a river run next to the side of the road.  As cars around me were clearly speeding around on their daily routines to get to work, I started to get gravitated towards this aquamarine colored water.

 I saw a decent sized turnout and pulled into it to further inspect it.

There was a Trailhead like 150 feet away!  So I started walking towards the 1.5 mile hike to a waterfall, mostly because I am a sucker for waterfalls.

 I did kind laugh at myself though because I packed a bag full of water and snacks and all I had with me now was Tommy and my 12oz coffee.

It was a fun little walk.  There was a little bit of snow on the footbridge that began the hike.

 The path was well carved out and it was beautiful big mossy trees everywhere.  

(very few mushrooms)

There were a couple big rapids in the water and then I saw the waterfall.

 It covered the path I was on for more than ten feet, so I started grabbing big rocks to make a little bridge over it to take a picture.

I headed back to the car and now the sun was high and it was probably almost 50 degrees.  Driving west all if a sudden it started down pouring hail!

I pulled over while giant hail pellets busted down all around me! What the heck happened to my sunshine?!

The hail  stopped maybe 5 minutes up the road and the sun came out again over the Tillamook cow pastures.

I  recognized the town of Tillamook from a little road trip Alex and I had done.  More importantly I remembered getting real good fish tacos, so I headed right to that taco cart and found it with ease.

Now off to the beach!  I halfway knew where I was going but followed signs for Cape Lookout.  I was more intrigued by Netarts since I think I've seen Cape Lookout before so went northbound.  

Netarts is a little fishing bay which didn't have much in the way of a beach so I kept on.  The first beach I stopped at was just south of Oceanside and had them big beautiful rocks in the water.

As soon as I hit the beach I immediately found this giant piece of agate!!!

Jackpot!

Tommy ran after sand bugs as he tends to do while I climbed all over rocks, keeping my eyes peeled for more jewels.

I continued north until I saw a couple of cars parked by the side of the road.  Turns out I was at a place called Short Beach.  I followed a bunch of wooden steps down to see a rock covered beach with a few fishermen out in a distance.  

There was a giant rain pipe spewing water down so I leapt across a thin wooden plank with tommy in my arms to get to the other side.

On this beach there were these brown almost purplish rocks studded with jade and other crystalized segments.  I found one a bit bigger than a golf ball I took with me.

I saw 2 bald eagles flying overhead and then I saw a towering waterfall on the side!  So here I am at the ocean, with majestic eagles, big ole Oregon rock formations and a beautiful 80 foot waterfall, I couldn't be happier.

 I layed on the rocky beach where it felt super warm and maybe even tanned my face a smidge.  

I stayed here until 4pm ish.  Which was almost the perfect time because as I was about halfway to that plank I had to leap over, the sun hid behind a big cloud.

So I continued up this road although it said the road closed 2 miles up.  It did end although there was a trailhead and a gate open.  I went through the gate down a windy old growth forest road and It spit me out at Cape Meares.

 Apparently this is an epic bird watching place that has some a few different species of birds that dwell there, including PUFFINS!!!  

I'm so excited to go back with a pair of binoculars!.

 So it was a couple different viewpoints overlooking different rock masses and even a cute little lighthouse.

 I want to go back like today, but I have to work.

So at this point I have a choice, I could drive back on the way I came in on Rte 6 or I could continue along the coast and watch the sunset..... Umm maybe that choice thing is non existent because, I'm here!!!  I just have to pick a final spot.  I drive through Garibaldi but that looks like more of a beach.  I start into Rockaway Beach and all of a sudden its really cloudy, then I see a rainbow and I squeal with joy.

Then the hail is back!!!

I pull over and watch it and wait for it to stop.  As I drive away, I notice there is a beach stretch like right there.  So I find a good place to park, then a good rock to sit on and watch the sun go down with Tommy on my lap.

 At first there is a little drizzle so i hide Tommy under my big hood.  Right above the sunsetting is a giant rain cloud that is slowly breaking apart.  

It almost seemed to be sucking all the other clouds in the sky right into it.

So grateful for such a perfect beautiful day.

The car part in the title I need a separate blog to speak about. It's dark driving home on 26 and I spun out on ice and thought I was going over a cliff in the Tillamook Forest. I still haven't wrapped my head around it, but I'm ok, Tommy is ok. My car is not and my state of mind every morning is not in a good way but like I said I'll digest my situation and write later... 

I'm still calling it a great freaking day...

Breaking up is hard to do....

So today marks one week from when I broke up with Alex, right after I made us a yummy dinner of tortellini alfredo on Valentines Day.  I didn't realize it was a break up conversation at the time.  I knew we were having some problems, but all of a sudden came the inevitable end of us as a couple.

I never meant to fall for him.  I moved to Oregon on my own personal journey of discovery and somehow our relationship got thrown into the mix.  It was fun and easy and nice to have someone who already knew all these fun PNW adventure spots.  Somewhere along the lines I started working more and became less willing to work at a relationship.  In fact, I told him we should slow down and just go out on dates and only do the things.  I think mostly because I was starting to get unhappy in our relationship.  Especially when things just seemed mundane.  I no longer wanted to spend time at his place on Sauvie Island.  Mostly because he always had to run around and check on this and that, leaving me alone and bored there.  Oddly enough, he said that he would come to my place in the city and feel like he didn't know what to do with himself.  Although I never left him alone in my apartment.  I spoke to him a few times about not inviting me over just to leave me alone.

Back to the present moment:  I think about calling him or texting him everyday, sometimes many times a day, but I don't.  I don't want to confuse him or myself in my decision to call it quits.  Now I can go out and do whatever I want without thinking or even telling anybody else.  But to me, that seems like a lonely existence.  I really do like having someone to love and share the world with, but I need a partner.

The more days go by, the more I place anger in the fact that I got in a relationship before establishing myself in Portland.  Now I have to figure out all the things, while holding him in my heart.  Sometimes I'm mad at him throughout the day.  Not rationally speaking because I can't expect him to be someone who he isn't.  He is a wonderful man, whose kind and smart, but scattered to a fault.  I try to live my life to the fullest and take care of what I need to while doing so.  Right now I need to take care of me, but it seems harder now without his presence.

Shouldn't it be easier??!!

So another day goes by, and maybe each gets easier, but I just want to get over it already.  I can make my own adventures.

My head is a tilt-a-whirl that flip flops through good and bad memories.  I'm trying to relish both, after all I always expected to be a little lonely all the way over here on the West Coast, but I never really have until now.

First Post of 2017

Well as a person who hates politics, I still can't avoid that Donald Trump is now POTUS?!  It makes me think that all the presidents the last 50 years were never good people, but whomever the electoral collage could use as a scapegoat to blame all that is wrong with the world.

It just seems like a cruel joke.....

If you were wondering how my road trip was it was AMAZING!  I hit every stop as mentioned in my earlier post except for Yosemite.  It was just too far to travel out of our way in order to get me back to work in time, as well as to avoid all them snowy mountain regions.

Highlights include:

Kayaking the Santa Cruz sea caves on New Years Day.

Epic sunrise at Joshua Tree

....directly followed by waking up in a snow covered Yreka town just south of the Oregon border

Cacti and a hidden desert oasis

Waking up to the sound of the ocean

Seeing dolphins and getting splashed on a choppy boat ride

Miles and miles of Redwood trees to ourselves

Finding signs of spring!!!!

Although we never got a 70 degree day as we had hoped for.  We saw the sunset at least twice after 5pm in some really epic places