West Coooooast!

After a grueling 13-hour drive (it was like, "Oh, hello California...goodbye California!") straight from the sandy desert of Burning Man to the sand dunes of Lincoln City, OR, we were SO ready to.... PARTY SOME MORE. Labor Day weekend was an absolute blast, as the celebratory binge continued daily, nightly, and hourly in a sweet beach house with eighteen friends, old and new. My first few hours awake on my first day there, as I sat on the couch looking out at the huge Pacific waves, I saw a whale spouting offshore! I honed my "skills" as a rocker chick with Rock Band on Wii, walked with my sweetheart on the endless sandy beach, soaked in the hot tub, and had a bonfire on the beach, complete with a bottle of JD, of course :)

This is the LIFE!

From there we visited one of my favorite places, Portland, OR, with one of my favorite people, my girl Meg. Meg & I took a x-country trek three years ago to attend Burning Man and see some sights. I returned to Maine; she stayed out west. So, every chance I get, I travel out there to spend some time with her and a bunch of my other friends who moved to that awesome city. It was great spending quality time catching up with friends from childhood, college, and Maine. We ate at some of my fave restaurants, did some shopping, and of course went to the arcade/bar.

We like to make silly faces & not focus on driving. Which is why we made such a great x-country team 3 years ago.

From there, we drove up the coast to Seattle. My old friend Peter was kind enough to let us stay with him at his place on Bainbridge Island, just off the coast. It was cool riding the ferry each day between the city & the island. It felt a lot like Portland, Maine and the islands of Casco Bay! Except there's no huge casino on Great Diamond Island...yet...

I hadn't seen Peter since high school, so it was fantastic catching up with him. He owns and operates a place called Cafe Incognito, so if you ever see me wearing the shirt, you'll know the story.

We spent an afternoon with my one and only Aunt Ronna, whom I haven't seen in years! It was a very happy (albeit small) family reunion. She took us out to eat, which was a welcome respite for our credit cards, and then we went to the beach which looks out at the incredible Olympic Peninsula. Olympic National Park is now on my life-list of places to visit - being so close and yet so far (it is a loooong drive or ferry ride to get out there!) was a tempting tease.