1-Year Anniversary!

Here's a pic of the Trumpeter Inn that we stayed at.

Wow... we just celebrated our 1-Year Anniversary on Sunday the 14th and are still amazed at how quickly time has flown by!

To celebrate, we decided to take a ferry over to Friday Harbor and stay at the Trumpeter Inn Bed & Breakfast. We were generously given a night's stay at the B&B from our friends Kevin, Tyson, and Dave for a wedding present last year. We figured what better time to use this great gift than to celebrate our 1-Year Anniversary!

So after church we headed up to Anacortes and hopped on the ferry to Friday Harbor. Kyle and I, being the nerds that we are- played cribbage the entire ferry ride while Kyle snuck a peak at any map of the islands he could get his hands on. :)

Did we mention yet that the weather was PERFECT? A beautiful sunny weekend- we couldn't have asked for better weather.

We got to the B&B, dropped our stuff off in the room and proceded to explore the grounds and relax for a bit on the amazing hammock. We need to get one of those asap. :) It was a great, relaxing beginning to our trip.




The lighthouse with the sun setting in the background.



Then we got out our 1-year old wedding cake and brought it out to our private balcony to share. We sampled a little of the cake and have to say that it was a fun tradition-- but that the cake loses a little something after a year we think... ;)  

Next up, we (ok- mostly Kyle) pined over a few more maps to figure out where to begin our adventure and we decided to head over to Roche Harbor for a delicious dinner at McMillin's. Great food and an even better view from our table that overlooked the harbor.  After dinner, we drove over to this lighthouse just in time to catch a beautiful sunset. We had made the brilliant decision to bring the picnic backpack that the Burdicks had given to us for a wedding present, which ended up being a perfect. We laid out our blanket and poured ourselves some wine to stay awhile and marvel at the beautiful evening. And did we mention that our B&B had a hot tub? We fully took advantage of the empty hot tub when we got back to the B&B and shared a little vino while looking up at the stars. Great and relaxing way to end the evening!



The next day we woke up to a delicious breakfast of fruit, eggs, and breakfast potatoes made by our B&B host and we met and chatted with some of the other guests. Kyle made a new best friend, like usual. ;) Just kidding, but we did meet a nice couple with similar interests and had a nice conversation over breakfast. After breakfast we checked out and explored the island, driving around and stopping off at various beaches and lighthouses along the way. We had a great time looking out at the water, skipping rocks, and enjoying the sunshine! Then we headed back into town for some yummy chowder and salad and shopped around a bit before hopping back on the ferry to head home.

All in all, what a wonderful way to end our first year of marriage/ start our second year! Looking forward to many more adventures to come in year two! 

 

Oregon Business Trip & Vacation!

After a long blogging hiatus, we thought we'd skip ahead to our most recent adventure...

What fun weekend we just had!

This past weekend we headed down to Tualitin, Oregon for a business trip to look at a dental equipment and cabinetry manufacturer called A-dec and check out what they had to offer.  When we were invited to go visit the facility they called it a VIP trip and we didn't think much of it at the time, but they really spoiled us over the 3 days and 2 nights we were there.  Welcome to the business world, I guess.  We had a great time, learned about a great dental equipment supplier, and got to stay in a beautiful hotel by the water.   Here's a picture of us in front of the hotel that they put us up in.

After the business portion of our trip, we headed down to visit our friends Brittany and Taylor at their house in Albany, OR.  Taylor is a police officer in nearby Corvallis, so we headed over there for the day, walked along the Willamette River, did some shopping, visited an art show, saw Oregon State University's campus, and ate dinner at the Block 15 Brewery.  Here are some pictures of us in front of a fountain at a riverside park

On our way home from Brittany & Taylor's house, we decided to stop by the Willamette Valley Vineyard and do a little bit of wine tasting.  For anyone who hasn't tried it- they have the BEST Riesling!  Yumm... we bought a few bottles, took some pictures of the incredible view from their tasting room, and hit the road again.

Next up... a few hour pit stop at the Clark County Fair, where we played some games, won an awesome prize (not really- it was a black velvet pilow that said "Vegas" on it), looked at some smelly farm animals, and tried our luck at the fast pitch contest.  Kelly set the record for her age group by throwing the fastest pitch of the day.  Please note she tied with an 11 year old, pretty impressive :)

It was starting to get late and we still had almost 3 hours of driving left, so we scarfed some delicious County Fair bbq sandwich and curly fries and got back on the road.  After coming to a complete stop at three separate car accidents, which significantly extended our remaining "3 hour drive" on the way home, we rolled in about 10 pm and hopped in bed.

All in all, we had a blast exploring Oregon, seeing good friends, and having some random adventures on our leisurely drive home.  All that fun and we never even hit up Portland!  Oh well, maybe next time.