Weekend excursion: Tillamook

Since I'm feeling prolific tonight, I'm going to post twice. Fred and I both managed to get Friday afternoon off last week, so we got an early start to our weekend. We drove all the way out to Hillsboro to eat a late lunch at an Indian restaurant some of his coworkers had told him about. It was great, but since it was a buffet, I ate way too much and was miserable the rest of the night. We didn't even eat dinner. We did stop by our favorite farm stand to get a watermelon, corn, and half a flat of berries. Between the two of us, all the berries were gone by breakfast today. And I didn't even bake anything with them.

Then on Saturday we got up and made our way out to the coast. On the way, we stopped at the Tillamook Forest Center. We had a lot of fun learning about the forest and taking a short walk along the Wilson River. And we got our pictures taken with Smokey.


Afterward we made our way to Tillamook to visit one of our favorite Oregon places--the Tillamook cheese factory. Maybe I shouldn't speak for Fred, but it's definitely high on my list. Our first stop was to get an ice cream cone (they make more than cheese there). We skipped the tour and the cheese sample line because it was pretty busy, but we did make it to the cheese shop to pick up a couple of bags of cheese curds and a pepperoni stick. We came prepared with a cooler for the cheese, but did make quite a dent in one bag of curds before we made it home.

Wedding #2: Missouri

This post is a long time in the making. I started it over a week ago but didn't finish it because all of the pictures from MO weren't on the computer yet. It took me until today to upload. Here's the description of the rest of our trip:

We flew from Los Angeles to St. Louis on Wednesday, July 2. We got in just in time to head downtown and catch a Cardinals game with Lynn and Ryan, courtesy of Ryan's dad Paul. We had a lot of fun catching up with them and getting to see the new stadium. Thankfully, we were sitting in covered seats, because a summer thundershower passed through early in the game.


We spent the next few days helping to get ready for the rehearsal and wedding. And visiting the Missouri Wall of Fame. That's me and Mark Twain. Yep, he's from Missouri. And famous. We were there while the Mississippi was flooded. It's on the other side of the floodwall--probably up to about Mark's shoulder. Good thing the wall is there.


Here's a picture of us all dressed up for the wedding:


And one of the school bus that took us from the wedding to the reception:


And finally, one of Ryan and Sarah and their wedding party:


The wedding was beautiful and we had a nice but short visit with family and friends. Overall, it was a long trip (11 days, 2 weddings, 5 beds slept in, 4 flights, and 1 lost suitcase), and while we had a good time, we were definitely glad to be back in our normal routine when we returned.

Wedding #1: California

Fred and I got home yesterday from, as my co-worker Michelle described it, "flitting about the country to attend weddings." Our first trip was to Los Angeles, where Fred's friend and college baseball teammate Brian and his fiancee Kathy were getting married.

We got in on Friday at lunchtime, Amy picked us up from the airport, and she and Christopher entertained us until we had to be downtown for the rehearsal on Saturday. We had a great time with them, especially since we hadn't spent much time together since we all got married two years ago (Christopher and Amy got married two weeks after we did). Below is a picture that Amy took of Fred and I at Zuma Beach near Malibu.


The wedding was on Sunday, and it was very nice. I really enjoyed meeting several of Fred's teammates from college. After the wedding, we spent two relaxing days with Fred's Aunty Jane in Redondo Beach. She was kind enough to drive us out to Claremont, where Harvey Mudd (Fred's alma mater) is located. It was fun to get to finally see all of Fred's old haunts, and Claremont is a really pretty town. Here's a picture of Fred and Aunty Jane at Harvey Mudd:


Overall it was a very nice trip. We flew out Wednesday for Missouri, where my brother Ryan and his fiancee Sarah got married on July 5. I'll write more about that trip soon.