Birthdays and Beaches

In September we started out the month by going to the Oregon State Fair on Labor Day with our friends the Darringtons. We did it last year and decided it would be fun to do again. It made it even better that we were able to get some free tickets thanks to our friend who was working at the fair.

It was about the same as last year, but Mark tried a deep-fried Twinkie this time and loved it. It wasn't my favorite thing - a little too much breading. Cee loved the petting zoo again this year and went back in a few times throughout the day. We also saw a couple of shows and did a walk-through of the pitchmen area. If Mark hadn't been with me, I would have spent a lot more time in there; definitely some interesting products for sale.

September is also the birth month of my husband and myself. For Mark's b-day, I made him a peanut butter chocolate cake. It tasted better than it looks, although definitely very rich. If I make it again, I'd skip the chocolate ganache layer on top.

For my birthday, a friend was very thoughtful and invited us for dinner so I wouldn't have to cook (it being on a Sunday and all). I got spoiled this year with a new car and laptop computer. I love our new Scion xB!

Since our birthdays are only a week apart, I thought it'd be fun to get away for a short trip to the coast. We rented a small condo in Gearheart (near Seaside) that you could walk to the beach from. We headed out on Friday afternoon and spent the afternoon in Seaside by eating ice cream, buying treats and gourmet root beer for our upcoming Oktoberfest. We also had delicious fish 'n chips at Norma's for dinner and then spent some time swimming in the pool at the condo complex. We have some cute video of Cee in Seaside that I'll have to get Mark to post.

The following day we headed across the street to McMennamin's Sand Trap for breakfast and then took advantage of the grounds to take some 2-year old pictures of Cee (posted previously). After pictures, we walked over to the beach for a couple hours. It was fairly warm, although quite windy. Cee had fun building sand formations and digging in the sand.

After the beach, we headed up to Astoria to check out the sites. For a bit of history, Astoria was the first permanent settlement on the Pacific Coast back in the early 1800's. It's named after America's first millionaire, John Jacob Astor, who established his fur trading company there.

We took a ride on the trolley that goes around town. It seemed like there were a lot of times when the tour guide would say, "this place used to be a _____". I think Astoria's heyday has passed. Not too much going on there nowadays and lots of empty factories. It is really beautiful though, especially driving into the city, and was worth a day trip.

There were a few movies filmed there in the 80's and 90's, most notably, The Goonies. I didn't see that movie until I was in my 20's and so it holds no nostalgic charm for me and otherwise isn't that great of a movie. Mark loves it though, so we had to make sure and stop by the house they used in the film.

We also stopped by the Flavel House (an old Victorian Mansion), but sadly they were closing in 15 minutes and we didn't have time to do the tour. We walked around the grounds and I peaked in all the windows that I could.

On the way to dinner at The Cannery (a decision based on the strong recommendation of the trolley guide), we made a stop along a dock and walked out to see a very large group of sea lions barking and fighting each other over the limited space to lay out. It was surprisingly entertaining and Cee loved it and got pretty good at doing her own Sea Lion bark. Dinner was really delicious and afterwards we headed back to our condo. We left the next morning to head back.

It was a great mini break to spend time together with our little family. I'm so blessed and thankful for them everyday and made for a wonderful birthday weekend.