Oregon Coast

So much to post, such little time!
I just bought a "Groupon" to print my blog, Im so excited.But that means I have a lot of catching up to do!
I left off blogging over a month ago with our Memorial Day road trip (In May!), and its not September. The good news is Ive been busy planning a weddin'! Woohoo, less then 2 months away.
Back to the blog for now though, and lets go back in time to May.
We finished off our road trip getting back to the US and driving down the Washington and Oregon coast. It was so beautiful!
Since Im short on time, and heavy on posting, this post will be mostly pictures.
One of the first stops after getting off the boat was this beautiful lookout.
The West coast is so beautiful.



We stopped for a short hike..





That night we drove to Forks Washington, where Twilight was filmed.

I hate to admit this, but I was never a Twilight fan..I know I know. BUT, it was very entertaining being in a town SATURATED with Twlight stuff. The menu items were all named after the characters, the hotel rooms were named after them, there were cut out figures of them all over...it was hilarious.
Forks did have our favorite beach of the whole trip. The best part, we were alone almost the whole time!



Russ was happy to be at the beach!

We are getting so good at taking pictures of ourselves.



This picture was taken on another beach. Do not let this fool you, it was COLD. Everyone was walking around in coats and scarves and Russ was walking around with his shirt off. He was really ready for summer :)

Along the ride home we saw the most beautiful scenery!
I saw the most beautiful rainbows in my life...

Pretty back drops..

And of course, beautiful coastal views!!






We stopped for the "Worlds best clam chowder" in a cute small town.
I had clam chowder in a bread bowl and Russ had fresh crab!


Russ drives a truck and I drive a SUV, so we rented a car to save us on gas.
Our little rental got great gas mileage! If anyone is interested in a gas saver, this Ford..Focus (I think was great on gas. Ford didnt even pay me to say that.
I do feel bad that I am in this picture, because of the whole 10 days we were gone I swear I only drove this once. Thanks Russ, you did a fine job.


That night we camped along the beach. The water wasnt too close, but close enough you could hear it break on the shore. Unfortunately we had a lot of ground to cover so we didnt get to the spot until dark.
The next day we stopped at a really cool area that had this break in the rock that the water would come crashing through. It was really windy and cold, but it was fun.
Plus there was a Tiny dog running around that hated Russ and wanted to bite his ankles, so that was entertaining.

We had heard about a really good place to eat right along the water, and thought it was be a great chance to have a last meal of fresh fish!

There were all these cute little creatures out sun bathing. I thought Id join in.



We also stopped at the Tillamock cheese factory and did some taste testing, bought a TON of beef jerky and topped it off with some Ice cream.

I was pretty stoked to be in Oregon for my first time.

We covered a lot of road that day and made it all the way to California to drive through the Redwoods just before calling it a night.





Look how small the car looks in between these huge trees!

We had such a great trip!

The next morning we woke up really early and drove all the way back to Utah.
Half way home I got a frantic call from my mom telling me my roommate had called her to let her know my basement was flooding.
THANK YOU to my family who spent their whole Memorial holiday at MY house moving out my furniture and sucking out water and removing carpet until I could get home.
I owe them so much. What a pain to come home to, and such a helpless feeling to be 10+ hrs away while your family is working on your house on a holiday. Much love Kemps.

Introducing...

The soon to be Mr and Mrs Nelson!!

I could not be more thrilled.
I feel like such a lucky gal to be able to spend forever with this guy.
He is so kind, patient, loving, FUNNY, and all around awesome.

OH Canada!

Russ and I woke up really early the next morning and drove a couple hours to a ferry to take us over to Vancouver Island, Canada.
It was such a beautiful boat ride! That area is gorgeous. It was a bit chilly, but we stayed out on the deck and watched all the green islands go by, and hoped to see wild life (whales).

We made a short stop at San Juan Island.

Once we got on the island we drove around, found a place to stay and went to visit the famous Butchart Gargens.

It was amazing! We were told we went at a perfect time. Supposidly, the flowers were in the fullest bloom.



I had never seen so many bright, beautiful tullips.
They were huge gardens. Each area was from different parts of the world like Japaenese gardens, Italian..


This is one of my favorite pictures of this guy.

After we walked through the gardens, we stopped for Gelato and sat on the stairs to take in all the gardens while we ate it.


That night, stayed at a really pretty castle like place.
Surprisingly, it was inexpensive, and beautiful!


We went for a run that night around town. It was SO great. I LOVED it. For one, that night Canada had just advanced in hockey and everyone was going nuts! There had a been a big game that night that they won and everyone was stoked! As we were running, everyone was driving by honking their horns, and hanging out of their cars, and people on the streets were screaming at us in happiness asking if we watched the game. It was fun. After our run we stretched on the grounds of this pretty place...




Always having a good time :)


The next morning, we woke up and walked through the pretty gardens of our hotel and walked the streets of Victoria.


Victoria is such a pretty place. Lots of great buildings, fun little shops and restaurants right on the water, I loved it.







Later that day, it started to rain a a bit.
We took cover for lunch in China Town!

Victoria has a cute little fishermans Warf we spent the rainy afternoon at.


I would love this little warf house...so small, and oh so cute.

Evening in Victoria..


The next morning, we woke up early and went WHALE WATCHING!



It was so neat being out in the middle of the ocean and seeing these massive whales swim near you.

And the best part, I didnt even get sea sick...just a bit cold!

After the amazing whale watching, we had a quick bite of "Poutine" which was supposidly a real Canadian treat of fries with gravy and cheese curds.
It was actually really good!

Right before we were headed to jump on the Ferry back to US of A, I got to feed a wild little creature watching us eat our fries. He was SO SO cute!





Back on the ferry and back to the US!