Sunday, March 29, 2009

The Holly & The Ivy & The Beach

I know there is more to tell about the Louisiana trip, but I'm still processing that. So for now . . .

Today was a crazy long day.


First, I left my house at 8:30 am to head to West Linn to help eraticate holly from a City Park. (Seriously, I'm not normally this philanthropic!)





Here we are! My friends and I after we'd been pulling holly out of the ground for an hour and a half.





And here's the pile of Holly we chopped, pulled, and tore from the ground . . . well . . . really, us and about 55 other volunteers :)

Then, as you may know, I love to be spontaneous and so does my friend Alyssa. So, on our way across town to drop her at her apartment we decided to go to Target . . . in Sherwood. As we were leaving Target we realized it had become a sunny beautiful day . . . one that should not be wasted inside. That was all it took to convince us to turn around and head to the Coast.





Here's Alyssa and I at the Coast. It was crazy windy and cold and we were crazy grubby and dirty from frollicking in the forest all morning.






It was beautiful. But seriously, we were only near the water for about 15 minutes. The wind was so cold my fingers hurt everytime I took them out of my pockets for more than a few minutes.



We also discovered this rock, which looks suspiciously like Haystack rock but isn't. It's located near Pacific City, OR. Does anyone know the name of it? It you do, pass it on. Alyssa and I would like to know.

Lessons Learned on this fabulous adventure?

1. Holly is a prickly, viny, infiltrating, non-native plant to the woods of Oregon . . . and with enough girl power you can pull big ol' stumps of it out of the ground!

2. When you decide to head to the beach, you should look at a map. You're probably a lot further south then you thought you were.

3. There is a crazy big a** airplane hanger just south of Tillamook, OR. What is that about?

4. The Pirate's Cove restaurant in Garibaldi, OR has some fabulous clam chowder, fantastic seafood fettucine, and even better service. And the view is spectacular.

5. When you leave for the Coast at 4 pm, you DO NOT have enough time to make it all the way up the coast to Cannon Beach AND get back to Portland at a decent hour.

6. Spontaneity is good for the soul.

3 comments:

Kaira said...

Did you know there is a haystack rock in Cannon Beach AND pacific city? That looks just like the one in pacific city.

and that huge airplane hanger... it has a basketball hoop hanging in the top of it! I remember being a kid and just staring up at it wondering how in the world they got it up there.

Jackie said...

When Beth said ya'll went to the coast I thought it was a planned thing. I like you more knowing that it wasn't.

AND!

I just spent an hour and a half talking about all things twilight with Dondi Harmon. You and I need to get together. I'm reading The Host right now and can't put it down. What did you think?

Michelle said...

I was wondering in the first group picture if Rea was bent like that b/c of pulling the holly so long, maybe she couldn't stand. However, pic #2 I see her standing. Whew! Loved this post and your sense of humor and adventure!

My security word is impho. Sounds like either a naughty word or another way to pronounce "info", depending on how you pronounce it. haha