My Aching Back

Where do I even begin? I must warn at the beginning that I feel like I've been holding all these details inside of myself waiting for a moment to blog that now I will be sharing many details that some of you might not care about. If so, just look at the pictures. If you like details I will begin my story with Thursday, May 21st. Cam found out that he had a short Friday on the 22nd and if I could get off a few hours early on Friday then we could jump start our Memorial Day weekend. We thought about going to Utah but decided that going to Portland, Oregon would be better. We got all ready the night before and headed out around 12:30 on Friday. I picked Cam up and had rolled down the back window to let some nice freash air flow through the car. As we stopped to grab something to eat I went to roll it up and it just slid further down. SO, we spent the whole trip across the state trying to keep it up and were unsuccessful.
The whole trip is pretty much driving close between Washington and Oregon as you follow the river. There were some places that looked familiar, especially this gas station by a dam, from when my family took a trip to the Oregon coast. We switched drivers right before the Dalles and I started driving and Cam fell asleep, boy was he missing out... that's where it starts to get pretty and it was such a beautiful drive I just enjoyed myself to pieces as I drove through thick green trees and drank my Mango Gatorade. We got to Portland and drove right through it to Vancouver, WA where we were staying with the Rhoades family. We picked up Bryan and with his native tour guide skills we found a place to eat dinner and went back into Portland to the Rose Festival. We were just walking though and looking at booths along the river and my back started hurting for no reason. There was one really cool booth that was selling Gelly Baths. You but this stuff in your tub and thickens up and holds the tempurature for up to 2 hours. Really neat stuff. We found a spot to sit and waited for the fireworks, which was the real reason we went to the Rose Festival.


This is us down by the river before the fireworks, they were fun to watch with the reflection in the river.
On Saturday we got up and found a place to get our stinking car window fixed. If cost a pretty penny, but became functional once again. With that all figured out we went to the Oregon Museum of Science and Industry (OMSI). They had just started a new CSI exhibit that same day so we were pretty excited. It's an interactive museum and as you can see Cam was the first one at the crime scene.

But it's a good thing that I've got his back and take such good notes on the case and take care of things in the lab.

Cam's really a big fan of CSI:NY but got a picture here with Grissam who we reported to on this case. :)

After we went through the CSI portion we looked at the other stuff. There was so much to do and I wish we would have had more time there. Everything was hands on and there was a biology lab and a physics lab and a cool air vent you could make paper helicopters fly over and and spinning wheel that we played with for a long time and and and I could go on but OSMI is just a great place.

After OMSI we did a little shopping, again not as much time as I would have liked and finished the night off by watching Saturday's Warriors. What a treat!

On Sunday after we got out of church we headed to the beach. As you can see from the pictures, we had sunny days the whole time we were in Portland and Vancouver which wasn't the usual but was very nice vacation weather. Even with the sun shining, it was the Oregon coast and I wore jeans and never took my jacket off. I liked this picture of Cam taking a nap with a football pillow. The whole time we were at the beach I was reading Harry Potter and loving our time there.

The beach was called Cannon Beach I think and this rock is called Haystack rock. If my memory serves me correctly this rock is in Goonies.

Sunday night was full of laughs, we just sat with the Rhoades and talked and laughed til our cheeks hurt, they are a riot!

On Memorial Day we decided to head off earlier in the day and stop at things on our way back. We missed out first stop, IKEA, I saw it on our way into Portland but we never saw it on our way out. So our second planned stop, and first actual stop was at Mutinomah Falls. We waiting for a half an hour for a parking spot but it was pretty to see and we eventually got our pictures.

We also stopped at Bonneville Dam, and then at the "Bridge of the Gods," which gives such a beautiful view over the Columbia.

In the same town as "Bridge of the Gods" we ate lunch at a small hometown restaurant with really good sandwiches and had some Tillamock Oregon Strawberry Ice Cream for dessert. All tax free thanks to being in Oregon.

Our last stop of the day was the the Maryhill Museum. We didn't go in the museum but looked at the sculptures on the grounds. Can you guess what this is called?

TACO BELL!

The same guy that built the museum built a replica of Stonehenge a few miles away and I really liked seeing that. The Museum and Stonehenge replica are just right in the middle of no where. You are back to the desert and there's no green trees on the hills and then there's a large impressive building that doesn't fit in and that's it. Adds to the "coolness" I guess.

And that was Memorial Day!

My back was hurting worse and worse all weekend and I finally got to see a Chiropractor on Tuesday. My X-rays show I have spinabifida and a chip off my hip, BUT neither of those are a problem at all. I have degenerative joints in my back so it looks like a 30-40 year old back. After being adjusted and putting lots of ice on my back I feel 100% better but I'm going to have to keep going back to the chiropractor and take care of my back to keep it healthy and from getting any worse.

This weekend Cam and I have been house sitting. It's a Super nice house, pretty new because they just moved in last fall, and has great architecture and style. We're going to really feel cramped when we go back to our apartment next Friday, but we're have a good time here.