First Anniversary Weekend: The Dalles to Lacey

The alarm went off at 9ish, but we didn't get out of bed until about 9:30. We got dressed and packed up our stuff, making sure to check around the bed and the bathroom to ensure we didn't forget anything. We crammed it into the Edge and went back one more time to double check we didn't leave anything behind. This hotel didn't serve breakfast so, Ben went and checked us out at the front office.

We drove the short distance to the Walmart for some yogurt, bagels and fruit but this Walmart was so old and is in the middle of remodeling, they didn't have any fresh fruit for their customers. I was disappointed because now we had to stop at the Safeway in the opposite direction. Oh well. We stopped at the Safeway and grabbed some apples, bananas and a couple spoons for our yogurt. We ate as we drove east towards The Dalles.

We got onto I-84 and drove the quick 20 miles. We followed Ben's GPS to the 18-hole disc golf course at Sorosis Park, which was up the hill (it had great reviews), so that is the one the Ben picked for this area to try. It shared an area with Columbia Gorge Community College.

We got to the parking area just before 11. It was already starting to get hot. Ben and I both put-on sunscreen before we began. We spent some time warming up our arms - stretching our arms and throwing some putts. There were a few people in the parking lot getting ready for singles but, they weren't going to start until noon...by that time, we would be almost done.

Both Ben and I had some great throws but also, we had some struggles at a couple of the holes. We both hit par several times, Ben hit under par and we both hit over par a few times. There was a hole were Mount Hood was a perfect back drop. We had some shade but most of the course was out in the open. By noon, the temperature was 97 degrees - hot and sweaty weather. We finished the course just before 1 p.m. Ben was +5 and I was +8, which isn't too bad considering we really don't keep score when we play.

We used the restroom at the park before we left. I took some time to enjoy the flowers and the views of the city, Mount Adams and the Columbia River down below. 

I walked back towards the car and met back up with Ben. We put our stuff in the back, I changed my shoes and we went back down the hill to grab one of the famous geocaches in the area, Sgt. Bill's Travel Bug Hotel (GCM8MP). It had a ton of favorite points.

It was in a neighborhood and fastened on the outside of a person's fence inside the mailbox. We were hoping the person didn't come outside and talk to us. I just wanted to grab and go. We parked right in front of the gate and saw the cache immediately. Ben and I got out and got it unlocked, grabbed the logbook and found some travel bugs to discover and trade out. I got a few pictures and locked it back up for the next geocacher(s).

I asked Ben if we should eat before we leave town and he said yes. We drove around but didn't find anything worthwhile, plus we had to find something that had some gluten free options as well. Sometimes that is hard to find when you are traveling. We settled on a place called Cousin's and wondered if it was related to the places in Centralia and Pasco. 

We found a place to park and wow, when you got out of the car, it was like being in an oven. It was well over 100 degrees at this point. The asphalt made it worse. 

We went inside and had to wait less than 10 minutes to be seated. We looked at the menus, and both decided that the huckleberry lemonades looked awesome. We both ordered the sandwich, of course Ben's was gluten free, I got a salad and he got the fries. While we waited, we talked about how awesome the year before was and reminisced about it. We also posted about our first anniversary to our friends and family.

I wrote: 

"Here we are, one whole year, from of the greatest days I've ever had. I was thankful to be surrounded by our family and closest friends, while Ben and I started a new chapter of our lives together.

Life is not the same as it was a year ago - if it was, there would be no growth. We are further along in our quest into being property owners, I was promoted at work, Ben is now a Lead in his job, our health is getting back to normal, and we are slowly getting back into having more time for our hobbies and adventures. We were able to visit Europe for the first time - a destination I've had on my bucket list for decades. Now that we have, we want to go explore new countries and have new experiences.

Ben, you have been my best friend since I met you back in late October 2013. I loved that we share the same hobbies and pretty much have the same outlook on a lot of topics. It's been a huge adventure all these years getting to where we were, to where we are now. I am excited to see where it goes. There will be ups and there will be downs but we will figure it out, together. Love you, always."

He wrote: 

"Happy one year anniversary to my amazing wife, Val! Our journey to now has been an adventure and I would haven it another way. Here is a toast to many more adventures and memories made along the way. I love you with all my heard and thank you for saying, "I do"."

We ate our food. I was a lot hungrier than I thought I was. It hit the spot for the drive back home. Our waiter came back around and asked if we wanted refills. I told him the drink was so good that I wanted a refill, but we were going to leave soon. He told us that there wasn't any problem and went and got us our refills in to go cups. We thought that was very kind of him to do that. He got a great tip from us.

We walked back to the car, and I checked my GasBuddy app, and the cheapest gas was at the Fred Meyer nearby for $3.79. We filled up, drove across the Columbia River and onto Hwy 14. The drive home was uneventful for the most part. I told Ben stories along the way of my past adventures on Hwy 14 over the years. Most of them being geocaching ones. We merged onto Hwy 205 through Vancouver and eventually onto I-5 north. We saw that the new In-N-Out was super busy. I'd like to go but it is so new I thought I would wait a little bit longer before eating there.

We have been in the car for a while up to this point, we thought it would be smart to stop at the Gee Creek Rest Area to use the restroom and to stretch, plus there were two geocaches we didn't have. We grabbed NB Gee Creek Rest Area - South (GCAMMY2) and NB Gee Creek Rest Area - North (GCAMMYF), both were easy finds. 

We got back onto I-5 north and made it home around 6:45. We unloaded Ben's car and then I hopped into the Escape to grab a couple things from the store since we were gone most of the weekend.

We got in a shower, ran a load of laundry, relaxed and ate the slice of our wedding cake that has been sitting in the freezer for a year. I was surprised it lasted a year in the freezer. It actually tasted like cake! We also took a shot of our special occasion whiskey and then got ready for the busy work week.

Happy 1st Anniversary Ben!

Next Adventure: WSGA SW Chapter Campout in Menlo, Wash.

First Anniversary Weekend: Lacey to Hood River

We knew we wanted to do something during our first wedding anniversary, but we ran out of time to come up with something cool to do for our anniversary. It kinda snuck up on us because we've been so busy. Plus, Ben was not able to take the Friday off at such short notice and someone else already had it off so, we decided we were going to do a quick weekend trip down to Hood River, a place we went to during our first dating anniversary.

We checked to see if there was a hotel available on such short notice. We thought we may have trouble finding one due to last minute booking and it being in the busy season. Ben found one at the Sunset Motel. I mean, it's just one night and it has a shower and a bed. Pretty much all we would need. Now, we just had to get our stuff packed up and get up early on that Saturday. Not gonna lie - I struggle getting up that early on a weekend.

On that Friday after work, we washed the clothes we thought we might need and packed up the stuff we usually do when we go away for the weekend. I had asked Rhonda to feed the cats on Saturday night and Sunday morning and she said she would. We got a key over to her. We got cleaned up and set our alarms for early o'clock.

We got up at 6:30, got ready and packed up the rest of the stuff we would need. I ate a bagel, a fried egg and a yogurt and Ben had a sausage and egg sandwich. We loaded up the Edge, since it was Ben's turn to drive, and headed out. We got onto I-5 south at Tumwater and made our way down to Grand Mound, where Ben got off the freeway so he could get a coffee at the Dutch Bros.

We continued on I-5 south and just cruised for a while. We needed a stretch/restroom break, so we stopped at the Gee Creek Rest Area to take that quick intermission and to find a geocache we didn't have yet. We got the restroom stuff out of the way first and then walked over to the coordinates for Snack Stop (GCANBYT). It was easy to find but the best part it was a cheeseburger!

We walked back to the Edge, threw away some of our garbage and got back onto I-5 south. I had Ben merge onto Hwy 205 and then eventually onto Hwy 14. I was seriously hoping we didn't have to follow a truck, a motorhome or motorcycles on that road. Yay, no obstacles in front of us. We should make pretty good time to Beacon Rock. Yep, I made sure we had our Discover Pass with us.

We pulled up on Beacon Rock, and it was super busy (we knew it would be). We found a parking spot; we changed our shoes and headed on up the trail. Ben wanted to do this with his mom and sister a couple years ago, but it was closed due to weather damage. We had to follow, pass and step aside several times on our way up. It isn't a long hike, but it took a while to get up there just because there were so many people. 

We got to the top and it started to get warm. I had Ben do the virtual cache up there since I had done it in the past. We got some pictures and enjoyed the view of the Columbia River Gorge from our vantage point. It was a beautiful, clear day. The river sparkled, the fresh air smelled nice and it was great getting in some exercise. We started our way down and had to dodge people on the way back to the Edge. It didn't take us as long to get back down. Once we were down, we used the restroom and Ben did the earthcache at the bottom of Beacon Rock.

We got back in the Edge, and I directed Ben to North Bonneville. I wanted to do the 5-waypoint Bigfoot Adventure Lab and show him the statues of the bigfoots. Mom and I had come out this way before Covid and did the entire walk. Back then, they were geocaches, since then, they were turned into an Adventure Lab instead. We had fun hanging out with the sasquatches and walking along the trail. It was such a nice day to be outside without any responsibilities! We stopped at the Chevron to replenish our ice and grabbed a couple of candy bars - a Reese's PB cup for Ben and a big Tootsie Roll to snack on.

We got back onto Hwy 14 and headed east. We talked about where we wanted to eat for lunch on the 6-mile drive to Bridge of the Gods. I was so glad between the two of us we had $3 in cash for the toll. We puttered across the bridge and handed the lady our three dollars. Now, we were on the Oregon side of the Columbia River in Cascade Locks, a popular hub along the Pacific Crest Trail.

Like I mentioned before, this is the area we explored and stayed in during our first dating anniversary back in October 2014. We didn't have a lot of money back then, so we had to find cheap things for us to do. That included silly pictures and random places. One of those random places to take a silly picture at was underneath the bridge. There was a mural down there near a small parking lot people sell fish and other wares at. We noticed a cougar who looked surprised and thought it looked hilarious, so we tried our best imitation, and it became a funny memory of ours. 

Now that we were there again, 11 years later, we needed to get an updated picture. Of course, we knew it wasn't going to be a perfect replica, but we were going to sure try. We did take a few pictures with the selfie stick and picked the best one to compare the 2014 one to.

I asked Ben if he was hungry because we were near the Thunder Island Brewery, a place I wanted to eat lunch and drink a beer at. He told me that he could eat. We found a place to park off the street and went inside. The main restaurant was upstairs. We were seated right away and given menus. I knew right away what drink I wanted. I really don't like IPA's or IPL's but this one I had to have just because of the name. I ordered a Thunder Buddy - yeah, from Ted. Thunder buddies for life! Ben had the Jamaica - a hard agua fresca. 

Our waitress came back with our drinks, and Ben ordered an appetizer of chips and salsa while we still decided what we wanted for lunch. She came back a few minutes later and Ben and I hammered down what we wanted. Ben got a salmon and I got a chicken rice bowl. They were surprisingly good for being considered "healthy" food. We finished our food, paid and used the restroom before we left. I got myself a sticker too.

We left Cascade Locks and made our way to the freeway to head east towards Hood River. Once we did get into town, we immediately started to find some geocaches up Hwy 35. The first one we stopped at was Mount Hood View (GCA5XHT). We parked at the turn out, crossed over the guard rail down a small trail overlooking the Hood River. You could see people tubing down below. It took us a few minutes to find the cache. It was about 91 degrees.

We got back to the Edge and continued driving south. I saw a puzzle cache, Dog River Original (GC1YHTG) we could stop and get at an informational sign. It talked about the site of the first sawmill in the valley between 1861 and 1886. We had to grab numbers off of it and plug it into some coordinates that were missing some numbers. A typical puzzle cache.

We got the missing numbers and plugged it into the coordinates. It took us about a mile away from the posted coordinates. We followed the road and it took us out to a cemetery with a great view of Mount Hood. We pulled off to the side of the road once we got closer to the coordinates we had. The only place a cache could have been in this area is on the tree that was nearby. Ben stayed in the Edge while I walked to the tree. It was a fake bird house cache. I got our names in it and put it back.

I looked at the geocaching app to see if there were a grouping of caches, we could do nearby. I found a short power trail not too far away from where we were. Ben said he was game. We drove up the road, and it eventually turned into a dirt road. The first one we stopped at was called HS-67 Evil End (GC364AP). We could not figure this one out for the life of us. I was super convinced this one was missing. The cache owner did a great job with this one. We decided to abandon it and come back to look for it again on the way back down.

We moved onto the next one up the road. HS-66 Dog Barks (GC364AK). We found a wide spot in the road to pull the car over into. We both got out and started searching. We knew it was by the stump but couldn't see it right away. It was exposed and upside down about two feet from the stump. We signed our name and put it back better than we found it so it wouldn't slide down into the deep ditch.

HS-65 (GC364AE) was a little further up the road. This one was a quick find next to some pinecones. Ben stayed in the car while I jumped out and grabbed it quickly. I put it back right where I found it after getting our names on it.

The next one, HS-64 (GC364AD) we both got out to find. A local person stopped his truck to see what we were doing, and we told him we were geocaching. He told us he used to geocache a lot and that it was cool that there were geocaches down his road. He shared some stories and some of his geocaching adventures in the past. He knew that we wanted to continue on, so he gave us his geocaching contact info for some reason. We thanked him and he went about the rest of his day.

We made our way to the last one, HS-63 (GC364AB) of this mini power trail. This one was a quick find. We got our names on the log and put it back where we found it. We followed the road back down to HS-67. We pulled over and searched the area again. This time it didn't take us long to find what we were looking for. The reason why we found it was because the device moved slightly. We both exclaim, I touched that so many times! I knew I should have gone with my first instinct, but it really looked like it belonged there. 

We drove back into town and went to the Marina area to grab three more geocaches before grabbing dinner. We found Maria Adventure (GC49RBV), Wind Blown (GC53VTD) and 4 Paisley (GC6K0DP). All of them were unique and had great views of the Columbia River. 

Ben searched for a restaurant that served gluten free food. He found one, but for some reason we had a really hard time finding the building it was located in. There wasn't a clear sign. We did finally manage to find it. It was tucked away inside of the hotel. We found a place to park and went inside.

The place was called Riverside Restaurant, and it was literally on the bank of the Columbia River. Our waitress sat us outside on the patio because it was such a warm evening. It was a perfect setting for dinner. We both ordered a drink; I had a Hunny Shot Kolsch and Ben had a local cider. For dinner, Ben ordered some seafood and steak, and I got a burger and fries. I was feeling beef that evening. A little bird watched us eat and was hoping for a small handout. We ignored it. 

We thanked our waitress and paid our bill. We headed to the hotel. It was a long day and we were feeling it. Ben pulled up to the front office and checked us in. We got a room, #122, on the bottom with an available parking spot right in front of our door. We did not have any trouble unloading our stuff into our room. We got too relaxed and we both ended up taking about an hour-long nap because we were hot, tired and full. The nap hit the spot.

We played dice and Phase 10 for a few hours with the TV playing in the background, we got cleaned up from being hot and sweaty and then went to bed around 1 a.m.

Next Adventure: First Anniversary Weekend: The Dalles to Lacey