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

The 3rd, 4th and 5th of July

Thursday, July 3rd

Liz and Kyla actively got our program manager to cancel citations for the week. We didn't see a need to come into the office on Thursday since the 4th of July was the next day. Yes, I could have taken it off, but I didn't. It's not that big of a deal since we work at home most of the week. Because it was a Thursday, I didn't have to get up early and get dressed and drive to work. I got to work at home in my sweatpants. 

I was hoping to get everything that I wanted to get done finished so I could leave a little bit early, but it didn't work out. Ben had an appointment on the westside and ended up sticking around longer than he wanted to taking care of errands. I got off at 4, my normal time, and then went for my walk. The park was getting busy. Earlier that week, I had invited a bunch of people over for BBQ hamburgers and to walk over to the park for the fireworks.

I got back home, cut up all the fixings for the hamburgers and then started putting stuff away so I could take the two tables out. Rhonda and her son, Zach, arrived first and they helped me finish the tables, bring out the chairs and aided in putting up decorations with me. It was very kind of them to help me.

I went inside and started the beans. Ben finally came home to change and start the burgers. Ben forgot to make cheese less ones, so he made a couple without cheese. Rhonda can't have cheese. Everyone else arrived between 6 and 6:30. The neighborhood was getting super busy and more cars started to arrive. This is the only time of the year when our neighborhood is this busy.

We finished preparing and cooking the food. I had made a key lime pie and no bake cookies the previous day. 

I got the six bags out that Lindsay gave me so Erika could go through them for Brian. She found a couple things to take home, and we stored the rest of the stuff inside the bags plopped in the garage. We ate just before 7. The food hit the spot, and we hung out in the back yard for a bit. No one stayed for fireworks except Megan, Rhonda and her son. 

Rhonda and her son walked over earlier than we did so they could meet up with some people already at the park. We gave Megan a sweatshirt to wear and we grabbed a couple blankets to sit on. We made the short walk over to the park, around 9:40, and down the dirt path. We liked sitting under the trees over the past couple years so that's what we ended up doing again. We found a spot to spread out the blanket and sit until it was firework time!

The show was roughly 20 minutes, and it started promptly at 10. There were some great color combinations and some loud booms! I always enjoy a good firework show. 

Once it was over, we grabbed our blanket and made our way back to the house...with everyone else. There were vehicles and people everywhere!

We got back home the same time Rhonda and her son got back. We had a quick chat before they left to go get in the giant line of cars on Ruddell Road. Megan said it was way too late to drive home and decided to stay the night. I spent some time changing the sheets, pillowcases and blankets in the extra room. I gave her some comfy clothes to sleep in as well. She and I went to bed around the same time while Ben stayed up longer playing his game with Josh. 

Friday, July 4th

I knew Megan has been up since 5 (because she is crazy and wakes up early) and just laid in bed until someone showed any life of being awake. I woke up around 7:30 and got dressed. Megan was ready to go get some coffee from Cutter's Point, which was just down the street from our neighborhood. She needed a coffee fix since we didn't have a coffee maker in our house. We made the short walk over. She ordered one of her favorites and I didn't need anything, so I got a cup of water just for fun.

It looked like the weather was not going to be favorable for the 4th of July. I was disappointed.

We walked back to the house, and I asked Megan if she was hungry, she said she could eat a little bit. I made scrambled eggs and had to force Ben to get out of bed to eat them. Megan wanted to hit up the Goodwill, so I went with her. She needed to find a couple things for Mason's upcoming trip to Mexico with his youth group. He didn't have a proper carry-on backpack for the plane. She did end up finding something for him to utilize. We came back to the house and she headed home. We were going to see her the next day for an extended D&D session.

It was our turn to make food for D&D and Ben decided to make beef and chicken kabobs. We took a short trip to Winco to grab everything we needed. We headed home to cut up everything because we had some time to before heading into Eatonville for 4th of July Clear Lake fireworks at my great aunt and uncle's house.

We got our stuff packed up in the Escape, like I had mentioned before, this year's weather was meh and we didn't need to pack up swimsuits, towels or floaties. It was barely going to get to 70 degrees. That is way too cold for jumping in a lake for me. Instead, I made sure I had warm clothes for when the sun went down. I called Grandma and let her know we were on the way. Mom decided she wasn't going to go this year.

We arrived at the lake around 4, unloaded the Escape and set up our table, chairs and stuff near the shoreline. I spent some time wandering around and talking to people. It was nice to catch up with people I rarely see but once a year, haha. I saw that Paul started up the BBQ around 5ish. So, I knew food was on the horizon.

People asked how being married was and I told them that it was about the same except that we have an awesome memory of how the wedding day went. They were glad to hear it. I helped Peggy and Shari put out some of the food on the tables. Paul announced that food was ready to go. A horde of people made their way over to the tables and grill to pile their plates with food. It's not hard overeating at a party.

I did some more wandering around and talking. Most of the time I was between hanging out with Bev and Trish. It slowly started to get dark, and the clouds never went away so we were not able to see Mount Rainier while we were there. As it cooled down, I went and got my sweatpants on and found a comfy place to sit for the remainder of the night. I did find out people were making smore's over by the firepit. Of course, I wanted a smore!

The docks started to light up with the smaller fireworks and soon boomed into the larger aerial fireworks with some rapport. The flares started going and we knew it was almost time for the barge fireworks in the middle of the lake. We could see it start its puttering journey from the west side of the lake to about the center. We all waited in anticipation on what kind of show we were going to get.

It went well for the first half of the show and then something malfunctioned and we didn't get to see the end. We were hoping everyone involved in the barge was okay. We all sat there for a minute or two and decided that fireworks were indeed, done. 

We all packed up everything we came with. We thanked Paul and Peggy for having us, we found Grandma and shoved everything in the Escape. We took Grandman and then ourselves home. We got home around 11:30. I got in a shower because I do not like going to bed smelling like sulfur.

Saturday, July 5th

I did not set my alarm because I needed some sleep after the busy days I've had. It was nice to sleep in without any distractions. I finally did get up, got ready and took a walk around the loop at the park. It was nice to get in some exercise before sitting in a chair for most of the day.

I got back home and had a very small breakfast just to get me by until we eat the kabobs at Nicole and Del's. Ben eventually got up and he showered.

We gathered up everything, packed up the Escape and headed over to Tumwater for our 1:00 p.m. special edition of D&D. We were all excited that Megan was able to join us during this session. Nicole had a special role for her. We all arrived just before 1. Nicole had made us potions and she, Celeste and Megan had contributed with a small charcuterie to snack on before we had dinner later on. 

This session was in the Land Region and focused on puzzles, mazes and killing Banes, Shamblers, Earth Elementals, a minotaur, battling mimics, killing a Bone Demon that tried to convince Ben to sacrifice one of us. There was a lot going on during this session. Some of us were knocked unconscious, some were hit hard, some of us depleted our spell slots but we were able to prevail inside the labyrinth of trickery. We were instructed to prepare for the Ball in the capital city of Focrain for the next session.

Our homework from or DM Nicole was to create a Ball outfit for our characters to wear. We can either describe it or actually make one on the internet to show everyone during the next session. We ended around 10:30, gathered up all of our stuff and went home.

We got home, unloaded our stuff, put it away and we chilled for an hour or two before going to bed. We survived another busy weekend of stuff!

Next Adventure:  First Anniversary Weekend: Lacey to Hood River