Driving to Oregon, Hotel, Widmer Brothers and a Pool Party

We got up around 10 and got our stuff ready to go.  We were suppose to go see his grandma but she had a hair appointment.  We stopped to see if we could find I Don't Bite Hard! (GC2EW7P) but we could not in the day light either.  I left the cache owner a note to check to see if it was still there.  On our way to Wendy's house in South Hill, we decided to find out what this Sky Stone thing was.  We parked and found out there was a geocache nearby!  Sky Stone was a glacier erratic that made it to this part of Bonney Lake when glaciers covered most of North America.  When they receded they left behind huge boulders.

We wandered up the trail to MFC09 (Skystone Ascension) (GC1ZQX5).  It was an easy find right off the trail but of course we made it harder than it was.  We entered from the top instead of the bottom.  Our shoes got a little dirty.  It was a good find.

We saw Wendy for about an hour.  She told us about her arm surgery she had about a month ago.  We chatted about other random things until Walter got home.  We talked to him for a bit and decided it was time go head down to Oregon.  We were going to try and hit up Cannon Beach if we had time.  We didn't leave Puyallup until about 2ish.

We put some miles behind us and got hungry.  I told him by the time we got to Cannon Beach it will be dark and not worth it.  Then we had a 90 mile drive back to Portland.  He pondered it and decided to save the beach for another time.  We stopped in Longview at a Safeway.  Since he paid for just about everything so far I told him I would by him lunch.  I got a Lunchable and he got one of those sandwiches from the deli.  We paid and went back to the car and at our food.  Then he wanted to go get some party supplies from Target.  He was looking for some soft dodge like balls to throw at each other in our hotel pool.  We found two small dodge balls and a soccer ball.  It was too bad there weren't anymore dodge balls.  We paid and hit the road again.

We got to the I-5/205 junction and we made the merge onto 205 towards Oregon and looked for the I-84 exit towards Gresham.  We had the address in the Nuvi so it took us right where we needed to go.  We messed up and thought it was on the left hand side of the road but it was really on the right hand side so we had to turn around.  We pulled into the hotel parking lot, parked and went inside to check in.  We had a really nice southern young lady check us in.  We were on the third floor in room 314.

We went up to our room to check it out.  Because I can't help myself...I had to check out everything.  They didn't tuck in their beds but their air conditioning/heater unit filter was clean.  Then we went down stairs to bring stuff in.  Ben used the bathroom and I went out and grabbed a few things and went back upstairs.  I came back down to see if he was done.  I talked to the front desk gal for a few minutes about her housekeeping department.  He wandered over, we grabbed the cart and we continued bringing in our stuff.

We chilled inside the hotel room as we tried to find something to do until his friends Megan and Sarah arrived.  It was too dark to do something outdoors so we decided upon going to the Widmer Brothers Brew Pub in downtown.  I was so excited because my favorite beer, Drop Top, was brewed there.  We got the address and off we went.  We found out Ben left some stuff on top of his car.  Luckily, no one stole it.  We stopped by Safeway to get a few things along the way.  Ben forgot we were in Oregon because he was contemplating getting some liquor for tonight's festivities.  They do not sell liquor in Oregon grocery stores.

We got to the pub, parked the car across the street and went in.  Next time I come down here I must do the brewery tour.  They seated us and we ordered beer.  I got the Drop Top of course and Ben couldn't decide on one so he ordered a six beer flight.

I had the Tillamook Mac n Cheese and he had some sort of burger.  Both were delicious.  When you're in Oregon have the Mac n Cheese.  You will not be sorry.  We enjoyed our beer and our food while Ben made fun of the Portland Timbers.  Just about ever minute of our visit to Oregon involved verbally pooping on the Timbers. 

We paid and went back to our hotel to wait for Megan and Sarah.  They were roughly a hour away.  I did some geocaching computer stuff and Ben played his game on his phone.  When they did arrive everyone was confused and Ben ended up wandering the hotel looking for them while they made their way up to the room.  I introduced myself and they reciprocated.  We ended up chatting for a bit before Ben showed up.  We were all prepared for dodge balls being thrown at us.  We finished off some sparkling wine before heading down to the hot tub and pool for some swimming and dodge ball. 

We were down there for a good hour or so.  We played 2 on 2 dodge ball for a while until the balls got too saturated with water and became dangerous.  Then we sat in the hot tub until everyone got tired.  We went back upstairs to our room, we all took turns in the shower and then played two rounds of Ninja Dice before passing out for the night.  It was around 2 a.m.  It was great to finally meet Megan.  Until tomorrow...when Ben and I jump out of a perfectly good airplane.

Next Adventure:  Skydive Oregon, Original Stash and Driving Back to Washington