Monday, we picked Mike up at PDX and took a drive down the Columbia River Gorge to Multnomah Falls for lunch. In case anyone is wondering, the gorge is still gorgeous. Heh. See what I did here? Yeah.

Here are two shots of Multnomah Falls, from the parking lot. Unfortunately, I was a bad photojournalist, and forgot to bring my good camera with me, so I had to rely on my cell phone for these shots.

After lunch, we drove out to Hood River, aiming for Mt Hood. We missed the turn-off to go up to Timberline Lodge, which was annoying, but we did end up driving through the high desert in eastern Oregon, through the Cascades. I’d never been out there, so that was pretty cool. It’s just weird how you can drive from the lush, verdant Columbia River Gorge into frickin’ high desert in, like, an hour. Well, more like two, but still. It’s like Oregon is made out of left-overs from all the other states.

This is just outside Terrebone. We drove over the bridge, there, and pulled into a turn-off on the side of the road to get some pictures of the gorge. From there, we drove down through Redmond and caught 126 to Highway 20, taking us through the Cascades. Where it snowed.

Now, I’m a Michigander, so I know a bit about driving in the snow. However, I know absolutely nothing about driving in snow through mountains. The road is about two feet wide and twisty-turny-uphill-downhill, and granted, I wasn’t driving through snow on the ground, but the road was wet, and it was snowing as I drove. I’m fairly sure that everyone behind me hated me.

On Tuesday, we took Mike out to the coast. The plan was to hit Depoe Bay so we could show Mike the spouting horns, but the horns weren’t spouting when we showed up. Fail. Still, we did get to see a whole bunch of pretty along the coast, as well as see the nastiest port-a-john in the history of ever, outside the Depoe Bay Whale Watching Center. Seriously, y’all. Ew.

After puttering around Depoe Bay for a bit and finding most everything closed, we decided to head for home. On the way back, we turned off Highway 101 along the … um … Otter Crest Scenic bypass … thingie … yeah. Look, it was pretty. I wasn’t exactly reading the signs. This thing.

Along the scenic loop, we found this little cove, so, of course, we had to pull over for more pictures.

Still images don’t really do the thing justice, though, so I took some video to go along with it.

After soaking up plenty of pretty in this spot, we drove further along the bypass, and came to Cape Foulweather (here). It was breathtaking. All the pictures in the world don’t do the sheer scale justice.

Tuesday night, Mike treated Jim and I out at Aqua. Ladies and gentlemen, this was the best meal I have ever had in my life. The food was made of mouthgasm. Words cannot do this food justice. I had the Seafood Pappardelle Pasta, and it was absolutely divine. Mike got the Ginger Chili Hawaiian Mahi Mahi, which was a magnificent blend of sweet and spicy and savory. Jim had the Seared Diver Scallops, which melted on your tongue like butter. OMG. I need a cigarette just thinking about this meal. We also had the Lokelani Prawns for appetizers, and those were just brilliant. For dessert, we indulged in the Kilauea Lava Cake, a bit of chocolate-filled chocolate cake floating in a gorgeous, deep red raspberry sauce, which made for a perfect blend of sweet and bitter. Mike and Jim each had a slice of the Raspberry Mango Cheesecake, which was beyond words. It was sheer heaven.

Stop what you’re doing and go eat there. Do it. Now.

Wednesday, Mike and Jim went on a wine tour up around Salem, with Jim’s sister Kaci, and they had a great time. I took the day off to do school things. Today, we had slated whale watching in Depoe Bay, but Mike woke up sick, so we scratched that plan. No idea what we’ll get up to today, but we’ll get more pictures. Expect further updates later in the week!