The Allen's: Oregon Coast

My favorite part about the Oregon Coast was....the food, the temperature, the beauty, the company...
Ok, ok.....I most certainly can't pinpoint a 'favorite part' about this amazing vacation,
but, I can pinpoint this....
the cooler temperatures & the amazing seafood had this pregnant mama in heaven.
We packed up our bags every morning ready for a new adventure, we had no schedule, & wherever we ended our adventures for the night, we stayed there.
One of my most favorite vacations yet. If I wrote every detail, this post would be 1,200 pages long.
So, instead of writing every detail, I'll let my plethora of pictures tell our vacation story & I'll do a list type post for this brilliant vacation. Enjoy!

Activities we did:

Voodoo Donuts in Portland
Climbed up the Astoria Column & threw airplanes off the top. London climbed up & down all by herself. She was so proud.
Pier with boats in Astoria.
Goony House in Astoria.. Ya know, the house where the goonies movie was filmed.
Rented 9 seater bikes in Seaside & explored the town. Had to rent 2 to fit the family. We raced, almost died....well hardly, & had lots of good laughs.
Cannon Beach
Girabaldi Beach in Manzanita. We found tons of seashells.
Octopus Tree & Cape Meares light house on 3 capes loop.
Whale watching boat tour in Depot Bay.
Black stone beach & Yaquinta head lighthouse in Newport
Crabbing in Charleston. It was so fun to watch London totally enthralled with helping throw the traps down & pull them back up.
Kite flying in Crescent City, California.
More kite flying & tidepools in Trinidad, California.
Redwoods in California.
Lots of driving, lots of beautiful scenery, & lots of cool bridges.

Sweet vacation moments:

Having my parents & Amy picking me up from the Portland Airport. London & I were both ecstatic to see those familiar & sweet faces.
Watching how happy London was anytime we found a beach & the "yotion."
At Garibaldi beach, the minute our feet touched the sand, London layed down & rolled everywhere in it cuz it was warm. So sweet.
It took us 40 min to walk 1/4 to haystack rock because London had to stop every 2 feet to feel the sand, feel the water, draw in the sand, find things in the sand....It was so precious & it made my heart so happy to see her like that.
Watching London & my dad's relationship. Seriously though, nothing is more special to this mama heart. London absolutely adores him, & wants to be by him every second.

Vacation Discussions:

London was so curious during the entire vacation. Her two main phrases were: "What you find?" & "What you make?"
At one of the hotels, my parents & I had adjoining rooms. London got so happy & shouted, "You livin by us?"
A L M O S T every car ride was spent listening to London sing...or, when Addy would ride with us, London & Addy sing. She sang all the songs she knew over & over again. She even learned a couple new ones like Let's go Fly a Kite, & thanks to my dad, Bouncing up & down in the little Red Wagon. During a certain long spell in the car, she kept singing Bouncing up & down in the little Red Wagon, & as soon as she finished, she would say at the top of her lungs, "You ready to go again?" And, we would sing again & again & again.
During one of our evening walks on a pier, we all got into a discussion about what we would name a boat. We had answers that were sentimental like Amy Lyn, London Rose, Rosetta Cristina, & then we had answers like "Pink." I bet you can't guess who would name their boat pink? hem hem London. It was such a fun discussion with everyone.

Funny Vacation Moments:

We had just gotten out of the worst restaurant of our lives & were laughing about it. Admist laughing, I turned to London & said, "All our problems are because of you." I totally said it to be funny & didn't even think London would understand what I said, but London burst into tears....Patty & I then got the uncontrollable giggles & couldn't stop.
We had just entered the Red Woods & got out of our cars to see the enormous trees, when London dropped her pants & took a dump. Wow, it was pretty awesome. Sorry RedWoods.
Little to my dad's awareness, we had just stepped into an elevator full of asians. My dad turned to London & said, "Come here you little Chinaman." Patty & I were dying with laughter. My dad had no clue what was going on. Needless to say, I was pretty happy to be out of that elevator. Awkward!
At one of the beaches, London booked it up to the top of the beach, dropped her pants & peed! At least these incidences were not in her pants!

Bumps along the road:

Beaumont Texas Airport. As I was going through security, they pulled me aside & told me they needed to pat me up & down.

Me: "Is there a problem?"

Security lady: "You have evidence of explosives on your stroller."

Me: turning bright red & having no clue what they are talking about "Ummm, I'm not carrying explosives."

Security lady: "Well, we have to go back through all your stuff & re-check it."

After about 20 minutes of waiting for them to go through everything. "You have explosive evidence on your phone, camera, & purse.

Me: just dying at this point, & then it dawns on me that the night before (4th of July) we went to the big fireworks & had ash falling all over us & I had put a few of those little popper things in my purse. "I explained to her the above situation."

Security lady: "You are good to go."

As you can imagine, I was just dying & the worst case scenarios were running around in my head like getting arrested, them taking London away from me for some reason, or having to have Blake bail me out of jail. Woof! Thankfully, the rest of the airport & airplane ride went smoothly to Portland.

A restaurant called Flashbacks. Most terrible service ever! Took SO long to get our food to us, waitress messed up our order & made my dad pay for the mess up, credit card machine didn't work, & a bunch of my family ordered ice cream & they took another 50 min to get the ice cream to us. I would give them some slack if it was incredibly busy, but, we were 1 of 3 tables there. Needless to say, my entire family (mostly Liz & I) was annoyed, bugged, & felt like we just wasted 3 hours of our precious time.
London receiving her first little sunburn while on our boat whale watching tour. I felt like such a bad mom.
Old creepy guy telling me I was really sexy with my pregnant belly. Yuck!
Having to stay in a motel. It would totally be a different story if Blake was there with me...But, it's was just London & I in a room the whole vacation & the night we stayed in the motel where the doors opened to the outside, I was a nervous wreck all night. Not to mention, it wasn't air conditioned.
Having to lay towels around my room at the Quality Inn for fear of getting foot fungus.

Sea creatures & animals we saw:

Lots of sealions & harbor seals.
Crabs
Starfish. We found the coolest little tide pool & there were starfish everywhere. We even picked them up & held them.
Whales
Slugs
Fish

Heart Breaking moments:

London getting carsick. She loved all the adventures & would try to stay happy right up until she would throw up. Poor girl.
We watched a sea-lion climb up from the ocean, across the beach, & then to some rocks. He was completely mangled on his side & he went up to the rocks to die where he felt safe. Absolutely heart breaking.