Olympia Wedding Weekend

Headed up to Seattle after work on Friday to stay at Dave's lovely new house on Beacon Hill for the night. I arrived pretty late, just past midnight, and went pretty much straight to bed. I was pretty much just glad that I found the place, as going up I wasn't entirely sure I had the right address, and I hadn't ever been anywhere near there before.

The next morning, I was happy to see Mike & Mona, who had gone to bed before I arrived. Mike and I went for a short stroll to the market before we all got dressed up and headed south to Olympia (well, Lacey) for Bethany & Pete's wedding. The wedding was pretty informal, but very nice and intimate. Bethany was a lovely bride and Pete was a jovial groom. There were other people we don't see very often anymore there, Brice, Julee and Alexander; Sam & Melissa; Heidi.

After the reception Dave, Heidi and I retired to Olympia proper to hang out for a bit downtown before Heidi had to head back to Portland. Dave and I wandered around a bit more, the Olympia Lakefair was going on and the mood in town was quite festive. Soon we were joined by Mike and Mona, and as dusk drew, we headed to a restaurant for diner with the happy couple and some other guests. For dessert I had spumoni for the first time in a long while.

The next morning I met up with Mike and Mona again, and we headed back down to Olympia. We hit their gorgeous farmer's market for some lunch and other treats. We walked around a bit more before heading back south our separate ways. At Longview I took the Lewis & Clark Bridge to Oregon, and then took Highway 30 to Astoria, which seemed hillier that I would have thought.

At Astoria I poked around a little bit, including a trip up Coxcomb Hill to the Astoria Column. The last time I visited, I was with the folks and little siblings. We were at the age where my sister was still in a stroller, because some stoopid kid told my brother that the column was going to fall down, and he was super-over-protective at that age, so he INSISTED that we leave IMMEDIATELY to save my sister, even though *I* was rarin' to climb those 164 steps.

I never got that chance... until now! I think they have done a nice job of restoring the column and park area atop the hill. The view was awesome, although I clung fairly closely to the inside of the viewing deck. The vistas of the river, ocean and Saddle Mountain were quite spectacular, and the weather was great, if a bit breezy way up top.

On my way out of town I did a little shopping at Costco Junior in Warrenton, finally deciding to pick myself up a new toy. A nice late afternoon/evening drive down the Oregon Coast, and I was back home in Tillamook.

July 19, 2004 10:07 PM

Comments (3)

07/30: shelby said:

that picture just jostled some old memories.. and i have totally been up the astoria column! it was when i was really little. i remember hating it, and i wish someone had scared *us* away from it just in time! =) i didn't remember it til just now, and if i had, i wouldn't have been able to tell you where it was. weird.

08/06: John said:

Hey, I wasn't taking any chances with *my* little sister. Just because you're heartless and don't care :-)

08/28: katie said:

I like the drive up Highway 30 from Longview to Astoria. It's sort of windy and fun, except for the occasional psycho driver. The Washington side is a better scenic drive, though.