Pampered Wine Vacation + Me

I got home this evening welcomed by a nice sized package on the kitchen counter addressed to me! When does that ever happen? I gracefully opened it to find the goodies for my upcoming wine country getaway! If you recall I was awarded this $2,000 trip by winning the Oregon Wine Board's Photography Contest back in September. I got to choose how to spend my winnings and this is what the weekend will look like:

2 Nights at The Allison Inn & Spa

1 Hot Air Balloon Adventure

Dinner at The Joel Palmer House

Dinner at The Painted Lady

Additional money for wine

My boyfriend and I are going on March 19th during our Spring Breaks! I am the luckiest girl in all the land :)

A good traveler has no fixed plans, and is not intent on arriving. ~Lao Tzu

The 14 day Road Trip is beginning in 3 hours! Tonight we will be driving down to Grants Pass, Oregon where we will be swapping cars. Then tomorrow morning we will be up bright and early making our way to Salt Lake City... Stay tuned!

The Upcoming Road Trip!

The Road Trip is quickly approaching. Seven days away to be more precise! My excitement is at an all time high. Today I have been furiously downloading audio books for the drive. I have a plan to listen to all these self-improving books on our trip. That way we are being very productive and exercising our brains while we drive. You can laugh at me, my mom is right now too. :) We don't have much of a plan, but isn't that the beauty of it? We do know that we are driving to Salt Lake City to visit Chris' oldest brother and his son. Then we are venturing to the Grand Canyon where I WILL RIDE A DONKEY. We also plan on camping, hiking, and taking lots of pictures there. Then we are going to Albequeque, New Mexico for Chris' Grandpa's 80th birthday and a New Mexico football game. Finally, we will be traveling home through California, up the beautiful coast. We plan the trip to take 14 days. I can't help but smile.

Summer Doesn't Get Much Better!

We recently got back from our second wonderful trip down to Grants Pass. Our first day there we hiked the China Creek Trail. We thought it was 5.9 miles... come to find out, that was just one way. The creek was fun to play in though and I did make a friend out of this crawfish Chris found.

Okay, maybe he wasn't really my friend. He didn't seem to like being taken out of the water.

We also went to the farmer's market. I think the Grants Pass farmer's market is awesome. Take this little girl for example, seven years old and she is an amazing violin player. She was fundraising for violin camp. Seriously, how cute!

On Saturday night we attended Chris' friend Nick and his now-wife Michelle's wedding. Here is the cute couple!
Like I said before, I love wedding dancing! I love this picture of us girls. They are so fun.

I did catch the bouquet, but then I tried to pawn it off on Rachael :)

After the wedding, we hit the town (funny thing to say about Grants Pass) and went to JDs, a local pub for some game with magnetic slidy things. I have no clue what else to call it. Chris and I lost anyway.

Then Chris and his friend Chris played Safari Hunter! haha. But, I threw this picture in mainly because I didn't take a good one of him at the wedding all dressed up. Doesn't he look great?!

The next day we went out to the Illinois River to hang out and swim. Gorgeous, huh? I think Grants Pass has unbeatable summers.

This dog made me laugh.

That is Chris jumping off a rock!

We were so devastated we had to come home that we drowned our sorrows in margaritas! Isn't it huge? We polished off two of those bad boys :)

Like always, I can't wait to go back. I like the small town life, the amazing weather, the river, visiting friends and family. It doesn't get any better for me!

Columbia Gorge Hike!

Chris and I did this hike on Tuesday with our friend Franklin and his dog Hope. It was some of the most breathtaking views I have ever seen (Italy still dominates). None of these pictures have had an ounce of editing- amazing huh?! The Labyrinth hike follows an old abandoned highway for the first 1/2 mile.



Isn't it weird how this tree is growing over this rock. One day will the rock be completely consumed by the tree?





Good thing I am not afraid of heights! But, the 50 mile an hour winds were a little unsettling. I was knocked to my feet a few times!

Our hiking companion Hope. I made her walk ahead of me to scare away any snakes. I think it worked.
We are all planning another hike this upcoming Tuesday around the Mt. Hood area.

Independence Day at the Cabin

The boyfriend and I made a quick trip down to my parent's cabin for the 4th of July. We road bikes around the lake and made a pit stop for this picture below...

Then a mosquito bit me on the boob! Itchy, Itchy. I have a total of about 30 bites from the weekend!
This was us before the firework show. Notice Chris is wearing a jacket my mom use to wear in the early 90s.
After fireworks we made s'mores. Definitely the best part about camping!

MMmmmm

Double MMmmm
On the drive back home on Sunday we stopped at this beautiful part of the North Umpqua River. We parked on the side of the road and climbed down a bank of rocks to get to this serene place. It was fun to lay out in the sun and wade and rock jump in the river. It felt like we were the only people in the world.

Hope all of you had a great (and not-so-itchy) 4th of July!

Summer Kick-Off

My summer vacation started last Thursday night after I finished my BA352 final!  The boyfriend and I jetted off to Grants Pass, Oregon where he grew up for the weekend.  Chris was the ultimate tour guide.  He suggested we start the trip off with celebratory margaritas!  I didn't have any resistance to the idea... MMmmm.
After gobbling up my margarita (and some of his) plus eating my weight in yummy Mexican food we went to visit his Mom and Don.  Then the next morning we all got up and hiked Rainy Falls.  Rainy Falls is a Class 5 rapid and it was stunning.  

Our shorts match- how cute! haha.
Here is Chris and his mama Christine (funny we have the same name).  She is the sweetest person ever... I'll credit her for his gentle soul.

One of the highlights of the weekend was our trip to the local farmer's market.  Chris had to start it off with a spicy BBQ pork sandwich.  Nothing like that at 9 in the morning :)
We came across this awesome vendor called Elemental who has a shop online too.  I bought this yellow owl shirt and Chris bought the pomegranate tree shirt.  All his designs were so good.  At $12 a pop I plan on buying a few more this summer.  They are sustainable cotton American Apparel shirts.  The guy who makes the shirts gave us a free CD of his band Itchy Itchy Ichibod.   Anytime I am given free CDs I am a little skeptical, but since this guy was so cool we put it on the moment we got back to the car.  I fell in love with his indie folk music.  It is a the perfect laid back summer soundtrack.  Is it possible to want to capture this guy's soul, because I really want a piece of it.

The finds did not stop there!  This delightful painting (in all my favorite colors) also found me.  I think I made the artist's day with my excitement and giddiness.  The frame is another thing that put me over the edge.  I made her take our picture with it.  Oh, and I shouldn't forget that bread.  Garlic cheese sourdough... heaven!
After the farmer's market we drove out to our next hiking destination.  But, along the road we saw this winery and being us we couldn't refuse.  To our luck they were doing barrel tastings too.  It was fun to try wine from a different AVA in Oregon.  The Viognier was great and I also liked the Malbec.  
Okay, so after shopping and wine tasting we finally made it to Table Rock!  We couldn't have asked for better weather.  We could have asked to not see a huge snake, but I need to get over my complaining.  


The hike didn't take near as long as we expected, which was great because that saved our energy for some fiercely competitive beer pong that night!  Here is Chris and his buddy Brian trying to intimidate the competition.  I wasn't scared.  I did win ONE game!  After the tournament we hijacked the neighbors pool for some night swimming and golf practice.  Then we got kicked out...
Sunday was a more chill day with a BBQ.  Brian and his wife just had a son named Dawson.  He is about the most calm baby ever.  Such a cutie!  I love how I caught the spit up in this picture!

Chris' friends.
Chris' dad and little brother, Mike.  Mike dyed his hair blue hours before this was taken!
I hate when trips come to an end! But, I was serenaded with Kanye West 808s and Heartbreaks all the way home.  
And we got to stop and eat amazing pizza at American Dream.

I can't wait to go back and visit GP. We are planning another trip later in the summer, so we can play at the river and go rafting. Summer time is here!

OH I almost forgot!  Grants Pass is home to the best sushi ever!  I can't even put into words how amazing it was...  Shiki Sushi inside of G Street Bar and Grill.  We recommend the Melinda Roll (Tempura shrimp, smoked salmon, jalapeno, cream cheese, topped with ahi)- everything yummy and nothing good for you!