Road Trip Scrapbook - Finished!

It took me quite a while to take some snapshots of our finished scrapbook from our 2013-2014 road trip. I find that making scrapbooks for everyday life is a little boring and I can't motivate myself to keep up. I tend to make scrapbook for things like road trips and vacations, like I did for my 2012 visit to New York (when I unexpectedly got engaged AND married) although I still haven't made a scrapbook for our formal wedding ceremony OR our honeymoon! Talk about inconsistent!

Going through and looking at these scrapbooks brings back so many great memories that just plain photo snapshots couldn't capture.

In fact, I don't know why I even stopped adding to this scrapbook! I still have a ton of Instax film, there are still tons of empty pages in the Smashbook and my scrapbook kit I put together for travel is still in its box. I think I will resume scrapping until I run out of space! Let's make it a promise. Maybe I will do a biweekly update of my progress on the blog as well.

Vintage Shopping in Portland

We did a little shopping in Tacoma and then headed down to Portland, where I planned on doing most of the shopping on our road trip. They have so many vintage shops I couldn't resist! Red Fox vintage was absolutely awesome, with cute stuff and great prices. I found a kitschy kitty, and Joe found some adorable mugs and a little bear puppet for Ellie-bear. At Stella Bella I picked out some used maternity clothes (all the pants are still awful!! I guess I will be using my leggings for quite a while...) and picked up an art print that will be perfect for the nursery.

We stopped at Animal Traffic and I finally got some Minnatonka moccasins! I love them! I've been wanting some for so long. 

Of course I couldn't just hog the whole day to myself, so we stopped at the Pharmacy skate shop and Joe picked out new shoes and a board. We ended the day at Bye and Bye, a vegan bar. Joe got to drink a few beers and we munched on delicious vegan bar food. It was an excellent day!

I think it might be a good thing that I got stationed in Louisiana instead of Washington. It would be WAY too easy to just move down to Portland or California after I get out of the service. Oregon is a little dreary for my taste, but I love the atmosphere and culture.

Macarons in Seattle

After we saw how wet it was outside I didn't think we would end up staying very long in Seattle, but the ground was dry this morning so we headed downtown to the Seattle Center Skatepark. On the way we made a stop at Krispy Kreme (yum!!) since I haven't been to one for probably eight years! While Joe was skating I walked around and got some pictures of the Space Needle. It was nice and chilly out but not too cold. What a relief from the -10 in Alaska! 

Once it was about lunch time I found a french bakery that got good reviews called Le Panier. It ended up being on Pike Place, which is apparently a big public market and the home of the original Starbucks. I didn't dare go in, since I know what Starbucks tastes like and there was a huge mess of people crowded around it. We got some delicious macarons (one in each flavor!) and got sandwiches and italian sodas at a shop called The Pike. Everything was awesome and delicious!

I think we are planning to stay another day in Seattle so Joe can check out some more skate spots. I'm going to take some more action shots of him skating from now on, but I managed to get a good one today. Isn't he handsome?

Skateparks in Washington

A lot of our road trip is going to be a tour of skateparks, especially since Joe has never been to the west coast before. I used to live in San Francisco and San Diego, so I'm pretty much revisiting my favorite spots and meeting old friends. Washington is famous for its skateparks and we've certainly been checking out a bunch of them. Some are so big it's scary - the walls are 15 feet high! I have no idea how anyone manages to climb OUT of those things. I was afraid to even walk near the edge in case I fell in - I would really hurt myself, let alone dropping in on a wooden board with wheels!

This particular park wasn't scary, but the colors were so vibrant I needed to get some shots. I always feel weird in skateparks, like I'm the groupie hanging around or something. This time there weren't too many people there except for a small group who left into the woods a couple times, I assume to smoke a joint or something.