An Oregon Vacation

First of all, let me apologize for the MASSIVE amount of pictures you're about to witness. You'll probably conclude that 5 minutes of your life was just wasted but I thought I should show what I was up to all those weeks of non-blogging laziness. Enter part two of vacation: the Oregon saga. There's more pics than in Brittany, but then I spent 3 times as much time in Oregon than I did there so all that extra time just accumulates more photo lovin'. 

My family owns a rustic cabin on the Oregon coast (originally built for the workers creating the coastal highway 101 and thus right across from the beach). It's honestly one of my favorite places ever. 

Here she be: 

The grass really isn't yellow, somehow I got a bad color capture or something. The lack of a back deck, however, is real: 

Here are the minions hard at work with their "serious faces" on... 

See how long that lasted, hmmm?? 

I don't really have much to complain about considering I was the official photographer. But hey, someone's gotta sacrifice... 

It wasn't all back-breaking labor though--what is being on the coast without a trip to the beach? Here's the bay in old town Florence. Pretty, huh? 

The girls were the cheerleaders while my dad did most of the work.

Don't feel sorry for him though--he's dreaming of his tasty (well, it's all relative really) catches steamed up on his plate so he's not in too much pain... 

It's really all in the wrist you know. 

Alas, only one crab made it into the pot, thus Dad took serious action. 

That's right, he hunted hisself some Oregon coast muscles. Also equally disgusting in my mind, if you ask me (but no one did). 

We couldn't spend all our time at the beach though--Oregon is too cool for that. Here's our swimming day up at Foster Reservoir: 

We look a little half crazy in this picture but in reality we're trying to look summery and tan. 

Here the folks are hiding out in the shade. 

And then lets not miss the Albany Air and Art Festival. That would be dramatic, not to mention dommage. 

The best part is morning launch where a bunch of hot air balloons go take off together. It looks gorgeous when they're all up in the air. 

It's fun watching some of them bump into each other too... 

Here's me and my awesome pal Charis right before we skidaddled to her house for hot and freshly baked cinnamon rolls... mmm... 

I should go up in one of these someday... 

If I had a bucket list I'd probably put it in there. 

Here's Charis again in all her Laura Ingalls Wilder glory. We drove up to Gresham together for a wild time out on the town (this is where you laugh if you've ever been to Gresham). 

Ironically the big thing these days in Gresham is a mysterious knitter who is knitting in the most random places... 

You see? 

But hey, what is summer and Oregon without a trip to the Oregon State Fair?? 

Doesn't that just channel your inner 10 year old? 

Look at those daredevils... 

But then I'm one to talk--my first ride was the Ferris Wheel... 

I think my sis and I can both agree: the best part of it all was the petting zoo. Okay, probably because it's like the only free thing at the fair, but the sign on the entrance kind of cracked me up as well... 

But then maybe there was good reason to, for this...

And this... 

And this... Are you sensing a trend here? 

Furry creatures with fashion envy--what is this world coming too? Well, there you have it folks--my fabulous three week USA vacation. I promise that not all my posts in the future will be quite this long!!