Tag Archives: husband

A week in Oregon

I have been MIA the last week due to taking a quick and quiet trip to Oregon.

Portland, OR
Hello PDX!

 It was a long over-due trip to see my husband’s family. We don’t get to Oregon near enough, and I’ll be the first to admit that. Flights, though, are expensive cross-country, but we happened to luck out with cheap flights on Southwest Airlines. In fact, they were cheap enough that I was able to purchase MY round trip using nothing but rewards points. (Score!) So that freed up money for the rental car, and a couple nights hotel stays (one on each end of our week at my father-in-law’s house).

Oregon
I looked out at this every morning with a cup of coffee…

When we go to Oregon, we are gloriously in the land of no-cell-service. Unless you sit close to a window. And even then its iffy. So basically, going to Oregon = getting off the grid.

But who really wants to even be on the grid with views like this:

Manzanita, Oregon
Sunset outside Nehalem, Oregon.

And a cousin that makes pizzas in his own fire pizza oven…

IMG_6381
You can’t beat homemade pizza our of a fire oven.

Oh and I can’t forget to mention we’re only five minutes from the beach…

Manzanita, Oregon
I love the beach! We were SO LUCKY with not only sunny days, but warm-ish days!

We got engaged on that beach, the first time I got to see the ocean. (The Gulf of Mexico soooo doesn’t count.) We reminisce about that every time we visit. And I find myself more and more an ocean lover. I think if I could, I’d spend hours on end on the beach just watching the waves crash, listening to their soothing rumble, breathing in the salty sea air.

Manzanita, Oregon
Beach Love

Yes, I’m kinda in love with the ocean and the beach.

Manzanita, Oregon
Watching the sun set over the ocean makes you feel so small… like all your “troubles” are pretty minuscule in the grand scheme of things.

And cheese. Tillamook Cheese to be exact. This lactose intolerant girl can’t get enough of it.

Tillamook Cheese Factory
Tillamook Cheese Factory

I mean look at that gooey, cheesy goodness!

Tillamook Cheese Factory
Seriously. Grilled Cheese made at a cheese factory with bacon and tomato?! Get out of town!! That’s heaven in a basket right there!

We drove by the Tillamook Air Museum long after they’d closed. Drove right up to it.

Tillamook Air Museum
The Air Museum is kinda HUGE.

I half expected armed guard to come up to us and ask us what we were doing. Somehow, our little black Camaro went unnoticed that night. Heck, it felt kind of like we could have driven INSIDE it that night…

Tillamook Air Museum
From Wikipedia: The museum is housed in a former military blimp hangar, called “Hangar B”, which is the largest clear-span wooden structure in the world. […] Constructed by the US Navy in 1942 during World War II for Naval Air Station Tillamook, the hangar building housing the aircraft is 1,072 feet long and 296 feet wide, giving it over 6 acres of area. It stands at 192 feet tall.
Upon return to Portland for our early morning flight, I asked for a nice date night. My sister-in-law took us to McMenamin’s Kennedy School the year we got engaged, and we saw the movie Jarhead in the theater. This trip, we grabbed dinner… And now, I kinda want to stay in the hotel portion in an upcoming trip.

McMenamin's Kennedy School
I had their beer, “Ruby” and it was kinda amazing.

Our week-long trip just went too fast, and we were (as always) left with things we wished to do. But we both vowed it would not be as long before we visited again. This Texas girl, who lives in Tennessee, definitely loves Oregon.

♦♦♦

CLICK HERE to see ALL my photos from our Oregon Trip, which I think are some of my favorite shots in general to date.  More posts from our trip to come this week…

Wishing my husband a HAPPY BIRTHDAY!

362: My photography helper

Today is my husband’s birthday. Luckily we get to spend it together, as opposed to his being on the road. A couple years ago I got to be there when he played the Opry at the Ryman Auditorium on his birthday and the whole crowd wished him a Happy Birthday. Gotta admit, that’s pretty hard to top. But hopefully a nice day around the house followed by Jam Night downtown will suffice.

My husband is, of course, the musician of Musician’s Widow. He’s a piano player and a bus driver. He’s awesome at both and takes a lot of pride in doing them both professionally and skillfully. Both take him away from home, but both are something he’s passionate about doing well. And I admire that… and that fire makes ME passionate about both for him.

He loves motorcycles, and he’s even gotten me enjoying rides out on the bike. It was so busy this summer we didn’t get near enough ride-time and now its just too darn cold. He’s constantly looking at houses that are for sale, determined to find that perfect house when we are ready to purchase one. Looking out for our future, he always says, and for that I am SO thankful.

He’s my helper on photo shoots. I joke and call him my “pack mule” but really he’s my extra pair of eyes, often setting up photos I don’t see… but can make happen behind the camera. He sets it up. I shoot it. Basically. And I’m frankly a little nervous about doing a photo shoot this coming weekend without him!

He takes care of me, and he puts up with me. And God bless him for that! Between my being an Aggie (and c’mon even I know that alone is pretty much defined by others as an obsession), having constant sinus issues, having teeth that always seem to have something wrong, listening to me rant about everything from bar patrons to bad drivers, and frankly I can be pretty frustrating when I get upset and clam up (I do a mean silent treatement)… he takes it all in stride and sometimes even with an amused smile.

Look. I got me a good one. And I’m holding on tight, feeling very thankful.

I love you, honey! HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!!

Cheekwood