No Stopping

So my two friends from Oklahoma, Clint and Danielle, came and visited last week. It was great to get to show them around and have some company. It's funny because I am a local, but a tourist at the same time. I can have the confidence of a local and still do the touristy things without being weird! haha, it's great. Having friends and family come visit can be weird because I want to be able to tell them things about the area and show them around, but I am still learning as well. I think I have learned a lot about what is around here and things to do. Sometimes I find I know a lot more than some locals, which is funny, because I get in the tourist mindset and want to learn and experience things.

So I know I can pull my family around and make them go places and they will just tell me when enough is enough. But it's different with friends. They try to go with the flow and just want to have fun. So I hope I didn't wear them out! I think they got more worn out by their plane rides and jet lag than by me. They got in at about 2 in the morning and then left my place at 2:30 in the morning a few days later. They just stayed awake that night instead of sleeping a few hours then having to travel. I'm sure they were very worn out the next day. Following their visit here I think I have done most of the hikes and seen most the touristy things in the area, now I get to travel to other areas to explore! Like climbing Mt St. Helens on Mother's Day, I am pretty excited about that!

I wish I took a picture of the car Danielle rented, not sure what kind it was, but the guy at the rental place decided to upgrade them to mid size car. It looks like a black dude's car, we were pimpin. We drove it everywhere. Danielle liked driving it I think! We had pretty good weather while they were here. Only one day of rain, which was good, haha. We did the good ol' sightseeing around the town, went to a few beaches. We hiked to Cape Falcon. I had not done this hike yet, so it was an experience for me as well. It was a little muddy. Danielle tried to prevent her shoes from getting too muddy, but then I think she gave up on it and decided she didn't care, it became a little difficult to avoid the mud! We found the beach that the surfers hang at. There were a bunch trying to catch a few waves. Just doesn't seem like fun to me, surfin in a full wetsuit in cold, rainy weather. Surfing should be done in warm, sunny weather! But, what do I know! Anyway, when we turned the corner and got to Cape Falcon, it took my breath away! It was so gorgeous. Being able to see the beaches, cliffs, and capes along the coastline. It was awesome! I was pretty sure I saw a shark in the water. I saw a fin and it looked the shape of a shark, but then when Clint went and looked he saw a sea lion, so who knows. I just don't think I have much desire to surf out here. We will see what I think when June rolls around and maybe some warmer weather.






One night we had a bonfire on the beach. We chose the best night for this. It was nice with the fire, a good temperature. And the sky was so clear. It was beautiful. The stars were bright and you could see some reflection off the water. It was so cool. Never had a beach fire before. Popular thing to do up here I think, probably because you don't do much swimming in the water.

The next day we went to Cape Disappointment in WA. WA is really pretty. Green of course and lots of pretty cliffs and trees. There are two lighthouses at Cape Disappointment State Park. One is Cape Disappointment (go figure), the other is North Head lighthouse. I was wishing I was with my family going here because my mom LOVES going to lighthouses and my brothers room is decorated in lighthouses and nautical stuff, which is ironic since he is in the air force! Sorry mom for not taking you there! At North Head lighthouse they decided to tell us we could look around and go up to the top if we wanted to but failed to mention that we have to pay for going up. We saw the sign for the fee but when they told us we could go to the top I thought maybe we just had to pay if we took the guided tour or something. Luckily Clint had some cash! That's the bad part about state parks, they charge you all kinds of little fees, its annoying. Then we went to Cape Disappointment lighthouse. We saw some sea lions playing around in the water, it was cool. Couldn't go in this lighthouse, bummer. Then we went to Fort Columbia. Clint really enjoyed seeing the forts, guns, and batteries. And Danielle, well, Danielle just cracks me up sometimes. I won't say a lot on here, I don't want to embarrass her, but lets just say, mud and hills did not get along well with her this trip. One of the things I love about this girl, is that she does not care one bit about what people think about her. She can do the most embarrassing thing and everyone see her do it and she does not care. She made the statement that she thinks one reason God put her on this earth is to give people a good laugh! I love her attitude. We went to my favorite beach, Indian beach, to have a picnic and Clint and I were down this hill at a picnic table and then here walks up Danielle with water all over her shirt! Some lady saw her fall and asked if she was ok, she just got up laughing. I don't think hills and her really get along! haha, it was great having them here!





Last week I went to Portland with my 40yr old biking buddy (John) to go climbing and biking. He hasn't climbed for like 10 yrs but used to climb a lot so he was a little rusty. I had to catch him up on some things. Well the guy that was there that day turned out to be kind of a jerk. He thought that John seemed a little unsure about his technique so he wouldn't let us climb, just boulder. I was so bummed. I have been wanting to climb for so long. I have never really bouldered, so it was cool to do something new, but I like climbing much more! So we got our upper body workout, then off to our lower body workout. We biked around the river in Portland. It was cool. Lots of people out biking, walking, and running. Its so cool how friendly Portland is to bicyclists. You don't have to constantly worry about a car hitting you. At one point we were at a stoplight and there was a line of 10 or more bicycles. How often do you see that in a city! Then we biked up this little mountain in the city, it was cool. We did it at dusk, so it was pretty going up and looking out over the lights in the city. It was fun! Unfortunately, no pics. Fun times!

Parents visit

At the Jetty where the Columbia River meets the pacific. One of the most dangerous bars to cross.



So my parents came to visit. They got to be here for like nine days. The weather started off really cold and rainy, but we had some nice days too. We took advantage of the rainy days sightseeing and then got some good hiking in on the nice days. It seems to be colder here right now than I expected. I am pretty sure it has been warmer in Buena Vista the past few weeks than it has been here. Guess that's the northern coast for ya. But on the nice days here it is awesome because you can get out and enjoy the GREEN!!! My mom made the comment that it's weird to go to the beach and not even think about putting on a swimsuit. Locals say that even during the summer your lucky if you get in for 10-15 minutes, unless you have a wetsuit. I felt the water for the first time last week (FINALLY!!) It was chilly. It's nice to look at the beach and ocean though. And I would like to go surfing, maybe late May early June I will get to.



This is my favorite beach so far. Indian Beach, named so because an indian guided William Clark to this beach in search for whale blubber because they were sick of eating dog and elk. This was the end of our hike over Tillamook Head Cape from Seaside to Cannon Beach. It was a very pretty hike.






I was glad the timing worked out and my parents were here for Easter. It's nice not to be alone on Easter. Growing up for some reason my family was not really into the modern celebrations of Easter. They never dyed Easter eggs, I don't really have any memories of doing too many Easter egg hunts. I loved dying Easter eggs so I would sit alone at the table dying eggs. Even in high school! I remember one year I was feeling sorry for myself for doing it alone so my mom just sat with me, didn't dye with me, just watched me. So this year, my family was in my turf, so we all dyed Easter eggs! My mom and brother got into it. My dad, not so much. Not really his thing I guess. Discovered how unartistic we all are! I wanted to make a different color and none of us could remember the primary colors of the color wheel and what colors mixed make other colors. Ended up making a darker pink, then attempted again and yep, made yuck brown. It was funny.

One day we drove South to Tillamook, where the cheese factory is located. It was really cool seeing the cheese factory. You could view the factory workers working hard. Looks like such a horrible job. And would give me a headache, standing in one spot all day watching blocks of cheese fly by you. Looked terrible. My dad said it makes him like his job even though he sits at a computer most the day. At least he does customer service and gets to move around and do different things. We got to sample cheese. Has anyone ever heard of cheese curd? It's the cheese right before it gets pasteurized or something like that. Anyway, its like premature cheese. It has to be eaten faster, of course. It has more of a smooth texture, or rubbery, depends how you interpret it. I didn't care for it a whole lot, but my mom loved it. We also got Tillamook ice cream, yummy. Bought lots of cheese so now my fridge is well stocked with cheese!







A couple other hikes that we did included Neahkahnie Mountain and Saddle Mountain. These are two really cool hikes. They are both a little steeper, the first is right next to the coast. So it was so cool to hike up this mountain and turn a corner and see the coastline. Saddle mountain is just as it sounds. You hike up and then hike along the saddle a ways. Pretty cool. There is snow on about half the trail also. Did this about a week and a half ago and after both times my feet were totally drenched. Awesome views at the top. My dad gets really annoying sometimes on hikes like this because he will just take tons of random pictures while we are hiking of the trail, etc. He gets some nice pictures sometimes but most the time it can just be honestly annoying. I love taking pictures too, but sometimes I want to make some progress while I am hiking! haha.




We also got to do some biking. Dad and I did a little mountain biking on the Fort to Sea trail. It's a trail that goes from the coast up to Fort Clatsop, where Lewis and Clark were during the winter. Its a fun trail to bike. Then all four of us biked around Fort Stevens. Lots of trail going through the forest and out to a beach with a rusted ship that shipwrecked there. It was tons of fun. My mom is so cute riding her cruiser bike. Didn't realize how comfortable those bikes are. If I live in a town where I can do a lot of biking around town I might have to get a cruiser. I kind of like them. Would much rather mountain bike, but for town riding they are cool. I was very proud of my mom for doing some hiking and how long she biked. She is healing well, even though she still has lots of aches and pains. My mom really liked walking around the town and on the beach. It's amazing how if you live alone and have company, you can feel so invaded. I tried not to be too uptight about my place getting messy and invaded on, but when you live alone you get set in your ways and have things the way you want them. It's hard to have three extra people living with you that you have to clean up after when your not used to it. I like my clean habits and even though I am sad my family left, I am happy to have my space back. But, I have two friends that just got in to town. So I did a quick turnaround cleaning of my place, got caught up on my working out since I couldnt work out as much or as hard with parents in town, got my work in for the week and now I get to have fun with friends. I am excited and invite anyone to visit me anytime anywhere I go!




Mom is not the most photogenic! Would have been such a good picture.

Some good places we ate and shopped were an old saltwater taffy place and this good organic coffee shop. Does anyone know why it's called saltwater taffy if it's not made with saltwater? I got to eat some yummy crab. My mom took a picture of the finished product which I won't share because its kind of gross. I get excited when I get to eat good crab and I like it. Its the only seafood I like, but the whole time I am eating it I am afraid of getting a fishy part and want to throw it up. This happens sometimes, but most of the time I enjoy the crab! Busy but fun week!

Pictures

My kitchen in my new vacation rental!



Guys having fun on the beach!



On my awesome hike to the top of a beautiful waterfall



Mt. Hood

Not the beginning, but the beginning blog!

Ok, so I never thought I would create a blog, so this is going to be interesting. But I have been thinking the past few days that I do some interesting things and sometimes have some interesting stories to tell or something that happens that I would like to tell someone I know. Well, with travel nursing I am mostly experiencing things and doing things alone, and don't have anyone to tell. So I was thinking maybe a blog would be a good idea so I can tell about places I go and things I do. So bear with me, I am new to this and really have no idea what I am doing! And creativity is not one of my strong points so it may not look the best either!

So let's get caught up on what has happened so far. I began travel nursing on November 30 in Rawlins, WY. I was excited to not only get to start my dream of travel nursing but also because I would 5-6 hours from home and snowboarding and 3-4 hours from my best friend Brea in Salt Lake City. There was not much to do in Wyoming, but I got to go home and to Utah a lot to ride and do the winter activities I missed doing in Oklahoma. I was in Wyoming until February 26. Some things I learned while in Wyoming are: Very little to do in WY, horrible wind in WY, don't drive through WY with bad storms, people here really just work, small hospitals are interesting and have problems but the staff are generally nice to work with (not as nice as my old co-workers though!), nurses and dr's tend to make a big deal out of little things, report on two patients can take 30min., Dr's need to learn to stop feeding jaundice babies only glucose water, and it sucks going to a C/S for a few little variables when you don't think your pt needs it. The best thing about being there was getting to spend some time with Brea, snowboard in a different state, and got to go home often. After my assignment ended I was able to go boarding at Grand Targhee in Wyoming, a little north of Jackson Hole.

I still did not have my next assignment lines up so I went home, awaiting anxiously for my next job. Finally four days after being home I found out I got a position in Seaside, Oregon. I was very excited because I already had my license because I knew Oregon was where I wanted to go. So I started March 15, had a week and a half before I had to start. Ended up being great timing. So I drove up here, took about 22 hours, I stopped and visited my lifelong friend, Natalie, in Grand Junction, and spend one night in Boise. It was nice not to make the whole trip in one day!

So I have been here for almost three weeks now and have met some great people so far and done and seem some cool things. I met a cool hiking, biking, etc buddy so thats great to have someone to go with. Done a couple cool biking trails so far and then yesterday did an awesome hike. For me, its really hard to beat Colorado, because I just love it so much there, but its nice here. I have a gorgeous vacation rental thats three blocks from the beach and the mountains in the East. You just have to get over it raining often and enjoy the sunny days, which I have had quite a few so far.

Last weekend I went to Mt. Hood to go boarding, hiking, and biking. It was very interesting and I just have to share what happened. This weekend is pretty much the reason I wanted to start a blog because I really wanted to tell people about it. First where I left from was pouring down rain, then I really did not think my car was going to make it up the road that was only like a mile long with snow cover, then it was snowing the whole day, very wet snow so I was soaked. They got a lot of new snow so lots of powder riding, weird and difficult though because it was such wet snow! Hard to find my way around the mountain with the weather and stuff. Ended up riding a little while with someone from there so that was a little helpful. But then leaving was the most interesting. They really don't plow well or something but I had to have two guys push me, with great difficulty, out of the parking lot. Then I stayed in low going like 5mph down the hill and still had my tires locking up on me. Ran into the snow bank on the other side of the road, which luckily no cars were coming and it just bounced me back to the right side of the road. And then cars still flew by me to pass. I was scared out of my mind! Places it was pouring in the morning had snow the end of the day. It was an experience! But it was tons of fun. May sound like I didn't enjoy the trip, but besides the difficulty driving in it I had a great time boarding! Got lucky with getting new snow I heard. Guess it was their biggest storm this season. And I got to do a little biking in the area too so it was awesome. One place I went had lots of man-made tricks on the sides of the trail, going over like very narrow trees and stuff. It was a fun trip.

Anyway I think that's all for now. Haven't downloaded a lot of my pics so there will be more to come later but here are a few that I have.