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When I left off last blog we had made it along the gulf coast and into the Florida panhandle for the night. The next morning we got up early, grabbed sandwiches for lunch at a Publix grocery store and headed towards Atlanta.

We made two stops that day, the first was in Plains, Georgia at the Jimmy Carter National Historic Site. Plains is the hometown of former President of the United State Jimmy Carter. He still resides in the area. We made a short stop at his former School to take a tour of the museum and eat lunch.

Before making it to Atlanta we stopped at the Andersonville National Historic Site. Andersonville was home to a Civil War prison camp that held 45,000 union soldiers during the war.. Nearly 13,000 of the soldiers held there died, usually from disease, due to the appalling conditions they were held in. The site today is home to a National Cemetery where burials still take place, the International Prisoners of War museum, and a driving tour of the remains of the prison camp itself. It is a great little historical site and makes you pause and think about the casualties of, and self sacrifices made during wartime.

After touring Andersonville we made our way into downtown Atlanta. We checked into our hotel, the Hilton, and met up with my father-in-law, who we would be spending the next few days with. The plan was to have dinner and take in an Atlanta Braves game at their new Ballpark, but the weather had other plans. We made it to dinner at Murph’s restaurant in the Cobb Galleria, the food was plentiful & tasty, and I learned that Dale Murphy who opened Murph’s was born and raised in Portland Oregon! Halfway through our meal a gnarly thunderstorm set in and the ballgame ended up being postponed to the next day. We took an Uber back to our hotel downtown and settled in for the night.

After a good night’s rest we met up for breakfast in one of the hotel restaurants, ate well and then headed into the city for some fun at the newly built College Football Hall of Fame. The high tech aspects of the Hall of fame were awesome, they gave you a badge to wear that was specialized with your favorite team so that you could wave it at a display and get any info associated with your team. The displays were interactive and well put together and the view from the top floor was spectacular!

When we finished our tour of the Hall of Fame we made a quick stop to see the brand new Falcon’s Arena, The Mercedes Benz Arena, took photos and then headed back to the hotel to retrieve our car. My father-in-law would be heading to Hilton Head and we would be following after we took in the Braves game that had been postponed.

The Braves new Ballpark, SunTrust Park, was very nice, and Geoff had to go see it so he could reclaim his title of having been to every single major league baseball stadium! The crowd was pretty small because it was an early afternoon match and had been postponed from the night before so we were able to upgrade our seats for free to first row right behind the Brave’s dugout, it was awesome!!!

When the game was through we loaded up in the rental car and headed towards Hilton Head where we would base ourselves for two nights.

There is too much to tell you all about still so I am going to split it up a bit more than I had initially thought. stay tuned and I’ll have a few more blogs about our Southeast road-trip coming very soon!!

Happy Travels,

Maria & Geoff

Road-Tripping part 2 When I left off last blog we had made it along the gulf coast and into the Florida panhandle for the night.

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It’s been a while since I had a great, long trip to chat about…With school and work it’s hard to get away for fun anymore, especially since I only have two weeks off in September! We had been planning this trip for a while, mostly to visit family in the southeast but also to do some major road-tripping. We had to watch the weather very carefully due to the threat of hurricane Harvey and then Hurricane Irma but we got very lucky and were able to road trip around between the two of them.

On the 1st of September we got up after very little sleep (must have been excitement) and drove into Portland to catch a 6 am flight to Dallas. The flight went smoothly and we actually arrived relatively early in the day, which is rare for us. We picked up our car from Enterprise and then went in search of food.

We are serious foodies and love to find a great restaurant to eat at in each of the cities we visit. We always have our food stops planned out way in advance. That day’s choice was Cattleack BBQ in Dallas. The line is long, the seating is communal and they run out of food fast so get there early and just know that the wait is well worth it! When we got to the front of the line they only had pulled pork, smoked pastrami burnt ends and sausages left, we got a little of each. I kept telling Geoff that I don’t care what meats we get I just really wanted the hatch chili mac-n-cheese but as soon as we got up to order the man right in front of us got the last of it :’-( I was kind of mad at the point but had to settle for some burnt ends beans and vinegar based coleslaw. We paid and settled down at a table to eat, the food was fantastic! My favorite was the smoked pastrami burnt ends, they were fatty, smokey, and literally melted in my mouth! We happily plowed through our food and headed out for some fun in the city.

The Dallas Cowboys had just opened their brand new training facility to the public for tours so we joined a tour. The tour guide was fantastic, she was so much fun the entire time. We did see a couple players but were not allowed to take photos or approach them. by the end of the tour I was exhausted and ready to head out to Geoff’s mom’s house for some well deserved rest. We spent that evening and the next day with his mom, brother, niece and sister-in-law. It is always so very nice to spend time with family and we had a fun day enjoying another excellent meal from BBQ on the Brazos.

The following morning we hot the road early to start our road-trip. Our final destination that day was New Orleans Louisiana! We stopped in for a quick breakfast at Torchy’s Tacos in the Dallas area, the tacos were a little larger then we thought but we got two each and they were great. After a long day of driving through bug infested swamp-lands, that were flooded by hurricane Harvey we stopped for lunch in Henderson, LA for lunch on the water. We had chosen Pat’s Fisherman’s wharf, the waterway behind the restaurant was a little flooded but still very pretty and it was nice to see a couple boats pass by as we ate. The food was excellent, it was my first time trying a few of the items I got and I would definitely go back again anytime!

After a long day of driving we pulled into New Orleans right before sunset and checked into the Hyatt Regency in the business district. The room was on the smaller side but the view and comfort of the bed more than made up for it.

After a good night’s sleep we woke up and headed into the French Quarter on the trolley looking for some breakfast. We only had a few hours in the city to explore so we wanted an early start. We walked through the French quarter stopping to take a few photos here and there.

and then seated ourselves at Cafe Du Monde for delicious beignets. We each got an order of three and while Geoff opted for the classic chicory coffee I had a chocolate milk instead.

After finishing our sugar coated treats we walked along the Mississippi river heading for the Audubon Aquarium of the America’s for some fishy fun! I thought the Aquarium was pretty good but way overpriced for what you get, I prefer the National Aquarium in Baltimore, the Oregon Coast Aquarium in Newport, or the South Carolina Aquarium in Charleston. I feel with those you get more bang for your buck. Still though it’s always nice to be surrounded by water and beautiful fish for a while.

After our tour at the aquarium we headed back to the hotel to retrieve our rental car and then across town to take in a New Orleans Baby Cakes baseball game. We made one quick pit-stop at Rally’s for a burger and fries, then parked at the Shrine on Airline ballpark. The game was a good one, the weather was great, with a little cloud to shade us and while it was pretty humid that day it wasn’t too hot.

After the ballgame we were on our way out of the New Orleans and heading for a scenic drive along the gulf coast but our rental vehicle had other plans….we got a flat tire in a not so good neighborhood and had to change it and then drive back to the airport and exchange it for a new car. Not my idea of a fun way to spend my day but life has other plans sometimes! once we finished with the tire fiasco we finally headed out over lake Pontchartrain and made our way to the gulf coast. We made it to a beach just as the sun was setting so I could check putting my toes in the gulf of Mexico off of my bucket list!!

That night we ended our day in Crestview Florida and for the time being this is where I will end my blog. I have two more blogs coming your way all about the remainder of our trip so stay tuned!!

Safe Travels!

Maria & Geoff

  Road-tripping and the deep south It's been a while since I had a great, long trip to chat about...With school and work it's hard to get away for fun anymore, especially since I only have two weeks off in September!

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Picking up where I left off a couple weeks ago I’m going to tell you all about the lovely Fort Stevens State Park and fun in Astoria. We had a good, restful night’s sleep in our tent at the Fort Stevens State Park Campground. We woke up fairly early, ate breakfast, broke down our camp, and packed the car back up. We didn’t get a chance the day before to really explore the state park amenities so we spent the morning exploring the battlements, museum and the ocean beaches.

Not a whole lots to say about it that the photos won’t explain but I think my favorite part of the day was when we got to see the wreck of the Peter Iredale. It was a four masted ship that ran aground in 1906 and has been slowly decaying over the last century plus. We weren’t sure it was going to be visible because it wasn’t low tide but we ended up being able to walk right up to it and take photos!!

the shipwreck was fun to take photos of but there was plenty more of the state park to see. We headed towards the museum next and I was surprised by the herd of Elk hanging out on the lawns!

The batterys and museum were really fun to explore and I got lots of fun and unique shots of the surrounding beauty.

We made sure we headed to the mouth of the Columbia river where it meets the pacific ocean for a few photos as well. There is an observation tower there that you can climb to the top of to get a great view of the river and the ocean. I climbed it but once I got to the top I couldn’t stay very long, it was kind of swaying gently in the wind and when people would walk and I was afraid it would fall down (I’m a baby, I know!)

After the busy morning exploring we headed into Astoria for a quick bite of food at my one of my favorite burger spots Custard King!! We each got a royale with cheese and a side of tots to share as well as a berry sundae for me and peanut sundae for Geoff. The food was as excellent as I remembered the burgers are super juicy, its good they come wrapped in paper because the juices would run down your arm otherwise, the tots were great and the fry sauce is the perfect dipping sauce. The custard is cold, creamy and the berries in mine were perfect and tart!! Definitely recommend this place if you’re ever in the Astoria area and craving a good cheeseburger 🙂

This trip to the coast was so relaxing and couldn’t have come at a better time with school and work being crazy and finals approaching fast. Sometimes a quick weekend escape is all you need to totally recharge your batteries!

Happy Travels,

Maria & Geoff

Fort Stevens State Park Picking up where I left off a couple weeks ago I'm going to tell you all about the lovely Fort Stevens State Park and fun in Astoria.

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A couple weekends ago Geoff and I took off for a fun getaway to Portland and the Oregon coast. With finals week approaching quickly and little time to get away during the semester it was high time I had a little vacation!

So having a long weekend was just what we needed. We already had previously purchased tickets to a Portland Timbers match against the San Jose Quakes. We took off in the morning and headed towards our first destination of Corvallis for a NCAA regional baseball playoff between Nebraska and Yale. It was a beautiful clear sunny day and very warm. We sat in the bleachers facing 3rd base, enjoyed some drinks and a frozen strawberry lemonade cup. Before I knew it I got slightly overheated and quite the sunburn on my face and that is with 50 SPF! We moved to the shady side for the remainder of the game and watched Yale become the victor.

After our lovely afternoon in Corvallis we headed towards Portland and a date with the Timbers. Before we made our way to providence park we had the need for some serious BBQ and we chose the People’s pig. I have to say that it is one of the top two BBQ restaurants that I have eaten at ever, if you’re ever in the Portland Oregon area stop here and try it!! I had the Pork plate with Macaroni salad and coleslaw and Geoff had the smoked fried chicken with potato salad and black-eyed peas. We share our food on most every occasion so I tried it all and I can say that the smoked fried chicken was hands down that winning dish and the sides were a toss up between the potato salad and coleslaw. this place is small, funky and so Portland but well worth the trip!!

After filling our bellies with good grub and parking the car at a transit center to take the max into downtown, we made our way through the gates into beautiful Providence Park. This is one of my favorite places on earth, the atmosphere is one that cannot be beat! We thoroughly enjoyed the match and our boys came out with the win 2-0 🙂

After such a long day we were ready to hit the hay so we drove on into Vancouver Washington and checked into our hotel for the night. The next morning we got a very relaxing slow start, enjoying a very nice healthy breakfast at the hotel and then doing a little laundry before we hit the road again. We decided that we were going to drive the Washington side of the Columbia river to the coast instead of taking the traditional route along Highway 30. We passed along a couple pretty spots including a historic covered bridge and took some photos and then made our way back across the bridge at Astoria.

Our Second night and third day were going to be spent exploring Fort Stevens State Park in Warrenton, Oregon. I love camping and the whole process of setting up the tent, building a fire and spending quality time with loved ones in the great outdoors. This was the first time we had been camping in a couple years so I was very excited! After doing a little shopping and enjoying hotdogs and s’mores cooked over the open fire we took a lovely sunset walk along the lake and then played a few rounds of Yahtzee before crawling into the tent for a good nights sleep.

We had a wonderful couple day and had one more to go. it was packed full of all kinds of fun explorations so I will be saving that for another blog coming very soon. Thanks for traveling with us as always and I look forward to sharing more adventures with you soon!!

Happy Travels,

Maria & Geoff

Fort Stevens State Park A couple weekends ago Geoff and I took off for a fun getaway to Portland and the Oregon coast.

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Time flies when you have to adult...

Time flies when you have to adult…

Whoa mind = blown! it’s been over a year since I have written a blog post. Every few weeks over the last year my husband has been asking me why I quit doing my blog. I don’t have a huge reason really, just a million tiny ones. I started college last fall. Higher education has been calling my name for years and all the pieces needed to allow me to finally go back, fell into place. College life is…

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On the last leg of our journey we headed off to Phoenix for some spring training, cactus league baseball. We left our hotel in Chino Hills early in the morning on Wednesday and headed for Goodyear, AZ for our first game. The trip took us about 5 and a half hours only stopping for a drink along the way. we rolled through some pretty desert scenery and past snowy mountains.

I was really excited about attending spring training again, it had been two years since we had attended and a lot had changed since then, we had been engaged and married in the time we missed going. Back in 2014 our trip to Arizona for spring training was our very first large trip together so our trips to spring training will always have a special place in my heart

We arrived in Goodyear Ballpark for game one of the day, Cleveland Indians vs LA Angels, we enjoyed the beautiful warm and sunny day, shared a little chili dog and drink and watched the Angels come away with a victory, the final score….6-3

After finishing game one in Goodyear we were hungry and had previously heard about a pizza joint in Gilbert that was worth the trip. we made our way over to Sal’s Gilbert Pizza and after a 15 minute wait to be seated we ordered our food and enjoyed the garlic knots they brought to the table. The pizza we ordered was unique, we got a spaghetti and meatballs pizza!! It was the best spaghetti and meatballs I’ve had on top of a fantastic pizza crust and then smothered in melted cheese!!

After our dinner was eaten we headed toward Salt River Fields in Scottsdale for game #2 between the Diamondbacks and Reds. It was a fun time with the Diamondbacks winning 10-2! After we finished at the ballgame we made a mad dash to Portillo’s for a sweet treat to end the day. We made it just in time to take care of the serious craving we had for their chocolate cake shake. We enjoyed our shakes as we drove out to Wickenburg to check into our hotel, then enjoyed a great night’s sleep in preparation for a very busy next day!!

The following morning we got up early, ate some breakfast at the hotel and went into downtown Wickenburg to catch up on vacation laundry. After finishing up with laundry and grabbing drinks at the local grocery store we made our way back into Phoenix, where we stopped at Portillo’s for lunch, I got their traditional chicago dog and geoff got an intalian beef sandwich. After lunch we headed to Mesa for game one of three that day!!! We planned on taking in three spring training games, one after the other that day and game one was going to be the Oakland A’s vs Mariners, it was a fun game and the weather was gorgeous, but sadly my Mariners lost😦

Game  two that day was the Chicago Cubs vs Arizona Diamondbacks. For this game instead of sitting in the traditional stands we sat up on the rooftop which had fantastic views of the entire stadium!

After game two we left Sloan Park in Mesa heading for Peoria and our final game of the day. Game three was between San Diego Padres and San Francisco Giants at Peoria Sports Complex. The game was a good one with the Giants winning 8-4.

Once our Baseball blitz was finished we were hungry and headed a little drive away to Raising Cane’s for some yummy chicken fingers and fries. Once we finished with dinner we said goodbye to Phoenix and headed back to the hotel for a good night’s sleep before heading out in the morning for some fun in Vegas.

This trip was a fantastic one and I really loved being back in Phoenix for some sunshine and of course BASEBALL!! I have one more blog planned about this trip and lots more fun coming up to tell you all about so until then…

Happy Travels,

Maria & Geoff

Spring training Blitz On the last leg of our journey we headed off to Phoenix for some spring training, cactus league baseball.

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We were really getting into the full swing of things by the third day of our vacation and were really ready to head further south in search of some sunshine and warm weather!!

After a good night’s sleep in Fremont we headed southwest towards Monterey and highway 1. We stopped at a tiny but highly recommended diner called Lou Lou’s Griddle in the Middle on the wharf in Monterey and as small as it was it is hands down the best breakfast I’ve had in a long while. I had the banana split french toast and Geoff got the Monterey omelet both were fantastic, they asked if I needed syrup for my french toast and I had to say no it was too good just how it was!

  After a yummy, filling breakfast we headed south on Highway 1, our ultimate destination being LA but we were planning on taking our time and enjoying the scenic views of the Big Sur coastline. We stopped often along the way for photos and stretching of the legs. Big Sur is gorgeous but not as beautiful as the Oregon coastline (I may be slightly biased…) and we both agreed that they could use more rest areas and facilities along the way.

  After a great trip down the coast we made it to LA in time to head up to the Griffith Observatory, sadly it is closed on Mondays, to watch a gorgeous sunset and take in views of the LA skyline.

After our date with the sunset we headed into the city for dinner at a highly recommended chicken restaurant, Zankou Chicken is a Mediterranean and Armenian restaurant. I had a half chicken plate which came with pickled veggies, hummus, a pita and this amazing garlic spread while Geoff had their Chicken Tarna plate which came with all the sides mine had plus tahini. The food was fantastic and I would highly suggest this place if you’re in the LA area, they have eight locations to choose from in the greater Los Angeles area. After dinner we made our way to our hotel in Chino Hills and settled in for a good night’s sleep.

The next morning we grabbed a some breakfast from Archibald’s next to the hotel, they have a really extensive and varied menu and the burrito and breakfast sandwich we got were great! We drove back into LA and headed for Santa Monica. We spent the morning and afternoon walking the Venice Beach Boardwalk and Santa Monica Pier. Then headed to the Getty Museum for some late afternoon culture!!

After our fun afternoon in LA we found Tacomiendo in Culver City, for some tasty and very gigantic burritos to help us fuel up for Springsteen concert number two! After dinner we made our way into South Central near the USC campus in search of the Los Angeles Memorial Sports Arena to watch Bruce Springsteen give the “The Dump That Jumps” a fantastic send off as it is scheduled to be demolished.

After a fantastic show which included a major celebrity sighting….Sylvester Stallone!! We headed back to the hotel in Chino Hills and got a great night’s sleep preparing for the next leg of our journey in Phoenix. LA Was fantastic fun and I am so glad I got to really experience the city with my amazing husband, he is the greatest travel partner anyone could ask for!! Got lots more vacation to tell you all about very soon so until then….

Happy Travels,

Maria & Geoff

Big Sur and Sunny LA We were really getting into the full swing of things by the third day of our vacation and were really ready to head further south in search of some sunshine and warm weather!!

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A couple weekends ago Geoff and I headed to the San Francisco area for stop one of our multi-city/state tour! We had a ton of fun and sights to see packed into 8 days of vacation and I was so excited to get started!

We left early evening on Friday after Geoff got off work and headed south on 97, we stayed that night in Klamath Falls grabbed breakfast in the morning and headed out early. We made our way into Vacaville and stopped for lunch at In N Out burger! Then made our way into Martinez for a tour of the John Muir National Historic Site. John Muir is the father of the national parks and one of my heroes! He was a naturalist and writer who fought hard to preserve some of America’s iconic natural places like Yosemite!

The grounds were stunning, very green and lush packed with orchards of stone fruit trees. The house was perfectly restored and was a joy to wander around, I was particularly in love with all the beautiful light fixtures! I was sad on the drive through Martinez though, it’s dominated by huge oil refineries and I know that Muir would have been outraged and deeply saddened to see such a beautiful natural area destroyed by big oil!!

After spending a couple hours at Muir’s house we headed into Berkeley for a double header Texas Tech baseball game but we got there too late for the first game and after walking around for a bit waiting for the second one to start it was postponed until the following day due to rain :-( So after walking around campus and downtown we loaded up and headed for our hotel room in Newark.

After checking into our hotel, a Courtyard by Marriott, we went into Fremont for dinner at dragon chinese restaurant. The food was fantastic! We had a family combo meal with fried rice, calamari in black bean sauce, orange chicken, wonton soup and and crab rangoon.

The hotel had such a soft and comfortable bed I enjoyed a super restful nights sleep and was ready to get started early the next day!

After grabbing breakfast sandwiches from a donut shop on the corner we headed into downtown San Francisco to catch a boat out to Alcatraz island for a tour. It poured rain the whole time we were out that day but we had so much fun that we didn’t notice too much! The tour we took was a self guided audio tour, they give you a headset and you push play then it walks you through the cell house and grounds.

After Alcatraz we found ourselves back on fisherman’s wharf and stopped at the Fog Harbor Fish House for lunch. The food was excellent the wait was about 30 minutes which, for a popular restaurant on fisherman’s wharf, isn’t bad. I had a serious craving for fish n chips and Geoff got a plate of fried fish, shrimp and calamari.We wandered the pier for a few minutes bought some souvenirs and then headed back to the hotel to change and shower before heading to Oracle Arena for our first of three Springsteen concerts. This was Geoff’s 7th Springsteen concert and my very first. I gotta say that I had no clue why he loved it so much until the show began and I was in love with the show that he puts on, he even crowd surfed from the center catwalk all the way back to the main stage during hungry hearts!!! I was immediately hooked and was excited for the next two shows we’d be seeing!!

Crazy happy to see The Boss

We had such a fantastic time in the bay area and I always look forward to going back for another visit. I have tons more vacation to tell you all about very soon so until then…

Happy Travels,

Maria & Geoff

Bay Area Beauty A couple weekends ago Geoff and I headed to the San Francisco area for stop one of our multi-city/state tour!

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Weekend fun

This past weekend Geoff and I didn’t do a whole lot, we are saving our money/energy for our huge trip to Cali and Arizona in a couple weeks, we did load Lucy up however and headed out for a drive.

We drove Highway 26 to Prineville for some lunch and a bit of exploring at Prineville Reservoir. Prineville reservoir state Park is about a 25 minute drive SE of Prineville through scenic hills. The…

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I love living closer to family and just a short drive from Portland! this past weekend we headed over to Portland to attend the Wizard World Comic-con and the Simple Invitational (soccer). We dropped our Lucy girl off with a pet sitter we found on Rover.com again and started towards Portland around 8 am. We took highway 26 through the Cascade mountains passing Mount Hood and all the Ski areas and found our way into downtown for some lunch. We met up with my sister Latisha and adorable niece Jenee at Frank’s Noodle House. Frank’s is an awesome little place near the Moda Center, Convention Center and Lloyd Center Mall, they do great hand stretched asian noodle dishes. Tisha, Jenee and I had the chicken stir fry noodles and Geoff had the Chicken soup noodles. All of the dishes were great and I enjoyed the kimchi and pickled daikon radish that they brought as appetizers.

Noodles and a cute little lunch date!

After eating out lunch, grabbing cash from the ATM and finding parking we made it to the Wizard World Comic-con. The Comic-con was fantastic, it lived up to all my nerdy expectations, I was dead tired, overheated and sore after all the walking and standing but I still wished I could have stayed longer. Weta Workshops who does fantastic special effects, costumes and prosthetics had an awesome booth set up, we got to see the Portland Unipiper perform, which for all those that don’t know how strange Portland is, he rides a unicycle around Portland while wearing a kilt & Darth Vader helmet, playing a set of bagpipes that shoot fire!!! We also got to see some of our favorite all time character actors in their booths signing autographs and we sat in on a Q&A panel with William Shatner. It was a fantastic time so awesome seeing all the Cosplayers dressed up and getting to explore the artists booths, I look forward to going to the next one in the fall. After leaving comic-con we stopped in Lake Oswego for dinner at Fudrucker’s…Yummy!! then headed to Albany to stay the night with Tish and family.

oh no it’s a Dalek!!!

Awesome Weta Workshop designed armor

William Shatner was so hilarious!!

The following morning after a little snuggle/playtime with my niece and nephew we grabbed donuts from an insanely busy Cork’s Donuts in Albany and hit the road. We made our way into Portland and found a spot for lunch and did a little shopping while we waited for our table to be ready. We bought Lucy girl a treat and an adorable Timbers doggy t-shirt at Mudd Bay and then sat down to eat at Kizuki Ramen bar. You know it’s seriously authentic ramen when they have many locations in Japan and Taiwan! The atmosphere in the restraunt was great, we sat at the counter and got to watch all the chef’s do their thing and when the ramen came it was excellent. I was super proud of myself for toughing it out with the chopsticks instead of asking for a fork!! After driving into downtown we parked and walked around before the soccer matches we snapped some beautiful photos and enjoyed the exercise.

Ramen!

Beautiful Church, fell in love with these red doors

The historic Telegraph building

There were two soccer matches that day, the first was Chicago Fire FC vs Vancouver Whitecaps FC it was a great game but my heart was pitter pattering for the start of the second match. My Portland Timber FC vs Minnesota United FC The match was a fantastic one with two of the goals being scored via penalty kicks and with four goals to none ending it with a Timbers victory!! I can’t say how excited I am for the new season to begin and look forward to attending many more matches this year!!

We made our way home after the soccer matches ended and I picked our Lucy girl up this morning. I had such a fun weekend and as always, I loved spending time with my family and wonderful husband. We got tons of fun stuff coming up really soon including an 8 day trip to California, Arizona and Nevada. I’ll be telling you all about more of our adventures very soon, so until then…

Happy Travels,

Maria, Geoff & Lucy!

Comic-con and Simple Invitational I love living closer to family and just a short drive from Portland! this past weekend we headed over to Portland to attend the Wizard World Comic-con and the Simple Invitational (soccer).

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I think I already talked a little about the move that we made last month for Geoff’s job, but I wanted to share a little of the beauty that surrounds us with all of you. We live in a small farming community in Jefferson County, Central Oregon. It is a place of endless, contrasting beauty! The Cascade Mountains are to the west of us and the Ochoco Mountains are to the East. We are just a short drive from the convergence of the Deschutes, Crooked and Metolius rivers, with lakes and reservoirs dotting the landscape. We have explored with visiting family & friends recently and Lucy and I get out at least once a week to explore a new spot. I am working hard on improving my Photography and trying to update this blog for y’all more often, so I hope that my hard work shows in these photos I am going to share with you guys!!

We have visited Lake Billy Chinook a few times recently exploring, The lake is the confluence of three rivers, the Deschutes, Crooked and Metolius and is surrounded by towering cliffs. There are many campgrounds and plenty of day use areas to take advantage of as well.

I have been to Haystack Reservoir and the Ochoco National Grasslands a couple times recently as well, it has such a stunning backdrop with the Cascade Volcanoes visible from the lakeside.

Mt Jefferson seen from Haystack Reservoir

Haystack reservoir

We’ve also been to Smith Rock State Park and the Crooked River Gorge. Smith Rock is a rock climbing paradise with the Crooked River flowing through it and passing through the 300 ft deep Crooked River Gorge which has a couple historic bridges spanning it and a gorgeous backdrop of the Three Sisters and Mt Jefferson.

The ultimate beauty that surrounds us has to be the gorgeous cascade mountain range with Volcanoes abounding, from vantage points surrounding our home we can see, Mt Hood, Mt Adams, Mt Jefferson, Three Fingered Jack, Mt Washington, The Three Sisters, Broken Top and Mt Bachelor to name a few!

I hope you all enjoyed this tour of our beautiful home and I can’t wait to share more of our beautiful Central Oregon with you all really soon!! to see more of the photos as I take them feel free to give me a follow on instagram: @latebloomer31!

  Happy Travels,

Maria, Geoff & Lucy

Home, Sweet Home! I think I already talked a little about the move that we made last month for Geoff's job, but I wanted to share a little of the beauty that surrounds us with all of you.

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A couple weekends ago Geoff and I headed over to the Willamette Valley to spend time with my family and attend a couple college basketball games. We headed over the Cascade Mountains via Santiam and McKenzie passes and stopped in Albany for a few minutes to drop off our Lucy girl and say hello to my brother.

After our quick stop in Albany we headed south to Eugene, heading to Matthew Knight Arena for Oregon vs UCLA men’s basketball. We got there part way through the first period and settled in for what would be an excellent game. The Halftime show was kind of a special one with Otis Day performing Shout! For those of you who (GASP) have never seen the movie Animal House Otis Day and the Knights were the band playing at the toga party. The movie was filmed in Eugene on 7th street just off campus and the Ducks have adopted the song as their own. The second period was as great as the first and the Ducks won 82-76!

After leaving the game we walked around campus for a while taking photos and seeing the sights before heading into the city for a bite to eat. We stopped at Noodle bowl just a few blocks from the McDonald Theater and had dinner then walked a couple blocks over to Voodoo doughnuts for a sweet treat before heading back to Albany. It was a fun day and we had more good time to enjoy the next day.

After a nice night spent visiting with family and playing with my niece Jenee and Nephew Liam we had a good nights sleep, breakfast made by my brother-in-law Tim the following morning and headed off for Corvallis with my sister and niece to watch the OSU Beavers play USC. It was a great game and so nice to spend time with my Sister, Niece and Geoff. The Beavs won the game 85-70 and we got to see Gary Payton II play, his father Gary Payton played for the beavs and had his number retired!

After a nice couple days full of basketball and family time we said our goodbyes and headed towards home.

It was a wonderful weekend and I really enjoyed the basketball games and loved the family time we got to have. I look forward to getting together with my family whenever we can. I hope you all are having a wonderful February and Believe me I have lots of fun blogs coming very soon, so until then…

  Happy Travels,

Maria and Geoff

Weekend in the Valley A couple weekends ago Geoff and I headed over to the Willamette Valley to spend time with my family and attend a couple college basketball games.

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OK folks here is part two of our Christmas trip. Geoff and I had a great time in Texas visiting family and were looking forward to the road trip home. We left his Mom’s house on Tuesday the 29th heading northwest towards Amarillo. The drive was nice, we drove through some beautiful snowy areas. We made it to Amarillo around 2 pm did some shopping and time killing so we could eat at Coyote Bluff. The food at Coyote Bluff was huge and delicious so it was worth the wait.

This is the Green Chili Fries at Coyote Bluff Cafe…They’re Huge!!

After finishing our burgers and fries we made one more stop at Academy Sports and then headed towards Albuquerque for the night. After a good nights sleep in Albuquerque we started our morning with a trip to Old town for some photos and then grabbed breakfast at Dunkin Donuts.

Love the architecture in Albuquerque!

Beautiful Gazebo

Fire those cannons!

Instead of continuing on the interstate we headed towards Farmington taking Highway 550 through some of the most beautiful country I’d seen so far!

We made it to Farmington by mid afternoon and then headed up into Colorado then Utah. Our main stop that day would be at Arches National Park to do a little snowy exploration.

Landscape Arch

Geoff, Hanging out

I loved this old twisted tree

Me and my handsome husband!

After lunch in Moab and our little trip to Arches it was dark and time to head over a very scary pass into Salt Lake City for the night. It was snowing like crazy in the pass and we probably did 25-30 miles an hour until we got to the bottom! We made it to our hotel in Sandy safe and then made a trek to the Super Target for a light dinner where we discovered that they had Geoff’s fave soda that’s no longer in production, it made a great end to what was a very lovely day!!

The next morning we made a quick stop or two for photos and breakfast then headed out of the city looking to make it to Boise for Lunch at our favorite pizza place, The Flying Pie, because they have an awesome weekday lunch buffet and fantastic pizza. We made it just in time to catch the end of the lunch buffet and filled up while watching some College Football on the TV then did a little shopping at Dillard’s and made the final length of our trip home in good time. We had to fight with the dang payment kiosk at the Airport for a while in order to collect Geoff’s car and then finally got to pick up our Lucy girl!

This was a great trip and much needed before the hellish move we were just about to embark on! I really loved all the beautiful snowy scenery we passed through and was extremely happy to cross another National Park off my list of must sees. I hope that you all enjoy this blog and the photos and I look forward to telling you about our other recent adventures really soon, so until then….

Happy Travels,

Maria, Geoff & Lucy!

Christmas Road Trip OK folks here is part two of our Christmas trip. Geoff and I had a great time in Texas visiting family and were looking forward to the road trip home.

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I promised to tell you all about our trip to Texas for Christmas and our road trip home so you’re getting two blog posts!

Last month for Christmas Geoff and I booked a flight to Dallas/Ft Worth to visit his family. We were initially going to be flying out there on Christmas day but our flight was delayed in leaving several hours and we would have missed our connecting flight out of Denver, so instead of being stranded over night and having to pay for a hotel, we decided to take a replacement flight early the next morning. We normally fly out of Portland but decided this time to fly from our home airport at Pasco, Washington and with the delays and craziness of the previous day almost regretted that decision but it turned out OK.

Instead of having a layover in Denver we had our layover in San Francisco which was a new experience. I love airports, all the hustle and bustle going on, people from all walks of life mingling in a harried swirl of colors, smells and sounds. I liked the Super Bowl 50 display they had in our terminal it was a nice distraction while we waited. We ate a quick meal at Klein’s Deli and grabbed a couple milkshakes from Burger Joint and slurped them down while waiting in line to board.

Our Flight arrived in Dallas around 4:30 in the afternoon while under a severe thunderstorm watch! We picked up our rental car and avoided the worst of the storm heading west to grab some food at Zaxby’s, before leaving the city. I think I underestimated the severity of the storms they were having until we found out that a large Tornado had touched down killing eleven people, it swept people off of and overpass near Dallas!! I was very sad to hear about people loosing their lives in the storm but thankful that we survived and made it safely to his mother’s house.

The next couple of days were spent visiting with his mom, it snowed while we were there, which was a nice surprise and made for some beautiful views into the valley below. It was a really nice visit, we enjoyed the time we got to spend with his mom, brother, niece and nephew.

Snowy Texas!

We were happy to get out of the house and head into the city on Monday though. We were heading into Dallas to drop off our rental car, since we were picking up a car from his mom, to catch a movie and a Maverick’s game. After dropping off the car we headed to the IMAX theater for a showing of the Hateful 8. I’m not much of a person for violent or gory movies but there was something about the Hateful 8 that I just really liked, it kept you on the edge of your seat guessing what was going to happen next, it was GREAT!

After we finished the movie we caught the DART into downtown and made our way to American Airlines Center for the Mav’s game. They played the Milwaukee Bucks and it was a great game with the Mav’s winning in the end 103-93! I was really excited about this particular game because it was the first time we would be sitting in club level seats!

Really enjoying our time together!

introducing the teams

We’re Winning!

After the game finised we caught the DART back to our car and stopped for dinner at Raising Cane’s then HEB to pick up supplies we can’t get at home. The following morning we would be heading out for our big road trip home, it was such a lovely trip and nice visit with his family I can’t wait until the next time we can go back for another visit!! I’ve got another blog coming up later this week all about the fun things we did on our road trip so until then…

Happy Travels,

Maria and Geoff!

Christmas in Texas I promised to tell you all about our trip to Texas for Christmas and our road trip home so you're getting two blog posts!

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Moving Company Drama

Gotta say I am sorry that I have been M.I.A (missing in action). The last two months have been an interesting adventure to say the least. Back in November Geoff had an interview with a newspaper in Central Oregon for a reporter position and after accepting the job, when offered, we were off to the races! We had our last days at our previous jobs on the 23rd and 24th of December and then took off…

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Our Last Day in Paradise

Our Last Day in Paradise

Every second of the time we spent in Hawaii was glorious even the times we were worried about flash floods and tsunamis were blissful. Our last night on the big island was spent preparing for our departure by doing laundry and packing our bags but we also snuck in some time at the pool, swimming under the stars. I could sit in the hot tub and look out over the ocean with the moon shining off of…

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Nerdiness, Huskies and Timbers playoffs

Nerdiness, Huskies and Timbers playoffs

This past weekend for Halloween Geoff and I took off to Seattle/Tacoma area to join up with my little sister Latisha and her Family. We met first thing Saturday afternoon for lunch at Tokyo-ya Ramen in Federal Way, the ramen at Tokyo-Ya is tasty, filling and fun to eat (even though I suck at using chop sticks and had to give up and ask for a fork). My sister loved it, ramen is one of her favorite…