I have done some exploring and so far like the Pacific Northwest. I went snowboarding at Mt. Hood Meadows one weekend. It was fun, but definitely different from Colorado. The cascade concrete (heavy, wet powder) really takes a toll on your legs. It is pretty cool to be able to drive out of the rain in Portland into the snow on Mt. Hood.
One of my coworker's parents has a 30 acre farm outside of the city. I spent a Saturday morning there getting firewood (my duplex has a wood burning fireplace) and helping them with some work. I folded my back seat down, threw down a tarp, and was able to get an impressive amount of wood into the back of my Jeep.
The stack is about five feet tall and nine feet wide. I still have to get a maul so I can split it and start using it for fires.
The past few days, we've had great weather - sunny and dry. I took advantage of the great weather on Saturday to go for a hike along the coast at Tillamook Head. I hiked about nine miles in one of the coolest forests I've ever been in. The hike has some historic significance, as it's a route Louis and Clarke took in search of a beached whale the natives had told them about. There is also a WWII radar bunker in the forest.
Unfortunately, the entrances are gated, so you can't get in (at least not easily...)
Though many of the old growth trees had been cut down before it became a state park, many of them are still standing, or have only recently fallen over. Many of the trees were by far the biggest I have ever seen in my life. It's hard to tell how big they are from my pictures, but some were at leas 6-7 feet in diameter at the trunk.
I ate lunch in solitude sitting on top of a 1000 foot cliff overlooking the Pacific Ocean.
Out on the rock on the left of the picture is the Tillamook lighthouse, nicknamed Terrible Tilly.
To end the day, I sat on the beach and watched the sun set over the Pacific Ocean. This marks the furthest west I've been in the lower 48 and the first time I've seen the sun set over the ocean.
The high land on the left is Tillamook Head, where I spent the day hiking.
I used my GoPro to make this time lapse. It's not that exciting, but was my first time using the camera.
There are a lot of great pictures from this hike on flickr.
