Broyles

Before Todd and I left Portland, we had to visit VooDoo Doughnuts. We first heard about it on Man vs. Food (an awesome show on the Travel Channel), when Adam Richman visited Portland. They, like the rest of Portland, are a little weird. Some of their creations are topped with unconventional toppings such as cereal (Fruit Loops, Cocoa Puffs); others have even more bizarre like bacon, peanut butter and Oreos. Their token doughnut is in the shape of a VooDoo doll, filled with raspberry filling, topped with chocolate and finished off with a pretzel stabbed in the center. Definitely weird but all in all a tasty treat.

We stopped at Yaquina Head to visit the coolest lighthouse. It is located in one of Oregon's National Parks. Built in the 1800's, it can be seen for 19 miles with it's "signature" signal (unique to every lighthouse) -- on for 2 seconds, off for 2 seconds, on for 2, off for 14. I was a BIG fan!

A short distance from the lighthouse, there are stairs that lead down to some tide pools. We debated going down since we were walking like we were 80. I drastically underestimated what running 26.2 miles would do to me afterward. But considering we probably wouldn't be back there we sucked it up and went down to check it out. I was fascinated by how the ocean shapes all the rocks into perfectly round stones. As we walked closer to the ocean, they became smaller, but still perfectly round. Todd found a bunch of mussels growing on the sides of the big boulders. Although I thought they were gross, he liked them.


We stayed the night in Newport at the Elizabeth Inn. We were pleasantly surprised to see our room had it's own private balcony looking directly down to the beach. The sight was simply breathtaking. We slept with the door open so the peaceful sounds of the crashing waves could roll in.

We ate dinner at Georgie's (a local restaurant). It was a little later than our usual dinner time but it seemed like we arrived in perfect time. From our table we had the colorful view of the setting sun. I have heard about people watching the sun set before but I never took it so literally. The sun dips below the horizon in a matter of seconds. Todd and I watched the beautiful scene without uttering a word as our waitress waited patiently to take our order. One of God's wonders for sure.

The following morning we took a walk on the beach. The ocean is incredible. We found various ocean life that had washed up on the beach but mostly we enjoyed the water. Now that is something I could get used to.