Beautiful Oregon

My trip to Oregon for HTC was my first experience in the Pacific Northwest. It is an incredibly beautiful and diverse area. I tried to capture the beauty with my camera, but somehow the photos pale in comparison to the real thing.  These pictures were my attempt to capture the magnificent scenes of Oregon.

 

Aunt Sally's cute purple house and amazing roses

You see houses of every color in Portland!

Vineyard in Sandy,OR.

A peek of Mt Hood

Downtown Portland and the Wilamette River

Mt St Helens.  This is as good as I could do from a moving car window . . .
 we were driving to our next exchange with no time for sight seeing!!

This little beauty was hidden in the woods at one of our exchanges.

Our adorable cottage in Seaside, OR.

Beach Street, the view from our cottage.

This was the ADORABLE house next door.  Hmmmmm, HTC 2013 digs??

Seaside

A jog on the beach?? Really?
 You didn't get enough running in the last 36 hours??

Part of Team Kid Free Weekend
Notice we are NOT running on the beach.

Haystack Rock

Cannon Beach.  Hydrangeas everywhere, tons of shopping, and Haystack Rock.
This little town was adorable.

The Goonies House.  Yep, I did the truffle shuffle.

We could hear these guys from the Goonies House.  Elizabeth says they are the
slugs of the sea, but I thought they were super cute.

Astoria, Oregon

View from Chanticleer Point
 

 Vista House.  A beautiful lookout point.

View from Vista House. I mean, really!!

Oregon Scenic Highway

 Multnomah Falls

Multnomah Falls.  We hiked up to that little bridge-
 the smell and the view are both breathtaking.

Columbia River

An exchange in Vernonia, OR.
We were exhausted but it was too beautiful to close our eyes.

The trees are so tall and the stars are so bright
The air is cool and clean
It is magical.

I had lunch at the end of this pier on my last day in Oregon. 

Shipyard on the Columbia

Mt Hood from the air



P.S. 323 miles down, 177 to go.
 

My journey from Hood to Coast

There are no words to describe the incredible, eye opening, life-changing adventure called Hood to Coast. The Pacific Northwest was so beautiful and so diverse.  Everywhere you look there is something incredible to behold.  Mountains, rivers, gorges, waterfalls, and the amazing coast.   We drove 200 beautiful miles of Oregon country . . . from vineyards and farms in Sandy, OR with Mt Hood looming in the distance, through Portland and the surrounding urban areas (which were eclectic and beautiful and full of roses), through the Coastal Range mountains and the surrounding farmland in Astoria, OR and finally to the north coast in Seaside, OR.   I made friends that I will cherish forever . . . my van #2 soul mates were amazing, positive, strong and absolutely HILARIOUS.  We laughed until we cried, we cheered for eachother and we took care of eachother.  I even spooned with Elizabeth in a field in Vernonia, OR in the middle of the night!

 

HTC Teams each have 2 Vans - and almost everyone decorates these vehicles.  Some of the runners were wearing costumes and team spirit was overflowing!!  It seemed like everyone was cheering (and ringing cowbells) for everyone else!!  This is why I SO love the running community. 
Here are some of my favorite teams. . .

 

Team TOYO - Tokyo University - HTC Champs

Team USA

Shuffle Truffle!!

Not JB Fans, I'm guessing . . .

This team ran all of their legs in red dresses.

 

Bwahahaha

 

 

Got Runs?? Hahahaha

Timberline ROCKS - sponsored by Timberline Lodge (where the race begins)
Blaring loud hair band music and dressing like rockers for 30+ hours . . .

Kid Free Weekend!!
 

 

 

Some HTC moments I will never forget:

This is the starting line at Timberline Lodge on Mt Hood.  Van 1 started the journey here . . .



This was one of our exchanges.  1100 teams with 2 vans a piece, you can do the math.
 There were A TON of  vans in Oregon that weekend! 
The exchanges were super busy and full of some amazing people.

I cannot even begin to tell you how many "honey buckets" I saw in those 2 days. 
Unfortunately, I used most of them.



B&G - the first hot food I had eaten in many hours.
 Bought from a family on a farm in Astoria, OR.
YUMMY!

Ready for LEG #1

Heading out on LEG #3.   I ran every single mile with GGG in my heart.

Our first runner on the road!!  - Brett McCoy

Elizabeth finishing her 1st leg near downtown Portland & the Willamette River

Enjoying a quiet moment in the mid-morning sun in Astoria, OR.  (Belly full of biscuits & gravy)
Exhaustion was at an all time high for Van #2 girls!

 

We DID it!  200 miles, 2 vans, 12 runners, 34 hours and 51 minutes.
 

Soaking my tired feet in the cold Pacific Ocean.  Seaside, OR.