Pacific Northwest: Part 5

Last leg of our journey through the Pacific Northwest! I have to admit that by the end of the trip, we were pretty exhausted — and Portland wore us out even more with its one-way streets and heavy traffic. It wasn't my favorite city to drive in, but I did love the International Rose Test Garden!

Founded in 1917, this garden has hundreds of roses and is known for testing new types and creating hybrids. We snapped tons of pictures in the hour we spent there, but my all-time favorite roses were the Paris de Yves St. Laurent. They are the most beautiful shade of pink.

The best part of Portland, though, was Powell's City of Books — a giant bookstore spanning an entire city block that includes both new and used books. I actually had no idea it even existed until we searched for things to do in Portland as we were getting ready to leave, so I was totally unprepared for the monstrous store. I still managed to find several hard-to-find Berenstain Bear books, though!

This picture only shows part of the store. It is enormous and has every book you could ever want. I felt a little like Belle in Beauty and the Beast, trying to figure out where to start reading. If we return to Portland, I will have a list of books I've been looking for. I already miss it!

From Portland, we headed toward Bend in central Oregon, passing the majestic Mount Hood. I would have snapped more pictures of it, except that we encountered a crazy rain storm in which we had to pull over several times because visibility was so poor. That pretty much killed the picture-taking, unfortunately.

As we approached Bend, we realized that central Oregon is covered in dormant volcanoes. You can see a few of them in this photo, but they dot the landscape. It is fascinating.

Bend itself is pretty cool, too. We drove up Pilot Butte, which offers spectacular views of the city and the surrounding mountains, and then we walked through downtown for a little while and got some lunch. It started to rain again (I have great respect for people who take great pictures in Oregon!), but we thought the city was so pretty.

And since my lovely friend Breanna plans to relocate to Bend someday, I liked it even more. I'd love to live closer to her, her husband and their beautiful little girls! :)

From Bend, we drove to Nampa, Idaho and stayed the night with some great family friends, and then we headed back home to Salt Lake City. It was a wonderful trip, and I'm glad we got to experience it together. We're already planning a return trip (but not for a while) to Seattle!

Pacific Northwest: Part 3

We spent two days in Seattle so we could celebrate our actual anniversary there — and it did not disappoint. I hadn't been to Seattle since I was a little kid, so Andrew and I discovered this beautiful city together.

We checked out the Pike Place Market (of course) and took a ride on the new Seattle Wheel. I was feeling a bit nauseated when we took this picture.

The view from the top of the Space Needle, which we visited both during the day and at night. Sure, everyone says it, but you cannot miss the Space Needle if you go to Seattle! The views are spectacular, and the structure itself is just amazing.

As you head to Pike Place Market from the light rail, there is an alley with brick walls covered in gum where people write notes and even leave pictures of themselves. It is grotesque and a health hazard and brilliant at the same time. The colors are so vibrant, and it makes for some beautiful pictures.

We took a harbor cruise around Seattle and loved seeing the skyline from the water!

And of course no trip to Seattle is complete without some fantastic seafood. Anthony's Pier 66 had the best fish tacos I've ever had, hands down — which is saying something if you know how much I adore fish tacos! We also had wonderful clam chowder and fish and chips at Ivar's.

Pictures of our next leg of the journey, the Oregon coast, will be up soon!

Pacific Northwest: Part 2

Here's part two of our adventure to the Pacific Northwest! We left Missoula, Montana Sunday morning and took the Lolo Pass over into northern Idaho. It is absolutely beautiful, but it's also about four hours of a winding canyon road. Most of it is the journey Lewis and Clark took more than 200 years ago, and it has changed very little since then.

There are very few towns along the Lolo Pass, and those that are still populated are old mining towns that have maybe 20 people. It's very peaceful, and you feel like you've stepped back in time. I loved it.

From the end of the Lolo Pass, we drove north about a half hour to Moscow, Idaho, which is where I was born. Pronounced Moss-CO (not like the city in Russia), it is a cute little town that also houses the University of Idaho. Since my parents moved to southern Idaho when I was two years old, I really don't remember living there, and the last time we visited was when I was seven. So of course we had to take a trip down memory lane and visit

the tiny basement apartment where I grew up (complete with a tabby that reminded me of our old cat, Nash)

the park across the street where I swung and played as a toddler,

and the University of Idaho, where my dad got his master's degree. The campus is absolutely gorgeous. The buildings are all red brick, and many are covered in ivy. Unfortunately, taking pictures at 3 in the afternoon means shadowy buildings and blinding sunlight (hence the black and white filter).

Moscow also has miles of rolling wheat fields outside of it, and I was completely smitten. I could have taken hundreds of pictures of the fields and never gotten tired of them. It's obvious that I'm a country girl at heart.

We made a quick stop in Coeur d'Alene to wade in the lake and check out the beautiful waterfront. Unfortunately, the bright light reflecting off the water at about 5 p.m. didn't let us take great pictures, but the weather was perfect.

Then we drove up to Spokane, Washington, where we stayed for the night. Spokane is a really interesting city with a river that runs right through the middle of it. I love Riverfront Park, which was created for the World's Fair in 1974 — and the giant wire canopy they left behind when the fair was over.

We unfortunately didn't have a lot of time in Spokane because it was already getting dark by the time we got there, but we liked walking around the park and checking out the bridges! I'd love to bring Andrew back sometime to do some more exploring.

Part three will be up soon! I hope you had a wonderful weekend — and if you've been to any of these places, please weigh in. I love talking to people who enjoy the Pacific Northwest as much as I do. :)

Pacific Northwest: Part 1

If you follow me on Instagram (@lovelindsaywilcox), you've already seen all of these pictures. But hopefully you'll still find this post interesting as I explain the first part of our road trip!

We started off by visiting my family in southern Idaho and then making our way up to Montana, stopping briefly in Ennis before a quick visit to Virginia City and Nevada City. I've talked before about how much I love Virginia City and all the old buildings there — and you can see even more pictures of Virginia City from 2012 here.

From Virginia City and Nevada City, we drove to Butte, one of the most interesting places I've ever visited. Since we spent some time there last year during our road trip to Glacier National Park, we didn't stay there long this time — but we were there long enough for me to take pictures of the adorable historic homes I am obsessed with. I would love to spend a day in Butte just walking through them, some that were built in the 1860s!

Seriously. Are these homes not amazing? If Butte actually had job opportunities for Andrew and me, I would consider buying a home there. I go gaga for places that are teeming with history, and this old mining town fits the bill. You can see more pictures of Butte in this post.

From Butte, we drove another two hours to Missoula, where we spent the night at a KOA. This is ridiculous, but one of the main reasons I wanted to stay in Missoula was to get fish tacos from Taco Del Sol, since we discovered them last year. While I admit that they weren't quite as good as I remember, they were still delicious — and I had to replicate the picture from last year's trip (minus the braces, YAY!).

We polished off the night with a soak in the KOA hot tub and huckleberry ice cream cones. I eat huckleberry everything when I'm in Montana and Idaho, because you can't find it in Utah. It is my favorite!

Part two of our trip is coming soon! I'm already missing Montana and Idaho.

Idaho, how I love thee

Idaho's sunsets are unparalleled.

I'm back! Andrew and I headed up to Idaho to see my family for an extended weekend (we got back at about 2 a.m. Tuesday morning). It was actually a fantastic time to head up there, because for once I didn't feel like I'd missed out on a bunch of family stuff since I live four hours away. Here's the lowdown:

My sister got engaged! She is marrying Tom, a great guy from Burley, Idaho (about 2.5 hours east) in February, since she's about to head to Jerusalem (!) until December. Funny story: Tom had actually planned to propose on their hike to Table Rock Saturday morning. When Lauren (who had no idea what he was planning) asked if she could bring her roommate along, Tom sent a text to his mom, griping that he couldn't propose if another girl was there — except that he sent it to Lauren by mistake. He realized his mistake and proposed to her early, so she was caught completely off-guard. It's pretty funny, and it'll be a great story they can tell their kids! 

P.S. My sister HATES having her picture taken and ruined many pictures we tried to take of her and Tom this weekend. But since she doesn't read my blog, I don't feel bad putting this up. 

They were a little sunburned from the hike.

I got to meet baby Evelynn for the first time. I know I am her aunt and am more than a little biased, but she is seriously the most beautiful baby. She just turned three weeks old, but she's still tiny and wonderfully snuggly. Evelynn screamed for a few minutes when I was trying to take pictures of her, and then she fell asleep almost immediately when I laid her against my chest. Megan (my sister-in-law) thinks maybe she could just sense my heartbeat and it calmed her down — for about 20 minutes anyway.

We floated the river and went huckleberry picking with my family. For some reason, Andrew and I have been married nearly three years and I've never taken him on one of my favorite summer pastimes: floating the fork of the Snake River that runs through my town. While it was a lot more shallow this year and we had to get up and stumble over river rocks several times to find faster-moving water, it was relaxing — and Andrew actually wanted to go again before we left (but we didn't get a chance to). We also picked huckleberries about a half hour away from my parents' home and have the horsefly bites and scratches to prove it.

We watched my dad and my brother perform Les Miserables. With my dad as Javert and Reggie as Marius, it was a wonderful production. I actually teared up during Eponine's "A Little Fall of Rain" since my brother is so great at conveying emotion. And my dad's version of "Stars" was beautiful, too. I feel lucky to be part of such a talented family. If you're in Idaho, you can still see the play through Saturday! :)

It was a fun way to spend the weekend. I hope yours was as great (even though we're halfway to another one now)!

And we'll have fun, fun, fun

Till the car breaks down in Jackson, Wyoming.

It was an interesting week that began with my car not starting Monday morning when I needed to be in American Fork for an orthodontist appointment and Andrew cleaning the battery terminals and charging it all night after the lady at O'Reilly auto parts checked the battery, alternator and starter and said everything was running fine.

It ended with us taking the car on a long road trip through canyons and back roads to Jackson Hole, walking around the city for a couple hours and coming back to find that the car wouldn't start -- and of course, since Jackson is a tourist town, all mechanics go home at 6 and Napa Auto Parts closes at the same time.

A couple hours later (after a nice lady gave us a ride to Kmart to buy a car battery that turned out to make no difference at all, we rode the town bus through practically the entire city in the dark and an even nicer lady attempted to jump our car and called tow companies and mechanics), we got the car started and made it back to our KOA.

It was disappointing, to say the least, when we realized that it was no longer safe to turn our car off and we basically raced through Grand Teton National Park and Yellowstone National Park (making a few stops for me to jump out of the car and take pictures while Andrew kept it running). The animals all seemed to be in hibernation, except for a stampede of buffalo that managed to keep an entire line of cars behind them for at least a half hour because the cars in front of us were too chicken to honk or gently herd them out of the road.

But the good news is I got to spend some much-needed time with my family in the beautiful state that I've missed so much. I also got to visit my grandpa, who fell and broke his hip and has been in the nursing home for several days following surgery. And Andrew, who is awesome at fixing things, is pretty sure the problem with the car is the ignition switch -- which he was miraculously able to score on Amazon for only $25 plus free two-day shipping (meaning it will be here tomorrow).

I'm going to put more photos of our trip up on Wanderlust and Weekends soon, but for now, here's one of a famous barn just outside Grand Teton National Park. Due to a fire burning in the Salmon area, the Tetons were really hazy and hard to see during our trip, but I love how the barn looked at sunrise. Next time we're there, I'm going to get some killer pictures with the Tetons looking as they normally do -- majestic and brilliant blue.

Bigfork, Montana

Back to Montana! These pictures are from our drive around Flathead Lake and the city of Bigfork, Montana, which is on the east side of the lake. I will be honest, though. That lake and the entire area around it is so beautiful that pictures really don't do it justice. This is also because there wasn't a lot of light when we reached Bigfork and it was approaching dusk.

Once I finally get the time to create the travel blog, I'm planning on posting a map of our Montana journey so you can see where the different cities are -- and how we put almost 2,000 miles on our car in that trip. :)

Isn't it a cute little town? I promise that photos of Glacier are up next. I know I've been saying that for a while, but I forgot how many in-between pictures we have. It was such a great trip.