Swan Island Daliah Festival & Hiking Saddle Mountain

The weekend before school started, my dear friend and I went on a little excursion to celebrate her birthday. We started out at the Daliah Festival in Canby. 

Oh my goodness we were in Daliah heaven!

Friends are the flowers of life!

From there, we went on our way toward Seaside to hike the Saddle Mountain Trail that has long been on my bucket list of Oregon hikes. Round trip, it is about 5 miles.

There were many beautiful sites along the trail. At the picnic bench pictured below, we found ourselves pondering a life question: How did they get the picnic benches so far up the trail???

Seriously, if anyone has an answer for me, please let me know. 

We kept going, up and up, and then we reached what we thought was the end of the hike.

A little perspective on how big our universe is...

God's creation is so amazing!

I was feeling on top of the world, and then, I looked to my left...

and realized we were not at the top.

This hill may not look that bad, but oh my word, it was the most difficult hike I have ever done. To put it in perspective, when you zoom in on this picture, you can actually see people hiking on the trail.

I thought it was never going to end. It kept winding up and up. It was so steep, there were chain link fencing put over the trail to help the hikers with grip. 

Getting to the top was worth it though. Look at the view! We could see the ocean too!

I am so glad for my dear friend Kate going on adventures with me! It was a grueling hike on the way up, but the way down was just as bad! I discovered that I, apparently, have a knee problem! My left knee hurt so bad only on the down hill that I couldn't bend it. I fell quite a few times from the awkward gait I had to take on to avoid the pain. Luckily, Kate is on the up from knee surgery as well, so we were both slow pokes on the way down.

We finished the day with some Taco Time and a Candy Man ice cream cone on the gloomy beach.

We earned that ice cream!!

I'm looking forward to our next adventure!

Happy Sunday!

Celebrating Our 4 Year Anniversary

Joel & I celebrated our 4 year wedding anniversary this past December.
To celebrate, we tried out a new restaurant in downtown Salem, called "Davinci's Ristorante".
I was a little nervous because we had never been before,
 and Salem isn't exactly a mecca of fine dining, but I was very pleased with our choice!

I stole this pick from someone else, but isn't this bar gorgeous? We had a reservation, but we arrived a little early, so we had a drink at the bar before being seated. There was a live pianist playing Christmas music, pretty chandeliers, and candlelight .

 It was a very cozy and romantic atmosphere.

We were seated upstairs. This was my partial view from our table. 

"It's a Wonderful Life" was playing silently on a large sheet next to us. 

I was too embarrassed to ask someone to take a picture of us & to use my flash, so these aren't the best pictures, but you can see the pretty lighting in the background! We were served complimentary flat bread with olive oil. 

Joel had a steak, and I had the lobster risotto. Both were delicious!

To finish the night, we shared a creme brulee. It was actually the first time I've ever had it! Oh my goodness it was divine! This is kind of a silly comparison, but, you know how Disneyland smells? Like baking sugar, waffle cones & all things wonderful? 

Well this creme brulee tasted like Disneyland :)

After a attending a couple of Christmas parties, we got away to the coast for a couple of nights to relax and celebrate our anniversary more. It was quite stormy, but we still walked every where from our hotel. We just bundled up in our rain coats :)

We watched Christmas movies, ate some good food, walked down the board walk, did some last minute Christmas shopping and relaxed. Oh, and Joel gave me an early Christmas present to snuggle with! A lovely "doe" blanket from Nordstrom. I was so surprised! It is so soft, I love it.

I think this makes up for doing pretty much nothing to celebrate last year!

Oh how I love him :) It's been a great 4 years!