The Summer Ends with a ROADTRIP

I know that it's been such a long time since we've last posted...I guess that being at the home of the woman who inspired us to blog in the first place has convicted me to get on the band-wagon again. :) Just to give you an idea of what the roadtrip has looked like thus far: Mark and I bolted up the California I-5 with no problem. Bikes on top of the Rodeo, Thermarests laid out in the back of the vehicle and camping stuff piled in...we were off! Oregon is our first stop. I LOVE OREGON!!!! We stop in Ashland. What a neat town, I remember driving through it last time and noticed how cute it was and wanted to come back. Well, it was just as I remembered...I could move here. (I have a feeling there's going to be a lot of places on this trip that I could move to...sigh) We ate at a restaurant called Standing Stone Brewery...kinda cool. We spent our first night in the good 'ol Wal-Mart parking lot. This place has been so good to us! Then we headed to the Oregon coast. We've been waiting to do the coast for a LONG time. After doing it, now we want to bike it...someday. :)
We ended up at our good friends, Dave and Sarah Budd. They've lived in Newberg, OR for 2 years now. So good to catch up! We decided that we need to stay 1 more night (seeing how we stayed up until 2 a.m. talking, there's so much more to catch up on!)
We also finished our first "roadtrip book" called Through Painted Deserts by Donald Miller. Great read for anyone who likes a good story about VW Bus Roadtrips. :)
Anyway, today we're heading into Portland...our favorite city to visit. We've got our bikes (we stored them in the Budd's garage last night, last time we were here someone cut them off our rack and stole them!) so we'll bike around and soak it all in...so excited! It's a beautiful day and there are lots of blackberries to be picked. :)