Well, it was quite a weekend! Met up with Heather and Michael for some quick Target and Walmart shopping, and random other stuff. Then went out to the ranch to meet up with Mom and my sister for our weekend trip. Gave Papa a really cool photo book on the NFL called "Warriors" - lots of interesting shots and stuff.
We had considered going up to Woodburn for the outlet mall there, but ended up heading to Lincoln City for their outlet mall. OMG, huge! There are 65 fabulous stores there. So much fun! I went a little crazy, but had a great time doing so anyway. *G* Got a really adorable stuffed black lamb at Pendleton, a couple calendars (naruto for me and a doberman one for heather), and an awesome dragon figure by McFarlane Toys. I've not found the link for my dragon yet, but
these are totally cool. aha!
This is my dragon, though he's actually a darker maroonish purple rather than lavendar. ;D There are photo links on the right side for multiple views. O.o
A flying one! It's due out in Feburary. Sweet! Err, anyway. Back to the weekend. lol. They had a really neat glass shop there (pyromania, I believe?) that had lots of different colored globes, and had a really neat dragon base. If I don't find anything else I really want to spend my year-end bonus on that's special, I may go back and get that. They had a shop in Newport, too, I believe. We looked at a lot of the stores, but the only other one I went crazy in was Old Navy. Got some t-shirts, an awesome wolf zip up sweat shirt, the softest scarf ever and really good deals on all of them.
By this point it was well after dark, so we were happy that we'd already pretty much decided to stay in Lincoln City. We actually stayed at the Lincoln City Inn, which was very nice. The ocean was across the street, so we still had a lovely view in the morning! We had a bit of a mishap/miscommunication as to where the restaurant was located that our check in person recommended and ended up walking many, MANY blocks that were not necessary. But the meal at Pier 101 was well worth it! OMG, absolutely amazing. Mom and I both got the brie salmon special (salmon, brie cheese, crab and baby shrimp) and loved it. Mmmm, mmmm. We'll definitely be going back there any time we're in the area!
Sunday morning was *quite* windy. It was a nice drive to Newport - the road goes right next to the ocean so we got some great views! But Mom's never really cool with bridges, and Newport's
bridge seems REALLY high and with the wind and all I didn't even really want to go over the bridge. So, the Newport Aquarium will have to wait for another trip - one which we'll just come at it from the other side and avoid
the bridge entirely. LOL. Or at least hope it's a nicer day and just cross it once, y'know. So we decided we'd check out the
Undersea Gardens instead. They had a special where you bought tickets for two of their three attractions and you went to the third for free, so we ended up seeing the Wax Works and Ripley's Believe it or Not too. We saw the dive show where the diver showed you the various types of fish and sealife (star fish, crabs, etc) so that was worth the money, but if you don't see the dive show it's really...pretty dull. It was cool to go around and watch all the fish after the dive show because you knew what to look for - the
wolf eels were awesome!!! They look quite fierce so I was surprised how friendly they were with the diver - he even jiggled the eel's jowls like you might a dog. hehe! But the BEST thing about Sunday was the Sea Lions that were right outside the Undersea Gardens! TOO COOL. They had some little platforms underneath the boardwalk, and there were two sets of four sea lions that were hanging out down there, and then a bunch of them out on a rock further out in the water. So exciting!
Err, ok. Was going to find some sea lion links, but they froze up my computer. THANK YOU LJ! Autosave is a wonderful thing. But I don't want to risk it again. lol.
Work's been ok this week. Today was good. Actually was motivated and took Nate for a good walk this morning! And attended our Coding meeting this evening. Yay for me. Eh? lol. Well, I'm behind on reading everyone so will try to catch up later this week.