Spring Break 2014 .

As of March 18th, my winter term was finished. That day I had my last exam in the morning, and also my last little presentation that afternoon. But alas, there was no time for delay, as I jumped straight into my plans for Spring Break. I went home and showered and then was headed to Portland to meet my girlfriend, who was flying into PDX. On that day, it had been 70 days since we had seen each other... but we were both ecstatic that we were going to have a week to spend together.

Over the week that she was here, we did some big things, like spending time in Portland, Seattle (actually had a job interview up there), and driving out to the Oregon coast, in addition to some smaller things, like grabbing frozen yogurt at Yogurt Xtreme or hiking Spencer's Butte or going to Voodoo Donuts.

The fact of the matter is that it is so great to be able to actually spend time with someone that means so very much to you. And given that it's really not often we get to do that, it was pretty flipping great. Some people would like to argue that long distance is not for everybody. But I'd like to think that if someone means enough to you, you'd always be willing to give the world for them. Every relationship takes work, and if you don't accept that, I think you're naive. Ours might just need a little more work sometime since we can't always be together. The best part, though? Remembering that one day, the distance will close. And that's something worth fighting for.

I've always been a firm believer that seeing life is better than just hearing about it, so here are some photos from the week we spent together:

view of Seattle from the conference room of the office

the Space Needle

downtown Seattle from the Space Needle observation deck...

...and me 

looks cool from the bottom too!

view from Highway 101, the Pacific Coast Highway

the babes

me running down to touch the water; the dunes were slippery!

i was a happy camper

it doesn't even look real

always the adventurer... i wasn't supposed to be out there

but i wanted some pictures, so.. *shrug*

and there were sea lions!

the bridge by the beach we watched the sunset at. doesn't look like much but...

...it certainly was

found this place on the walk up to the lighthouse

and it was like something out of a movie

decided to walk back down to the beach to watch the end of the sunset

but not before snapping a few pics

my idea for reflections in the water; it looks wet but it was just a thin film of water!

the HUGE Garbage Collector burger at Beachcomber (it was amazing, by the way)

hiking up Spencer's Butte

the Oregon "jungle"

with a worthwhile view

this sort of view all the way round

This break was probably the best one I've had yet. It was jam packed with a lot of stuff to do but also plenty of down time. We return to school on Monday, and though I am far from ready, I know that the next term will go quickly and soon it will be summer. Even more amazing still, I'll be halfway done with grad school at that point, in addition to moving to Portland for the second year. So many changes on the horizon!

If you ever have the chance to make it out to Oregon, or even just the west coast, do it. It's so worth it. And if you're a mountain person, you'll absolutely love it, just like I do. My motto for Oregon goes a little something like this: It may rain a lot here, but on the days it doesn't, it's absolutely perfect. It blows my mind that it was sunny in all places typically rainy (Portland, Seattle, Eugene etc.) while Mary Kate was here. But I think that maybe we had a little help from upstairs, watching over us and smiling.

Before I part, little shameless plug here, I write a quarterly newsletter about my adventures and what I've been up to. If you'd like to be added to the mailing list, please email me your address and I would be more than happy to include you! I promise I don't mail junk and I usually include a handwritten note as well. International is totally cool as well, for any of you non-USA readers. Cheers to you all, and thanks for being a part of this blog!