++ WENT TO VISIT a-n (old) p-al today in beautiful portland, oregon. heather and i drove to the washington coast and then down us-101 (the same us-101 in california .. the pacific coast highway) all the way down the southern half of washington's coast and then down a bit of the oregon coast to seaside, oregon and then east to portland. the weather along the coast was much nicer today than yesterday. cold, not as much as yesterday (i didn't use a jacket today). windy, not so much. fishermen, nope (there were people flying kites though). sand, the same amount as yesterday. rocks, must have been high tide, there were only a few. overcast, i saw a spot of blue in the sky. rain, nada. scenery, still awesome. worth it, yup. i even had someone to share it with today.

we also stopped by the washington state capitol (in olympia, washington) and had a poke around. they have a fountain out in front of the capitol which they say is a replica of the tivoli fountain in tivoli park, copenhagen, denmark. (which honestly, to me doesn't look anything like it, but uh i've never been there i guess, so who am i to make judgements and comparisons from pictures off the internet? oh wait, this picture of the fountain looks a little more like the one in washington )

oh right, so we drove 3.5 hours to see a-n (old) p-al (who had just flown in today and drove straight from the airport to the pearl district to meet us for dinner) and had dinner at this little french restaurant named Chez something. it was super good. a little expensive (for my feeble money-in-the-bank) and of course small proportions, but good food. an hour and a half for dinner and then we said goodbye and left to drive back 3.5 hours for seattle! its always nice to see old-school friends. ++