Waterfall hike - Falls Creek Falls and more houses to see in Gaston

This morning we left to meet Malenes host sister - Crissy. She had the day off and wanted to take us hiking. A place she knew. After some 22 detours and "I remember that tree" we made it to the Falls Creek Falls trail head and started walking. A pleasent two mile hike uphill for the most part in a beautiful forest with our trail following the creek. We made it to the falls, took lots of photos and enjoyed it for a while before heading back to the car and towards downtown Portland.

Short stop on the way back at another impressive waterfall -  Multnomah Falls. No hike needed here. It was 400 meters from the parking lot and super busy. But impressively high.

We had to be in Portland before 5 pm - when happy hour ended. And we made it to Killer Burger and had some well deserved burgers for a very late lunch/early dinner.

Then it was back to the house in Gaston doing a few stops on the way to look for the houses where Malene stayed during her year in high school.

Denny was home when we came back and looking over the country side Mikkel realised that there was an air and space museum close to Gaston - so the deal for tomorrow - visit Gaston high school and spend the afternoon at Evergreen Air museum. Yes.

Malene, Vicky and Crissy

Falls Creek Falls

New way of taking a selfie

Multnomah Falls

Last day on the beach and reunion with Westview High school

We checked out of our room this morning, walked to the bakery Sea Level, picked up breakfast and headed for the beach. And then we enjoyed breakfast there for about 30 seconds. Then the first sea gull arrived. And brought all 33 friends with her. So while we tried to enjoy the sunny morning and our food and coffee they stared at us and fought over first row. We were surrounded by birds. Nothing to do - they stayed as long as we had food. And then they reluctantly left.

We walked down the far end of the beach for about 1½ hours and then back again. When we made it back to the hotel the tide was coming in, the sun was shining and that ocean looked just too tempting - so we got our swim suits and jumped into the waves. The last swim on the Northern hemisphere this time - and how good that was. Nothing like a sand beach, salt water and some waves.

First stop on the way was Malene's first high school, from when she was an exchange student in ´94-´95, Westview High School in Portland where we spent an hour taking a few pictures and looking at all the kids rehearsing music, sports and whatever they did in the afternoon. Then we had a quick flyby at Malene's first home - it looked different from 20 years ago.

We headed east towards Gaston and Malene's host mom - Vicky and hostdad Denny. The driving directions we had gotten indicated a location in the country side. It was. We had a very warm welcome when we made it to their wonderful house which sits on a hill side overlooking the valley, the mountains and the sun setting to the west.

Dinner was ready when we arrived and then it was time for catching up on the last 20 years.

Cannon Beach

Breakfast with seagulls

Westview Highschool

The first house Malene lived in in Portland

Getting closer to Gaston

Wet West coast

It rained this morning. So we stayed in. There wasn't anything rushing us. In the end we headed towards town and hoped for dry weather and a bit of sunshine. We had both. First we had late breakfast at the Sea Level bakery. Busy since everybody else needed a place to hang out. We walked a bit more on the beach and then headed back to our hotel - the weather was getting to bad. Eventually it cleared a bit up in the afternoon allowing us to walk to Cannon Beach town, passing the local market on the way and buying some fresh strawberries and plums. Yum.

And then head for town, looking for a place to have dinner. We ended up sitting outside at the shared table doing a bit of small talk with the other people having dinner there - and getting inspired for some seafood dishes. We even had a small shower during our meal but who cares - good food, good drinks and good company. And we also had a fire going in the middle of the table. It was dark when we headed home to our hotel.

Cannon Beach

Yes, it is a giant garlic (half pound)

Dry enough to sit outside and eat