First Anniversary

Well, it has been one year since Danielle and I were joined together for time and all eternity. It has been a very interesting year, a time of discovery, joy, happiness, some sickness, and togetherness. We were both commenting on how it seems to have been both a long time and also how fast it has seemed to pass. For our first anniversary (because of my family reunion in Oregon) we were able to go to the Heceta Head Lighthouse Bed and Breakfast. We stayed there and also did some other fun stuff.

The day started off with us going to the Yaquina Lighthouse. It was a very low tie so they have had lots of tide pools that you could walk around and discover. These are some of the things that we saw. (Or in other words vacation picture time)

There were lots of these green things. Pretty cool.

There were lots and lots of starfish, I thought they were really cool, this was a tide pool that had several, with a couple different colors.

This one is a little hard to see because of the glare from the sun on the pool but it has some starfish and purple urchins.

This one is a little hard to see, but all of the little bumps on the big rock are seagulls or cormorants.

This was a huge star fish, if I had held my hand up to it while taking the picture (good idea now) my whole hand would have covered the middle section only.

Another one with a couple of different starfish, I guess I have a thing for starfish (besides the yummy goodness of starfish soup)

This is one of a starfish getting ready to dine on the yummy-ness of mussel soup!

A picture of (L-R) My beautiful wife Danielle, my favorite little sister Kristen, my wonderful Mom, and my favorite cousin named David, David.

This is a picture of a tick that started crawling on Danielle, okay, well actually it is a crab that was put on her hand while in it's shell and then got out and started crawling around, and by the way the crab's name is Hermie (the hermit crab).

These are Hermie and some of his friends (L-R) Pépe, Hermie and Lequisha.

Another little crab friend that we found, they are small but they are really quick and wiry.

After visiting the Lighthouse Danielle and I went to Florence and had lunch, then we explored a little around the town, got some Dairy Queen treats and then drove down to the beach, we stopped a little ways up from the beach on a little area that looked over the jetty turns the ocean into the river. Then we checked into the Heceta Head Bed and Breakfast. It is a lovely little light keepers house that was turned into an Inn. They had a nice little garden that included:

ARTICHOKES!!

After checking in and exploring the house a bit we decided to go to dinner, we decided on one place, but as we walked in I almost choked on all the cigarette smoke, so we went down the street a couple of buildings to a nice placed called the "Bay Street Grill" and it was a very nice little place, one of the things that Danielle liked about it was this, if you can't tell what is it, here is a better picture:

Yep, foam soap, Dani loves the stuff, in fact I now have two family members that every time they see foam soap they think of Dani.

Another interesting thing we saw at dinner was the nicest arrest ever made. Dani saw a guy in the restaurant that seemed to be one of the waitresses boyfriend, then he left, as he did a cop stopped him, shook his hand and than began to talk to him. Another cop came up and really animatedly shook his hand and then Dani said she thought he was going to hug him, but instead turned him around and put cuffs on him and took him off. After dinner we went and saw the Dark Knight, in what might have been the worst theater that I have ever been in, but the movie was still amazing, I loved it. Then we went back to the Bed and Breakfast and celebrated our anniversary buy eating the top of the wedding cake that had been frozen and saved, it was actually pretty good, and then we went up onto the lighthouse at about 10:30PM. It was amazing, the pictures don't do it justice at all. It was so amazing it was a bit of a spiritual experience. We saw almost absolute darkness, and then from this center light, pillars of light showing us the way to go, just how we would imagine it when Christ is likened to a light house. Then we thought it was amazing as we realized that the light in the light house is always shining, it is just not that we see its true and full power until the darkness comes upon us.

A picture of the lighthouse from the yard of the B&B.

This is one of Danielle showing how comfortable and luxurious the bed was.

This is a picture of the B&B from below on the beach, quite the house.

This is a picture that has the mists that were coming in off of the ocean, just below the lighthouse.

A picture from the beach of the lighthouse during the day.

Another panoramic view of the ocean with rocks leading up to the lighthouse.

After one year of marriage, I am more in love with my amazing and beautiful wife that I was on the day that I proposed to her at this lighthouse, more in love than the day we got married, and I know that I will be in love with her a little bit more tomorrow. I am a lucky man to have her in my life and to have her as my wife. I love you Danielle, with all my heart and for all of eternity.-Bryan