July in Review

Is it really August already? It feels like summer is flying by, but looking back, I've already done so many fun things. And there's still almost two months until I'm back in school for fall term, so there's still so much summer left!

a plethora of wonderful people gathered for Felicia's birthday!

 summery gothiness

 At the EMP museum in Seattle: a Dalek that was used in a Doctor Who christmas special in the eighties. It's just painted wood and gold foil!

 These are from Unicorn, a UNICORN THEMED BAR in Seattle with an ARCADE downstairs named NARWHAL. AHHHHHH! It was all stripes and zebra print and ornate and beautiful and perfect and I loved it.

this month I:

• finally visited Seattle. We camped out near a bay, roamed the city, visited Pikes Place Market, checked out the EMP museum, and ate lots of delicious food.
• had a fantastic fourth of july, complete with a pool party, fireworks, and a rousing game of Cards Against Humanity with some awesome friends.
• redecorated my room, it's now way more girly and fuzzy and cute and bright.
• finished watching nearly every Studio Ghibli movie every made. 
• only blogged twice. oops.

1. yummy blue cupcakes      2. freshly dyed hair
3. chipped nail polish and a cute ring       4. at Oaks Amusement Park
5.  hello seattle             6. comfiest bed ever
            7. so                                    8. Hello Kitty freeze-dried tofu

Zoo Lights

Hey guys! Sorry I haven't been around these parts much lately. This month, it feels like I'm getting pulled in twenty different directions at once. Between work, my etsy shop, custom orders, and social engagements, I have myself spread pretty thin right now. One bit of exciting news: I bought my domain, so heyzombot.com is all mine! heyzombot.blogspot will still redirect here, so you shouldn't need to change your bookmarks or subscriptions or anything like that. It is taking a bit of time to get my comments imported though, so if you notice any issues with commenting, that's why!

On a cold rainy night last week, my friend Steph and I headed to Zoo Lights. It's something that the Portland Zoo puts on every year. They put up tons and tons of gorgeous light displays, and there's a special train that goes through the entire Zoo. It was crazy busy the night we went, so we ended up waiting in line in the rain for a couple hours. It's a bit weird being at the Zoo when all the animals are put away, and just looking at animals made of multicolor lights. They were so pretty though! Check it out.

Cruisin’ on the Willamette

On the last day of the epic staycation that was HannahFestNorthWest, Andrew and I took a two hour cruise on the Willamette River. I had purchased a groupon for The Portland Spirit, so it was a cheap little excursion. I honestly wasn't too impressed by the food (my gumbo was basically just stew? with carrots? what?! DO YOU KNOW HOW GUMBO WORKS, CHEFMAN?) and the live music was a little bit disappointing (country music covers=whyyyyyyyy?). However, it was a absolutely beautiful day, and there were many lovely sights to see on the river.  It was really neat to see parts of the Willamette and Portland that I've never seen before.

pirate boats!

Apparently, paddle-boarding is a thing.

kayakers

adorable little floating houses

a llama leading a bunch of goats around a golf course right on the river.

Before you get on the boat, you have to have a cheesy picture taken. I, of course, blinked right when she took the picture. (I should've just worn my sunglasses! Curses!) Towards the end of the cruise, the employees find you and offer to sell you the photo for $12. I chose not to buy it since I'm all blinky in the photo, but then some super-nice maybe-drunk older ladies bought the photo for us because they thought we were cute. Hooray for nice people!

The Grand Lodge

For the first part of our little staycation, Andrew and I drove out to Forest Grove and stayed at The Grand Lodge for two nights. The Grand Lodge was a "Masonic and Eastern Star Home" back in the 1920s. Its now owned by McMenamins, the company I work for. It's has a hotel, frisbee golf course, two restaurants, two bars, a spa, and a soaking pool!



One thing I love about McMenamins' properties, is that there's art and paintings everywhere. Every wall, corner, nook, and cranny is painted or decorated with something.

Me and Andrew had a lovely time at the Grand Lodge. We both had our first massages ever, which was ahhhmazing. We ate lots of yummy food, drank some delicious cocktails, walked around a lot admiring the property, and relaxed as hard as possible. It was definitely a good way to start off my staycation!

miscellaneous Portland goodness

Just wanted to share some random pictures from Kendra and mine adventures in Portland.

This sticker seemed perfect after finding that 'dead birds' painting at the art museum.

Why yes, I do like your Dali!

Mac's Mac&Cheesery. That's a bloody mary with cheese flavoring on the rim, by the way. If you think that sounds delicious, then you're right.

mini mini macaroons

oh, Portland. You would.

Discovering that guacamole actually goes great with hot dogs.

My little sister has an owl named "Henry" that she takes on her travels and takes pictures of in random locations. Isn't he cute?!

A trip to the beach

Last week, Andrew and I took a much-needed trip to the beach. We drove three hours south to Beachside Recreation Site, a small campground outside of Yachats, Oregon. I had packed for the trip expecting cold weather and rain, but upon arrival was pleasantly surprised by sunshine, blue skies, and somewhat warm temperatures!

I love seeing forts and wood structures on the beach! I'll have to try to make one someday.

I got to play around with my new camera lots on this trip. For example, in the shot above, we could see a teeny tiny black line on the horizon. When I zoomed in with my 140x digital zoom, we found out it was a boat! My camera pretty much doubles as binoculars.

I was really impressed by the campground itself. There was hardly anyone at all tent-camping, as most of the people were in RVs. Our campsite was just a tiny walk to the beach, and the bathrooms. The campground has some really nice yurts, but you have to rent them a month or two in advance. I plan on doing so sometime this summer! At night, we had the obligatory hot dogs and s'mores over the fire, and walked around looking at the absolutely beautiful night sky. The next day, we headed into Yachats, a cute little coastal town, for some yummy lunch. We ended up at The Drift Inn, a really quirky restaurant decorated with mermaids, local art, and crazy umbrellas hanging from the ceiling.

I ordered a super-delicious crab and avocado pizza, with a marionberry daiquiri. So good!Afterwards, we walked around a bit and checked out some of the little shops and thrift stores. I found these really adorable knit mushrooms outside a store! 
 It was a really nice trip altogether, and I'm already jonesing to go camping again soon.