x. RoadTripp'n

Greetings Ocarina! As you can see, the very first image is very different compare to my other blog posts. These are one of the few occasions where I would like to blog some real life adventures; in fact, I did go on a small road trip adventure last weekend. Sasuun and I went down to some areas of Oregon and Portland during our small road trip with Sasuun's brother and cousins (though I know some of my fellow North American peeps would recognize one of these places).

One of the things that I did on this road trip was camping. Now I had to say, this is my first time to have a legitimate camping experience. Cabin camping does not count in my opinion because I don't need to build a tent. I can tell you things almost didn't go too well, but I'll continue about that later on. As we drove up the mountain, we encountered some deer and Sasuun called them "buttlickers"...because he said he saw them licking each other's butts.

The view on the mountain was really gorgeous. However, the weather was not siding with us and it was raining non-stop. After spending some time driving around the mountain, I did see some sunlight coming out, but there was still rain. The plan was A) find a hotel and just chill or B) brave the rain and camp. Well, we all decided we should just camp since we made it up to the mountains. Why the fuck not!?

Of course, camping essentials does include beer and snack food! The weather was kind of cold, but I had layers of cardigans and I had a thick sweater. With beer, I was getting pretty warm actually. I watched the others build the tent, and when they were finished, I hopped into tent and wrapped myself in the sleeping bags.

Eventually, the weather was getting a bit colder and we jokingly said there might be snow. When we opened our tent to grab dinner, someone granted our wish and here is the snow. It was fantastic...

Despite the snow, the scenery was getting even more beautiful.

When the skies turned dark, we all went to bed. Gradually, my head was starting to feel incredibly cold. I wasn't sure why but I put on my hoodie from my sweaters, hoping that could warm my head up. It worked for a brief moment and then my head was getting cold again. My chest was feeling heavy and I could hardly hear/feel my heart beating. I wanted to sleep so badly because I was really drowsy, but the cold is waking me up. My body started to shiver uncontrollably for a bit and then it stopped.

I was thinking: I should just zip up my sweaters and brave the cold. Everyone else is sleeping, so I shouldn't bother them.

....Yeah nope. Couldn't do it. I almost feel like I wanted to whimper, so I tapped Sas on the shoulder and told him I am feeling incredibly uncomfortable. He put his hand on my forehead and he was blazing warm. I was even more confused because I know I am wearing enough, but I'm not sure why I'm shivering a lot. We quickly went into the car so I could warm up. I was having some trouble speaking because I started to shiver a lot. In other words, I got hypothermia.

It turns out the corner I was sleeping in was pretty damp from the snow. The tent was not designed for winter, it was a summer tent. I wasn't afraid because I knew I would be fine. So yes, my first camping experience was rather interesting and it added some memorable times to the road trip.

Morning was beautiful and I was pretty happy that I was fine. I also forgot to get my travel insurance, so if I did end up in the hospital...that might've been the most expensive part of the trip.

You can see some of the iced up snow on the bottles.

Almost a winter wonderland, but I do not want that during my trip because that means we would've been fucked. Instead of winter wonderland, it would be winter shittyland.

As we got down the mountains, part of the road trip is to eat at shitty looking diners. I have to say, I do love going into shitty looking diners because their food are usually decent. I like the atmosphere and it does have a very home-y feeling!

I know, I'm kinda fucked up that I ordered a chocolate sundae after recovering from hypothermia. But hey! I should totally celebrate that and in goes this delicious chocolate sundae :D

Along the trip, we made some small stops to go do some sight seeing. There were a lot of gorgeous beaches along our adventure, and thankfully, the weather was getting brighter and warmer.

A lot of these beaches were very dog friendly ~ I have seen so many cute dogs and it does make me think of Beemo. He's probably at home chilling on a couch right now though :P

In one of the places that I was staying in, I had a pirate themed hostel. It was close by a beach and the place was relatively clean. I thought the hostel was amazingly cute because this room was nicely decorated!

Isn't it cuuuute? I really like the setup in this hostel and it's so awesome.

I also watched the sunset at the beach with Sasuun and fellow adventurers. It was really cool to watch the sunset this close at the beach. I'll let Mana's character model for us at the beach :3

Another shot of the sun setting down ~ it was kinda chilly, but I have to say, it was worth it.

I really like looking at the clouds while the sun is setting. I am one of those people that would try to figure out the shape of the clouds. For this current cloud, I see a hugeeeee whale in the sky.

And of course, more scenery pictures ~ ! If you are ever so curious, I am using a DLSR camera for these photos and I did photoshop the lighting of these pictures. I wanted to bring out the beauty for these pictures.

I wanted to go down towards this beach, but the paths were incredibly steep. If I wore longer pants and actual runners, I would go down the slope. Unfortunately, I was wearing sneakers (and the grip was not that good) and I was wearing shorts. So the chances of me getting serious scratches and bleeding from cuts - kinda high. Plus, I had my camera in my bag, so I do not want to break my most expensive camera that I have.

Another amazing beach view at a different beach. Looks like I got washed up on the shore and adventuring on a giant island :O

I did see a dead seal in a random corner of a beach. Definitely wasn't a pretty sight, but it was even weirder to watch the dogs trying to approach the dead seal.

Another random scenery picture ~ :3

Watched another sunset at another beach. Was in a really small town but the stores and restaurants were really cool to look at. Too bad we didn't have enough time to browse the stores, they all looked really cool to look at :c especially the artsy stores!

A giant rock at the beach.

The last part of my trip was going down to Portland and I got some really interesting doughnuts. To be honest, this area of Portland was really sketchy...and I was highly uncomfortable when Sasuun's cousin decided to line up by herself while the rest of us was trying to find parking. As soon as I got out of the car, I had to go line up with Sasuun's cousin.

And by sketchy, I really mean it. There was this random dude that was sniffing something on the table (we're assuming coke), and he has a hedge saw right next to him. There was a guy lining up at the doughnut shop and he was flashing his gun. Anyway...

Right beside the doughnut shop, there was a cinema and it was advertising something that made me think of Zentai.

Sasuun: Oh god. Look at that ad up there.

Dolce: LMAO THIS IS GREAT FOR SOMEONE.

Sasuun: Take it for Zentai.

Inside the doughnut shop we gooo :D

Interesting decor o:

Doughnuts everywhere :D look at the variety!!

So that was my little adventure and of course, I did think of you guys as I was gone! I honestly want to thank several members for taking care of the FC while Sasuun and I were away. Thank you Zetto for taking care of the FC airship, Ubi for gardening and getting FC buffs, Root for tending the garden, activating buffs, and feeding the chocobos (as usual), Rare for cleaning the chocobo stable, and Esra, Scherza, and Neru for taking care of the garden!