Gorge-ing on Washington's Scenery

I love road trips. Remind me of that when I'm anticipating our several-days-long cross-country move, but as a rule, I love long trips in the car. Wind in our hair, music blaring, junky convenience store treats in our center console. I like the time to sit and think individually or to sit there and have a real, drawn out conversation while we're sitting still for a really long amount of time (on a related note, we tend to get into arguments during this drive more than any other time - no distractions, I guess).

This is a drive that Carson and I have made often in our time here in Washington. His parents live in Olympia, on the other side of the state (the part that gets the weather we don't in Spokane - that stereotypically rainy, cold weather). 

It's become a familiar drive throughout our relationship; we first made it about two weeks after we began dating, when I went to meet his family for the first time. Since then, I'm not sure how many times we've made the drive. I once counted thirteen times, but it was sometime last year that I calculated that and we've driven that way about five times since. It takes us a little over five hours to make the drive, but we usually stretch it out with a million coffee breaks (all him) or through a drive-thru  for a meal, or we make stops like this one to enjoy our state.

Since this may be our last time making the drive for a long time, I asked Carson if we could stop at the Gorge to take some pictures. He obliged. 

This is the Columbia Gorge. It's one of my favorite stops on the drive over and roughly three hours away, about halfway. It's gorgeous, which the camera can't fully capture. It's really windy there but I just love it. 

He was helping me down the steep rocks.

In addition to beautiful sights, we often listen to music (mostly me) or lectures (mostly Carson) as we go. I sometimes get a little bored even though it is a pretty drive, so I just take pictures of myself or of Carson. I have about a thousand of the side of his head as he drives, pretending to be oblivious of the camera... he's a trooper.

I think that this could have been the last time we'll make this drive; it's certainly the last time for awhile. I took many more pictures of mountains and waterfalls on the sides of huge rocks to remember our drives. 

Ps- two Columbia Gorge-related puns were discussed for the title of this post. This was Carson's contribution. Mine was "Gorge-ous".