When Allan and I first started dating about 2.5 years ago, we spontaneously decided to go on a road trip to La Push, Washington. At the time, all Allan knew was that it was a fabled surfing destination. We really didn’t know anything else. So with a car, surfboards, camping gear, and a trusty old map (I didn’t have Google Maps on my phone back then), we set out for La Push with no plans, no accommodations, and no idea of where we were going to end up.

It was an exciting adventure, and was the first step towards us really getting to know each other, and figure out what it was like to travel together. It is funny when I look back on those times… how it was such a romantic trip… and I look at how we are together, today. I’m grateful that we are still adventuring together and exploring new places.

It was about a 7 hour drive down there. We took ferries, crossed many bridges, and eventually found our way to the right road.

La Push was a small fishing village at the time. Today if you go there, it’s completely Twilight-itized. When we visited 2 and a half years ago, we had never heard of Twilight and neither had the town it seemed. It’s funny that when I was reading the Twilight books I was relating many moments in the book to our experiences a couple years ago. I’m sure it would be a very different scene today.

We surfed (well, I surfed for the first time in my life), we stayed at the Quilete Reservation there, we explored the beaches and the forests…

We traveled up to Hurricane Ridge and saw snow at the lookouts and tons of deer, tried the mineral hot springs in the Olympic National Park, and went on many nature walks.

Allan and I considered that trip to be the mark of our relationship, so we still use the date of that trip as our anniversary. I have to admit I feel a bit sentimental looking back on these photos. It would be great to visit that region a few years from now, to see how it has changed and to share that special place again together.