Last Wednesday we celebrated our 26th anniversary! I know, it doesn't seem possible to us either, but there you go ..
It does not have a traditional material theme, but it is officially represented by the modern gift of art, the gemstone jade and green as the symbolic color.

In comparison to last years 25th extravaganza this year was a lot less exciting but we made a special day of it by going for a little road-trip to the Tillamook forest.

                        

And although there was no jade gift-giving going on, the dense forest definitely made up for it by surrounding us all day with the color green!

We loved driving the winding Wilson River Highway through the forest. Such natural beauty as far as the eye can see.

       

It took us about 1.5 hours to reach the area at the Wilson River where we wanted to take a look at the Bridge Creek Falls.
Unfortunately we were not able to see the falls because when we arrived at the trail leading up to them was blocked off by a rope and a sign saying access was not allowed due to maintenance of the trail by inmates!
Well, sjeez, bummer! Now what?

Not to be discouraged we looked around for maybe something else to see and discovered a parking lot on the other side of the road.
It so happened to be the start of the Footbridge trailhead where an easy, short trail led you down to the river below. 

                                          

There was even a small 'fall', well, more like a rapid ...

Moving on, we drove a few miles down the road to get to our coffee destination: Alice's Country House.                                                      

Besides the coffee, the main attraction, at least for us, was the promise of home-made pies and pastries.
And we were not disappointed!

See that little sign on the second tier on the right that says: 'famous Carrot Cake'?

I had a huge slice of it while James went for the Bread-pudding:

                                 

It took us a while but yes, we both ate the whole thing!

Needless to say, we were stuffed! Time to work it off by getting some exercise.
A short, 5 minute drive brought us to the Tillamook Forest Center:

 

The Tillamook Forest Center is the region’s largest forest-based learning center, and outdoor classroom if you will, to learn all about the forest it is in.
Lots of interactive displays (good for kids and adults both) about plants, animals, pioneers, early timbering history, and the big fires that shaped the landscape are all covered in the very modern and set-up building.

                                                 

There's a fire tower to climb, which in the end we didn't do, from which apparently you have a nice view over the top of the surrounding trees .. 
(We were going to but went for a hike first, after which we didn't have the energy left to do so. Yes, we're getting old ...)

A voluntary $5 donation (p/p) gained us two coasters made from branches of Douglas Fir, the dominant species of this forest:

On the hour and half-hour there's a short, very well-done documentary about the big fires (-with smell-O-vision - !) that have gone through this forest.

 

           

                                                   

The Tillamook Burn was a series of four massive, catastrophic wildfires that destroyed roughly 355,000 acres of prime old-growth timber in the Northern Oregon Coast Range between 1933 and 1951, which became known as the 6-year Jinx.
The initial fire started on August 14, 1933, from a logging operation and exploded into a historic firestorm.

It is actually quite surprising how beautiful the forest is only 80 years after the initial devastating burn.

After the film we spend about an hour checking out all the exhibits:

   

           

                                        

Big doors at the back of the building open up to an impressive bridge over the Wilson River, and gives easy access to the river.
You're allowed to swim in it, but the water was too cold for us wimps ...

Several short trails go out from here, but we choose to go on a little longer hike (1.7 miles) to the Willson Falls.
Since we missed the Bridge Creek Falls we thought we might as well go see another one!

                    

The trail was fairly easy going, not too many ups and downs, but it seemed a little longer than we had anticipated. 
In fact, we almost walked all the way back to the rapids we'd seen earlier that morning.

                                                                  

                
When we finally reached the falls we almost missed them, they fell down from high up in the forest and you only saw them when you accidentally looked up.
There wasn't a sign or anything that said these were it, but pictures we saw when we came back at the visitor center confirmed that they were!                 

                          

Like I said, it was a little further than I liked, and it got rather hot in the afternoon, but we were glad for the exercise and the scenery was absolutely beautiful!

         
 

We drove back the same way as we had come, but it's a beautiful drive and coming from the other side you see things very different.

We'd decided not to go for a fancy dinner this year but, of all places, go to IHOP this year!
We love breakfast and we drive by the place often saying that one of these days we should eat there again (last time we did was about 20 years ago!), so finally we did!

 

  

Pancakes, pancakes, pancakes ... world-famous even! You can't beat that!



We split a savoury one and a sweet one for desert:

                           

    

                                                                         

             All in all, we had a great time on our 26th! Let's go for many more!