May - beach weekend and South Dakota

It's been awhile since we've blogged, so we're playing catch-up again! This past weekend we were invited by our friends Tom and Alana to a weekend getaway at a beach house in Neskowin, OR. It was a great way to cap off a great week for me because I got a great review and a raise at work this week and I am officially slated to be Regional Director for the Northwestern Alumni Association for the Washington, Oregon, and Northern California region (which includes San Fran, Seattle, and Portland). I have heard that I am actually the youngest alum to ever be in a Regional Director position. So below I have included pics of our trip to Neskowin and also from my trip to South Dakota a week ago.

This is the view from the deck of the beach house. Just feet away from the driveway is the beach entrance, so needless to say we spent a good chunk of the weekend on the beach!
Brad and I posing for a pic on the path leading down to the beach. There were buoys lining the path, so that made it unique. So...you may be wondering why we're wearing jackets and pants? Well, the temps were a little chillier on the coast than they were in Portland. The coastal temps were in the 60s and in the 70s in the late afternoon. This past week in Portland, the temps have been in the 80s and sunny!
A shot of the beach in Pacific City. Oregon has expansive beaches and some great sand dunes. This beach was actually very popular with the surfing crowd.
Brad and I on Pacific Beach in front of this large rock in the middle of the ocean. If you analyze the picture really closely, you may be able to see some surfers. They were definitely wearing some 7mm full wetsuits (with hood) in the frigid waters!

So the next few pics are from my work trip last week to Pierre, South Dakota. Pierre is actually probably the smallest state capital in the country! I think about 12,000 people live in Pierre. It was an interesting flight there...we had 4 people on the flight and the airport has 1 gate. After Pierre, SD, we headed to Grand Forks, North Dakota for another client of ours. It was a bigger city than Pierre and is actually just coming off of the flooding that affected the area a few months ago (the flood that also hit Fargo, ND). Unfortunately, I didn't grab any shots from North Dakota.
The view from the Cattleman's Club. It was an amazing steak restaurant. Coming from Portland where seafood is predominant here, I was definitely craving some good 'ole steak only found in the midwest! What surprised me about South Dakota was how hilly it was in Pierre. I was expecting some flat land! I was pleasantly surprised...and I enjoyed the river as well.
Being in the capital of South Dakota, I convinced my co-workers to stop at the capital building with me. I didn't get a chance to go in like I did in Michigan's capital, but I got a great snapshot of the front of the building. Now I can officially mark South Dakota and North Dakota off my list of states that I haven't been to. I think there's about 14 more...