portland, OR | travel
Wednesday, October 15, 2008 at 6:55 AM
As I mentioned in Friday's post my family spent all of Friday, Saturday and Sunday in Portland, OR. What a beautiful city! I have been blessed enough to have been raised in a family that does a lot of traveling--especially throughout the United States. I think we had been to Portland probably twice before, but I never really got to "experience" it! I think the problem with having been raised taking two or three vacations a year is seeing too much at such a young age; I took a lot of what I experienced for granted. Because of that fact, I have such a "bug" to travel back to almost every state I've already been. I think when I was a kid, it was all about getting back to the hotel, questioning where we were going to have dinner, wondering where we were driving to tomorrow. It's probably only been the last two years that I've really grabbed a hold of the true blessings traveling holds! I just love it. I love just taking a couple hours and walking around a city; especially at night. One of my absolute favourite, favourite memories in the entire world was August 2, 2007--I walked around the city of Paris in all its glory until after midnight. There is SO much beauty in the world it just blows my mind and just draws me closer and closer to God every time I see it.
OK, so that was a side-track about my traveling experiences, but back to Portland. A wonderful weekend of...a little bit of rest (not that much sleeping in!) but mainly time with family. Family is the most important thing in my earthly life to me--almost all of my dreams and plans are centered around the wonderful gift called family. As my brother and I grow older, we're attending different schools, no longer driving together to youth events, he's worked part-time for the past three years, and as my business just continues to grow and grow I feel like our family of four rarely gets together as a unit! Vacations are a time of "re-centering" for us and I love it. Just random times of laughter in the car or conversation over dinner, nothing is better.
Friday evening and all-day Saturday was spent with my mom at the Rose Quarter Arena attending the Women of Faith Conference. It was amazing, as always! The speakers and the music was just amazing. (Side Track: Have you all seen this video, called Honest Wedding Vows? It cracks me up when the groom says to the bride, "You think everything is amazing. It's the only adjective you know.") Saturday night my Dad and Brandon picked us up and we went driving around some cool parts of Portland they had scouted out earlier. We walked mainly around this area called Nob Hill--it's SO neat! I found this incredible clothing store: it's like Portland fashion defined in a store. I love that. Think warm cozy knits, with a little bit of military fashion, with a dash of hippie with a little bit of indie groupie--the store had flooring that was the child of green shag and green astro-turf. I only had literally ten minutes to shop but I scoured the store the best I know how and changed into eight outfits in the time period of five minutes and found a shirt. Success! Ah, I don't think I can explain to you how beautiful Nob Hill was! The first store I spotted was Paper Source and I knew the area was going to be fantastic. Throw in the changing autumn leaves, the endless supply of cute little coffee shops and the fact that I was wearing my favourite brown riding boots: a good day.
We decided to go to dinner at P.F. Chang's --one of my favourite favourite restaurants!! We don't have any of them in Canada...or at least not in B.C. anywhere, so we love going out to eat for some good Chinese food there when we're in the States. The last time we went was in Arizona in March. I secretly want to be asian; I love learning about asian culture and especially asian design. Anyway, we had to wait for over an HOUR for our table, but thankfully Powell's Books was right across the street! One of my dad's co-workers had told him about the "best" bookstore in Portland that we had to visit. Let me tell you, I was not disappointed. The store had I think, seven or eight different rooms: all labeled by colour that contained different sections! I headed right for the "Business" section, of course, and picked up a few great books and then I finished with a few books from the Christian aisle. We finally got our table at P.F. Chang's and had an amazing meal. When we got back to the hotel, I scurried down to the hotel gym and had a great late-night workout. Phew! After all that, we were finally in bed.
Sunday morning we woke up and headed to Aloha, a suburb of Portland to attend LivingHope Fellowship Church, pastored by Jess and Brenda Strickland. Brenda is one of my mom's friends from way-back-when and it was neat to see her again and attend their church. I SO enjoyed the worship and Jess' teaching. My family always comments on how great it is to be able to feel "right at home" when we attend churches in other cities. No matter where we are, we're instantly connected through our faith!
I realize I have written a very long short story and it's time I concluded. I find my "vacation blogs" are always suuuuuuuuper long because I'm usually writing them on my laptop while we're driving on the highway--which is what I'm doing right now. When all you are staring at is mile after mile of dotted white lines, I don't really have a motivation to stop writing. Enjoy the following pictures--a random smattering from our trip.
Our favourite restaurant! We're pretty much addicted. Out of the four meals we ate out this weekend, three of them were at Applebee's. Sheesh.
OK! HAH! Story: so the first night (Thursday) we stayed in Seattle, just because we didn't want to arrive into Portland really late. So, my mom found this hotel with a great rate, especially under the "Senior Rate" which was 50+. Well, both my parents are over 50 and my Dad will be 60 in 2 months, but we don't think anything of it. So because we got the "senior rate" for our room, look what the nice people outfitted our toilet and bathroom with!! Yessss!! I always wonder what I would do if I got stuck on the toilet seat and couldn't get up. Problem solved.
Oh autumn leaves!
Brandon has a hard time smiling for photos. He likes to rock the "uninterested" face.
Dad and I; and just me prancing down the street.
We were walking along the street when I spotted someone I recognized! OBAMA! Say it isn't so. I was pretty star-struck and had to snag a photo to prove I saw him.
Mom and I.
Photo on the Left: CUTE, right?
Photo on the Right: The face Brandon gives me when I make him take photos too long. As he was moving, he was probably saying, "And THAT'S enough." -- I'd bet $50 US on that. And not just $50 CDN. $50 US! And if you know anything about our plummeting exchange rate lately, you will know that that means I'm pretty dang confident that he was saying that.
OK, so that was a side-track about my traveling experiences, but back to Portland. A wonderful weekend of...a little bit of rest (not that much sleeping in!) but mainly time with family. Family is the most important thing in my earthly life to me--almost all of my dreams and plans are centered around the wonderful gift called family. As my brother and I grow older, we're attending different schools, no longer driving together to youth events, he's worked part-time for the past three years, and as my business just continues to grow and grow I feel like our family of four rarely gets together as a unit! Vacations are a time of "re-centering" for us and I love it. Just random times of laughter in the car or conversation over dinner, nothing is better.
Friday evening and all-day Saturday was spent with my mom at the Rose Quarter Arena attending the Women of Faith Conference. It was amazing, as always! The speakers and the music was just amazing. (Side Track: Have you all seen this video, called Honest Wedding Vows? It cracks me up when the groom says to the bride, "You think everything is amazing. It's the only adjective you know.") Saturday night my Dad and Brandon picked us up and we went driving around some cool parts of Portland they had scouted out earlier. We walked mainly around this area called Nob Hill--it's SO neat! I found this incredible clothing store: it's like Portland fashion defined in a store. I love that. Think warm cozy knits, with a little bit of military fashion, with a dash of hippie with a little bit of indie groupie--the store had flooring that was the child of green shag and green astro-turf. I only had literally ten minutes to shop but I scoured the store the best I know how and changed into eight outfits in the time period of five minutes and found a shirt. Success! Ah, I don't think I can explain to you how beautiful Nob Hill was! The first store I spotted was Paper Source and I knew the area was going to be fantastic. Throw in the changing autumn leaves, the endless supply of cute little coffee shops and the fact that I was wearing my favourite brown riding boots: a good day.
We decided to go to dinner at P.F. Chang's --one of my favourite favourite restaurants!! We don't have any of them in Canada...or at least not in B.C. anywhere, so we love going out to eat for some good Chinese food there when we're in the States. The last time we went was in Arizona in March. I secretly want to be asian; I love learning about asian culture and especially asian design. Anyway, we had to wait for over an HOUR for our table, but thankfully Powell's Books was right across the street! One of my dad's co-workers had told him about the "best" bookstore in Portland that we had to visit. Let me tell you, I was not disappointed. The store had I think, seven or eight different rooms: all labeled by colour that contained different sections! I headed right for the "Business" section, of course, and picked up a few great books and then I finished with a few books from the Christian aisle. We finally got our table at P.F. Chang's and had an amazing meal. When we got back to the hotel, I scurried down to the hotel gym and had a great late-night workout. Phew! After all that, we were finally in bed.
Sunday morning we woke up and headed to Aloha, a suburb of Portland to attend LivingHope Fellowship Church, pastored by Jess and Brenda Strickland. Brenda is one of my mom's friends from way-back-when and it was neat to see her again and attend their church. I SO enjoyed the worship and Jess' teaching. My family always comments on how great it is to be able to feel "right at home" when we attend churches in other cities. No matter where we are, we're instantly connected through our faith!
I realize I have written a very long short story and it's time I concluded. I find my "vacation blogs" are always suuuuuuuuper long because I'm usually writing them on my laptop while we're driving on the highway--which is what I'm doing right now. When all you are staring at is mile after mile of dotted white lines, I don't really have a motivation to stop writing. Enjoy the following pictures--a random smattering from our trip.
Our favourite restaurant! We're pretty much addicted. Out of the four meals we ate out this weekend, three of them were at Applebee's. Sheesh.
OK! HAH! Story: so the first night (Thursday) we stayed in Seattle, just because we didn't want to arrive into Portland really late. So, my mom found this hotel with a great rate, especially under the "Senior Rate" which was 50+. Well, both my parents are over 50 and my Dad will be 60 in 2 months, but we don't think anything of it. So because we got the "senior rate" for our room, look what the nice people outfitted our toilet and bathroom with!! Yessss!! I always wonder what I would do if I got stuck on the toilet seat and couldn't get up. Problem solved.
Oh autumn leaves!
Brandon has a hard time smiling for photos. He likes to rock the "uninterested" face.
Dad and I; and just me prancing down the street.
We were walking along the street when I spotted someone I recognized! OBAMA! Say it isn't so. I was pretty star-struck and had to snag a photo to prove I saw him.
Mom and I.
Photo on the Left: CUTE, right?
Photo on the Right: The face Brandon gives me when I make him take photos too long. As he was moving, he was probably saying, "And THAT'S enough." -- I'd bet $50 US on that. And not just $50 CDN. $50 US! And if you know anything about our plummeting exchange rate lately, you will know that that means I'm pretty dang confident that he was saying that.
Labels: personal
4 Comments:
Love the photo of you and your brother in the alley. Mmmmm....I love PF Changs!
I think it's so funny that AppleBees is your favorite restaurant here! :) It's always the one we chose when we can't think of anything else... not b/c we love it! Too funny! Glad you had a great trip, Portland IS beautiful!
You're so cute in a mature and not little girl way! ;-) You write while riding in the car, I sleep. Maybe I should become more productive. It would sure help when I'm behind on posting and only have internet here and there. Love picture #4! You have the prettiest blue eyes! I'm now determined to take some fun family candids on our travels! Just some random thoughts while reading your fun, long post.
PF Changssss!!!! That's what I'm saying. That's the way to rock it right there girlfriend.;) I love checking out your blog, you do great work.
~An aspiring/hobbiest photographer
(when I give it time):)
Post a Comment
Subscribe to Post Comments [Atom]
<< Home