Portland trip

Vacation pix :)

Some highlights of the trip:
--Visiting old friends Jami, Doug and Kai. They moved from Long Beach 4 years ago and now live in a renovated 1912 Craftsman-style home. Beautiful. They fed us an excellent home-cooked pasta meal w/a yummy salad. For dinner today I tried to duplicate the salad but Jami's was much better.

--Riding the Maxx train downtown from Beaverton and around the city. A family trip can hardly be complete without at least one train ride!

--Seeing family. All the aunts, uncles, cousins, grandparents, etc. Fortunately, Uncle John was on his best behavior. It was especially fun to see the newlyweds, Becky & Michael, and to see Uncle David and his family who traveled all the way from North Carolina.



--Powell's City of Books. We could live there. 'Nuff said :)

--Wonderful and eclectic eateries downtown: Voodoo Donuts, the TeaZone, Moonstruck Chocolates, St Honore Bakery. YUM!

--Green. Everywhere. Green, green, green.

--The Columbia River Gorge. We especially liked taking the scenic route home on the Old Highway. Multnomah Falls was a visual delight.

--The Nike Campus walk/tour. Very inspirig to see Uncle John's workplace and to learn about this company. The Nike Employee Store visit at the end of the tour was overwhelming. Made me want to be much more athletic and cool.

--Visiting the Japanese Garden in the rain. The brochures weren't kididng when they said it is the most beautiful garden outside of Japan. I can't wait to share the pictures we took in the irises, at the house, etc. The layers and textures of plants was unlike anything I've ever seen. It was both inspiring and daunting. Made me wish my garden plot was located in Portland rather than in the OC! Of course it made me long to see the real thing in Japan, too. John became quite homesick for the "green" of his favorite Japanese places. We also wished we'd been in Portland just a few weeks earlier to see the cherry blossoms and azaleas in bloom!

--Road-trippin'. We listened to some great books on tape during the 40 hours of driving. The favorite was Garth Nix's Mister Monday.

--Coming home! Boy were we happy to see our apartment and our kitties! Karen took good care of them in our absence (even surviving a middle-of-the-night fire alarm), but we were oh-so-glad to sleep in our own beds on Thursday night.