Portland trip

We hope you all enjoyed the beautiful weather this weekend! And for the parents (which is pretty much everyone who reads this) don't forget the sunscreen for your kiddos! 90+% of our lifetime sun exposure is before we're 18 so parents really need to protect your kiddos from the skin cancer! Every bad burn increases their risk, so don't forget the sunscreen. And the shades aren't just to look cool--sun exposure is tough on the eyes too and cumulative sun exposure on your eyes leads to cataracts. Ok, now that that's out of the way, here's what we did this weekend!

It's not that often that I have a full weekend off with no call or shifts whatsoever, but I'm doing all shifts with no call this month in the peds E.R. and had this whole weekend off, so we thought we'd head down to Portland since it's so close and the weather was even better down there!

Lilo was pretty excited for the trip!

We left early Friday and decided to shop first. We found the best outlets on this trip! Just south of Portland, the Woodburn Company Stores had tons of great stores and we got a bunch of great deals. I found the coolest watch for $6 among other things! Then we had dinner at Buffalo Wild Wings, which we first discovered in Buffalo, but they also had them in Vegas all over the place and Bob has missed them in the meantime!

Saturday morning we hit the Portland Saturday Market, which was actually HUGE. Way bigger than we expected! If you are a hippie in need of pretty much anything for your hippie lifestyle, this place could hook you up. If you are a tiny Lilo however, this place might have too many people crowded into tiny rows between the stalls and you might be pretty afraid of being stepped on! If you were a Stitch though, you'd be a super-happy cat because there was a booth where a lady was selling these cat toys that were filled with catnip. Stitch has LOVED his so much and attacks it like crazy. If only there were catnip for dogs... it's so funny to watch the kitty crack in action! We had fun enjoying all the art and especially the people-watching! People of all kinds were out and about enjoying the booths and the wonderful weather!

After the market we headed to Chipotle to get some lunch. We have a few Chipotle's near us, but they're all at least 40 minutes away, so it was still a treat to enjoy this place! They had tons of outdoor seating so Lilo hung out too and enjoyed just a little of the goodness she found on the ground. :)

She looks so innocent...

Chipotle + Bob = Happiness

Next we headed to Multnomah Falls, which we've both been to before, but neither of us had ever hiked to the top, and it's been a while since either of us were there, hence we had this hike in mind when we planned the trip. It was really fun and the weather was perfect! There were a lot of other people there with the same idea, but it wasn't too crowded. Lilo was hugely popular as always, and made many little kids' day.

The mist felt so great and really turned out pretty neat in the pictures!

On this bridge you could really feel the mist!

Here's the full glory of this massive waterfall!

We really need to get one of those awesome wrap around anything tripods... I fully intended to get Bob one for his birthday but then got sidetracked by many other great options. Also, our handy tiny digital camera doesn't have a tripod hole in the bottom. Does anyone know, do they have ones that could work without that hole they typically screw into? Anyway, as a result, there were many longarm photos taken this trip, so you only get extreme closeups of the 2 of us together. :)

I'm glad I have long arms! I would like to add that I'm not actually that sweaty, but my shadow is causing the appearance of a dark ring around my neck I think... this is almost to the top, so I am sweaty, just not THAT sweaty. :)

Bob and Lilo at the steps at the overlook at the very top!

It's a LONG ways down!

We made it to the very top!

This is the view from the bottom

Yet another long-arm shot :)

Look how nicely Lilo poses... such a good pup

Kind of gives you an idea of the scale of this waterfall!

After our hiking we needed to clean up before we headed to dinner. We're slightly less shiny now! (But the sun is still bright... hence the squintiness!)
Ooh, you also get a peek at my awesome $6 watch here! This was by far our best find at the outlets, as it was regularly $75! Who doesn't love a great deal?

We had dinner at Mama Mia Trattoria, a very cute Italian place downtown that we had a really great dinner at last year when we went to Portland, so thought we'd go back. We have been lucky enough to get seated next to Promsters on multiple occasions in our marriage, all of which have been highly entertaining, the most recent of which (prior to this trip) was last month at Outback, which was especially funny. We were with a bunch of friends and all their babies, and we enjoyed all their outfits and Ryan giving them all sorts of paternalistic advice. Our dining experience in Portland also included Promsters nearby, and we had seats by the window and saw many passing by AND there was a wedding party so basically there were tons of great dresses to enjoy throughout our meal. We had a great time rating all the ensembles that passed by and making up stories about the groups of kids.

After dinner we headed to Comedy Sportz, which we haven't been to since we were first dating since there's one in Spokane. We laughed the whole time and it was great fun!

After our long full day we thought we'd sit in the hot tub at the hotel for a while but unfortunately, it was no warmer than the pool! Bit of a letdown. Another couple there told us it had been toasty the night before, but mysteriously lost its warmth that night. Oh well, it was an otherwise perfect weekend!

So before we headed out today we stopped at the rhododendron garden. During our last visit, we were too early in the season to see the roses in bloom (Portland has a VERY impressive rose garden for any of you who've not been) but all the rhodies were in all their glory, but we never made it to the big rhododendron garden, so we really wanted to hit it this time and we weren't disappointed! My only complaint was that they weren't better labeled. I'm a nerd and wanted to know the common names of all these different colored rhodies but not all of them were labeled. The grounds were beautiful with ducks and geese all over the place because there were waterfalls and ponds throughout the gardens. One goose particularly disliked Lilo and kept hissing at her and threatening her, but Lilo had no idea and just sniffed toward him. We hustled away before we saw who would win the Chihuahua vs goose battle. :) I was way more scared than Lilo was... I was attacked by a rooster when I was little and actually have a pretty inappropriate fear of fowl...

Here we are on a really cute bridge near a fountain that you can see just behind us

Lilo and Bob at the entrance

I liked these white ones

Pretty neat arch under the bridge

I loved this bridge's railing and the fountain

A nice shot of the pond

Some of these were HUGE. This was a pretty good sized one!

Ok, this was a TON of pictures. I've got way more flower pictures from the garden, but it's bedtime. Hope you all enjoyed the sunshine and thanks for reading this very long post! Have a great week!

~Cathy