Portland

Back when we visited Utah for Labor Day, we schemed up a trip to Portland with my cousin Matt and Jessica. It was perfect that Jessica's birthday was at the end of October, after we were done with our Nike work and before Jeremy started his new job. A random time to travel, but despite this we managed to have some airline drama. We were scheduled to take the last flight of the evening, supposed to arrive at 11:30 pm, only to find that the flight was delayed a few hours. Not wanting to arrive in the wee hours of the morning, we tried to fly out of a different airport but our attempts were in vain. We repeatedly looked at our flight update, hoping things would change, but they didn't. We even verified the changed flight time with agents several times, including 10 minutes before we decided to head to the airport to wait out the rest of the time (so my sister who was driving us could go to bed). Right before leaving we checked again for an update. The updated status said our flight was boarding....at the originally scheduled time! We jumped in the car and started our way to Oakland airport while I got the airline on the phone. Apparently they found a new plane to substitute so they just did, without giving any warning or updating their customer service agents or online information until the flight was actually boarding. And it was our fault we missed the flight, according to Southwest. I was soooo mad. So we changed our flight till the next morning, amidst promises that we would be compensated when the correct department was open to take care of it. I don't know why we believed them--when we called back they wouldn't do a thing.

But anyway, we hardly got any sleep that night and had to pay for airport parking but other than that, our trip was a great success.
Our first day there my uncle Stephen picked us up from the airport. We then swung by to pick up Matt and Jessica who had slept at our 2nd cousin's place. After gathering at Stephen's beautiful condo downtown, we munched on delicious pastries and hot chocolate while we made a rough plan for our time there. We decided that this day should be reserved for exploring downtown. We had a lunch appointment with our dear friend, Wayne as well.

Our first stop was the Chinese gardens. We walked around this peaceful place and thoroughly enjoyed the different plants and the intricately laid pathways.



Our favorite plant was this brilliant citrus tree.



After the Chinese garden we walked around some more downtown and then met our friend Wayne, who was nice enough to take a good, long break from work to hang out with us. We ate at a very yummy Vietnamese restaurant in the Pearl District. In our excitement to spend time talking with him, we forgot to take a photo! We got to know Wayne when he lived in San Francisco, but he moved up to Portland last year, bought a lovely house and is gardening to his heart's content. We miss him though...
After lunch Jessica and I snuck in a cupcake from Cupcake Jones (they are filled with all sorts of delight), even though we knew we were having them for dessert that evening.

We went to nearby Powell's bookstore (takes up the whole city block) and enjoyed browsing. This place is insane. We couldn't even make a dent in perusing the extent of the store. I bought a couple books.

Our walk then took us down by the university. I loved this neighborhood, which is also the site of the weekend Farmer's Market. They have park blocks, which are basically just green space with a walk way, surrounded by beautiful trees. We picked a perfect time to come to Portland. Well, actually I think we lucked out with the clear weather, but the colored trees were SO gorgeous. I miss autumn time where the leaves change and there's that crisp feeling in the air, that autumn-y smell of crunching leaves and wood-burning fireplaces...


We made our way over to the river and walked along that before looping back to Stephen's place. By this time, we had probably walked 8 miles or more and our feet felt slightly bruised. We were happy to hop in the car to accompany Stephen to pick up our cousin Max from school. We hung out with Max and picked up some more cupcakes while Stephen and Silvia put the finishing touches on making dinner. Our 2nd cousin, Emalee came over to join us for dinner and it was a lovely evening. Stephen had made homeade 3 cheese macaroni and cheese, hanger steak, and a beautiful salad. After dinner we had fun watching their Tivo'd SNL episodes.

Max had the next day off school so we all got to head out to the coast together. Before we head out, we went to Forest Park for an early run. Basically, Forest Park is an urban forest with 30 miles of trails to run! It was absolute runner heaven. We came back to Stephen's for more splendid pastries, cleaned up and then head out towards the coast. We met our friend Mark who generously lent Jeremy his board and wetsuit in case we found good waves. The drive was beautiful, and the coast breathtaking. We had a great meal at Cannon Beach before heading further south to Oswald West.


The waves were disappointing, but Jeremy still decided to get wet. Max got a skimboard at Cannon Beach so he had fun playing with that. The rest of us explored the rocks and tide pools, snoozed on the sand, and just took in the gorgeous surroundings.




When Jeremy got out of the water, we went on a nice walk to the other end of the beach, where there was a waterfall.



When we got back to Portland we walked to a different neighborhood and my uncle treated us to a very tasty Italian meal. Stephen was so accomodating and generous. We were basically spoiled rotten. And not only that, I can't say how much we enjoyed just spending time with Stephen, Silvia and Max. This time with them was different than when we have large family gatherings-- we really loved getting to know them in the setting of smaller company. Somehow in the chaos of big family gatherings, you lose more intimate, focused conversation. We were made to feel so welcome, and we were glad that their schedules allowed for plenty of time to be with us. Well anyway, they MADE time to be with us, and I'm sure they had other things going on.
More on Portland to come....what a great place.