Portland

I am sitting in the Portland airport listening and watching a brilliant pianist play Phantom of the Opera while waiting for my flight home. Portland was everything I expected it to be and finding this special treat at the end of a great trip only deepens my love for the northwest. I think I drove my husband crazy asking every few hours, "Can we move here yet?" He would laugh and say, "I'm working on it." He is currently in the middle of a masters degree so for another 18 months leaving Las Vegas is completely out of the question. I can still dream though. Leaving Las Vegas would be difficult. I have lived most of my life in Vegas. I have such great friends and neighbors. I have a love for the wonderful people in the local quilting community and for my co-workers.

We planned the trip for one of my husband's friend's wedding. Congrats to Jason & Lindsey! We figured since we were going anyway, we may as well spend a couple days and enjoy ourselves.After the beautiful wedding, we were off to a great find my husband scoped out before we left town. The Grand Lodge was a huge old masonry lodge revamped into the perfect party place. I was a little hesitant when my husband first described it as only having a room with bunk beds left. "Oh and by the way there are only public restrooms," he casually said. This eccentric place was full of live music, alcohol, a hot soaking pool, party rooms and history. I has a great time and it will be one of those places that stays with me for a long time. I would love to go back for a family reunion or with another couple or two. Here's me looking down one of the hallways of rooms. By the way, the bathrooms were actually great-very clean and with large shower stalls. I did enjoy showering while listening to a voice singing in the next shower over.
The next day we were off to drive up the Oregon coast and oh was it worth it!This is my good looking hubby pondering deeply and quite frustrated that I am interrupting by asking him to turn his head this way and that. Thankfully my die hard Kodak camera finally gave up the ghost and he bought me a SLR camera as soon as we got off the airplane. Literally we drove straight to Best Buy (there is no sales tax in Oregon).

I did get to stop in this darling quilt shop, Center Diamond. They had a gorgeous window box pouring over with flowers.

We also stopped at a ton of markets! This lady made delicious crapes. And of course I had to stop to take pictures of the well arranged berries and pineapple tomatillo. Has anyone ever tasted these? I wish I had while I had the chance. I am still wondering what they taste like. We found a hiking trail in the middle of a neighborhood that lead down to this water. Along the way, the forest was full of wild berries. Unbelievable! Can you imagine this for a backyard? And of course, I couldn't get enough pictures of the flowers. They were gorgeous!

Another thing I loved about the northwest, was the people. Everywhere we went we found educated, friendly, passionate people. Along the way, we drove by these two ladies on a bench outside an ice cream shop. They were eating their ice cream like nothing else in life mattered. They made it look sooooo good. We stopped to get some and walked across the street with it to enjoy it on the beach. Really, does life get better than a waffle cone full of strawberry cheesecake ice cream on the beach?


Overall, I give Oregon fabulous reviews. We liked it so much, we are visiting again for Christmas to see what it is like in winter. Maybe my reviews won't be so upbeat when everything is covered in ice. But who knows, maybe my heart does belong there.