Rockin' The 'Burbs: Vacation Report

We just got back from our annual summer vacation. We left this past Thursday, August 18th. Minus last summer, due to Ryan's broken back that needed surgery, Ryan and I have gone on a big vacation somewhere every summer. This year it was Portland Oregon. Why Portland? It is cooler than Houston, nough said. This was our first trip with Guen, not counting when I was pregnant with her in 2009. Although we were so scared she would be horrible on the trip, she was such a great companion. Advice to any parent, get the kid their own airplane seat. Even though she is under two and technically we could have kept her on our laps, we got her, her own seat. We had enough airline miles for all of us to fly free so that was another reason we did it. She did great on the plane! Thank God for Barnie too. That kept her entertained many times too. Portland is a great city for pedestrians, so we did not get a car. We took the Max light rail from the airport to our hotel, checked in and headed back out. We walked to some food trailers and ate at the Brunchbox, famous for the hamburgers but instead of buns, there are two grilled cheese sanwiches for the top and bottom bun. Yes a heart attack was in the back of our heads while we devoured it but it was delicious. In fact we were so hungry and splitting it was not enough for me, I ended up getting a chicken gyro at another trailer because I was still hungry. Needless to say, we were stuffed. Next we got on the bus and headed up to the Oregon Health Science Center Hospital where there is an aerial tram that you can ride. It had a fabulous view of the city and Mount Hood. It was cool. Next we took the rail to Portland State University to walk around. It was a beautiful campus, got a tshirt at the campus bookstore and Guen played in the quad/park area. We headed back to the hotel and got some chinese/sushi at the resaturant hotel Dragonfish that ended up being pretty good. We were all in bed by 8pm.

Friday, we were up early and headed to breakfast at a diner-raunt called The Original. It was very delicious and cool. Their blueberry pancakes and biscuits and gravy were the bomb! We then took our filled bellies back on the rail to go to the zoo. We showed up exactly when it opened at 9am. It was 63 degrees and a perfect day-plus it was Ryan's and I 5th wedding anniversary. The zoo was fabulous! We went through about half of the zoo, then took the "choo choo train" to the Portland Rose Gardens. It was breathtaking and smelled so good. There was a children's park next to the Rose Gardens that we stopped at so Guen could get outta the stroller and play some. Then we went to the Japanese Botanical Gardens which was small but pretty. We got back on the "choo choo train" and headed back to the zoo. We got some lunch at the zoo and finished up looking at almost all the animals. It was huge! One fun fact we learned at the zoo was from the lady that was holding a volcher and screeching owl. We all know that birds have hollow bones to make them lighter so they can fly. But another fun fact that Ryan and I did not know it that all birds do not have a bladder to make them lighter to fly too. That is why poop and pee just kinda leak outta them. Interesting! After the zoo we headed back to the hotel and took an hour nap. We all needed it! We got up and went to the famous Powell's Bookstore. It is huge and takes up 3 city blocks. They have a map when you walk into the store so you don't get lost. We looked around at some stuff, Ryan got a tshirt and then we walked to Kenny and Zukes to have dinner. It was delicous. I had a meatloaf sandwich with coleslaw with gazpacho soup and a brownie sundae which was yummy. Ryan got a pastrami sandwich with potato salad. We did not get back to the hotel til late and were in bed by 9pm, which is very late for Guen, especially with the time change.

Saturday we got up early and walked to Mill's End Park which is the tiniest city park in the world. Supposedly it was built for the leperchans one Saint Patricks Day. It was funnny. We walked along the Williamette River that runs through downtown. We went to the famous VooDoo donuts. We stood in line for an hour waiting for these famous donuts and they were good. Guen was a trooper and was very patient. Right down the street was the Saturday Market that we walked through and saw all the neat local artist goods. We walked through Chinatown to the Pearl District which is known for their cute shops. We stopped at a park in the Pearl District so Guen could get outta the stroller for a bit. I needed to use the restroom and went into the Museum of Contemporary Craft to beg them to let a preggo woman use their potty. They said that the museum was open for free right now cause the security alarm system is broken. I thought that was a weird reason to have the museum open for free and why would you want people to know that. Anyways I was just so thankful and went and got Ryan and Guen. We all went potty and then we looked around the museum at the Nikki McClure exhibit and the at the Crafty Wonderland exhibit. There were some neat crafts in the gift shop from the crafty wonderland exhibit and we saw that their shop was by our hotel. We made a mental note to stop by the shop later during our trip. That was random unplanned fun at the museum. Then we walked around the Pearl area. It was so pretty and there were so many shops and restaurants. We ate at 50 Plates for lunch and it was delicious. We were walking back to the hotel and were all exhausted at this point. We did stop at Mitchell Gold and Bob Williams store. Even though there is one in Houston, I have always wanted to go but never had. Since we were walking past it, we walked in and took a look around. This is when we noticed that Guen had fallen asleep in her stroller. SHE NEVER FALLS ASLEEP IN HER STROLLER! We were shocked. She must have been really tired. You know how you walk in the mall and see all the kids in the stroller asleep. No, not my Guen. She has never done that except maybe when she was an infant. Anywho, we kept walking back to the hotel and came upon the Crafty Wonderland shop and stopped there too. There were some prints that I loved and wanted to frame and put in the new babies room or Guen's new room but they were too big to fit in our suitcase for the ride home. Darn. Instead Ryan got some Portland cards to take to his friends at work. We got to the hotel and Guen was still asleep, she slept another hour, after getting her outta the stroller and putting her in the crib. After we all woke up we went to see the Portland County Library. It was old huge and so pretty. Ryan had to take a look around and get some ideas and Guen and I hung out in the childrens section. We went to a Toy store across the street where all Guen could play with is a stroller where she put a ball and baby in and pushed it all around the store. After that we just decided to get some Italian take out from across the street which was decent. We had a garden tub with jets in our hotel room and I turned it on for Guen. She loved the "bubbles" it made and stayed in there for about an hour. Her toes were so wrinkly.

Sunday, we took the bus to the Hawthorne District. It is also a fun little area of town but has older craftsman style homes and hippy-ish stores to shop in. We started out with breakfast at The Waffle Window. It rocked! I got the The Spicy Bacon Cheddar Jalapeno Waffle which has thick cut peppered bacon, diced jalapenos and a slice of Tillamook Cheddar topped with fresh made avocado-tomatillo salsa. Ryan got the Banana Rumba which has fresh sliced bananas, banana caramel sauce, whipped cream, granola crunch topping. Guen got Berry Bliss which has three kinds of fresh local Berries that change with the season anything from strawberries and blueberries to marions and tayberries. served with whipped cream and berry coulis. Can we all say together-YUM! After our big breakfast we worked it off walking around the Hawthorne area looking at all the cute craftsman style homes and ended up in a park where Guen could get outta her stroller to play. We then stopped at a grocery store so we could get Guen some snacks for the airplane trip home the next day. We then took the bus to another area of town called Laurelhurst. It has the beautiful older homes of Portland and was a gorgeous area. We landed in another park called Grant Park. It has statues of Beverly Clearly's characters of Ramona, Henry and Ramona's dog. I wanted a statue of her cat Picky Picky but we did not see one. Portland is the home to Beverly Clearly. It was cute and the park was great. We took the bus/rail back to the hotel and called it a day. We knew we had to get up early the next day so we got take out local Picatto Pizza which was great and were all in bed asleep by 730pm. We were exhausted.

Monday we got up at 330am to take the rail back to the airport and get on our plane by 6am. Even though Ryan booked our seat to be all in a row, when we checked in, two of them were together and the other one was not. The flight was packed and we asked the Continental lady if she could switch our seats. She paged the guy to switch the one seat. It was actually a better seat, the one with lots of leg room toward the front. The guy had already boarded the plane so she told us to ask him. When we got to the seat we asked the old guy to switch with us and he said "NO". So Guen and I sat next to him and Ryan sat up front. About 10 minutes after we sat down he leans over to me and says "I fly 30-50 times a year and whenever I switch seats with someone, something always goes wrong". I told him, no big deal, even though I was thinking in my head, you are bizarre. Ryan came back to get something outta the backpack and he tugged Ryan's arm and reluctantly said, "after we take off I will switch with you but I want to come back to the seat when we land". So that is exactly what happened. After the seatbelt light went off after we took off he switched seats with Ryan and we got to sit all together, but when we were descending into Houston, he came back and wanted to sit in his seat. Maybe that is why our plane did not blow up, cause he sat in his correct seat during take off and landing. What a freak!!! Anyways, I was glad to have Ryan with me during most of the plane trip cause Guen was a little more crazy on the way home. Probably because she had to get up at 330am. But we made it. We had so much fun!! Here are some pics from the trip.

Aerial Tram: