My Life in Small Town: My Visit to Portland, OR

Yes, this posting is a little late AND it's long. So sue me!

General M & I had been planning to go to Portland since the beginning of February. We were "cordially invited" to a wedding from a friend of his. When we found out, we booked a train ride (with Amtrak), a hotel, and then we made plans for the kids to stay with Grandma & Auntie while we were gone.

The boys and I ended up sick a couple of weeks before General M & I were supposed to leave for our trip, and I wasn't getting any better. So the week before we were supposed to leave, I set up a doctor's appointment. I was then put on antibiotics and told by the doctor that she suspected whooping cough. Scary! Needless to say we were quarantined to the house (by the request of yours truly - Hey! I don't want anyone else to get it!) a week before we were scheduled to leave. The boys and I had been battling sickness for 2 weeks, and now we were stuck in the house for another week before leaving on our trip... so you could say I was beyond ready for a break! We found out 2 days before leaving that we didn't have whooping cough - whew!

A sigh of relief entered my mind once General M & I dropped off the mini men at school. I was very proud of myself since my hubby and I had 1 bag (that's right ladies... ONE BAG COMBINED!!) as a carry on to the train for our 2 day trip. We began our adventure out to Tacoma on Friday morning @ 10:30 am (where we were catching the train), and made it there with time to spare. I had never ridden on a train before, so I was nervous and excited. I was about to burst! The thought of both of us relaxing and enjoying the ride was just too much! Compared to gripping the dashboard as a passenger, keeping a backseat driver muffled in my head, and remembering to breathe while my husband drives (bless his heart - I love him, but ADD and driving is possible, but surely doesn't always mix... especially if you're on the passenger side).

Here we are at the train station:

Now, before I go any further, there's a few things you need to know. My husband and I are not normal people... we like to play pranks, we act goofy, and we like to have fun. My life will never be boring as long as I have him. I love it!

Also, a little side note... I asked my husband if wearing a fur coat would be too much for Portland & he said no way! In fact he gave me an enthusiastic WEAR IT (with his thumbs up and everything)! Actually, I'm not even sure the thing is real... my super awesome mother in law gave it to me. I sure do LOVE it though! Shout out to my friend Christy who sweetly gave me the hat I'm rockin'. It has been my favorite hat ever since! So back to the trip:

I told him to look stoic for his picture... he just quickly took the picture of me - HA! The differences between how a man and a woman perform the same task is fairly amusing:

We begin our ride:

Here's one of the conductors (he wasn't really sleeping.. He was doing his job... I swear!)

Standing in the bathroom I'm thinking to myself... WOW! Even bathrooms in the airplanes aren't this big! The toilet was over to the left with room to spare.

I forgot what he did (we were joking around.. I wasn't really mad), but obviously he thought it was funny. Besides, how could you be mad at that face? Doesn't he look so innocent?!

Our arrival in Portland (you will notice I only took pictures of us... no pictures of - oh, maybe a sign in the background... Yah, I wasn't really thinking of that. Whatever! I knew where we were!!)

Gotta love a guy who asks for directions!

This train station kinda reminded me of the movies..

Our first stop was at a place called Scooters. We were referred from some people on the train. They considered it a dive. It ended up being our kind of place :)

If you're in Portland.. this is the place to go! Or at least start out there. Two words... heavy pour.

We played around the rest of the day, to which I only stopped to pull out my camera at the Voodoo Doughnut shop. We went inside Saturday night, but I just wanted to take a picture of the line outside (Sorry this picture doesn't show the details of the bright sign. I'm putting the blame on the awful angle, terrible lack of lighting, I was in a hurry, and I was using my iPhone to take this picture).

At one point in time, we were searching for something greasy and cheap (hey, sometimes you're in the mood for that stuff), but no one knew of such a place. We were smack dab in the middle of the Pearl District. Most places we went into had a steep price for one entree... I wasn't really in the mood for something "classy" or expensive. What can I say, I'm a simple gal! Too bad the next day we found what we were asking for, not even a block away from where we were staying. Go figure!

Saturday morning we ventured out to a little place called The Morning Star Cafe.

This time he told me to look stoic!

Loved the food and excellent service there. Portland is a pretty eclectic place. I enjoyed the vintage feel it gave me. Now I know that bringing the fur coat was a good choice. I fit right in! Of course, I wasn't wearing it in this picture, so that's why I look frumpy :)

While we were eating, we saw a few groups of people just running around like they were going to an event or something. It piqued our curiosity because.... well, you just don't usually see people running around like they're in a marathon, but dressed in regular clothes.

Then we saw groups of people who were dressed in costumes

Come to find out there was a massive scavenger hunt! Sounded cool enough. I wonder why I never hear of neat stuff happening like that in WA... oh yah... I'm in a small town eh? Our waitress at the cafe told us the weekend before they had shopping cart races. I would have loved to see that!!

We walked around before we had to go back to the hotel & get ready for the wedding. We found this cute area (it reminded me of the farmer's market in CA, or the Pike Place in Seattle)

With food vendors:

I found this place amusing.. I don't remember Chinese food being completely healthy....

After walking off our brunch, we headed back to the hotel to get ready for the wedding. We rode on the TriMet (I think it's called?) to the church

Found another group of people on that scavenger hunt lol! Looks like a bunch of grapes....

The wedding took place in The Old Church. How fitting the name was. It was beautiful inside!

I just love the old couch!

After the wedding we went back to change & venture out again. I can honestly say that we weren't lazy while we were there! We stopped in a few vintage stores, and my favorite place (when I lived in Vegas)... The Buffalo Exchange!

We spent a lot of time in there. GASP! Yes, General M was busy shopping too. Usually he's a grab-without-trying-it-on-and-buy-it-so-we-can-get-out-of-here kinda guy, but he was genuinely looking :)

Finally, at the end of the night we decided to wait in the line at Voodoo Doughnuts. It wasn't too long of a wait. That place had a line the other 2 times when we passed by it (yes we were stalking our prey)

I loved the chandeliers they had inside

Eating a cardboard sign..

General M pointing to the doughnut he wanted

I was all to excited to get the bacon maple bar. It was like biting into a piece of heaven! We were so hooked, we went back on Sunday morning before we hopped on the train! Besides, we told the boys we had a surprise. What kid doesn't love doughnuts?! The doughnut that had fruit loops piled on it was what we brought back. I swear their eyes jumped out of their head when they saw it. The hubby also tried a Mango Tango (mango filling, vanilla frosting, and sprinkled with tang)... oh.... it was good... Just talking about this place is making my mouth water!