Portland Getaway

To celebrate Valentine's Day/our "when we met" anniversary/babymoon Cory and I took a much needed break from work and the desert and went to Portland.  We seriously considered going to Morocco... but in the end decided to put the money toward student loans instead (feel free to give us a virtual pat on the back).  

Our weekend in Portland was really really wonderful.  Ah the rain! the city! quirky people and good restaurants!

Friday night we stayed with Andrea and Ryan and their family in White Salmon, WA.  Saturday morning I found Cory and Blake watching Phineas and Ferb, a usual morning tradition for these two.  I can never tell which one looks forward to this more.  

Later Cory and I headed into Portland and went to the Saturday market.  I LOVE farmer's markets.  All the fresh produce, flowers, and random crafts.  I even got some fresh kimchi. :)

Once we had filled our eyes and our bellies with the splendor of the market, we went to old downtown Portland and went on the underground tour.

We learned about the tunnels in old Portland and their varied uses for flood control, transportation and maybe even a little shanghaiing.  We walked around Portland's Chinatown, which used to be Japantown.  Portland has a beautiful park by the river to commemorate the Japanese internment during WWII.  Learning about this part of Portland's past reminded me of this book I read a couple months ago (and would highly recommend if you're looking for a good read).  

St. Patrick day 5-Kers making their way through town - ah Portland!

the famous Voodoo donuts - did you know they cater and perform weddings?

Saturday night we went to a Live Wire radio show.  It was so fun.  One of Cory's favorite pod-casts is NPR's Wait Wait Don't Tell Me! comedy news radio show (he's a news junkie with a good sense of humor so it fits).  Live Wire is pretty similar to Wait Wait and much to Cory's delight, Luke Burbank who frequently guest stars on Wait Wait was the last-minute guest host at the Live Wire show.  

We stayed just down the street at the McMenamins Kennedy School hotel.  This place also has some awesome Portland flare.  Since it was St. Patrick's day weekend they had none other than... bagpipers in the lobby.

Breakfast found us at Pine State Biscuits, also just down the street.  We had been looking forward to this.  Watch to find out why.

Intermingled with all the stuff we saw, we also had a lot of time to just walk around town and talk with each other.  It felt like an awesome date that lasted for 3 days.  

I am very much head-over-heels in love with this sweet man, and thank my lucky starts every day that we found each other 2 years ago.  Life has never been better.

Waterfalls on the drive home...