I was reading a new blog recently and came across a post that made me laugh. The author's father told her once that you can't call a vacation a vacation if you bring kids, it's just a trip. This goes for bringing along other family as well. What a trip we had! In July, we roadtripped to Portland, Oregon. My mom and cousin Misty joined the four of us to make for one FUNky adventure!
Day 1:
Our first day consisted of driving. Lots of driving. We left our home around 5 a.m. and rolled into Portland around 8:30 p.m. Of course, that wasn't driving straight through. We made a few stops.
There are so many gorgeous covered bridges in Oregon. We stopped to snap a few pictures of a couple of them.
I snapped these two pics of the girls in the cutest little town. Oakland, Oregon. It is such a lovely little area with gorgeous old buildings.
The last covered bridge we stopped to see before making it to Portland was Centennial Bridge.
Do we look tired yet??
Day 2:
During the morning, we rode the tram up to an observation deck to get a better view of Portland. It is such a beautiful city. We fell in love with it right away!
Next, we drove downtown to visit Powell's Bookstore. WOW. We spend a lot of time at our Barnes & Noble. I can't imagine how much time we would spend at Powell's. It is incredible. It has multiple floors and there are maps (which we first-timers needed) to help you navigate the store. My biggest disappointment about the visit.....it was too short.
After Powell's, we went back to the hotel to get dressed for the afternoon nuptuals. Wayne and I will celebrate our anniversary this week. It is our 20th anniversary and we wanted to renew our vows. We knew the girls would be back in school and we couldn't renew on our actual anniversary. So, we planned to do it in Portland at a doughnut shop. Not just any doughnut shop though. We went to Voodoo Doughnuts. It was fun....to say the least.
It was awesome having our daughters be the "young maidens" of honor, my mom be the "old maid"of honor (a role she embraced, btw), and Misty serve as matron of honor at our wedding a second time.
What did we wear? Although some people who marry at the doughnut shop dress formally, we opted for a casual cohesive look. Black and white.
The girls and I put together our bouquets from tootsie rolls pops and hand-cut paper flowers. Each "attendant" had her own color bouquet and I had a mixture. We even made Wayne a boutonniere. We gave out the lollipops to people in the shop as wedding favors. Why? Wayne and I are "suckers" for each other. Even after 20 years. :)
See our moustache sign that reads "The Weirdest Thing Ever!"? Wayne and I are always asking each other when we find ourselves in strange places or situations, "Is this the weirdest thing we've ever done?" This was definitely Top 5 material. ;)
No cake this time, but obviously doughnuts. Each of us had our own voodoo doll in our own image and a giant heart with our names on it. Oh my goodness. Their doughnuts are the best. Seriously. They were insanely good. We also brought our bride/groom troll dolls that served as our original cake topper many, many years ago. :)
Our officiant was also one of the doughnut makers. He was so funny. We were married under the patron saint Kenny Rogers (who looked down upon us from a black velvet painting on the wall). That's normal, right?
After we took loads of photos, we drove back downtown. Wayne and I bought our "wedding gifts" to each other there. We each got a new pair of Doc Martens. :)
We then headed over to my favorite place to eat for our reception, The Old Spaghetti Factory. While we eventually got to our destination, I may have initially input the address incorrectly into the GPS. We found a gorgeous area of the city though....and stopped to take some photos before making it to our destination.
Day 3:
We started off the morning with a nice little hike way uphill at Multnomah Falls. This was spectacular.
Next, we went to The View Point Inn. For any of you Twilight fans, this is where the prom scene was shot in the first movie. There was a fire there just a week or so before our visit. The owners will most likely not be rebuilding, so I am glad we got to visit when we did.
We then headed to Vancouver, Washington for lunch. Just because it sounded awesome to say we did that. In reality, it was just minutes from our hotel. ;)
After lunch, we headed back to downtown Portland to explore a different area. We cooled our feet in a fountain, shopped a bit, then headed to the Rose Garden. Can you tell we didn't stop at all during our trip?
This is either a really good deal or a really weird man. Maybe a combination of the two?
The Rose Garden
My mom. :)
Day 4:
We started off the morning with a visit to the beautiful Japanese Gardens. I am so glad we chose this as one of our stops. It is simply stunning.
This is such a beautiful picture of my Hailee.
For those of you who really know Abby, you totally get this picture. Am I right?
Let's find our happy place, shall we?
Me and my mom. :)
We were starving after our Japanese Garden visit, so we followed Hailee's suggestion and went to Slappy Cakes. We are so glad we did! It was delicious. There is a griddle in the middle of the table and you order different toppings that they bring out to you. You make your own pancakes while waiting for your meal. Mmmmmm.
After our breakfast/lunch, we stopped at the Urban Farm Store. My urban farmer and I LOVED this place. Made us want to live in Portland even more.
Misty requested we take a trip to Roloff Farms. She loves Little People, Big World and was hoping to see one of the Roloffs. Sadly, we only got to see their sign. :(
We made our way back to Portland and to the biggest and awesomest fabric store ever, Fabric Depot. This place was HUGE! I sure wish I had more time (and an unlimited budget) to spend here. I have never seen so much fabric. Ever.
We made our way back to an awesome shopping area near our hotel and had dinner. Even though there was so much left to see, we needed to get back to our hotel to ready ourselves for the car ride home the next morning.
Our trip was officially over. We had such a wonderful, fun, and awesome adventure together. This is the kind of vacation where lifelong memories are made with the people we love.
Oh, and one more stop at Voodoo doughnuts for some sugar for the road. ;)
