Portland, Oregon

John and I apparently have an affinity for cold, rainy, mountainous places for vacations. We can’t be life-long (well, most of John’s life and all of mine) Mississippians, can we?! John traveled to Portland, Oregon for work last week, and I flew up on Friday to spend the weekend there with him. Portland is known for its beautiful rose gardens, tasty microbrews, coffee and chocolate shops on every corner, lots of rain, being a “green” city, and apparently the most strip clubs per capita of any US city (although I didn’t see a single one while we were there). The downtown area has two rivers running through it and is surrounded by mountains, so it’s just beautiful. The crisp, mountain air is amazing and so fresh. We were impressed at how close the countryside was to the city, and after 12 hours of sleep and chocolate chip and banana pancakes in bed, we spent Saturday morning exploring the Historic Columbia River Highway and all its breathtaking waterfalls and hikes- only 30 minutes from downtown. We ate lunch in front of a fire at the inn at Multnomah Falls, and then headed back to the Northwest area for some shopping. For the first time in my life, I bought the first and only pair of jeans I touched in the store. Then, we got spiffed up and headed to The Chart House for dinner, which overlooked the lights of the city, and we ate our hearts out on crab cakes, shrimp, swordfish, risotto, and chocolate lava cake…and local wine from Oregon, of course!

The only disastrous part of our trip was the ride home on Sunday. Good thing we were coming off such a high from the weekend! Our flight leaving Portland was delayed an hour due to fog, and since we only had an hour layover in Salt Lake City, we passed our plane leaving for Memphis somewhere on the tarmac. After a frantic run through the concourse only to learn that we had in fact missed our plane and many, many tears from me, we learned some redeeming qualities about Delta Airlines (for once!). They had automatically double booked us and added us to the later flight to Memphis and then assigned us seats in the first row of coach with plenty of leg room. My tears must have been noticed somewhere! After an almost four hour wait, we finally got on the plane home, and as soon as I hit the back door a little after 10 p.m., I ran up to HG’s room. I tried desperately to wake her up, but she was out like a light so I just cuddled her! She cried out around 3 a.m., and I was up the stairs in a second. She was kind of groggy as I grabbed her out of bed, but as soon as she realized who it was, she wrapped her arms around my neck and put me in a head lock! Makes a mama proud!

Our first stop along the Historic Columbia River Highway, which was established in 1915. The view from Chanticleer Point…that building in the distance is the Vista House. And the Vista House up close…it served as a rest stop for the ladies that traveled the trail (then and now!). The view of the Columbia River valley was spectacular. The river divides Oregon and Washington. I imagine on a clear day you could see Mount Hood in the distance. On the trail down to Latourell Falls…this green moss covered everything out there. And THERE it is!  John caught me doing a happy dance. I couldn’t get over how close you could get to it. Shepperds Dell…you can hike up to the  bridge that spans the falls toward the top of it. While we were standing here taking this pic, a daddy was picking on his little girl and hanging her upside down over the creek. She was not happy about it, and as she thrashed around, she kicked off her boot which, of course, landed in the stream. John and the dad both jumped into the riverbed to catch it, but the current quickly took it away. The dad later fished it out down stream. The mama and the baby were less than thrilled about the whole situation, but we thought it was hilarious. :) We made it up that STEEP hike to see this amazing sight. Onward to the main event…Multnomah Falls! It is the second tallest year-round waterfall in the US.   Another hike up to a bridge that spans the falls…a look up at the top falls. And over the side to the bottom falls. The Chart House