This summer was a special year as my girls turned 25 and 27 and their birthdays are only three weeks apart in the summer. They called and asked me to come out to Portland for the weekend to help celebrate with them. When my girls want to get together I would be the last person to say no! So off i went. I flew in on a Wed. night and left Monday morning and Liz was able to take some time off that she had worked in overtime. Katie came for the whole week and two weekends for her summer vacation. We had such a fun long weekend together!!
It started out with camping at the Zigzag River at the base of Mt. Hood. The weather was beautiful- sunny, 70's and NO bugs!! Who said Portland is always rainy and cloudy all the time, not in summer?! We just camped for one night as they had other things they wanted to do too. I had not been tent camping in many years and it was such fun! Andy made a great evening campfire and Liz cooked us up a great camp breakfast right over the campfire( no campstove!).We also had supper at Timberline Lodge at the top of Mt. Hood.
We ate at a number of other fun restaurants too while there: BBQ, Southern cooking, Thai and of course the famous Voodoo Donuts. Portland has great variety of places to eat!! We also had Liz's birthday breakfast at Bob's Red Mill, a well known whole grains store and restaurant. We all took some home some groceries and kitchen gadgets from this visit- what a fun place and only 30 min away from where they live. Katie, Liz and I went to sing and dance to Karaoke one evening with some of Liz's church girlfreinds- very fun!! Katie and Liz also got matching birthday tatoos on their feet while Andy and I checked out Portland's oldest and largest used book store.
We stayed at Liz and Andy's cute new apt. It is an upper flat of a brick house in a nice neighborhood in Portland and walking distance to Western Seminary where Andy attends. It is all knotty pine with alot of fun built- in bookcases& dressing tables(bedroom and bathroom) and lots of closets and kitchen cabinets and it came furnished! So they gave away, sold and have put in closets some of their furnishings( Liz even took a few of their lamps and end tables for her office at work). I was really impressed with their simple and cozy living space.Their landlaord is an 80yr old widower who has never had to rent his apt thru ads as it is always passed on by word of mouth at the seminary. In fact Liz and Andy's pastor once lived there!! They also have so many great friends through their church , some of which we met at church on sunday service.!!
Portland really seems to fit Liz and Andy, as it is very beautiful (close to the coast and mountains as less than an hour away), has many interesting neighborhoods and restaurants, and one of the fastest growing cities in the US with alot of young people moving there. It is also a very environmental minded city that has a lot of bikers, and many restaurants featuring locally grown produce . It also is a very art oriented, so Andy gets to show his paintings in alot of restaurants, coffee shops and even stores (like Whole Foods and even a Snowboard shop).Portland also has "Last Thursday", an all summer street festival with artists displaying their work, live music and food.
All in all Portland is a wonderful city and a great place to live , so I cannot be to melancholy about how far away Liz and Andy live from us. It is a beautiful, and fun place to visit for our whole family. It was so nice to spend time with both of my girls as they both live so far away. Katie lives in Boulder, Colorado- another beautiful place to live and visit as right at the base of the Rocky Mts and only 20 min from Denver! But most of all we had a barrel of fun together of family time and a lovely birthday weekend in Portland!!
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