Portland

Last week I was so lucky to go with my family on a road trip up to Portland. My sister and her husband recently moved there for his new job with Intel. Although I hate that we live far apart now, it was fun to be able to visit her in a new place and show us around. Thursday and Friday were fall break for my family, so it was a short but fun trip. We were able to cram a ton of things in.

Wednesday night we began the car ride. We spent the night in Boise and continued on early in the morning. The puppies came with us.

As we neared Portland, the scenery was unbelievable. We were able to stop at a waterfall and look around for one of our rest stops. Apparently Oregon is known for their many waterfalls.

We arrived at Lauren and Spencer's home around 4:00 pm on Thursday. It was so fun to see them and their cute pup Pippa. Their town-home is so adorable, I'm super jealous. After catching up for a while, we headed downtown to eat at the original Old Spaghetti Factory. We got a table overlooking the river where a lit up river boat floated by.

We then went on the tram, which hangs above the city. It was a great way to see the city at night. I wish I had pictures of our next adventure, we went to this house that is famous for their Halloween decor. The owners made their whole front yard into a scary cemetery. The decorations were unbelievable!

Friday we did our country visit. Lauren and Spencer actually live very close to the beautiful country. We stopped at a little shop where I took all these beautiful pictures.

We then went to a Christmas Tree farm where you could pick out your tree and reserve it for Christmas. They had a shop with everything imaginable in Christmas decor.

We also stopped by a vintage fair where we found so many beautiful things, if only we had room in the car..

Next up was an apple orchard. We bought fresh apple cider, apples, caramel apples, and jam. It was a perfect fall day.

We then left the country and drove to the coast. Again, the drive was incredible. It is always interesting to see how different a "forest" looks in different areas of the country. We first stopped by the Tillamook Cheese Factory. We were able to watch the process of cutting and packaging the cheese. My favorite part was testing the different types of cheeses. And of course, we had some delicious ice cream as well.

After the factory, we drove to the beach. The Oregon coast is enchanting. It was so peaceful and beautiful. We stayed at the beach a while taking lots of pictures. The party ended, however, when a huge wave suddenly came all the way to the top of the shore getting all our shoes and coats wet.

On Saturday Chito, Spencer, Allison, and I started our day early at the REI  garage sale. I got a Camelbak and Allison scored with some ski boats (originally $300 for only $25). We then met the rest of the family downtown at Voodoo Doughnuts. The boys were nice enough to wait in the hour long line while the rest of us looked around the market.

There were lots of fun buildings downtown. I wish I could have spent longer looking there.

Later that day, the boys were able to go to the Nike employee store where everything is around 50% off. The girls made a visit to the mall. Needless to say it was a good shopping day. We then went to Spencer's family's house for dinner.

Sunday morning we left early to start the 12 hour drive back home. It was sad to leave such a short trip, but fortunately Lauren decided to come with us! Spencer had some training in Arizona all week, so it was great timing for Lauren to visit home. It was lots of fun to visit Portland and I'm excited to visit again!