Our Portland Trip

We love Portland. Seriously, we could move there tomorrow and be perfectly happy. The weather was in the 80's with a cool down to the 50's at night. A great escape from the Texas heat and luckily not the normal overcast and rainy weather that they are known for.

We stayed on the Willamette River and Teri traded in our King sized bed for 2 full size beds and a view of the river. Normally I wouldn't have gone for this trade but considering it was our first baby free vacation (Thanks Mayme!) it was appropriate. This is a very outdoorsy place where everyone rides their bikes. More on the "green" city mentality later.

Since our body clocks were on Texas time, our food strategy was to take advantage of happy hour food and drink specials. This could also be called the Early Bird Special. It worked out great and we got to sample lots of great food without paying a lot for it. One night we ate at the Kennedy School which is an elementary school that has been converted into a hotel with a restaurant and several small bars. It is so very cool! The restaurant is in the old cafeteria, the front desk is the Principal's office and they have a movie theater in the auditorium. We watched Sunshine Cleaning and our tickets were $3.00.

While driving to the Kennedy School were kept seeing signs for a neighborhood garage sale extravaganza. Since it has become our habit to walk on Sat. morning and stop at the local sales this seemed a fun way to get to know the local Portland. We ended up buying so much stuff we had to get a box and fly it home. Our big score was the Tupperware. Yes I said Tupperware. So one of the sales we went to was a group of lesbians. We talked to them briefly and told them of our Tupperware purchase and the cargo flight to get it home and one of them said, "I think it's great that you're going to use the old Tupperware but can you imagine the carbon footprint on it after the flight." I said, "Spoken by a true Portlander"

The big event of the vacation was white water rafting down the White Salmon River. Since we didn't take any pictures while rafting here is a stock photo and then two that I took on the drive there.

To wrap up our trip we ate dinner at the Portland City Grill on the 30th floor of a downtown building. The food was great and so was the view. After that we went to the famed VooDoo Doughnut, their claim to fame is weird doughnut flavors but since there was a line out the door we stopped for a pre-doughnut drink at a dirty seedy bar with great people watching. This is where we meet "Jimmy" and then got our Maple Bacon and the Chick-O-Stick Doughnut

Wordless Wednesday & Flashback Friday Combo

Portland

Teri and I are enjoying our first baby free vacation in Portland Oregon. We're staying downtown on the 16th floor with a great view of the Willamette River. In this picture I've just arrived and am enjoying a bourbon.

This may very well be the only post I make while here so check back on Monday or Tuesday for the full vacation story!

Flashback Friday Part II

Teri feels like I don't distribute the flashback photos evenly so I've been digging around for some photos of her although she always looks the same.


High school graduation 1994. Check out the white pumps! I can't image why she's not wearing them.

I think this is Christmas 1995 in Sweden with Emily. Emily was an exchange student that Teri fell head over heels for. They were together for several years. Check out Teri's vest and pleated pants.

Flashback Friday

I think this was taken 1990, I'm a sophomore and Mat's in the 7th grade. I know this because I am prominently displaying by boyfriend's class ring on my finger. I can't figure out why Mat is wearing a UIL baseball cap. Even if we were all proud of the high school team that year, why would he get a professional portrait taken with it on? My guess is that it was my Dad's idea. One more funny thing about this picture is that the outfit I'm wearing is a one piece pant suit with huge billowy pants that tied at the ankles like they do at the sleeve.


This was taken c. 1995. Mat and I both have on socks with loafers although Mat's are white so I think he's the worst offender here. It's my bangs that are awful and you'll notice that I don't have the class ring on anymore since I had switched teams by this point!

What's growing at our house

The strangest thing has happened to my hair. I've sprouted curls on the top. It's really wierd!

Also, my crape myrtles bloomed this week.

Wordless Wednesday

Walking Man

I Scream You Scream

We went to Baskin Robbins today for a scoop. I have 10 BOGO coupons and I'm vowing to use every single one. This is probably not the greatest idea but there's something special about going to the ice cream shop with Teri and Vin, especially during the summer. I had Gold Medal Ribbon, my favorite from childhood. Now if they would just bring back Quarterback Crunch.

This first picture is classic Vin with a new food. I love the serious consideration he gives. In some of these it looks like we're forcing him to have a bite but in reality he was loving every second of it. Also, check out his orange plaid overalls. Too cute!

Flashback Friday

Continuing this Friday in the spirit of summer, this is my Grandmother on my Dad's side, Thelma Taylor.

Wordless Wednesday - Hill Country Wildlife

Llano Trip Recap

Time flys by so fast. We've been home almost a week from Llano and I haven't posted the highlights of the trip. The long story short is that we had a great time and ate some great food too.


Mayme preparing Vin's pool.
Naked snacking waiting for the pool to be ready.



Tamale King: We always eat here at least once if not twice per trip.

Check out the queso on Vin's cheeks from his Tamale King dinner.

Hilltop Cafe: This was my first time here. It's a cool "Texas" restaurant housed in an old filling station. They serve a mix between Greek and Cajun food. Terry had Southern Fried Shrimp and Patty & I split the Pork Chop stuffed with green onion sausage, dried cherries, apples and herbs. Delicious!

We also ate at the new Walden Plantation. It's 10 miles outside of Llano but you feel like you're miles away at a tropical resort. In the background you can see the river bed and there are elevated decks where you can hang out. Maybe we can stay there sometime.

Flashback Friday

In the spirit of summer beginning I'm posting a picture of my grandad, Lloyd Buzzard. This was taken during the early 1930's.
It's quite a suit isn't it. Teri and I think that the sides are cut out, what do you think?

Berry Heaven

This morning Mayme, Vin and I went strawberry and blackberry picking. This was our first time to do this and Mayme and I agreed that it was fun to pick fruit when you didn't have to do the gardening. They said the strawberry season ended 3 weeks ago but there were still lots to choose from.



The blackberry season just started and they were abundant, although we quickly learned that we needed the leather gloves to protect us from the thorny limbs.

Vin sat in his stroller and enjoyed eating the berries as fast as we picked them.

In addition to the berries you can also pick onions, squash, and tomatoes while in season. They have goats you can feed, hayrides and homemade ice cream and popsicles. I was very exited about the popsicles since I know Vin loves them and they were made from fresh berries. He was excited too but he was tired and he didn't understand why he couldn't hold it himself.

Once he allowed me to hold it he totally enjoyed himself as you can see by the juice running all over his body!

Ultimately we ended up with 2 pounds of strawberries and 4 pounds of blackberries. I made blackberry cornmeal poundcake muffins and homemade shortbread for the strawberries. I got to bake for 3 hours. What a treat!