To Portland ...... And Beyond!! (Part II)

Tuesday, Sept 1: Well, this is what I get for not blogging during vacation. I can't remember now if it was really last Sunday evening that we went for sushi or today for lunch. I'm thinking it may have been today. Hmm. Well, no matter where we ate, I do remember getting Jamba Juice drinks (YUM!) on our way to Powell's Bookstore in downtown Portland. This particular bookstore outing would've been fun... but we forgot that 8 month old babies don't really care to just "hang out" in bookstores for any longer than, say, 10 minutes or so. We were there for 45. Mac was not impressed. He was fussy, however. So we left. Bummer. Oh well. Onward to Chad and Nichole's place! ~

I must say. Their house is quite the place! Located in the West Hills of Portland, it's beauty and grandeur left us oooing and aahing well past sunset! It's 3 levels... Sort of. If you count the outside patio below, it's 4 levels. Ok, we'll compromise and call it 3.5. ;) But that .5 is at the veeerrry bottom of the steepest hill ever!! It's a beautiful flagstone patio with ample space for seating. If only they could get some chairs down there. Because the only way to get down there is by hiking, no, rappelling down the hill/ cliff at the side of the house. ~

The rest of the house is quite lovely. The bottom liveable level is actually above the patio and is very nice with a deck of it's own. The middle level is the main living quarters. This level also had a deck. If you're scared of heights, however, you may not want to step out onto this deck. On it, you will be face to face with the tree-tops! And it's a loooonngg way down! Then there's the top level. No deck on this level. Prob'ly a good thing. :) ~

We had a fun night out at Red Robin with them. Nichole is about 3 months pregnant so we had a great time talking all about babies! :) Mac got to meet the Red Robin mascot: that big red bird. I thought for sure he'd be scared of him... but Red didn't seem to faze him a bit! And a good time was had by all. :) ~

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Wednesday, Sept 2: This is the day we determined that we would go to the coast! Yay for the Oregon coast!! This just happens to be Mac's 8 month birthday, too! So what better way to spend the day?!? Lots of "firsts" for Mac today, as well. First time at Mo's - YUM!! First time wiggling his toes in the sand. First time to experience the ocean!! And when daddy stuck Mac's feet in the cooooolllldd water, he didn't even jerk away! Brave kid. :) Oh yeah, and Brent found a deceased (pretty sure, anyway) jelly fish. Slimy. Weird. ~

But first things first. We had to come up with a plan on how to spend our day: We went up through Beaverton, stopping off to see my old boss, Dr Stanchfield, for a few minutes. It was so good to see him... he's such a nice guy. By the time we got to the coast, it was time for lunch... ok, a late lunch... so we went to the Mo's in Cannon Beach. And again I say, ♪♫ YUUUM!! ♫♪ It was such fabulous weather, we decided to stay in Cannon Beach and do our playing there. It must've been about 80° with only a very slight breeze - just perfect!! And rather than doing lots of driving (like originally planned) we wanted to really enjoy the time we had there. ~

Next stop: Tillamook Cheese Factory. Stopping by a viewpoint or two on the way, of course. I think we pulled into the Factory around 6pm so we had almost 2 hours to browse the gift and food shops. And of course we had to get ice cream... so we sat in the food court and enjoyed that sweet, creamy goodness. Lincoln City would've been next on the agenda but we'll have to do that next time. Our coastal trek ended with a drive out to Cape Mears just west of Tillamook. Neither of us had ever been there before so it was a new and fun adventure. The sun was just setting at this point so we didn't actually get to the Lighthouse up there. I'm sure it would've been closed anyway. We'll have to do that next time too. We ended up getting home pretty late but it was such an awesome day! Love, love, love the ocean!! It's the best! ~

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Thursday, Sept 3: Well, this morning was a lazy morning. We slept in. It was nice. By the time we had gotten ourselves together and finished eating brunch, it was almost time to meet mom in Canby. She's been going to the same chiropractor who used to adjust my back years ago. Anyway, mom told him that we'd be in town and he wanted to meet Mac. So we stopped by his office and chatted for a couple minutes. It was nice to get caught up. Afterward, we went to Burgerville for a late lunch. I think the lady behind the counter was enamored with Mac. She was completely thrilled that there was a baby in her store! She was so nice and she told us all about her granddaughter who was about the same age. She noticed that we had a camera and offered to take our picture before we left. Fun. And we couldn't leave Canby without stopping by the Dahlia fields. Talk about an endless sea of flowers! It was beautiful! Pictures don't even do it justice! But I'll try and give you a glimpse. ~

*Thanks for your patience, everyone! After about 10 days of working on this post, I'm finally DONE! ;D