portlandia...and other things.

My sweet friend, Katie, emailed me a few photos from our Portland trip, since I sadly do not have any of the ones that I took. So, let me run you through the wonderful trip to Portlandia!!

We arrived late Thursday night and were promptly driven to a microbrewery, McMenamins, for beer and pizza. Beer = excellent. Pizza = so good. It was about 12:00am Portland time when we left for Katie and Heath's house, which translates to 2:00am Houston time... yikes! But, we stayed awake and slept so well that night.

Friday was a full day! We drove downtown to Powell's Books to browse the monstrosity that is this bookstore. Holy geez. They have over 1,000,000 books at all times, new, used, and in between, in any and every category you could dream up. Scott was in his version of Heaven. Scott's Heaven will have over a billion books, of this I am sure. I took some very cool pictures at this place, but.... you know the story. I don't have them. After Powell's, we got in the car and drove to several beautiful waterfalls in the area. We had plans to hike around the falls, but the weather did not allow us to do that. It was three things that Portland is known for: cold. wet. cloudy. But, the falls were stunning, none the less!

Saturday was dedicated to downtown. We walked all parts of downtown, from the Pearl District, to Hawthorne Street, to Stumptown Coffee, over the bridges--we saw it all!

At Stumptown Coffee

So many bridges!

Katie took me to her favorite craft supply store, Scrap. Whoa, what a beautiful mess of all things craft! Walking through Scrap would be comparative to delving into a junk yard trying to pass as a Goodwill. It was chaotic. It was messy. It was beautiful. I came away with a handful of fabric scraps, 2 skeins of yarn, some ribbon, and Lord knows what else for a measly $5.60. Alright, Houston, your turn to catch on... We ate breakfast at Voodoo Doughnut, which was just as weird as it sounds (I mean, the slogan was "the magic is in the hole"..... sexual much??). The doughnuts were perfectly crafted though, I must say. The oddest doughnut combinations, too. How would you like to eat a doughnut topped with maple frosting and cooked bacon? Or maybe vanilla frosting and Cap'n Crunch cereal is more your liking? Thanks, but I'll stick with my iced blueberry cake. Perfection. We ate lunch at a creperie.... I completely forgot the name of it. The inside was styled like a tiny French cafe and the crepes oozed with juicy, savory goodness. And, I am convinced that Nutella was invented souly for crepes. Oh, and powdered sugar, too. Yes, Nutella + powdered sugar + crepe = melt-in-your-mouth-moan-while-you-devour-close-your-eyes-and-dream-of-Paris-GOOD.

Sunday landed us on the West Coast, literally. We drove about 2 hours to the beach and saw Haystack Rock, smooth black stones, sand dollars (wow!), and tremendous cliffs! We had to bundle up, as it was CHILLY on the beach... brrr.....

Haystack Rock in the background.

Haystack Rock up close.

On the way to the beach, we hit what I can safely call a snowstorm. Yes, we were driving through a white abyss.

Being a Texas girl, I have never seen snow like this, so we had to pull over a few times to play in it.

Scott nailed me in the bum.

Wow! So, so fun! I now understand why people love white winters. Snow is just great.

We drove a little ways more to Oceanside Beach, which is a smaller beach with a rock shore, rather than a sand shore. The distance from the rocks to the gigantic cliffside is about 30 feet (I am terrible at guessing distances... what I'm trying to get at is that between the waves and the cliff, there was NOT MUCH ROOM). High tide came in at 3:30 and we decided to walk this beach at 3:15. Allow me to inform you that when high tide comes in on this particular beach, you will get crushed against the cliffside. People have supposedly died walking along this beach at high tide. Katie tells me this as we are arriving at Oceanside. No big deal, I thought, high tide comes at night. Wrong. Heath follows with, "Oh, high tide is at 3:30 today, but we should be fine." What? Fine? We get to Oceanside, and yes, the tide has risen quite high. Not quite to the cliffside, but boy it's gettin' there. On the opposite side of the entrance to the beach is a tiny cave. The cave is cool, says Katie and Heath, and we should go through it to see the other side. Well okay. High tide. Crashing waves. Cliffside. Cave. This sounds adventurous. I'm adventurous. Not. What shortly ensued was nothing shy of hilarity. Heath and Scott are just plowing through this rocky shore as if it were sand and Katie and I are slowly stumbling behind them. To get safely to the other side, we had to sprint while the tide was low and get as close as possible to the cliffs when the tide came in. I don't think I've ever had more adrenaline running through my veins. The real kicker was that I didn't really know when we should start running, so I would just hobble my way over the rocks until I heard from 10 feet ahead, "HAN!!! RUN!!!" Look up. See little Katie running full speed ahead while holding her hat and grasping her camera. Think to myself, "Run?? Why??" Look to my left. See huge wave coming. Think to myself, "RUNNN!!!" It was exhilarating. And beautiful. And so worth every curse word that came out of my mouth to get to that cave.

Oceanside. While the tide was down.

Random logs we saw on the way back from the beach.

View from inside the cave. Yes the water was very close to the cave.

Did I mention that I got smashed by a wave? Well I did. This is me in the process of getting owned by a wave.

Monday morning, Scott and I hopped on the train and headed for the airport bright and early! It was a fantastic trip. Seeing Katie and Heath was time much needed, and what a perfect spot for a reunion! Thanks, Katie and Heath, for a TRUELY magical experience.