what i did on my summer vacation: part one

Last week Joel and I embarked on an adventure.  Our first real vacation since our honeymoon!  Sure we had been away here and there but it was either for one night somewhere close, or we had traveled for the purpose of visiting family which is fun, but not so much true vacation.

For our vacation we chose to go to Portland!  Neither of us had even been there and were lucky enough to have some friends who live there and were willing to put us up and act as tour guides.  Krissy (a loooooong time friend) & Lucas were so gracious during our stay!

So, early (like, 3am early) we piled into the car and started the 15 hour drive from Calgary to Portland.  Over the years, my husband and I have been on more than a few road trips, and as time goes by I am liking them more and more.  Our car however, must hate them.  (108,000km in just over 3 years is a bit much)

We arrived around dinner time on Sunday (totally exhausted!) and settled into our friends small but very cute apartment.  Gary, their giant cat greeted us kindly by running circles all around our stuff.  We were all exhausted and Krissy & Lucas both had to work early the next morning, so I'm pretty sure we were all asleep very early.

The next day, the adventuring began!  We went to Multnomah Falls because really, who wouldn't want to.



It was the hottest day of the week and sweated our ways to the top of the falls, but it was SO worth it.  The view was spectacular and there was a lovely cold creek at the top to dip our feet in and cool off.

The next day we went to the Oregon coast.  I can now proudly say my feet have been in both the Atlantic and the Pacific.  A couple of the neat things we saw while there:

The wreck of the Peter Iredale.



This ship wrecked in 1906 and after hopes that it would refloat were dashed, it was left there to slowly wash away.

Fort Stevens:


(borrowed from Ken Campbell Photographix's Photostream)

The only place in the continental US to be fired upon since the Civil War.  Fired on by a Japanese U-Boat during world war II, the fort (for some unknown reason) never returned fire.  One word to describe the feel of this place: creepy.


We went to Seaside and had yummy seafood because it's not so yummy when it's imported all the way to Calgary.  We tried some salt water taffy, had some ice cream, hit an outlet mall and headed home.

Other things we did while in Portland:  went to see Scott Pilgrim vs. The World (awesome!) and checked out Powell's and Bolt.  More on those two places in the next installment.