Today was the first time J and I have been to Portland, though we decided to move there over 8 weeks ago. We like what Portland has to offer. People can call us crazy; we picked somewhere off a map, read up on everything we could online and in bookstores and then found an apartment that looked (online) like it suited us and applied for it! All online!!! This weekend we went over and actually saw it, stayed in a hotel we found on discount ($40.00/night) in Portland and took the baby for a Th, Fr, Sat vacation. It was a blast.
We laughed all weekend, cuddled the baby, cuddled each other and drove all over the place exploring. I loved every second of it. Lucy was a trooper in the car. She had a few minor crying stints where nothing consoled her but then her eyes would slowly drift closed and she was asleep. This crying only happened on the trip there (over 8 hours because of traffic) and back. When we were actually out and driving around she was a sleeping maniac. She slept as soon as the car started for the 20 or so minute drive. So here’s a small recap of our trip; with pictures!!
We had no fewer than 5 stops to pacific pride to gas up, each time J posed. He is very masterful at posing.
Lucy was a professional baby in the car. She slept a lot a lot while we drove through the city and screamed while we drove the 7 or 8 hour stretch. lol.
I was beyond excited to cross into the unknown Orgeon.
Not only had I never been there I had no clue what the state even looked like. Honestly I expected lucious greenery and trees, I expected lots and lots of rain and 40 degree weather. None of it was based on reality.
It was actually very very dry and barren for the first 4 hours, then about 10 miles before Portland trees suddenly popped up out of nowhere and so did Mt. Hood. I had no idea where it came from, we were one second driving along the Columbia river (very wet, yet surrounded by desert) then BAM we’re in green country with snow capped mountains. It was beautiful. I instantly fell in love.
We stopped at Hood River to let Lucy stretch her legs and to fill up the tank before we got into town. It was about 3:00pm and Lucy had been screaming for oh… 3 hours? She had dumped out all her cheerios, threw her cup, refused to let us comfort her; she. wanted. out.
Finally we arrived in town, found our exits without getting lost and pulled into our hotel. We had usedpriceline.com and negotiated our price for our hotel. We stayed at the Holiday Inn and paid $40.00 per night. We didn’t get a continental breakfast and the hotel was rated 3 stars. Our room had a king size bed that was VERY comfortable, wi-fi (of course) and an air conditioner we kept running at 60 degrees. We were so happy to be COLD for once!!! The breakfast wasn’t a big deal for us since neither J or myself are big breakfast eaters but if we had had the kids with us it would have been a problem. It was SO worth the $40.00, let alone the $120.00 it usually was.
We changed our clothes, rested, unpacked and let Lu crawl around for about an hour before deciding on somewhere to eat. We headed to the Northwest District to get sushi at “Sushiville”.
We are like professional sushi connoisseurs, especially since I grew up in Japan eating the most delicious sushi you can imagine. For that reason I drag J to all sushi places and try them all out and also force him to try some. We decided this was good sushi for a good price. Not Amazing sushi, or Great; just good. It was a bit dry, the rice was a bit hard, it was a bit too tasteless. J went crazy and tried some octopus against my advice. He didn’t like it. 
Lucy enjoyed the night hanging out in the ergo carrier. She had a fun night out staying up past her bedtime!
We walked around the district for a bit, stopped in at a farmer’s market that was just closing up, grabbed some coffee at a local Starbucks and headed back to our hotel. On our way back to our car this old man was following us around completely reeking of marijuana. He was SO stoned and kept talking to J about going to the original Woodstock and how he was so surprised when his wife popped out 10 kids but was always disappointed when he had to start changing diapers. What a character. I was entertained until he followed us all the way to our car. J was great and seemed to understand what he was talking about; I on the other hand needed him to translate when we got in the car! lol.
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