Pictures from Portland and Beyond

Hey, so we're back from Portland! Here's a brief photo journey of the experience:

On Friday, Sam and I caught an early flight for a long layover in Denver so we could meet up with my Dad for an early lunch in Colorado Springs. Here's me and my Dad at Mimi's Cafe, and me and Sam with our presents from Dad--the Marc Jacobs bag, and Sam's Kindle 2. Bling!

On Friday night we arrived in Portland and were picked up by Sam's mission president, President Jensen, and his lovely wife. We stayed at their place in Vancouver for the weekend and were pampered silly with chocolates on our pillows to greet us, Italian food, free reign with their car, BBQ, conversation, local tours, and an extremely efficient GPS guide without which we would have been horribly lost and gone forever.

On Saturday, we went around Portland and the surrounding neighborhoods after a stop at the Saturday's Market. We stopped by Sam's office location in Lake Oswego across the street from the Portland LDS temple, which is so beautiful. Then we checked out Lake Oswego, Wilsonville, West Linn, Tigard, Tualatin, and Beaverton, all surround Portland. Our pick? West Linn! Woodsy, no sidewalks, cozy, not so cookie-cutter suburban, close enough to the city, and close enough to the country. Here here. So we're hoping to find a place there. Let the search begin . . .

On Sunday we visited the Lakeview and West Linn wards to check them out, and then we took a long, long Sunday drive to the Oregon Coast. We started at Cannon beach with a nice walk and naps on the sand, and then continued down the coast, through Salem, and back up to Vancouver for dinner at the Jensens.

Here's Sam at Cannon Beach . . .
And me at Cannon Beach . . . And Sam at Cannon Beach . . . And us at Cannon Beach . . .
On Monday we spend the day with the Jensens, which included a trip to Multnomah Falls:Here we are with President and Sister Jensen (see Sister Jensen's blog for a great read), their dog Zoe, and me and Sam.
On Tuesday, Sam and I went to the rododehndron garden in Portland and fed the ducks (see below for us and ducks). Lovely, lovely . . . and then we went to the airport to head home. Only, flying standby, we didn't make the flight we'd hoped. So, alas, poor us, we took the train into the city, I bought new jeans at Nordstrom Rack, which was a really depressing visit based on the expansion of my body (although I refused to buy bigger jeans and told myself I would starve myself and exercise before buying the bigger pants, as comfy as they were). Anyway. We walked around downtown Portland and had dinner at Jake's, an old and well-known seafood restaurant. Delish. Then we caught the train back to the airport. Catching a later flight, we stayed overnight, a very brief night, at Sam's brother Paul's place in Denver. Also lovely, lovely, and Paul took us to the airport in the morning for a very early flight back to Utah. And so we arrived back home and were very sleepy.

We loved the trip and it'll be kickin' to go back soon. We're planning to make another trip out in late July/early August to find a place to live, hopefully in West Linn, and then we'll split Utah for good in mid August. It is all that much more real.