Most of these photos are from my birthday, and a few are from the next morning before we left. We started our day out with croissants, macarons, and jalapeno cheddar bagel sandwiches at Nuvrei. That bagel was the best bagel I've had, and it made me realize I should try to bake my own to get that fresh-baked taste and super-soft texture. I still haven't, but that doesn't stop me from dreaming! We also took the aerial tram for a quick ride and got some good views of the city out of it. It's pretty neat how the city is split right down the middle by the Willamette River, so basically anywhere we wanted to go, we had to get to a bridge first to cross the river, then continue on our way. You can imagine how twisted and confusing this makes the road system! We would not have survived without GPS.
We had brunch at Mother's bistro on our last morning there, which satisfied my biscuits and gravy craving. And look at those white walls, mirrors, and chandeliers! And that black ceiling...
The funnest surprise of the trip was spotting Courtney Adamo walking past the lobby of our hotel on my birthday! I instantly recognized her kids and there she was with her husband right behind! They were about to eat at the restaurant next door, and were in town for a couple days at the same time we were. I acted all starstruck and asked for a picture and that was that. I've been following her on Instagram for a while, and love her family as well as her style. Of course she was the sweetest.
We picked up a few flavors of macarons at Nuvrei for later.
I had not brought tennis shoes on our trip knowing it would be short, but of course we decided not to miss the hike above Multnomah Falls, so we went shopping for shoes on my birthday. The display inside Free People was so amazing in person--this picture doesn't do it justice. I love something creative on store walls; it just makes you want to be there and shows some effort put in to your experience of the store. If I had my own store, I would be all about the displays. :)
Multnomah Falls was beautiful! You could see the whole waterfall basically from the parking lot, or you could walk up a short trail to the bridge to see it from there, or you could hike all the way to the top of it (if you have hiking shoes of course) where there is a lookout (a bit over a mile hike round trip) and even hike beyond and up the mountain. Bogdan and I wanted to do something active so we hiked about 3 1/2 miles round trip, which doesn't sound like too much, but it was STEEP. We were covered in layers of sweat by the end of it. We could have gone further but we were out of water and didn't want to be too exhausted for dinner so we turned back. The hike followed a creek up the mountain, so we saw lots of little waterfalls on the way, and of course lots of lush greenery. It was a fun adventure to make my day special.
We ate at The Screen Door for dinner, which has obviously become quite popular because it was JAM-packed. We ate at the bar and could barely hear each other talk over the clatter and roar of voices. I honestly was a bit underwhelmed with the food. People were raving about the fried chicken on Yelp and elsewhere, so I thought I'd go for that since the restaurant was known for its southern food, which is rare up in the northwest. It was fried chicken, nothing amazing, and the fried okra wasn't that great. I felt like I had eaten way too much meat by the end of the meal, which I'm not used to anymore since I realized it aggravates my arthritis.
We went out for dessert at Papa Haydn, which was good, but by that point I was starting to have a bad stomachache and just not feel well in general. By the time we got back to the hotel, I was barely able to move, my stomach hurt so bad, and I became so tired I literally fell asleep in my dress. At least I got my shoes off. Turns out I was finally getting sick with whatever Naomi had had, except I didn't have a fever, just indigestion and nausea. Olivia was going through it back home at the same time, and thankfully no fever for her either, just throwing up. It was not the best way to end the day, but at least I felt well for the first part of it and got to explore the city some more before I went down for the count.
We picked up two Voodoo donuts right before leaving town the next day, and again, I wasn't very impressed. The dough was nothing special, and the frosting was flat out bad--I think they're just known for their quirkiness and their unique donut offerings. I like my donuts to be worth the calories, however, so I was pretty disappointed. Bogdan didn't even want one, and since I wasn't feeling well, I literally ate the second one two days later, driving it around from Oregon to Washington and back to Idaho with me.
When we got back home after five days away, Naomi latched on to my brother-in-law, who was watching the kids that day, and would NOT even make eye contact with us. She wouldn't let him give her to me, and refused for several hours to have anything to do with me. Well, she sure made her point--she was mad that we had abandoned her like that and wasn't going to forgive us easily. She wasn't even herself the next day and took her time warming back up to me. It was cute and sad at the same time. It's the ultimate dilemma for parents of little children--you want to have some time away from home every once in a while but you know you won't be able to do many things if you bring your children along. There's always a trade-off and some guilt involved when you leave them behind, but I'm thankful for the time B and I had just the two of us. It was good for our marriage, which is good for the kids.
xoxo,
Tanya
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