Our Portland Adventure

Thursday, December 27, 2007
I didn’t get too many hours of sleep, because I was so excited about the trip to Portland. We departed for the border, and bought some snacks at the duty free. We waited for an hour and a half. The drive down to Portland was exhausting. The sky was dark, the rain and snow were falling heavily, and I was getting tired. We stopped by Arby’s for lunch and made it to the reception at the hotel. The reception consisted of corndogs, meatballs and orange juice. We spent the first night shopping at Target, and we bought soup and pasta for dinner.

Friday, December 28, 2007
We ate egg rolls and peanut butter cookies for breakfast, and headed to Woodburn Company Stores. Woodburn is like the Premium Outlet chain, but bigger and more suited to our tastes. We were impressed with the selection at Aeropostal. We had lunch at a submarine sandwich place, and got a discount because we picked up a coupon book from the office. We had dinner at Chilli’s and we loved the baby back ribs. We tried the honey garlic, the Memphis dry rub, the brown sugar, and the honey chipotle. After a long day of shopping, this was a great tasting and filling dinner. The strawberry lemonade was okay, the mango ice tea was bland, and the blackberry ice tea was the best. We finished off dinner with a strawberry cheesecake shot.

Saturday, December 29, 2007
We ate the continental breakfast at the hotel, and were happy to make our own waffles. We drove to Lloyd Center, which is noted as the biggest mall in Portland. The selection was disappointing, as we could not find as much as we did at Woodburn. Jennie was able to find some clothes at Macy’s, but the only things I bought were from Bath and Body Works. We had lunch at Steamer’s Asian Street Bistro, which serves Thai noodles, Chinese buns, Vietnamese salad rolls and Japanese edamame beans. I think the servers were Mexican. It was a very diverse menu, and it was probably the most interesting food court meal I’ve had in years. We drove downtown, and shopped at Pioneer Place, noted for being the upscale mall in Portland. We spent the majority of our time in Forever XXI, and i.p. We took pictures of the Portland Courthouse, the Portland Courthouse Square, and the humongous Christmas tree. Downtown Portland is very quiet and surreal. The streets are clean and well-lit, but for the most part it is empty. I like Portland. It reminded me of Downtown Vancouver, especially the area around the Vancouver Art Gallery, the HSBC building, and the Hotel Vancouver. We had dinner at Red Lobster. Man, are their portions huge.

Sunday, December 30, 2007
We had a small breakfast at the hotel, and packed our belongings. We checked out, and headed to Washington Square. We thought it would be a smaller mall than Lloyd Center and we were right. What we didn’t know is that Washington Square is cleaner, less busy, and had better selections of clothes. We picked up some items at Forever XXI, and had lunch at Bombay Village. We headed home on the I-5. We rested at the rest stop, and made a brief trip to Walmart. We waited at the border for 45 minutes, and had dinner at Pho Hong. I was so happy to be back home.

Quick thoughts:
I like driving, but I don’t like driving for long distances. I like Portland, but I don’t like driving 6 hours to get there. Chilli’s is my favorite restaurant that isn’t in Canada. Vacations end too quickly.

It was great to get away for a few days. Even though it wasn't long enough, it is still a vacation, and an adventure in a new city. Thanks God, for keeping us safe.

Happy New Year everyone!