Portland Day 3 and 4

Sunday, my Peace Corps friend Jessica and her husband Akuila drove up from Eugene.  I was so excited to see them.  I don’t get to talk to them much, so it was nice to catch up.  We went to a breakfast joint called Jam and then headed out to Multnomah Falls for siteseeing and “hiking”. 

The weather wasn’t looking too good, it was chilly and overcast and the possibility of rain was high but we went anyway.  The falls were nice and not too crowded.  Some required some trail walking which I will go ahead and call hiking so I can say that I exercised that day. 

They had to get back to Eugene, so we ended the visit with some drinks and appetizers at Henry’s in downtown Portland.  I hope to get down to Eugene on my next visit, so I can see Jess and Akuila’s newly purchased home.

Monday was my day to shop.  Sarah had to work, so she dropped me off downtown and I happily spent way too much money.  Have you ever been in a Nordstom Rack? If not, go the next time you see one.  Their shoe selection is usually really good.  I found a pair of rain boots and a pair of brown boots that I couldn’t live without. 

I did some mall shopping and then headed up to 12^th Ave for some Indian food.  Sarah had told me about this food cart which gives you a medley of vegetarian curry and is pretty affordable.  The $7 six-course meal consisted of jasmine rice, naan, chickpea curry, lentil curry, cauliflower/potato curry and a creamy curry.  It was so good and worth the walk uphill.  I went back down to where I started and Stephen picked me up and took me to where Sarah was babysitting.  After that, we jetted back downtown to see a blogger who was signing books at a store called West Elm.  The blogger just published a book called Design Sponge.  They had free lemonade and local ice cream.  Sarah and I both got the sea salt with caramel.  It was the best ice cream I’ve had in awhile.  We grabbed dinner at a place called Little Big Burger.  It reminded me of Five Guys.  Small burgers and great fries served in a brown paper bad.  We ate, went home and I got packed and ready to head back to Kentucky.

I knew my trip home would have a few good stories.  Waiting by the gate, I spotted an Amish lady reading her Ebook which was amusing.  Then she sat by me on the plane so I tried to eavesdrop on her screen to see what she was doing.  It was just a book and it did not look interesting... LOL  In Boise, some people got off and more people boarded including a dog which wanted to bark the whole time.  It had its own seat but had to stay under the seat zipped up.  It continued to bark so the flight attendant let the owner unzip it enough to put her foot inside.  She said it would calm the dog down to feel her....it didn’t.  It made me laugh though.  The dog eventually stopped barking, thank goodness and we flew onto Phoenix.  This is the end of my West Coast vacation.  From Phoenix I fly to Louisville where Matt will be picking me up.  I get in late and I have to work the next morning, so this is going to be an interesting rest of the week.  I hope I’m not too grumpy.