Was good to get home and sleep in our own bed… and of course today the work of putting everything away begins… and also a trip to the market to get a few freggies to get us through the next couple of days. Coming home is hard work! But I am doing it a bit at a time and not getting all stressed over it.
There were two packages awaiting me upon our arrival… one from One Bar and another from NuNaturals. Jody at Truth 2 Being Fit hosted a NuNaturals giveaway recently and I was one of the lucky winners. I am always on the lookout for them because we cannot purchase NuNaturals in Canada and I do love their products.
And the One Bars were a nice surprise. I didn’t win the giveaway that Laura from Mommy Run Fast hosted a while back, but the pr representative contacted me and asked me if I would like to try them…. they are fruit bars and couldn’t have come at a better time for me.
I am back on the clean eats train for a couple of weeks now till it is time to head back to Washington to get our flight to Colorado.
So… all in all, our trip to Portland was great. I always enjoy visiting new places, and sampling a bit of what is local. It was quite different from what I had expected. Here are some highlights and lowlights, in my opinion.
What I loved:
- The Oregon Zoo and Washington Park
- we spent almost a whole day – we both love zoos and this one is really nice – lovely enclosures and habitats and there is some construction happening right now that will make things even better for some of the resident animals
- The public transit system
- there are commuter trains, buses, and street cars and we used it quite a bit – the prices are very reasonable an the connections are good – very easy to understand and use - much better than trying to park in the congested downtown area and so much better than getting caught up in freeway snarls
- The weather
- it was in the upper 80s and low 90s the whole time we were there and it was great because the air is quite dry – apparently it rains there a lot but we did not see any sign of that at all - just blue and amazing
- The shopping
- I won’t bore you with all the of the details but there is no state sales tax in Oregon and everything was on sale everywhere we went – we especially loved the outlet mall South of the city and of course found a big Trader Joe’s – we were newbies to Dick’s Sporting goods and I think that I have to tell you that The Captain found a great pair of Under Armour kicks there on sale clearance for $7.48 !! we filled up the trunk of the car … enough said about that.
- Our hotel was great… we stayed on Hayden Island on the North side of the city
- it’s kind of a resort style community with lots of marinas and some small beaches and I loved watching the sailboats on the Columbia River… very new to me – our hotel was really nice, even if very busy and popular
- The architecture
- Portland is an older city than I was expecting and much of the downtown core is very old… some beautiful detail on the buildings… and some wonderful old mansions near Washington Park
- The traffic
- OMG! I know it is a big city but wow! so many cranky people on the BUSY, CONGESTED freeways... here we think nothing of waving people in to a lineup or hitting the brakes if someone makes a mistake... we didn't see any of that there
- Voodoo Donuts
- okay, not the donuts themselves… cause we never did get to try them – the lineup outside the store was over 3 hours long and it was 90+ outside and there was no shade… there is no donut in the world worth that wait, is there?
Now, I had better get back to my unpacking!
Have you ever been to Portland, OR?
Welcome back! Sounds like a fun trip. I have never been to Portland.
ReplyDeleteYEAH!!!!!!!!!!!!!! So glad you got them!!!!! That traffic & all sounds like southern CA!!!! YIKES!
ReplyDeleteSounds like a great trip! 3 hours for donuts! That's crazy.
ReplyDelete