Trip out West - Portland, OR

Day 21; Thursday, July 19th
First day in Portland, OR

Though we had made it our final destination, the trip was far from over.  The next day was complete rest and relaxation though.  We did meet Diana’s friend, Pam – who came over frequently as she was loaning Diana her computer – the home system wasn’t working (something that Rick fixed while we were there). 

We actually did get out and about a little bit.  The three of us (Rick, Diana and myself) went out that afternoon to see Transformers.  Like the other two movies we’d caught on our trip – it was “okay”.  The effects were nice :)

Friday we went with Diana to pick up Laura from camp.  Laura hadn’t been told we had arrived early and would be present for her “retrieval”, Diana had merely mentioned over the phone that she had a surprise.

It wasn’t a short or quick drive.  We stopped along the way at a nice lighthouse.  The weather was rather cold and rainy, but seeing the ocean was neat.

We got turned around a little trying to find the camp, but once we arrived, Laura was thrilled to see us.  She had suspected the “surprise” had been Rick and me tagging along, so she ended up not being surprised but was tickled none-the-less.

We were taking Laura’s friend, Becky back with us as well, so it made for a rather full carload!

On the way back we stopped at a fun little shop called the Pink Flamingo that sold a wide variety of items – mostly touristy trinkets, but nice things as well.  I picked up some jewelry and a bag of salt water taffy.

For those of you that are Harry Potter fans, you will know that this was the date the final installment of the widely popular series was released to raving fans across America.  The box arrived without ceremony and after a half-hearted attempt to conceal it from Laura until her party the next day, it was unanimously decided to just let her tear the thing open and start reading. We took turns reading aloud.  It was great. :)

In the morning we followed Diana to the Portland Airport to return the rental car.  When we turned in the vehicle and the lady read out the mileage, we learned just how much driving we’d done.  We had put exactly 4,229 miles on the car.  That, my friend, is a lot of driving!

Afterwards we stopped off at an IHOP for breakfast before going back to the house to get ready for Laura’s 13th birthday party.

This was a site-seeing day.  We drove out to Multnomah Falls along the Columbia River (Oregon’s northern border).  It was very pretty.  You can walk to the top of the falls and Rick and I left Diana and Laura on the lower tiers (they’d been to the top before) and we hiked all the way up.  It was a great day for a walk and the paved path was pristine compared to some of the sketchy trails we’d hiked during our trip.

We snapped our shots of the top and worked our way back down.

After stopped off for a quick peek at another waterfall, we continued on to a lovely stone structure called “Vista House”.  Contrary to its name, it’s never been a residence.  It was built in the early 1900s as a memorial to Oregon pioneers.  It overlooks the Columbia River and it’s the stunning views of the river valley below that give it its name.

We went to La Hacienda for dinner – a fabulous Mexican restaurant that Rick has been raving about ever since we first ate there. ;P 

Our last full day in Portland was spent packing and helping Diana get the place spic and span – you see, she and Laura were going to be flying back with us and staying with Rick for two weeks.