Visiting Robyn & Doug, Traci & Greg in Portland

I finally made it out to Portland to visit Robyn and Doug and Traci and Greg! I flew in really late - at 11pm and Robyn picked me up and then terrible us - we stayed up until 12:30 talking. But I guess that's not news. :)

Friday, Robyn and I went to a little, very nice, shopping district in downtown Portland after which we had a walking tour of Portland scheduled. We had so much trouble finding parking for the shopping area, that when we realized the tour meeting point was only a mile and half away we decided to walk to it and not lose our parking spot only to fight to find another spot. After walking around the shopping area, then to our tour, then during our tour, and then back to our shopping area and car, we think we walked at least 5 miles that day. When we got home at 6:30 we were wiped out! Thankfully, Doug had picked up the famous gas station pizza for us for dinner.

Robyn and me inside one of the theaters on the tour

I loved these houses on the street that we parked in downtown Portland

Saturday, Traci and Jude joined Robyn and me for a walk through the botanical garden that is by Robyn's house. Then Traci and I picked up lunch and went back to her house to eat it since Jude had to lay down for a nap and I wanted to see Traci and Greg's cute little place! Traci also showed me her little wild land behind her house, for which I was not wearing the right kind of shoes! After that Doug, Robyn, and I went to the Portland Museum to see the Venice exhibit, and to dinner at a French bistro, and then we came back to their house to watch the movie, Catching Fire. Ha ha! Doug was so mad about the ending. Ha ha!

Sunday was packed just as much. I went to the dog park with Traci, Greg, Jude, and Henry, their dog. That's where I discovered the ingenious ball throwing tool that Traci uses to throw Henry's ball around - that way she doesn't have to touch the nasty ball after Henry has slobbered all over it! :) Then Robyn had a yummy brunch made for Doug, me and her. After which Robyn took me on a drive along the Columbia River Gorge Historic Highway. We scoped out most of the waterfalls along it and even the Vista Point. Then since we had a bit more time to kill before my flight, we stopped by some outlet shops - where both of us actually had some good luck at the Gap Outlet (I had pretty much given up hope on ever seeing anything good at the Gap!).

It was a lovely weekend! Despite me catching a cold the day before going. I hate that! That happened to me one time before I visited Joni and Adam one year. Equalizing your ears on a flight when you have cold is not fun, to put it lightly.

Sadly, I didn't take any pictures of Traci, Jude, or Greg! Ugh! So lame of me.

Saddle Sore in St. George

Mike and I took a very quick jaunt down to St. George for some mountain biking - our first for the season so we were extremely saddle sore! We left early Saturday morning, which is my best time of the day so I drove while Mike slept. Then we biked 20 miles around Bear Claw Poppy and the Green Valley Race Course and a little of Hurricane Rim. We were so tired we went back to our hotel at 8:15 and I fell asleep on my bed at 8:30 and slept soundly until 7:30 the next morning! We visited a little local ward for Sacrament Meeting and then we rode 13 miles on Gander out at Gooseberry Mesa. After that we headed home - I drove for a bit while Mike tried to sleep, but after that it was his best time of the day so he finished the drive home while I slept. It's kind of nice how that works out - to have a morning person and a night person in a relationship. :)