Portland Weekend & Night Hiking

Shannon's wedding was a great excuse to go visit my little brother, Sam and his girlfriend, Emily. They live in Portland. My dad, mom and I traveled up together on Friday so they could catch the Endowment Session (for both Chris and Shannon) Friday night.

Saturday morning was promising beautiful weather for the day. We all got up and had a leisurely breakfast. My mom and I went for an hour walk down to this little village square and back and then got ready for the wedding. Emily and I dropped my parents off at the Temple to attend the ceremony (Sam had to work until the reception) and we headed over to Trader Joes. This is the best place ever! Every chance my mom gets, she's stealing all their coconut milk. haha. It's cheaper than what we have down here and tastes MUCH better to boot! Emily and I almost had a brawl with another Joes customer because we cleaned off the shelf (only 15 cans) and there were no more in stock. We had to give up one can to some lady who was throwing a fit that we took it all. I explained that we lived out of town. Sheesh lady!

After the Temple part of the wedding and photos, we jetted out to grab a snack at the apartment. Then off to the reception. The break from the crowd was good because it started all over again at the reception. I plopped down on the floor and decided to just hang out there. Shannon was busy running around.... I think I barely got a glimpse, didn't even know she'd left when she did. So after hours more of visiting with more friends and Washington family... we left.

After taking a breather from the loudness, we decided to go on a hike to get our blood moving. It was getting late by now... maybe around 7pm. It was dusk as we headed out to the hills around OHSU. The hike was cool though because it lead through a series of ravines... a little on the muddy side, but what the heck.
We left dad in the dust (or mud?) because he was hunting down a geo cache. I swear we should have a beacon on him so that we can find him after things like this. Luckily, we didn't lose him this time. The hike was about a mile out and after turning around it was really really dark! Emily brought a headlamp so my mom and I shared it while Sam and Emily walked ahead in the darkness.... Sam, telling us stories about a guy that had been murdering Portland hikers. Lovely. If that won't make you walk faster eh?

I thought these flowers were cool. They were night bloomers. I don't know what they are, but there were large patches of them everywhere on the hillside of the path.

Sunday gave us dreadful weather. Originally we had wanted to go on a big hike that day. John ended up flying into Portland to buy a car (to drive home). So he met up with us after the purchase at the airport. Hiking seemed out but Emily had told us about this fabric warehouse so we decided to try it out. I needed to get curtains for Dominic's room. We did attempt many times to phone them to see if they were open, they seemed like they were although we never got ahold of anyone.... we were wrong. We drove all the way across Portland and they were closed. We gave it a shot, Easter Sunday and all.

After that failed attempt, we decided to locate another Trader Joes. We did in downtown and filled up on our remaining needed coconut milk and before heading back home decided to go to Beau Tie (sp?) for lunch. A Ford Family favorite! It was quite delicious!

That's about it. Weather was horrid still all the way home. What a fun weekend though!