Portland, day one

Hello from the left coast. :)

I finally made it to Portland (via Atlanta from Boston = long day) and my flights were all smooth and relatively boring. It is so different traveling alone - so, what's the word, easy. I read a lot - I'm trying to finally finish that book I started last summer. I wish I were kidding.

So, anyway, I got here safe and sound. Billie Jo picked me up and we went out for dinner and then back to the house to chat, settle in and crash for the night.

On Saturday, we got up and walked across the street to Billie Jo's gym where we both did a kickboxing class to jump start the day. It was good - I didn't die and felt good about getting some exercise in to start the day. After showers and breakfast, we hopped the Max (their public transit) and headed downtown to the Portland Farmer's Market.

The weather was perfect and the atmosphere was just as a farmer's market should be. Beautiful foods and goods, various musicians filling the air with their cellos or harmonicas or guitars, and lots of people milling around sampling bit and pieces of locally grown products.

Portland farmer's market

There were lots of berries in season and we ended up buying some melt-in-your-mouth strawberries as well as some blueberries to take home.

We tried samples of everything from venison pie, cherry cider, berries, feta tomato basil stuffed olives, and cheese curds to 6 different types of honey, lavender infused blueberry jelly, hazelnuts, and more berries. I took so many food pictures - I think I could take pictures of food for a living and be happy. They could even just pay me in food. That would work. :)

We found the beautiful purple calla lillies that we both liked.

and I was in love with the warm lavender scent that was floating around parts of the market

just another market shot that I kinda liked

we passed these little guys and I had to stop. These are little peanut butter cookies with peanut butter cream - think of them as PB oreos - but homemade.

Yeah, we had to try those.

After we walked around and looked at everything - we headed back to the house. We stopped in a McDonald's for 30 mins or so to watch the end of the US-Ghana match. Sigh. I was sad that they lost - but glad that I got to watch the end of the game anyway.

We made our way home and freshened up a bit before heading back out for a late lunch/early dinner at a place called the Observatory. The weather was so nice we decided to sit outside. One of Billie Jo's co-workers joined us eventually and we all sat there for hours just chatting and enjoying some really good food. (I'm probably going to be talking about food a lot from this trip.)

this is me sampling a few of the local brews - we thought the glasses were too cute.

this was the label of the bottle acting as a flower vase on our table. Something about it just made me happy - torn paper and all.

aaaaaaand, we're back to talking about food.

Y'all. 3 words: Parmesean Rosemary Fries.

oh, one more word: heaven!

Dinner was grand, the company was lovely, and the weather was perfect. We eventually decided to walk back to the house and chill out there. The others stayed for just a little bit and had to go, so Billie Jo and I hung out in the back yard with her puppies and enjoyed the late day sun.

Billie Jo and Chip

Cooper

The days are longer here than in Boston by a little bit - so it was still wasn't dark by 9pm. We decided just to stay in, make chocolate chip cookies, and watch some tv. I'm still adjusting to the time change, so by 10pm I was pretty well zonked out. It was a really good first day.

Chip again, isn't he pretty?

I did get to talk to Kyle and Abby both today - It was weird talking to Abby on the phone ( a first for me I think) but it was nice to hear her say "mama? mama!" and give me kisses through the screen. There have been several times that I've found myself forgetting that she's not with me up here. Like when somebody asked if we wanted to go out later after dinner, my first thought was, "I can't go anywhere after 7"

But, for a few more days, I can. I can already tell that this trip is going to be good for me. I'm really thankful to Kyle for letting me take it.

So, keep posted, I'm sure I'm going to have lots to document in the coming days.