Saturday & Sunday & Monday

Sorry that I just dropped of the face of the earth as soon as I landed in pdx (Portland)! Thanks for all your calls & emails. I'm still trying to catch up.

I'm going to keep this going a bit longer just to let my family & any interested friends know of my whereabouts, adventures, whatnots! And I do promise more pictures posted soon. My head is still not above water, so to speak.

Oh, and I'll just post Wednesdays & Sundays from now on...well, unless something crazy & earth shattering happens!

Anyway, here goes:

We headed out of Pendleton fairly early &  I found out that the moving truck got caught up in some bad weather near Salt Lake City & they would be delayed until Sunday. So we decided to take our time traveling along the Columbia River gorge.  The scenery is breath takingly gorgeous - full of mountains, water, birds & wildlife. We stopped along the river at a park near The Dalles & let the dogs play. Then we stopped in Hood River to have a beer & food at Full Sail Brewery. Hadn't been there since my trip with Kit many moons ago. The town is more updated, more resort like feel than the old days, but Full Sail was still the same. The weather again was off & on rain, but we hit sunshine in Hood River, although it was too cloudy to see the mountain. We also stopped at the Multnomah Falls (see picture). It plummets 620 feet from its orgins on Larch Mt. making it the 2nd highest year round waterfall in the USA. Very cool to see. It was more powerful than when I saw it last summer. Water spray was all over us before we got to the landing.

My friends Christie & Pete invited us to their home in Vancouver, WA for homemade pizza on the grill-yum! It was great & great to see them & lil' Eli, their son. They also gave us some camping gear for the night to camp out at the apt. as I couldn't leave the dogs there in a new empty place by themselves! By the way, the dogs traveled exceptionally well. Louisa more so than Henry, which was surprising. She, only late Friday afternoon & parts of Saturday morn, started her anxious panting. I think she was just done.

AND my new place is great! Awesome neighborhood! It is 2 blocks from the river on this huge bluff with cafes, coffee shop & sushi, just a block away. There are 3 parks nearby & it's only 4 blocks to the MAX train, downtown- maybe 5 minutes. I didn't even know about this area at all...just lucked into it. Yes, it is all is very good.

The movers came Sunday morn & were gone by noon. Mark & I went downtown for food and beers at Bridgeport Brewery & then I showed him downtown a bit. We went to the REI store which is awesome...a bit like Bean in Maine. Later after walking the dogs, we went back downtown to Henry's for more food & yep, a few more local brews. Henry's has a HUGE selection of all brews. Quite impressive & really good food. 

Monday, Mark was supposed to fly out in the am. Took him to the Doug Fir for breakfast (Karie, is this all bringing back memories??), but Portland, MAINE got 12 inches of snow in just a few hours & the airport was closed...so he stayed another day. Probably seriously tired of me, but he was quite a trooper. I need to start unpacking, so he went downtown for awhile.

And today, he left and I'm still unpacking, but the bedroom & kitchen are almost done and just started on the main room. Will be VERY glad once I'm settled in.

Y'all come visit!