How Time (And my Sandwich) Flies!
Saturday was my one year anniversary of moving to Portland. We can't believe it's been a year already! I know it's cliche but time really does fly when you are having fun. Well Saturday we had quite a bit of fun. The day started with flowers (ftw!) and a card that read 'Happy one year of adventures'! After situating those in a vase we headed out for Mount St. Helens. The goal was adventure, and the scenic twisties of the Windy Ridge drive. Despite a road closure cutting the drive off sooner than we'd hoped, it turned out to be a fantastic trip. We mostly went for the roads, but we did make a few stops along the way for pictures and lunch. Our first stop was the volcano overlook at Bear Meadow where we shared a picnic 
lunch; just us... and 10 hungry grey jays. I had packed cracker crumbs for them but they seemed to have other ideas. I made it halfway through my sandwich before they decided it looked tastier than crackers. Every other time I took a bite a bird would swoop down, brace it's little feet on my hand and face, and snatch a piece of crust away. I finally gave up and let them pick at the last bit of bread. I put out more crumbs for them and tried to eat my apple only to have one little jay abandon the crackers, hop over to me and then up onto my apple. It couldn't quite figure out what to do with it though so it ended up just perched there. Needless to say, I didn't eat that part.After lunch we drove down to Iron Creek Falls where I had a losing battle with gravity, and fell down a small embankment. It didn't do too much damage, just a little bit of hurt pride as I had a bit of an audience. To the amusement of some though, I gave them a shrug and a thumbs-up from the spot on the ground where I had so inelegantly landed. We spent time taking photos there at the falls before heading back in and ending the day with dinner on the river at McMenamins on the Columbia in Vancouver. Photos from the trip are on my fotki!
Triple D Goodness
No trips this past weekend as Portland has reverted back to winter weather mode (I'm wearing a sweatshirt and watching it rain as I type this). We did manage to hit the Pearl District and enjoy some fantastic food though. Triple D (Diners, Drive-ins and Dives on the Food Network) is one of our new favorite shows. The only bad thing about watching it is, well, it makes me unbelievably hungry and a majority of the places are very far away. It also doesn't help that we watch at night before bed so I can't get any food at all! Guy did visit one spot here in Portland though so we headed there on Saturday. Let me tell you... the Byways Cafe has some of THE best french toast and pancakes I have ever had the pleasure of tasting, and I've had a lot of french toast and pancakes! John got the blue corn pancakes and I got Amaretto french toast, both slathered with their special honey pecan butter and pure organic maple syrup. The food was so good that we both ate well beyond the point of being too full to eat anymore. We are making a second trip this weekend to try the corn beef hash and fresh made desserts (also featured on the show). Weather is supposed to improve this weekend so we've rescheduled a drive/hike for then. Watch for a trip post and pictures!
What a Year!
It's been a while since I posted. Ok so it's been a very very long time, but we've been busy! The year has been filled with all kinds of adventure and fun. We celebrated our one year anniversary in June and here in a couple of weeks it will be one full year in Portland. There is too much to put into one post so here is a link to my Fotki, where you can see photos from all our trips.So, this past weekend was the Oregon International Airshow. I'd never actually been to an airshow so we took a trip down Sunday afternoon, just in time for all the really cool demonstrations. We arrived in the middle of the F-16 demo, just as a P-51 was joining it for the heritage flight. Afterwards we enjoyed several aerobatics teams, a model plane aerobatics demo, the Redbull MiG, an F/A-18 flight, the National Guard Jetcar, and the US Patriots flight, during which the above photo was taken. :) We didn't take any photos really, save for that one, and I must say it is my favorite shot of all so far. That one will be hard to beat, but we'll try anyway! :)
Saturday was my one year anniversary of moving to Portland. We can't believe it's been a year already! I know it's cliche but time really does fly when you are having fun. Well Saturday we had quite a bit of fun. The day started with flowers (ftw!) and a card that read 'Happy one year of adventures'! After situating those in a vase we headed out for Mount St. Helens. The goal was adventure, and the scenic twisties of the Windy Ridge drive. Despite a road closure cutting the drive off sooner than we'd hoped, it turned out to be a fantastic trip. We mostly went for the roads, but we did make a few stops along the way for pictures and lunch. 
lunch; just us... and 10 hungry grey jays. I had packed cracker crumbs for them but they seemed to have other ideas. I made it halfway through my sandwich before they decided it looked tastier than crackers. Every other time I took a bite a bird would swoop down, brace it's little feet on my hand and face, and snatch a piece of crust away. I finally gave up and let them pick at the last bit of bread. I put out more crumbs for them and tried to eat my apple only to have one little jay abandon the crackers, hop over to me and then up onto my apple. It couldn't quite figure out what to do with it though so it ended up just perched there. Needless to say, I didn't eat that part.
