Walking on Water (kind of)

On Friday, I arrived in Portland for the first stretch of my two week vacation. From here, I'll travel to northern California for a couple days with my dad and grandparents and from there, I'll head south to visit friends in SoCal. I've been looking forward to this time away and it finally came! :)

Portland Waterfront

Since I'm here for an extended period of time, I get to play tourist. On Sunday, my mom, sister, and I headed to the waterfront. Portland's east and west are separated by the Columbia river and the waterfront provides lots to see and do. The waterfront is one of these attractions providing endless entertainment for both the tourist and the local. You can rent bikes, walk, people watch, play in the Tom McCall fountain, or just sit on a bench and read a book and enjoy the warm summer breeze. We decided to make the most of our trip to the waterfront... we walked.

Although it's rather small, here is a picture of the area we (mostly) walked. I venture it was probably about 7 (ish) miles.

We parked on 13th and Hoyt (which means nothing to you, that's okay) and walked around the Pearl District. The Pearl provides a large shopping venue, museums, and lots of fun restaurants. For a lunch break, I partook of a traditional favorite of my mom and sister by splitting an appetizer and a dessert from PF Changs.

After lunch, we continued toward the water. Many miles later, having crossed many bridges, sat on countless benches and rocks, and having enjoyed the view multiple times, we made our way back toward to Pearl for dinner.

Henry's and Haydn's

Back in the Pearl, we met up with my friend Drew (who I met at Baylor and now lives/works in Portland) at Powells books. If you are ever in Portland you must visit the city of books, it's amazing. I could get lost for hours in there...oh wait, I have. Anyway, the four of us headed to Henry's for dinner and to Papa Haydn's for dessert. Although I have eaten at Henry's before, Papa Haydn's was a new experience for me. Their dessert was ... decadent. I had a chocolate cube (recommended by the server), a fabulous choice, but really, there were no wrong choices to be made at this place.

Drew had a berry cobbler, and he obviously didn't pause for the picture.My mom had a mint chocolate pie/mousse/thing.

My sister, Christa, had a Haydn cake; chocolate cake, raspberry filling, toasted marshmallow for a total of six delicious layers.

Doesn't that chocolate cube look fantastic?! :) It was a bit hard to break into, but the inside of the milk chocolate cube was a chocolate mousse. Yumm!

I would have to add this to the top ten things to do (or at least places to eat) in Portland.

Until the next adventure...