29Sep 2013

All About Fall

By K + Z 0 Activities, Family, Food, Friends Permalink 0

Whoever decided to make hunting season and football season fall in the same months didn’t have a wife, I am sure of it. Luckily for me, my husband has taken extraordinary measures to make me feel loved. For instance: I had been discussing for weeks that when I was done with my race that I wanted to go to Leatherby’s and eat a giant ice cream sundae with a side of hot fudge. So Monday for Family Night Zach agreed to drive all the way down to Taylorsville with me to get that sundae.

In fact, if I am being totally honest, he gave in to all my strange food requests the entire week. But it’s not like I had to twist his arm to go to Rodizio.

And just so this whole post isn’t about food, a pretty exciting thing happened in the Fotheringham family this week. My dad’s great uncle, Lt. Vernal J. Bird, was returned home this week aft 69 years. He was a pilot in WWII and his plane went down in Paupa New Guinea in the midst of a mission. The wreckage of his aircraft was discovered and DNA tests confirmed his remains. He was greeted at Salt Lake International with full honors.

My grandma, dad, and uncle were there to greet him on the Tarmac along with other relatives. A former professor of mine happened to be at the airport and sent me these photos.

My dad said it was one of the most amazing things he had ever witnessed. I am so glad he finally made it home to his family.

I also got to lunch with some of my favorite friends/neighbors. We haven’t been all together since we all served in the Relief Society presidency together. It was so nice to see them and visit for a while.

These beautiful ladies weren’t my only lunch dates this week. I also got to meet up with Zach for lunch as well. It went mostly like this…

But like I said, spending lunch with him is something I totally took for granted before. And just so you know, I did manage to make dinner for my husband one out of five nights this week. I do cook…occasionally.

Also, thanks to a wonderful friend, I got to watch the first episode of Season Four of Downton Abbey while working from home.

Since we had already eaten every other type of junky greasy food this week, we decided to have a football and pizza party to round it all off.

Then Friday came and we were off to Bear Lake for the second weekend in a row.

The boys went up for the black powder deer hunt and my mom, aunt, and I joined them. By the time Zach and I arrived at the cabin late that night my brother had already gotten his buck! The men woke up the next morning bright and early to try and get another one. As luck would have it, they were only out two hours before they got another. [Warning: graphic images!]

Which left them plenty of time to visit the goat farm on the way home, I guess.

Once they returned and unpacked their prize [which they hung in the garage] we decided to take a hike up the mountain to do a little shooting before they cleaned all the guns.

They boys were very patient with us the entire time. They even forgave me when I left the truck door open [it was rather chilly] and ran down the battery. Yes…we had to walk all the way back to the cabin.

We got home late Saturday night and the last seconds of Sunday were spent watching the Breaking Bad series premier and making Halloween craftage.

And even more football…if you can believe it.

22Sep 2013

Tri or Trial

By K + Z 7 Activities, Family, Personal, Work Permalink 0

The majority of our week [for me at least] was spent working and preparing for my race on Saturday. That left my poor husband to eat dinner a few nights on his own. Hence the Spaghetti-o’s. Gag…

I also found him later in the bath tub with a bag of tortilla chips. Yes, I am serious. He must have felt really neglected.

As for work, I went into E2 three days this week to do some freelance work. Some parts were pretty awkward. They haven’t hired a replacement for my position yet, so they needed some help catching up on some design work and offered me a generous hourly fee. Turns out working there for three days on a freelance rate I would actually make more than my regular salary before, so I can’t complain. My office was completely empty – except for this fortune my co-worker had left on my keyboard. It made me miss them all so much.

We also tried a new restaurant in Salt Lake: Pizzeria Limone. We loved our pizzas and loved that it was an express style restaurant.

Then the weekend came. I’ve been trying not to post too much about this upcoming triathlon. I didn’t want to be annoying, or anything like that. I have kept it kind of low key because not only do I consider myself the last person on the planet to actually finish one, but because I didn’t know if I could actually do it. Physically. I am not an athlete. I can do certain sports but most of them require boards: wakeboarding, snowboarding…you get the idea. When my sister-in-law asked me to participate in a sprint triathlon with her I thought she was crazy. What is even crazier, though, is that I agreed to do it. I had never swam laps in a pool before [which is bananas considering my father was a water polo coach]. I had never ridden long distance on a road bike before. I would tell family and friends and they all gave me the same reaction: “You? A triathlon?” I know, people. Two years ago I could barely run a mile, so that reaction was well deserved, I guess. I know what you are thinking. I am not writing this so people will think/say, “Good for her! She trained for a triathlon!” That’s not me. I am writing this because I want my family [including my future kidlets] and friends to know that anyone can accomplish something that seems difficult if they really put in the work. So please forgive me. If you don’t want to hear about the details, please feel free to skip to the photos of the rest of our weekend.

I remember downloading a free “three month training schedule” online and looking it over week by week. It didn’t seem that hard, but it gradually became more and more difficult. I also remember my first time “swimming laps” in the pool. There are quotations around that statement because I wasn’t really swimming laps. I would swim two laps in the pool and have to take a rest. And there were lots of flailing limbs. My dad told me that to be prepared for an open water swim I should be able to swim 40 laps in the pool [1,000 yards] without stopping. The swim leg of the race was the thing that I was most terrified for, so I put a lot of time into that sport. 5:15 am [two times a week] were spent at the South Davis Rec competition pool. Yes, 75-year-old women would lap me. But I actually learned to love it. Not being lapped, the swimming part. In fact, if I have learned one thing from this whole experience it is that I love to swim. Something about the water just calms your nerves and rejuvenates you. The bike, however, I didn’t love. I still don’t love it, to be honest. I was riding so many stupid miles on that bike and the only result I was getting was that my hoo-ha was really, really sore. Yes, I wore the special padded shorts. I just don’t think it is natural to have all that weight on someone’s baby maker. The running wasn’t so bad. I had been running off and on for months before I started this training, so this is the event I felt most confident in. My only problem was that I had never ran over 5 miles. Ever. It’s like my brain would tell my body it was impossible for me to go any further once I hit that point, so I never pushed it. Until now. My “schedule” said by the end of this training I should be swimming 1,000 yards non-stop, biking 70 min, and running 6 miles. I know for you marathon/aquathon people this sounds like a cake walk…but combining all three was by far the most difficult part. I followed that stupid schedule to the letter. I finally reached all of those goals and felt ready to go into this event. My dreams were the only things that were making me nervous, to be honest. One night I would dream my tire popped half way through the bike. Another I would dream I got kicked in the face by another swimmer out in the lake. The worst, however, were the “me tripping” dreams. Tripping on the last mile of my run. Tripping over my bike. Tripping coming out of the water while trying to take off my wetsuit. Anyway, so I don’t bore you with any more ridiculous details, the weekend of the race finally came. I kept checking the temperatures for Bear Lake on race day and things were not looking good. The water was surprisingly warmer than expected: 65 degrees. The air temperature and wind was what was making me nervous. Wind in a lake and on a bike is never a good combo. I tried to ignore the conditions and focus on packing everything I needed. I think I went through my checklist 10+ times, no lie. I also decided to finally set some goals. Everyone had been telling me to set some reasonable goals before the event so I could push myself and stay motivated. My two goals were to: 1. Not drown. 2. Finish the race. I seriously didn’t care if I was the last one to cross the finish line, I just wanted to cross it.

Friday my family met up at my house and we all drove together up to Bear Lake. Zach, my mom, dad, aunt, uncle, and cousin all decided to stay up at Bear Lake to attend the race. We stayed at the Fotheringham cabin. My uncle Cal was participating in the race as well [but the Olympic distance] and let us crash there along with my sister-in-law and brother-in-law. We didn’t get up there until after dark and took a quick drive around the bike course to get a feel for what we were up against the next morning.

After we unpacked and settled in, we didn’t get into bed until after 10:30. Luckily Rachael and I both slept well. We had to be up at 5:30 to leave for the course and the weather was only 50 degrees. By the time we entered the beach area, set up our gear, and put on our wetsuits it had reached 55.

The water was still 65, so by the time we had to enter the water for our heat I was welcoming the warmth. Rachael and I were in the same heat and I was grateful because she calmed my nerves when we were awaiting our start.

Then the buzzer sounded and we were off! As expected, I got kicked in the face within the first two minutes of the swim. To avoid getting jacked again I decided to swim far away from the other ladies. This meant I had to swim a little father than the rest, but it was worth it. I suddenly found myself swimming all alone and couldn’t really site around me to see who was there, so I just kept swimming. I finally hit the last marker and could see the swim finish line on the beach. Still there were no other people around me and I started to panic. I thought for sure I would be the last one out of the water. When I finally could touch sand I pushed myself up and turned to look behind me. I saw that I wasn’t the last one out, I was in the top ten finishers! It got me so excited that I ripped the top half of my wetsuit off and started to run up the beach.

I ran to my transition, put on my bike gear, and was off on the bike. It took me a few minutes to realize Rachael was right in front of me! We completed the bike course quicker than I had hoped and it was by far the easiest of all three sports. The only draw back was that I was frozen from being soaked with lake water. Rachael and I both completed the bike within seconds of each other.

We ditched our helmets and set off for the run. By the time we hit the 1 mile marker my legs were spent. That last 2.1 miles was the longest and hardest run I have ever done. We crossed the finish line together and I couldn’t have been more relieved.

Truth be told, I had another goal. I wanted to finish the race under 2 hours. We finished in 1 hour and 44 min.

I have to say that at the beginning of this process I wasn’t excited. I was dreading the whole thing. But now that it is has come and gone I can honestly say how grateful I am to Rachael for asking me to participate in this with her. Preparing myself for this pushed me harder physically than I ever thought I could be pushed. I think it’s made me a stronger [mentally] person as well. Yeah, I didn’t lose 10 pounds like I was hoping. Even with the whole quitting Diet Coke thing. It’s all good, though. I was pushed out of my comfort zone and did something I would have never done on my own. I also was so thankful to my family. So many of them came to support us and they even made shirts and signs.

The shirts read “Team Henderham” – for the Hendersons and Fotheringham (my uncle who competed). They were there the entire 2+ hours screaming their guts out for us. My brother even called me afterwards to tell me how proud he was.

We left Bear Lake and I enjoyed the drive through Logan Canyon with an ice cold Diet Coke. Probably the best I’ve ever had to date. Everyone kept asking me what I wanted to eat after and all I could think about was peach pie. So on on our way home we stopped in Brigham City at Maddox for a giant piece of their famous fresh peach pie. We ate lunch, too…

As soon as we got home we had to quickly unload our bags and drive to the Oval in Kearns for Zach’s playoff ice hockey game. We were both totally exhausted, but Zach managed to score a goal and they won third place in the tournament!

He even got a prize for the most goals in the entire tournament: a bubble gum flavored mouth guard.

Immediately after the game we drove to South Jordan to have dinner and watch the Utah vs. BYU game at my aunt’s house. I remember there were tacos and Diet Coke, but quickly fell asleep on their sofa before half time. I was hoping to have a nap between the drive home and the hockey game, but there wasn’t enough time. I was ecstatic when I awoke from my slumber to learn that the Utes came away with another win against the Cougars! I wish I could have survived the whole game, but was glad I got to spend some more time with my family.

Sunday after church we drove up to Ogden to visit Zach’s dad. He had surgery a few days prior on his shoulder and we thought he could use some visitors. We brought some of his favorites…including chocolate doughnuts.

I think this weekend just reiterated my gratitude for my family. I am so blessed to have been born and to have married into the families that I have. Everyone kept telling me how proud they were to see me at the finish line. Truth is, I was the one who was proud. I teared up when I finished that stupid race, but it wasn’t because I was happy it was over or that I finished. It was because I turned a corner and saw so many people I that loved screaming my name and jumping up and down. No better feeling in the world, I tell you.

16Sep 2013

Birthday Festivities

By K + Z 2 Family, Personal, Projects Permalink 0

We had an exciting week considering it was Zach’s 28th birthday on Thursday. But before we had that shindig, we had a pretty good week. One of the perks of working from home is being able to meet my friends and family for lunch. It’s amazing being able to set my own schedule and to enjoy little things like that. I got to meet my friend Angie for lunch up in Ogden and Emily for brunch at Ruth’s Diner later in the week. It sounds trivial, but it’s something I didn’t even know I was missing out on. The majority of my week was spent working on my new website, Etsy shop, and prepping all my Halloween stuff for my sister-in-law’s spa. She was sweet enough to allow me to produce a bunch of prints and other items to sell. I’m excited to see how it does! I have a new found respect for those in retail.

I also received a shipment of all my new business cards for this website I am creating. I can’t wait to get everything up and running to see how this crazy idea of mine works out.

In preparation for Zach’s birthday I spent some time going through old photos. It made me super curious/excited to see what our future littles will look like. I can’t wait to meet them.

photo 1 copy 3

Thursday night we did a little birthday shopping and then dined at Benihana. I know, big shocker…we’ve done this for Zach’s birthday for the last 7 years. He won’t eat anywhere else to celebrate!

Saturday was pretty exciting: I had two friend baby showers. One in Ogden, one in South Jordan. Big time fail on my part for not getting a picture of Chelsea and some of my high school friends at her shower. She’s due in a few weeks and is having a baby girl! However, I hope to see them all soon! The second shower was for a long time friend, Alex who is expecting a baby boy. It was so fun to see some friends I rarely get to see and visit with them.

On my way home I stopped at my aunt’s house to help her and my mother make some peach jam. Her neighbor gave her a huge bin of peaches and so they decided to make Saturday afternoon a last minute jam sesh.

Peach jam is amazing, but I can’t wait until we make our next batch. Peach + strawberry jam. My absolute favorite. It’s like the perfect mix of summer and fall. My neighbor got us hooked on it last year and we’ve loved this recipe.

Later that night we went out with Zach’s parents to dinner to celebrate his birthday again. We loved dining with Mark and Jeanene and catching up with them as well. After dinner we had to rush off to the Utah vs. Oregon State game at Rice Eccles. The weather was crisp and we didn’t even mind the drizzle later on. I’d take rain over the blazing sun any day!

It was a great game – even though we didn’t leave winners.

Sunday after church we went to my parents’ house, once again, to celebrate for Zach’s birthday. We had roast and his favorite twice baked potatoes for dinner. I even scored some good wife points by making his favorite chocolate cake [the only dessert he will actually eat and enjoy] but failed once again with only 4 measly candles. 28 wouldn’t have fit on there properly any way…right?

Zach is definitely loved. Both of our families treated him to wonderful birthday wishes and celebrations. I’m so grateful to have him in my life. Like I tell most people: my life would be sooo boring without my sweet, crazy, fun-loving husband. I hope his birthday was as amazing for him as he is amazing to me.

09Sep 2013

and That’s What’s Up

By K + Z 2 Family, Friends, Personal, Work Permalink 0

A lot has happened the last few weeks. For starters: I left my job at E2. It’s a long story that I won’t bore you with, but it is all for the best. It wasn’t the easiest decision to make, but I know it was the right one.

So what am I doing now? I’m officially working from home. It’s my second week and I am still not used to it. The good news is that I am staying really busy doing freelance work and working for a few different companies. I’m also starting my own business which is a really scary thing for me. Luckily I have a super supportive husband, amazing family members, and fantastic friends that have been encouraging me.

My last day at E2 was Thursday, the week before last. I think the hardest part was leaving the people. I always thought I was a spontaneous person…but turns out change is really hard for me. I adore my co-workers…

A few of us even went out to my favorite restaurant nearby for my “last lunch”.

I’m really grateful for the time I was able to work there. I met so many wonderful people and worked on some incredible projects. It was a really bittersweet feeling coming home with all of my stuff. Almost three years packed into boxes and bags…

My family was very thoughtful as well: calling, texting, dropping off treats…

It made the day seem easier knowing I had so many people rooting for me. I am excited. Nervous…but excited.

Anyway, enough about work. This weekend we got to attend our first Utah Football game at Rice Eccles.

It was a tough one for Zach because the Utes played the Wildcats [he’s an Ogdenite for life], but we celebrated in another Utah victory!

I also got to hang out with two of the sweetest nephews on the planet while their mother and I had a little work-out at the SDRC.

Also…the official NFL season started…which is always a surprise to me because I swear we have been watching football for months already. Not to mention I have a real problem with Chris Collinsworth. For some reason he is my least favorite NFL commentator. I need to get used it it…because he is going to be a big part of my world for the next few months.

We also got to go out with two sets of friends over the weekend. We had dinner at the Dodo with the Lowes and then dessert at Juicy Berry with the Bluths. I met William Bluth for the first time and fell absolutely in love with him. Please bless my babies will be this amazing…

We couldn’t have asked for a better weekend. Rain and all…it’s starting to feel like fall!

03Sep 2013

We Heart PDX

By K + Z 0 Activities, Family, Food, Vacation Permalink 0

Every year I ask Zach what he wants to do for his birthday. This year was a no-brainer for him [and I was totally ok with it, obviously.] We decided to take a trip to Portland over Labor Day. We left Thursday night with our luggage stuffed to full capacity. It was the same drill as last year: snowboards, snowboarding gear, and this year…a skateboard.

Zach somehow convinced me that I needed to strap his skateboard on my carry-on. True love, is carrying your husband’s skateboard through airport security.

Since we left Thursday night, I thought Zach would be disappointed that he was missing the very first Utah football game of the season, but technically…we didn’t miss it. Our flight was delayed so Zach was watching live footage until we had to board the plane. Even then, he was checking updates on his phone until the last possible second…

It was bittersweet to hear that my Aggies lost, but Zach was elated about the Utah victory.

Because of our flight delay, we arrived in Portland a little later than we had anticipated. After grabbing our baggage and loading up our rental car, we set off to the city for our dinner reservation at Bamboo Sushi. It definitely lived up to its reviews. Yes, I am one of those weirdos that read reviews of a restaurant before dining.

We are pretty easy to please when it comes to sushi, but Bamboo was really delicious. Probably the best prepared and the freshest fish I have ever had at a Japanese restaurant. After dinner we left for Mt. Hood. The only stop we made was at Voodoo Doughnuts on the way out for a few treats.

We had a little “doughnut tasting” on our drive up there and we both agreed that the “Captain my Captain” and Cocoa Puff chocolate cake doughnuts were our favorite. We didn’t get up the mountain to Timberline Lodge until after midnight and both of us completely passed out as soon as we got our bags inside of our room.

The next morning Zach got me up bright and early. He is not much of a morning person, but when snowboarding is involved he is as chipper as can be! We geared up and made our way up the Magic Mile to the Palmer lift to ride Mt. Hood.

Zach and I also tried a new trick. If that’s what you want to call it. While riding up the lift, he asked me…”Can I grind you?” I promise you that this is not what I had in mind…

We stayed up on the mountain until the lift closed in the afternoon and then showered up to drive back to Portland for the rest of the day.

Zach already had our afternoon planned: he wanted to go to Burnside. Burnside Skatepark is located in the city and is built underneath the overpass of Burnside Bridge. It started with one wall ride and then grew into the park it is now. The most interesting part is that it was built by the skateboard community without permission by the city. Another crazy fact about Burnside is that most of it is built on garbage. Piles of trash and refuge make up the structure of this place – there is even a Volkswagen Beetle beneath the hump of concrete in the middle. Since it was built by locals, there are a lot of parts of the park that are…sketchy. It is one of the most infamous skateparks in the country, and Zach wanted to ride it for himself. So that’s exactly what we did.

We were both nervous because of all the rumors we had heard about the locals that dwell there. We were warned that they were very territorial and often harassed visitors, so we weren’t surprised one bit when we showed up and immediately were told to “get lost”. There were quite a few people there; mostly heshers and junkies, but they definitely let us know that we were not welcome. Zach skated it any way and loved every second.

He claims it was the most difficult park he has ever ridden. Because the park wasn’t sanctioned by the city until AFTER it was built, a lot of parts [maybe no parts at all?] are not up to code. We stayed there until things got really uncomfortable for us and we bounced. I am just glad we made it out of there without getting shanked by a broken beer bottle, to be honest.

After Burnside we decided to kill some time before our dinner reservation and do some shopping at Pioneer Place and some other stores down town.

We then drove to the Alberta area to have dinner at DOC. It is this tiny restaurant on a bustling strip of one of my favorite neighborhoods.

You have to walk through the kitchen [which consists of one gas range] to actually get into the restaurant. Zach ordered the beef and I ordered the pasta.

We both were really pleased with everything we tried: including the imported English Curiosity Cola. We grabbed some ice cream on our way out of the city for our drive back up to Timberline.

The next morning was round 2 on the mountain. It was also our last day spent at Mt. Hood.

We got in as many runs as we could before the lift closed again and then got ready for another drive back into Portland. We decided to stop at the Portland Saturday Market for a few hours before it closed that evening.

I imagined it to be a lot like our Salt Lake City Farmers’ Market, but I was completely wrong. There were hoards of people shopping through tents and tents of interesting things. Tie-died shirts, pottery, food carts, wooden instruments, artisan soap, and so on. Not to mention the craziest concoction of people I have ever seen in one location. A lot of shirtless pot heads, scantily clad hippie chicks, and numerous amounts of homeless folk. One thing that the Portland Saturday Market didn’t sell? Deodorant. Zach was enthralled with the people-watching.

After our “experience” at the market we made our way over to Cool Moon Ice Cream for a treat. We walked our cream over to an adjacent park and relaxed until we could check in to our Portland hotel.

We later walked to the Nines Hotel for our dinner reservation at Urban Farmer. It was really busy, but for some reason the hostess placed us in a dining room all to ourselves.

The decor of the restaurant was amazing: shelves lining the walls of canned vegetables, cowhide benches, and reclaimed wood everywhere. We both loved our hot cornbread [in a can] and our amazing entrees. Usually “grass fed beef” and “free range chicken” don’t do it for me, but we both loved our meals.

We decided to grab a treat on our walk back to our hotel at a nearby Walgreens. Reese’s Pumpkins are officially on the shelves. Enough said.

I know I’m not supposed to have favorites…but Sunday was my favorite day by far of the entire trip. Sunday morning I was the one up bright and early to get Zach pumped for a tiny hike through Forest Park. We didn’t make it to the park our last trip and I had been dying to go since last year. I planned a little route for us along Lower Macleay Trail. We parked our rental car under the Thurman Bridge and made our way through the park.

It was incredible. Everything is so green and the temperature was so cool. All the trees and rocks were covered in this gorgeous moss and looked like something from a dream. There were tons of trail runners, hikers, and dog walkers. Side note: running is hard enough as it is…why did people have to have super-human powers and invent TRAIL running?

We passed over a few small bridges and walked along the river until we came to Stone House. These ruins were originally built as a rest stop, but were later abandoned. The stone structure is located right where the Macleay Trail and the Wildwood Trail meet. This made for an easy morning adventure for us and it was one of the highlights of our trip.

We then made our way over to the Waffle Window. It’s kind of a tradition in my little family that if you go on a hike, you deserve a great breakfast afterwards. So no explanation needed. Zach got a plain waffle topped in bacon with a side of maple syrup and orange juice and I got the peach waffle with lemon syrup.

They called it “syrup”, but it was more like lemon custard. I could eat that every day for breakfast and never get sick of it. I would be too large to fit through the waffle window, but I would be so so very happy.

We went back to our hotel to shower up and check out so we could make the drive to Cannon Beach. The drive from the city to the shore is just under two hours, but one of the most beautiful scenic drives so it goes by pretty quickly. Once we arrived on the Oregon Coast we went straight to our hotel. Unfortunately, a trainee had accidentally canceled our reservation the night before. I was really worried where we would stay considering it was Labor Day weekend and just about everywhere was completely booked. Instead of freaking out like I secretly wanted to, we set off to find another place to stay. While on the hunt we were distracted by some outlet stores and stopped at a little joint called Bruce’s Candy Kitchen. Like a scary dream mixed of Willy Wanka’s Chocolate Factory and Circus Circus in Las Vegas.

While exploring candy land, we got a call from our original hotel we had booked our reservation through informing us that they had a room available: a suite at no additional cost. They also gave us free Wifi, so Zach was cheering all the way back to the hotel.

After we were all settled in, we hopped back in the car to drive down to Hug Point State Park.

It is not so much a park, really…but more of a beach. The amazing thing about Hug Point, however, is that there is so much to see. There were caves, tide pools, and even a little waterfall. Out of the beaches I have been to on the Oregon Coast, this is now my favorite. We saw a family that had made a little camp up on the rock ledge where the waterfall was. It made me so excited to take my family here one day.

We spent a couple of hours exploring until it was time to drive back to Cannon for our dinner reservation. We ate at Newman’s at 988. It is a restaurant that was originally a tiny yellow house. Last time we visited Cannon they were completely booked so I made it a priority to have dinner here this trip. The fresh [hot] bread and the Lobster Ravioli were to die for. Seriously. Worth the year wait, if you ask us.

After our meal we made our way down to the beach. Zach had a romantic night planned for us: a bonfire on the beach with s’mores. He found a nearby hotel that provided bonfire and s’mores kits that you could purchase and take down to the shore. Yes, our kit was meant for a family of six…but we didn’t mind. It just meant more s’mores to share between us. Thankfully I married an Eagle Scout…

Once we got our fire going strong we started toasting our mallows. S’mores taste a little better on the beach, if that is even possible.

Like I said, my favorite day of the trip. We let our fire burn out and then turned in for the night. I won’t tell you how many s’mores we had between the two of us…but we gave that family of six a run for their money, I betcha.

Monday was our last day. I woke up early to go on a run along the beach. People that live on a beach don’t know how good they’ve got it. I swear it makes running bearable…for the most part. After getting ready and packing up all our bags we decided to spend our last hours in Oregon back in the city. We made the drive back to Portland with enough time to spare to walk around the Pearl District and do some shopping.

Shopping makes me hungry. Who am I kidding…everything makes me hungry. We had worked up quite the appetite and decided to hit up the food trucks before making our way to the airport. We stopped at a big pod on SW 10th and Alder.

Then it was time to head back to PDX and come home. Yes, Portland is weird. But we love it. It’s a place where flannel is always in season and where people save tons of money every year because they don’t buy antiperspirant. But seriously. I could live there. There is just something about the Pacific Northwest. Portland, be it strange, is always a fantastic time and we have made some amazing memories there. Maybe that’s why we like this place so much…because WE are weird? Either way, I’ll take it. I’d rather be weird than boring any day, right?

Stay weird, Portland…

Monthly Archives September 2013

All About Fall

Tri or Trial

Birthday Festivities

and That’s What’s Up

We Heart PDX

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