Portland

Portland, is an amazing town. We stayed near the downtown area and walked everywhere. There is great food, great beer and great shopping all within walking distance of us. We had an amazing time. 


On Friday we went to Deschutes Brewery where we sampled some yummy brews and a yummy pretzel with cheese sauce. Oregon beer is really the best!

That night we went out to dinner and then to the Crystal Ballroom for an 80s night dance party! Every Friday in the ballroom they play 80's music and the videos to go along with the songs. Some people dress up, some don't. There we all ages there from 21 and up. We had a blast and danced the night away. The music was so good that it was hard to take a break. Totally worth it if you are ever in Portland!

The ballroom from the balcony

Dancing! My side pony had falling by this point.

On Saturday we went to the Saturday Market where there are blocks of vendors selling food, art, crafts, clothes, beer, wine and so much more. Some of it was along the river and it was a sunny day which made it fantastic. We didn't take any pictures of the market but it was a great experience. While we were walking around exploring Portland we came upon this huge tent and it was an Irish Festival. So we stopped in for a drink and some good Irish music.

Later in the day we went to McMenamins Kennedy School.  There are McMenamins every where in Oregon and this is just one of the few places they own. Here is the website if you want to explore more: http://www.mcmenamins.com/ The Kennedy School was the first one floor school in Portland in the early 1900's, it is now turned into a hotel, with restaurants, bars, a movie theater, pool, and the old gym is a place you can rent out for weddings or concerts. The bars were in the old broiler room, detention hall, honors room and classrooms. Drinking beer at school felt kind of wrong but a lot of fun.

The broiler room

Honors Room

Hallway

Detention a great place for a beer and cigar.

For dinner that night we met up with my old childhood friend Jeff and his wife Kathy. It was so wonderful to catch up and get to know him again. Our parents were great friends and it felt like we spent every weekend with them when I was younger. I don't have a picture of us, when we went back to Portland the weekend after this I still forgot to take a picture of the four of us, maybe next time.

This was hanging in our hostel where we stayed. So true

Later that  night we went to and old arcade called Ground Kontrol to play some great video games from the 70's, 80's and 90's.

Portland was fantastic and we went back the next weekend and had some more great adventures. Jeff and Kathy took us to Mississippi street where we had some great southern Creole food and a wonderful time. Pictures from our hike we did in the Columbia Gorge next post

I will leave you with great bike art: Portland loves biking.

Oregon

Its about time I write a blog about our time here in Oregon. As I look out the window it just starting pouring, not just raining but pouring. There has been a lot of rain here, but it has made us really appreciate
those rare days of sunshine even more. We really are enjoying our time here in Eugene. I have been volunteering at a preschool and Kit has been working and enjoying it. Eugene is set a valley so we are surrounded by hills and mountains. We mostly see the foot hills, but on some of our drives and hikes we can see the mountains in the distance.  Everything is so green here which reminds me of  NZ, but you still can't compare NZ to anything. We loved it there and it feels like it was home for us. I think I will just start telling people I am from NZ, my accent might give me away though. :)

Some of our adventures in Oregon have included a winery trip, Portland, hiking, a concert and a lot of walks around the neighborhood we are living in. We are living in an amazing house up on a hill with a co-worker of Kits; Anna and her daughter Mira who is three and their dog Pasha. We are having a wonderful time here and we are so thankful that this worked out.


This is the view from the house we are staying it. A great view

Anna's house

We went and saw Kahi King in Eugene at this really cool old theater. She is an amazing guitar player and she had around 7 different guitars she played. This picture is of a harp guitar, which was pretty amazing. It was a great concert.

On our way to Wilamette Valley Vineyards for the Wine, Cheese and Pear Jubilee.

I had to show off my new shoes!

We passed by the Enchanted Forest theme park. It looked like an old decrepit theme park from a movie or something. It is actually still open and quite popular.

Wilamette Valley Vineyard (pronounced Will-am-it, their shirts actually saw its Wilamette Dam-it, since it rhymes)

Tasting yummy wine, cheese and pears.

The grapes, there are known for their pinot noir.

my sweet husband, isn't he so cute!

Hiking. So beautiful.

and a rainbow view from the house on St. Patrick's Day.

 

Our Portland adventure next. ( by the way it stopped raining, see it's not that bad)

City of Brotherly Love to The Emerald City

As most of you know we are living in Eugene Oregon for 6 weeks while Kit does some work here. We have been here for around three weeks already and we love Oregon. The food, the beer and the outdoor activities are wonderful. Before we came to Oregon  we visited Kit's brother Cody and his girlfriend Jenni in San Fransisco. We LOVE San Fran. It is such an amazing community and there is always something to do. We have been at least 4 times and so this trip we really didn't do any touristy things that we have done in the past.  Cody and Jenni moved into a new neighborhood near the Mission and the Castro. We had a great time exploring that area and eating at new restaurants. It was a great visit and we hope to see them again before we leave for England!

Cody took us to some concrete slides on a walk we made up to the Twin Peaks. I love slides so this was a real treat!

The view from one of the Twin Peaks.

Brothers!

Kit trying to block the wind, it wasn't working so well.

Kit and Cody did SF Critical Mass and loved it.

Lots of fun dancing.

We are too cute!

Subway ride.

On our last day in SF the weather was Gorgeous, so we decided to stay for a couple hours and enjoy it in Deloris Park, which has a great view of the city.

Thank you Cody and Jenni for an amazing time!

We drove to Redding California the first night and stayed there. Then the next day we drove to Eugene. This is our view of Mt. Shasta that as we were driving by.

Welcome to Oregon!

More Oregon Adventures to come!

 We are off to Portland this weekend.

Valentines Day

Kit and I don't normally celebrate Valentines Day. However, this year it was a beautiful day and it gave us an excuse to drink wine in the middle of a Monday. We went to one of our favorite wineries, it is actually were we had our wedding reception, and had a wonderful picnic and enjoyed each others company.

Our picnic, very NZ style, flavored tuna, olives, cheese, bread, hummus and wine.

The views from our seat. When the trees are in full bloom it is a beautiful view.

Horses we came across in our drive

The back deck at Pomona Winery. My favorite chairs.

We went for a short hike at little Grand Canyon also. It was such a wonderful day.

Maybe we will start celebrating Valentines Day more often.

Full Moon Rising

These set of pictures are ending our Southern Illinois adventures. The last two pictures of cats.

our sweet Marcello

 and Cowboy Carlos (kit's parents cat).