my first ever trip to portland oregon

after living up here in the pacific northwest for nearly a dozen years now, we decided to go check out portland oregon. we have driven past it several times on our way to some other places but never stopped and experienced portland itself. it was great, in spite of temperature soaring to 106! (we are in the middle of record-breaking heat here in the PNW.) i loved this sign in downtown portland! portland had lots of character, i loved the old buildings that were restored and painted in interesting colors. i loved that people were not afraid of color on their homes! we took photos of one fabulous house that was painted yellow with orange trim, and was filled with plants and flowers. (unfortunately, that picure is in hubby's camera right now.)

we stayed at this really cool hotel that used to be an elementary school and was converted into the kennedy school hotel. it has lots of artwork throughout, and they have places for meetings and conferences, and there are a couple of places to eat there, and also a few bars, (one called the "dentention room", and one "the honors room") and even a movie theatre! we watched "the land of the lost" while we were there. you can order pizza and beer, and they bring it to you while you watch the movie! cool, huh!

one of the things i wanted to do while in portland was go to "voodoo donuts" we finally did, and there was a line out the door! after waiting about 15 minutes, we decided to go, since it was soooo hot, and also we needed to move the car...a donut is not worth a ticket! but there are two locations, so we went to the other one, and i got my voodoo donut! it was really good...maybe it would have been worth the ticket!

he was quite delicious, with yummy raspberry filling inside! hubby got a giant apple fritter and ate it on the way back home to seattle.

so then on the way home, we decided to check out multnomah falls, and it was quite worth it.

it was very beautiful, the picture does not do it justice i am afraid. up on the bridge there, you can feel a little bit of the spray from the falls, and the short hike up is very green and nice. you can also go up to the top of the the falls too, but i was wearing sandals that were not hike-appropriate, and it was just too doggone hot to be hiking anyway! on the way back home to seattle, we passed a readerboard that had the temperature on it...it had registered on that particular one at 109. we stopped to take a photo of it because were just could not believe it! however, that photo is in hubby's camera!