Leaving Oregon...

Sunday morning we got up early and had a romantic breakfast in the McDonald's parking lot. You know, weddings do that to you. Oh wait...

Anyway, we headed for Beacon Rock because Jackson saw it while we were coming home from hiking the falls, looked it up, saw he could climb it, too and the rest is history. It was a pretty quick drive over the river to Washington and down a winding road for about 35 miles. It was my first really cloudy, overcast morning in over a week and I'm thankful that I packed my jacket for this climb.

Beacon Rock

This was not an easy climb, but it was only one mile up so it wasn't too bad at all. There were railings along the edge which is my kind of hiking for sure. I know, I know it takes away some of the beauty. I don't care. Team safety over here!

The view from the top

Petefish.

I wore my "Hustle like Russell" Seahawks shirt which delighted all of our fellow early morning hikers! 

Pretty views! 

We finished the hike, met some cool folks at the top from Purdue (we'll forgive them for that transgression) who now live in Portland. They talked about the Pearl District of Portland being a good place to go so we put it on our schedule for later in the day. After our hike we stopped at a Starbucks (naturally in Washington they're everywhere) and enjoyed the views as the clouds were clearing the weather was improving. We seem to never just sit and enjoy our coffee together unless we are on vacation so it is always nice to just hang out and catch up with each other. Have I mentioned that I missed Jackson so much?!

Once we'd cleaned up after our hike and checked out of our hotel, we headed for the downtown Portland area called the Pearl District. We were not disappointed. It was an awesome, vibrant area with tons of independent restaurants and great shops. We ended up at a place called "Oven and Shaker" for a really great lunch. We got to sit outside (our favorite) and people watch while eating the most delicious sandwich ever. Seriously, I want like to eat that sandwich over and over again! HA!

THE WORLD'S BEST SANDWICH

We spotted a cupcake shop and stopped in (verdict: not as good as GiGi's) and just moseyed around town. They have the busiest bookstore I've ever seen in the area which was pretty cool. Who knew reading was back to being a cool thing to do again?! I love it!

Hanging at the park in Pearl District 

We didn't want to leave. We looked at real estate prices and decided we had to leave, though. HA! The people of Portland must get paid pretty well! ;) We picked up Susan from the post-wedding backyard BBQ she'd been attending and headed for the airport. We left Portland at around 8 p.m. and stopped in San Francisco before catching the redeye back to Indy. We landed around 6:30 a.m. without getting much sleep (fine, I slept the entire flight, whatever) and ready to see our own beds again!

Saying goodbye to Mt. Hood from the plane

Jackson had to get straight to work, but I did laundry, tidied up the house and then slept like a rock for 3.5 hours. It was amazing. I had to get to physical therapy and to Kokomo to get MacKenzie or I think I could have slept until the next morning. :)

REUNITED!!!

It was so beautiful out there and I cannot wait to go back! It is always lovely to see my furry best friend again, though!