Friday, October 22, 2010

Spent the weekend in Portland

Vancouver BC to Portland OR is 313 miles one way. 6.5 hours.
Last Friday we headed south mid-morning. The sky was brilliant blue, a rim of impressive clouds hung over the horizon and the sun was shining like crazy. It took forever and a huge part of our gas tank just to get across the flipping border!!! I was ready to stab myself repeatedly in the eye by the time we got to our grumpy border guard's little hut. And You know those 'border notices' giving you the 'wait at the crossing' - they're a massive joke. But anyway. We got across and headed down the I-5.
We stopped in Blaine for breakfast at "Tony's White Spot & Cafe".



Spotted an interesting mural around the corner from 'Tony's'.


Got a little experimental after the sun went down and still had an hour or two to drive before we got to our hotel.
 

We stayed in a two bedroom suite! We had a full-sized fridge and a microwave in our 'kitchen' area. Each room had a flat screen TV and each bedroom had its own bedroom. Pretty amazing luxury!!! We stopped for food to stock the fridge and we found goodies like this mocha and whipped cream beauty at "Fred Meyers". Holy smoly!! What a place to shop. And they have aisles and aisles of booze RIGHT IN their supermarkets. One stop shopping. In the morning we had a buffet style continental breakfast in the dining room off the main lobby.

We stopped in a Target on the return trip home, but found nothing. We ate at a Shari's restaurant. OMG You have to try the strawberry/rhubarb pie!!! On the way out of the parking lot and on the final stretch home we stopped to take pictures of this amazing mountain. I believe it's Mount Hood. Please correct me if I'm wrong.


We bought some American beer called "Alaska", some pretty crystals and a few books from Powell's City of Books. I want to be locked in over night in Powell's one day. The place is AMAZING!!! I hope we get back down there again in the future. 

It's fun to go south for the weekend, but let me tell you, it's the greatest feeling to get our passports handed back to us and to roll back onto Canadian soil.