Oregon 2012

Over President's Day weekend my friend Sarah and I went to Oregon to visit another friend of ours, Heather, and her husband, Chris. The great thing about visiting someone who has lived in a place you have never visited is that they have some insight on what to see and do or not to see and do. Before the trip I had googled things that we should to in Portland and with Heather's help we created an awesome itinerary. (More like Heather made the best itinerary with her knowledge and my research added just a bit) Also, the library where Heather lived had discount tickets for many of the entrance fees for tourist visits during the trip, great resource to have!

At the Airport: We're really excited to go see Heather

Random side story: Sarah and I flew on SouthWest and when boarding the plane Sarah spotted a cute little old man that she felt would be a safe bet of a stranger to sit by. We sat down and got ourselves settled and then I, trying to be friendly, asked the man a few light conversation questions like, "How are you?" "Is your travel for business or pleasure?" "Are you heading out or heading home?", with the intention that once the flight took off we would settle into our books, music or a nice nap... nope! The man talked to us THE ENTIRE FLIGHT! I did get one thing out of the conversation: The man told us that in life you only want to wear high heels for a short amount of time but running/athletic shoes with an arch support can be worn for ages. He then related marriage to shoes and that even though "high heels" are hot and lots of fun, it is better to have a shoe with an arch support for life.

As soon as we arrived in Portland Heather whisked us off to Multnomah Falls which was near the airport but out of our way for the rest of the trip... made sense to do it first. This was one of my most favorite stops of the trip. It was beautiful and we instantly got to see the green lush environment of Oregon. We hiked to the top of the waterfall which wasn't bad at all except that halfway up it started pouring cats and dogs; that didn't stop us though.

Our next stop was the Pittock Mansion, listed as one of the Top 10 Things to See in Portland. The mansion was home to a wealthy Portland family back in the 1910s and is now open to the public for tours today. The wife of the Pittock Family founded Portland's Rose Festival held every late May/ early June.

The next day we traveled to the coast but not without first stopping at the Tillamock Cheese Factory. FREE CHEESE SAMPLES! You'd be crazy not to stop!

Cape Meares

Cannon Beach

Another one of my favorite stops in the trip

 Haystack Rock

We had lunch at Mo's which is right on Cannon Beach by Haystack Rock. The food was perfect for warming us up and the diner looked out over the ocean without a single thing blocking our view.

On our last day of our visit we went to Portland's Japanese Gardens, Powell's City of Books, and Voodoo Doughnuts.

The Japanese Gardens were beautiful; it was nice and calm for a last day thing.
If you love books you could spend HOURS at Powell's, the store takes up an entire block. It was so much fun to find books that were old and looked so classy and sophisticated. If you only have a limited amount of time, I would make a plan, before you go in, of all the sections you want to be sure to hit.
Voodoo Doughnuts is a must stop. Just a fun, crazy autmosphere. Sarah was brave and got some really fun doughnuts; one of which was a maple bar with a slice of bacon on top... she said it tasted like breakfast.

This trip was a mix of seeing a new place and spending time with old friends. It was so much fun talking and laughing, exploring and eating LOTS of food ( if you can call it that: fruit snacks, peanut butter m&ms, gummy worms, crackers, ice cream. I even got in trouble with Heather's husband for eating a cookie before I ate my breakfast one morning.)

One Cherry on the Top of the trip: While living in Oregon Heather and Chris had gotten hooked on the TV show Finding Bigfoot (a show about people claiming they have spotted Bigfoot and experts going to the locations of these sightings and trying to track him down). They found the show absolutely hilarious but also couldn't get enough of it. They introduced Sarah and I to the show and we loved what a riot it was!

Quick! Can you see Bigfoot in this photo ;)

Heather's Blog Post about our Trip

NYC 2012

I went to New York City with two friends for New Years 2012. The main purpose of the trip was to go visit a friend of ours while her husband was going to school in New York but after we had booked our plane tickets her family surprised her and her husband with plane tickets to come home for Christmas. We were sad we didn't get to spend time with her but so appreciative that they still let us stay at their place.

NEW YEARS

The main event for the trip was New Years Eve in Times Square; an experience that I would tell anyone that you HAVE to at least do once in your life. We weren't sure what to expect and everything we tried to search online just took us to websites to buy tickets for New Years Eve parties around the city which confused us because we weren't sure if they were talking about Times Square or not. Luckily a few of us knew people who had been to New York for New Years and they set the record straight for us.

If you just want to go to Time Square to watch the ball drop it is free, however you do have to get there early if you want a good spot. We got there at 2pm, and it probably took about 30 minutes to get through security, and I would say we got one of the last great spots. Though I would probably tell someone to get there even 2 more hours earlier so that they can have a better view of the stages. We were told bags, drinks and food were not allowed but at our security check they didn't confiscate my friend's draw string bag that she brought with snacks in it. Though they were strict on no alcohol which was nice because then we didn't have to worry about dealing with a drunk in such tight areas. Bathrooms were not provided but there was one girl by us who left after a few hours to use a restroom at a restaurant (they made her buy something first) and security let her back in.

We lucked out with weather, it was unusually warm and we were fine in our coats and beanies. (I was told it is usually freezing and it is good to prepare to be standing in freezing weather so I did wear my under-armor which was nice to have on) We stood in the same spot for 10 hours and we didn't drink anything that whole day in fear of having to use the bathroom. At first we started to question our sanity and wonder why on earth we wanted to stand in one spot for 10 hours. But then we started to talk to the people around us and we met a group from DC that had come up for New Years and we got to know two really fun girls from London (At the end of the night when they said goodbye to us they said, "Cheers Love." We got such a kick out of this!).

While we waited we also became super familiar with the ads being flashed in Times Square and we even would make bets which one would flash next. Tons of free stuff was tossed out to us in the crowds: hats, new years eve kits, snacks, chap stick, etc. Every hour closer to midnight the crowd would count down the last ten seconds to the new hour and then shout, "Three More Hours!" or however many hours were left to midnight. At one point members of each of our militaries (i.e. Army, Navy, etc.) came out and sang their songs and it ended with the national anthem. It was the coolest thing and one of my favorite parts of the night. A highlight of the night was when they played Journey's "Don't Stop Believing" over the PA system and the entire crowd was signing it at the top of their lungs... well I don't know about the top of everyone's lungs but we were and everyone was at least singing.

It was fun to be in the crowd and being a part of the entire experience. For the last few hours there were performances by Justin Bieber, Lady Gaga and other big named artists but our favorite was Pitbull. He was so great and a lot of fun to watch; he was so excited to be there and had so much energy and he got us so pumped.

The night of course ended with the countdown to midnight and confetti falling from the sky and singing more songs. After that we made it back to the subway to go back to the place we were staying but not without being hit on by drunk people in other parties we passed on the way to the subway. Our favorite quote slurred out to us by a guy who could hardly stand up straight was, "Happy New Years beautiful girls."

BROADWAY

Our big splurge of the trip was Broadway. We went to two shows, How To Succeed in Business Without Really Trying and Bonnie and Clyde. It blew our budget a bit but we didn't care; we saved in other areas and it was 100% worth it.

HTSIBWRT was hilarious! We had decided to go see this one because our friends had gone to see it and had said how much fun it was. The show was sold out except for three seats and so we splurged and we're glad we did. Daniel Radcliffe, who plays Harry Potter in the HP movies, was the lead for the show so all day long we kept joking that we were going to see Harry! He actually ended up being fantastic and we all agreed that he should stick to broadway instead of movies. The show itself was witty, fast-pased and a lot of fun. I would recommend it to anyone.

Bonnie & Clyde was a wild card for us. We went to one of those discount booths for day-of sales and ended up with tickets for Bonnie & Clyde. The show was more adult and a drama but we loved it just as much. The music was moving and the storyline was intriguing.

THE SIGHTS
Our plan was to go Ice Skating in Central Park but it was so crowded on the rinks we kind of talked ourselves out of it. Something to go back and do, right?!

We walked around Central Park and saw all the fun statues and memorials and even pretended to play chess at the Chess and Checkers house.

I always love to stop by Macy's and see the original wood escalator and it was a perfect stop because Macy's was still decorated for Christmas.

We went to Rockefeller Center and saw the giant Christmas Tree which was amazing and so beautiful.

One of my friends, who had never been to New York, wanted to go see the Empire State Building but didn't want to go up in it. So we walked to the Empire State Building and we laughed because it was right by Macy's, which we had stopped by earlier in the day, and totally missed the Empire State Building right behind us.

We took the free Staten Island Ferry so that we could pass the Statue of Liberty. This is a great way to save money and see the statue. However, one day I do want to go to the base of the Statue and go to Ellis Island which is right next to it.

We walked across the Brooklyn Bridge which I loved and will from now on make sure to do that every visit to New York.

The 9/11 Memorial was absolutely beautiful and such a neat tribute. We went at night and I liked seeing everything lit up.

FOOD
Food was a funny part of this trip. Here we are, in a city where there is SO much to offer in the food department and that is where we spent the absolute least. BUT we still laugh and talk about our food choices today.

One of my friends is a very picky eater and she brought Roman Noodles to eat any time we were at our friend's apartment for a meal. At first my other friend and I thought she was nuts because 1) Roman Noodles are gross and 2) That would be the last thing I would consider eating on a trip. But then the Roman Noodles started to look good and my other friend and I started to crave them. By the end of the trip we were all eating Roman Noodles AT LEAST once a day. Once we got home we went back to thinking they sounded absolutely disgusting to eat but for some reason on that trip all we could think of to eat were those noodles. Weird I know.

The other thing we got hooked on was $5 Pizza. We were walking around Time Square (on a different day than New Years) and I decided to pull out my phone and google what things to do in Times Square and I found this random article about things to do and see and eat in and around Time Square. The article talk about that there were several pizza places, parallel to Time Square, on 9th Avenue that everyone should try so we headed over there and fell in love. Each of these places had a super cheap deal for $5 for 2 giant slices of pizza and a drink. We ate at one of these pizza places almost every day and I'm still craving these pizzas today.

One of my friends wanted to make sure to get some Falafel and so we stopped at a stand one day. I decided to try one and it wasn't what I imagined it to be but I really liked it and would eat it again.

We also made sure to get cheesecake from Magnolia Bakery, which is seen in movies and TV shows, and we took our little mini cheesecakes to eat on the Brooklyn Bridge.

Overall it was a great trip and a lot of fun. We repeated some things and did new things too and I couldn't have asked for anything better.