Portland, OR Birthday Travels

For the second leg of my Birthday trip this year I flew from Puerto Vallarta, MX back to San Francisco and then on to Portland Oregon to stay the weekend with Katie and Tim!  It was pretty overcast most of the weekend, but it didn't stop us from having a great time.

Friday Katie had the day off so we started out at the Tin Shed for a delicious breakfast.  It was close enough to Katie's house that we could walk there with her dog Radah.  They are a pet friendly restaurant so Radah came right on in with us and sat below the table.  The wait staff are used to pets so Radah got her own bowl of water and a little snack!  I had an asparagus Eggs Benedict that was phenomenal!

That afternoon we went to the Portland Rose Gardens and walked around.  The roses weren't yet in bloom, but some of the other flowers were.  We also walked through the Japenese garden.  Such a beautiful park and area. Then we went downtown Portland for some window shopping and ended up at a Sushi bar "Yama Sushi & Sake Bar".  We ended up eating more than I thought we would, it was delicious, too!  We tried our first Sake flight - our agreed favorite was the pare flavored one.  After more walking around in the downtown area Katie took me over to a place she'd been wanting to try "Sacuebox".  Here I ordered not one but TWO of the "Jade Scorpion" which is a Thai chili vodka, ginger infused vodka, Thai basil, grapefruit, lemon-lime and finished with ginger brew.  Amazing!

Saturday was the day of my Birthday!  I love it when my Birthday lands on a Saturday, whooot!  The first thing I did was go for a 10 mile run from Katie and Tim's place to downtown Portland.  It was a lot of fun running from their house over the river into the city and then back.  You can see the run on my Runkeeper page.  After I got back from my run, Tim, Katie, me and Radha packed up our gear and hopped into the car headed for the State of Washington to go hiking up to Falls Creek Falls.  The weather was still overcast, but at least it didn't rain on us.  We hiked the almost two miles in and took some pictures.  It was really pretty and the whole area was really wet from all the mist and water that was getting about everywhere.  I used Runkeeper to track the hike back down from the Falls to the car.

You'd think after all that I'd be done for the day.  Nope!  Time to meet up with Song, Clint, David and Katie for dinner at Deschutes Brewery in downtown Portland.  It was a really nice dinner and we had a good time.  Then we all headed over to CC Slaughters for drinks and dancing.  It didn't take but a few drinks before I knew what was happening and I was out dancing on the dance floor!  While I was out tearing it up I met a guy named Bryan.  We danced the rest of the evening as David, Clint and Katie made their way out to the floor too at various points.  I think I even saw Song and Tim dancing.  What a wonderful Birthday night!

By Sunday it was time to go back home.  Portland, I'll never forget you.  All of my pictures from the trip are posted on my photobucket account.  Thanks Katie for all the fun!  Can't wait to come visit you and Tim again!