Columbia River Gorge and Washington Park

 We headed out the 84 East for a gorgeous drive along the Columbia River Gorge.  Our first stop was Multnomah Falls.  

 What a site!  It was a little chilly and damp this morning, but the view couldn't be beat.

We did the short hike up to the bridge for a few pictures and a little mist spray from the falls.

 The path up was so pretty with mossy trees

 and trickling streams.

 The sound was so powerful as the water hit the rocks and creek below.

 We stopped in the lodge for some hot cocoa and to check out the museum.

 Even the parking lot area was picture perfect.

 We headed further East and found this cool fish hatchery.

 We saw rainbow trout and sturgeon in all life stages and loved walking around the grounds.

 Above are a few pictures of the Columbia River Gorge along our drive.  We were on the Oregon side and looked over to the state of Washington.

We made one final stop along the 84 for ice cream at the Cascade Locks before heading back into Portland.

 Washington Park is home to the Oregon Zoo, Hoyt Arboretum, Children's Museum, Japanese Tea Gardens and so much more. We took advantage of the sunshine and walked all around the Rose Garden and surrounding grounds.

 Such a unique amphitheater!

 Our last stop of the day was Pittock Mansion…home to Henry and Georgiana Pittock (Portland Pioneers in the early 1900's).

 We toured the many rooms of the mansion

 and walked through the back of the house

to take in the stunning views of downtown Portland.

Welcome to Portland

The girls and I were out the door early this morning for our week long adventure to Oregon.  We arrived in Portland just before lunch, quickly picked up our rental car and headed downtown for the afternoon.

We arrived hungry so made our way directly to the food trucks.  Allison tried the Fried Mac 'n Cheese

 and Taylor and I both got personal pizzas.  We spotted at least 4 different street corners throughout the city that line a parking lot with permanent food trucks.  These areas provide so many different options for lunch and were quite cheap too!

Then it was off to the waterfront to check out the Williamette River and the numerous bridges that line it.

 There is a beautiful walking/biking path that runs for miles along the river and the scenery was just perfect and so was the weather.

 We had many food items to cross off of our list and decided to walk up to the Pearl District for our first one.  There seemed to be a Starbucks on every corner

 and amazing architecture everywhere.

 Although Blue Star isn't the most famous donut shop in Portland, we heard it was one of the best.

 It was pretty darn good! We tried the Chocolate Almond Ganache, Buttermilk Lemon Poppyseed and Real Maple Bacon.

 We even spotted one of Portland's Finest getting a snack!

 About 3 blocks away is one of the largest bookstores in the World…Powell's.

 The place was packed with tourists and locals

 and the bookshelves were packed from floor to ceiling.

 Then we got back in the car 

 crossed the river over to Reed College and took a tour of the Crystal Springs Rhododendron Gardens.

 What a peaceful place!

 We walked along the path to see and listen to waterfalls,

 geese 

 and ducks wading in the pond.  We took in all of the green landscape and warm sunshine before checking into our hotel for the night.

WSB Election

 For the past several weeks Taylor, Devan and Jacob have been putting together their campaign to run for WSB Junior Class Presidents.  They had to make a campaign video and they did theirs as a spoof to Fifty Shades of Grey.  They came to our house to paint big signs to put around campus

 and recruited Allison and her friends to wrap stickers around 1,000 jolly ranchers.

Each sticker said "It would be a JOLLY good idea to vote Devan, Taylor and Jacob as ASB Junior Class Presidents".

They passed them out to all of the sophomores throughout the week and presented their video and speech at the convention.

They created flyers and had them plastered all over campus

Social media was a big tool too and so many of their friends rallied for them on Twitter.

There were some hiccups in the campaign and one team was disqualified for cheating.  They had to do a re-vote and unfortunately, they did not win.  Although disappointed, I'm so proud of their effort.  This is something Taylor would have never considered doing before entering high school and I'm so thrilled she has gained confidence and leadership skills to take this on.  All 3 were very good sports about the loss and Mr. Skaggs has rewarded them with great positions in WSB next year and an invitation to the leadership conference in Big Bear this June!