Day Date

On Sunday, Scott and I were able to sneak away for a day date to the Portland Timbers game with some friends.  This is becoming our new date routine, doing them during daylight hours instead of evening.  It was my first Timbers game and I was kind of able to understand the game of soccer, shocker.  It was extra special because the Timbers beat the Seattle Sounders, their biggest rival.  Thank you to Jessie and Kyna for inviting us to tag along!

Date Night

Saturday night we had a much needed date night!  First we stopped by Spirit of 77 for some German beer, appetizers and to watch the Blazer game on the big screen.  Scott knew I wanted to find a photo booth as something fun to do and it just so happens they have one at 77.  It is funny to see the progression of the photos, they seem to get better as you go down. 

Dinner was at Olympic Provision in NW Portland for cured meats and wine.  (It is also on our list of restaurants to try in 2012.)  The Chef's Platter had us reminiscing of our time abroad and how common it was for us to eat cured meats every Sunday as we drank a bottle of wine and enjoyed the day of rest in Switzerland.  Now it seems our weekends go by way too quickly and there is lots of running around.

Thank you Scott for the night out and a big thank you to my parents for watching Belle.

3 F's: Fall, Football & Fishing

FALL:  Beautiful colors seen on our weekend walk around the neighborhood

FOOTBALL:  Scott and I went to the OSU versus UW football game in Corvallis this past weekend.  Our first full day away from Belle!  It was so fun to watch them win a game, even if we were almost frozen by the end of the day.

FISHING:  Pierre, Raph, Scott and Kyle had a successful salmon fishing trip on Sunday.  Our refrigerator is now full of fish to be smoked tomorrow.  We really need to invest in a freezer for our basement sooner than later.

Weekend Road Trip

Scott and I decided to get out of town for a night this past weekend, we drove around southwestern Washington and into eastern Oregon looking at potential fishing sites for him and just exploring new areas. Our driving ended in Dufur, Oregon, population 588, at The Historic Balch Hotel.  We love finding small hotels with history and this was a perfect spot for our one night away.  We enjoyed playing cribbage on their patio in the perfect weather, drove to The Dalles for dinner and went to see the movie Rise of the Apes.  We need to have these dates nights before Baby Girl B. arrives!  If we are within a 50 mile radius of The Deschutes River, we always make a stop for a few hours so Scott can get some fishing in.  Given that we were on the river during the hottest hours of the day, he did really well.  I think he is starting to get the hang of it.

Howdy

Looking down at the Klickitat River

Relaxing on the patio at the hotel

My first ever cribbage win against Scott!  My second win followed shortly after...

Our quaint hotel

 

Yes, we walked into a farmer's field to take these shots before heading out of town.

Scott with his rainbow trout

We probably saw at least 1,000 people floating the river yesterday, the conditions were perfect for it too. If only I could have crawled down those rocks and jumped in!

Hood to Coast - The Movie

Have you heard of the 197 mile relay from Mt. Hood to the Oregon coast?  If you live in Oregon and are a runner, most likely you have participated since it began 30 years ago.  Scott has ran it four times and I walked the Portland to Coast relay once and I imagine we will be involved in the races again in the future.  Last night we attended the opening night of the Hood to Coast documentary with some friends and a full theater of Hood to Coast runners.  The movie follows four separate teams through their journey of preparing for the race to the finish line in Seaside.  Each team has a different reason for being in the race and of course there are some tear jerking moments (or at least for me there were).  Scott and I give this documentary two thumbs up!  Even if you are not a runner (like me) or have not participated in the race, go out and support this film made in Oregon, I don't think you will be disappointed.

Laurelhurst Market

Mouth watering brisket, house made mozzarella, steak and greens, fingerling potatoes and house made chocolate sorbet all made it our best anniversary meal yet!  Totally worth the hype.

Moon & Sixpence British Pub

Yesterday Scott and I strolled down to Moon & Sixpence, a British Pub in our neighborhood, for some beer and a few games of darts.  They have a vast beer selection, seventeen on tap yesterday, and the menu is traditional British pub food.  We plan to go back to try the food out soon.  Maybe if we have a snow day this week?

Scott's winning bulls eye

Hey, three on the dart board and not on the wall!

Peacock Lane, Colgate & Tasty n Sons

Another week has gone by and once again I didn't make a blog post.  Here is a recap of our week!

Date night for the week was trying a new Hawaiian food restaurant in Portland called Ate-Oh-Ate and a tour of Peacock Lane.  I finally found a Portland attraction that Scott had never attended!  The people that live on this street are so generous in decorating their homes, paying outrageous power bills and letting hundreds of people walk up and down it every single night.

I think this guy means to be at a rave instead of a Christmas attraction.

Guys night out on Saturday included Cory, Scott, Mark, Josh and Mark P.  Don't they look thrilled to have me taking their photo?  I won't go into the details of where their night took them.

Christmas came early with Mark P. staying with us!  He works for Colgate traveling the world auditing the company and always brings his "goody" suitcase full of products.  THANK YOU Mark for giving us enough toothpaste and tooth brushes to last us a year.

Before sending Mark P. and Cory off on Sunday morning, we went to breakfast at the new hot spot in Portland, Tasty n Sons.  We arrived twenty minutes early and we only had 20 or so people in front of us.

The rest of the day we hiked the Wildwood trail in Forest Park, grocery shopped at a favorite local spot for fresh pasta and started our 2011 goals list.  More on that later.  

Spirit of '77

We are back from taking a blogging break while we worked on getting settled in our new home.  I still would not say we are "settled," but the place is starting to look better and soon enough we will have pictures on the wall and be more organized.

Now, to this past Friday night.  Scott organized a birthday celebration for his colleague, Sean, at a new sports bar called Spirit of '77 here in Portland.  A fellow Linfield alum and friend of mine, Fritz, happens to be part of the group that owns the bar.  We enjoyed tasting their happy hour food and drinking their $1 can beers and shooting some hoops.  The night ended with a late night dinner at Montage, the best spicy mac in town.  Happy Birthday Sean and congrats to Fritz on his new venture!

Prost!

Feel the need to celebrate Oktoberfest in Portland?  We found the perfect spot, Prost! on the corner of N. Mississippi Ave. and N. Skidmore.  We enjoyed German bier, brats and sauerkraut, rye bread and pretzels.  The occasion for this night out was to see our friend Mark Pauley who is in town for the weekend.  Mark travels the world (literally) for his job and it is always special to see him, even if it is once a year.  Last year we saw him in July in Geneva, here is where you can see some photos from a hike we took together.  Until next time our dear friend!

Sunset Boulevard

Last night was date night with the Deckers to see Sunset Boulevard at the Gerding Theatre in Portland.  A perk of being in Portland again is being able to support the arts and see a play that takes you back in time.  We definitely plan to see more performances this season.  Right now The Santaland Diaries are at the top of my list, but next time we plan to do rush line to save our pennies.

Sunday

A few shots from our Sunday.

While waiting for the new tires to be installed on the Pathfinder (finally got Scott to replace them), I shopped for some new fishing gear.  This Barbie fishing net would have been perfect for me back in the day when I loved all things Barbie.

We biked Marine Drive pathway from the I-205 bridge down past Salty's and back.  It was the perfect afternoon for a bike ride and gorgeous view of Mt. Hood.

The weekend ended with dinner at 50 Plates with Tia and Andrew.  I recommend trying the Tuna Poke.

Bike Ride & Water Jets

Did you get outside to enjoy the gorgeous weather this weekend?  Today we spent a wonderful day together, finally we had a Sunday together again.  We biked part of the Springwater Corridor and took the Willamette Jet Boat tour, yes we were tourists for the afternoon.  If you have out of town guests and the weather is sunny and hot, then send them on down to the river to take this tour!  We sat in the front row and were completely drenched within the first five minutes.  To see the city of Portland from the river was a new perspective for me and I enjoyed all of the fun facts were learned along the way.  Oh yes, and we might just have a new home in our future, it sounds like our offer was accepted!

Vest Sledding

Before we rode the alpine roller coaster, Scott decided to use his vest for some sledding down the snow shoe trails.  It somewhat worked.  We learned the keys to a successful vest sledding experience is speed, putting your legs up and finding the right amount of slope.  We were not able to capture my entire ride on the video, which is unfortunate since I just about ran into a group of cross country skiers.

Alpine Coaster

After snow shoeing yesterday, we rode the alpine coaster at the resort.  This was the main reason we chose to snow shoe at the resort.  The video below gives you an idea on how the ride went for me and my explicit use of the word BRAKE!

Scott sat in the back and I rode in the front, we barely fit!

Going up

Lots of smiles

One Year Anniversary

Today we are celebrating our one year anniversary of marriage!  The first year was full of amazing memories from moving abroad together, trips around Europe and most importantly, learning how to be supportive, loving spouses to each other.  We have a lot of exciting plans for 2010 and I wouldn't want to tackle it with anyone else other than Scott.  Here are a few photos looking back on our special day.

Here's to many, many more anniversaries and memories!

Avatar

Scott and I went to the Rex Theatre in downtown Geneva yesterday to watch Avatar.  It was my first movie in a theatre in Swtizerland, amazing since I have lived her close to one year.  The cost was 18 francs each and it was in it's original voice of English with subtitles in French and German.


We really enjoyed the film and would like to see it again in 3-D to see the full effect of James Cameron's vision.  I found myself on the edge of my seat in many scenes and squeezing Scott's leg or hand.  It also reminded us as a futuristic Dances with Wolves, once you see the film you will understand why we think this.


This afternoon we are going to be meeting up with our friends, Kyle and Ashley, to watch the recorded Rose Bowl.  We are currently avoiding any website where we think we might learn the results.  Go Pac-10!

Just being kids...

Photos from our run/bike ride today.  It is absolutely gorgeous outside, lots of sun and very warm.  You would never guess it is winter right now.

Scott running hills, he ran it four times!  I was able to do it twice.

Then a little while later we discovered this huge puddle!

Scott going first

It was not very deep

My turn!

As always, Scott making me smile.