Oregon/Washington

Just exactly how much can you see and do in 4 days? We have found that you can do quite a lot. In just 4 days we saw about 6 waterfalls, tasted wine at 3 wineries, saw 3 large mountains, visited 5 microbreweries, crossed the Oregon/Washington border at least a dozen times, threw and got hit by a few paper airplanes, drove about 600 miles, and went the wrong way on highway 500 about 5 times. This list may leave you scratching your head and asking "what's with the paper airplanes?"

We flew up to Portland for Shaun's cousin's wedding. Since neither of us had spent much time in Portland, we decided to take a 4 day weekend so we could see and do as much as possible. We arrived very early on Thursday morning and immediately took off down the Columbia River. We stumbled on some great little wineries all while enjoying a magnificent view of Mt. Hood, the Columbia River, and lots of waterfalls.

At Multnomah Falls

The wedding was Friday evening, which meant we had most of the day to see more. We drove from our hotel in Vancouver, WA to Mt. St. Helens. We read that the visitor center was just 1 hour north of Vancouver, so it seemed like a great little excursion. However, once we got to that visitor center we couldn't even see the mountain and found out that the best view was another 50 miles away. Fearing we might not make it to the wedding on time, we contemplated not driving the extra distance. But, as you can tell from the pictures, we raced off and made it to the observatory to take some amazing pictures of the mountain and still made it back in time for the wedding (with time to spare).

Mt. St. Helens

Kim and Doug's wedding was held at the Kennedy School, an old school turned into a fascintating hotel. The wedding was just beautiful, very romantic and serene. The cermony was followed by a rather wild and crazy reception. It was here that we learned Sigourney Weaver was the groom's aunt. We had fun with our "celebrating sighting" and took a few random pictures just so we could get her in them. We were seated next to the groom's family table which turned out to be the rowdy group. It was that table that started the paper airplane war. The school theme (complete with paper & pencil favors) made everyone revert back to their elementary school days. It made for a very entertaining and fun wedding reception - one that we won't soon forget.

The next day before joining the newleyweds, family, and friends on a microbrewery bus tour, we drove to Washington Park to check out the International Rose Test Garden. The garden was beautiful with it's more than 7,000 rose plants. We had fun strolling through the gardens and looking at the different names and seeing which roses won medals. After leaving the park, we headed back to the Kennedy School to start the brewery tour. We made 5 stops; the Girl's Room @ the Kennedy School, Bridgeport, Pyramid, Lucky Labradore, and Tug Boat. All were unique and interesting. Even though we aren't big time beer drinkers, we definitely enjoyed the tour, tasting different types of beers, and spending time with family.

The Rose Garden

Having fun tasting beers

On our last day we decided to head into Portland and see what we could see. We had to find VooDoo Doughnuts, which we saw featured on the Top 10 Donut places in the US. We enjoyed some very unique doughnuts. Shaun had a doughnut topped with mini m&m's and Christie had the "old dirty bastard" (that was it's name) which was topped with chocolate frosting, crushed oreos, and peanut butter drizzle. YUM! After our doughnut snack, we walked over to the Classical Chinese Garden. We debated whether or not to pay the admission to go in, but once inside we decided it was a good thing that we did. The garden was so beautiful and tranquil. The brochure they provided had so much information about the different areas of the garden and what they would normally be used for. We left feeling quite smart! We didn't have much time after that before we needed to be at the airport, but we did manage to find a Nordstrom so Christie could check out the Anniversary Sale in a state with no sales tax (what a bonus).

Yummy VooDoo Doughnuts

Enjoying the Chinese Garden

This was another great adventure. We feel so fortunate that we are able to visit new places together and share our experiences with you.

Vegas Baby!

We headed to Las Vegas to celebrate Shaun's big milestone birthday on July 4th. Christie secretly planned the trip with Shaun's best friend, Ken.

On our way out to Vegas, we made a few random stops as part of the "things you must do before you turn 30"...get your kicks on Route 66 (we visited the Route 66 museum in Barstow), take your picture with the tallest thermometer (a little break in Baker where the thermometer read 105 degrees), be a Desperado and get a bird's eye view of Primm (that roller coaster is freaky). Once in Vegas Shaun put money on #29 at the Roulette table, put 29 quarters in the slot machine, and then enjoyed a drink with someone at the bar who was also 29 (Ken flew out to surprise Shaun and met us at the bar at Treasure Island).

From there we headed to Cashman stadium to watch the Dodger's AAA minor league team, the Las Vegas 51's, play the Angel's AAA minor league team, the Salt Lake Bees. The stadium was quite nice and the three of us enjoyed $1 beer night. There were also going to be fireworks after the game, but we left before the end of the 9th inning to head back to the strip. When we left the game around 10 pm, it was still 98 degrees outside.


On Shaun's birthday we explored some of the different hotels. Here we are at the Mirage.
While at the Mirage we visited Siegfried & Roy's Secret Garden and Dolphin Habitat. Below is one of the baby tigers that was just 9 weeks old. There were 6 tiger cubs; all but this one were white tigers.
There weren't going to be any fireworks on the Las Vegas strip, so we drove out to Red Rock Casino. We enjoyed a nice dinner, played some craps, and then went outside to watch the fireworks. We wound up being in the perfect spot to watch them.


Once back on the strip, we headed out to get a view of the city at night.
Christie made some plans for a nice birthday celebration on July 5th, so as not to compete with the fireworks. We had a great dinner at Lawry's Prime Rib before heading to the Wynn to see La Reve. Happy Birthday Shaun!

La Reve was an amazing show. It's set in the round, so everyone has a great view. Every thing takes place in water and on platforms that come out of the water. The performers were so strong and it was incredible to watch what they did knowing that they were all pretty much soaking wet.

The picture above is looking up through an opening in the ceiling where water is raining down as the performers are being lifted up through the opening. At one point, a performer was pulled up through the opening, out of sight, and then dove into the water below. Amazing!