To Portland and Beyond

We started off our day early with a jaunt downtown Portland in search of......whatever we could find. We found a quaint restaurant called Mother's Bistro that was a mixture of cute decor you'd find in your grandmother's house (glass chandeliers, rose patterned couch cushions and wooden benches, and pretty white floor length curtains). They also happened to serve a spectacular breakfast menu - which was handy because there was nowhere else in town that was open before 10 am. Alfredo and I dined in style on another breakfast that was not only hearty, but healthy as well. Slow cooked organic oatmeal with brown sugar and fresh squeezed grapefruit juice....mmmmmmmm.

After breakfast we headed down the streets looking for adventure and found the cute pagoda that marked the entrance to Chinatown and the Chinese Garden. This manicured phenomenon takes up one city block and is meant to be a tranquil haven of lush greenery and flowers for meditation. Today was "elementary schoolers field trip day" so there were about 10 classes of loud and rowdy kids running across the wooden bridges, screaming and yelling "THIS PLACE IS SO BEAUTIFUL!!". Minus the craziness, it really was quite stunning and made for some great photo opps with Alfredo posing next to the statues of roaring stone lions. :)

Later in the morning, we returned to the hotel and I tested out the services at the hotel spa by getting a facial treatment, Avalon style. This meant a preliminary foot bath and massage, hand massage and shoulder massage, and then finally an hour of wonderful face beautification. This was my first time getting a facial, and I marveled at how my skin was so soft and hydrated afterwards. In fact, I'm still touching it right now. It feels as good as when I left the spa this morning!

Around noon we hopped in the car and journeyed down to Salem and Kaizer, about 40 minutes drive to visit some friends of Alfredo's. We had a great time visiting with Alfredo's old neighbor, Ralph: an 88 year old man with the spunk of a young kid. He took us through a tour of his apartment (a dry and stuffy old place with knick knacks lining the dusty shelves and old black and white photos of his family who is all deceased). He surprised us by telling us that he still goes out dancing every weekend down the street at the local square dancing joint. He's just as good, only a little slower than he used to be, he said. :) We visited a couple other friends and Alfredo showed me around all his favorite places in Salem where he used to live. We had a fantastic late lunch at a Mexican restaurant and were served by a waitress named Jaunita who was an exact copy to Alfredo's mom, Alejandra. We fell in love with her immediately when she served me a huge (I mean HUGE) plate of food and then asked if she could sit down and help me eat it. :) She also gave us a little tin foil sculpture full of Mexican candies as a souvenir of our trip. We promised to come back and visit her again next time we're in town. She was just one of the many wonderful, friendly people we've met so far.

We capped off the afternoon by shopping at the local Fred Meyer store because Alfredo kept telling me that it was SOOO much better than Target. ha ha..... After scoping it out, it definitely had some potential, but really, is there any comparison to Target?? I think not. ;)

Having maxed out our time in Salem, we decided to throw caution to the wind and drive down to Lincoln city to see the ocean. It turned out to be a bit longer than the 30 minutes Alfredo had estimated. In fact, it was nigh sunset when we got there an hour later. While the view was spectacular, the wind was FREEZING and gave me a pounding headache. We tried to stand by the waves for about five minutes and then ran back to the car as fast as we could! It sounded like such a great idea in theory......

The wooded forests and vineyards on the drive to Lincoln City were incredible though. The tall old growth pines are the supposed hiding place of Bigfoot and we had our eyes peeled the whole time for a glimpse of his hairy legs. We didn't see any hairy legs, but we did find the Spirit Lake Casino hidden in the hills and we stopped there for fun. Alfredo played a couple of slot machines and I found replicas of the Blues Brothers and other strange statues hiding amongst the trees in the hallway. We bought some souvenir wine glasses at the gift shop and then headed for home to relax and taste some of the local wine we had bought earlier in town. Ahhh.....the perfect end to a busy day!