Birthday Surprise!

For Andrew's birthday I decided to surprise him with a trip. I showed up at his work to whisk him away and the surprise was on me. He WASN'T there! Cam forgot all about the trip and sent Andrew out on some errands. AHH! I was completely freaking out, so when Andrew finally got there I said, "Hey, we gotta go!" Andrew: What? Go where? Me: To the airport, now! Andrew: Why? Me: For your birthday. Now move! (Needless to say this wasn't quite the conversation I planned in my head.) We go zooming to the airport, run to the shuttle, and fling our stuff at the Sky Cap. This is when Andrew FINALLY figures out where we're going. He never even asked on the way to the airport! Talk about trust. Well things just keep getting better because Good News! Andrew's drivers license expired the DAY BEFORE!!!! Seriously, what are the odds? By some miracle the Delta guy gives us the green light and we run right onto the plane before it leaves. At this point I started having bad vibes about the trip.

It was the first time either of us had been to Portland and we were not dissappointed. Check out the view from our room.



We ate dinner at a little restaurant that actually floats on the river. While we ate we watched boat after boat of rowing teams go by. Here's a shot from across the river looking at our hotel.



We wandered all over the city. My one "must" was Powell's. If you are a book lover this is Mecca and you need to make a pilgrimage. We spent a few hours in there and the time just flew by. The only down side was trying to narrow down my purchases to what I could fit in my suitcase. I completely failed to take a picture here. :(

One of the highlights was the jet boat tour. This is way better than an old person river cruise. This thing goes way fast and the tour guide would do spins at his leisure and completely soak us. It was a riot!


Here are the waterfalls we saw...


We also went to the Farmers' market by PSU. We saw flowers, produce and tons of yummy baked goods. We ate our way around this beautiful part of town.




Another highlight was touring around on bikes. We rode up and down the Willamette River. Andrew felt a little uneasy crossing bridges on our bikes. He really didn't like when we had to wait on the bridge while it was raised to allow a boat to go by. There is no gate or anything, just a serious drop off. I had fun pretending I was going to fall over. (Probably mean, but I just couldn't resist.)


We also saw this guy...


The last day we wandered all over Washington Park. Everything was so GREEN!


Before I went to get Andrew I told the kids about the trip. Sam was so upset. To make him feel better I told him that we would bring him back a souvineer. His response? "Oh great! (total sarcasm) What are you going to get me? A piece of poop?" So I am sure you can understand my great pleasure in finding this...



And yes, we did buy it. Aside from actually starting our trip, it was a huge success! We had so much fun and I LOVED surprising Andrew! Thanks to Kelli and Cherie for child care - it wouldn't have happened without you.