Portland Day 4 - Partly Cloudy

Sun, you say?! Yes, sun, ALL day in fact. Too bad I had to spend it inside finishing putting my room together. Someone I met last night was telling me that people in the Portland area don't struggle with the weather so much as the claustrophobia. Interesting..... please go on. Sun will peak through every now and then, but on the other hand there are endless trees and hills. You cannot see very far, or very much. Take this view out my bedroom window for example. It illustrates exactly what she was describing. If that's all I have to worry about, then I'm golden. As long as there's occasional sun, I'm go to go.

Tonight I went to Wasabi to meet up with my future/soon-to-be classmates. I'm really excited about the people in my group. I met some really great people. Our class size is 46 and a little over half are female. The average age I would say is right around my same age, maybe just a tad older. Maybe 25 or so showed up to tonight for the informal get together, but I know I'm going to like these guys! I'm excited to start studying/working with them. One girl and I convinced a guy sitting next to us to eat some sushi. It was awesome, you should have seen his reaction. He's never had it before and was convinced he'd hate it. Well, after destroying a roll trying to get it on his fork (and prolong the inevitable) he finally swallowed it. And he liked it! Of course! Who wouldn't like sushi.......??

Portland Day 3 - Light Rain with Occasional Outbursts of Sun

Today was a shopping and exploration day. We were like Lewis and Clark themselves! Ok, not really but I always love exploring and finding my way around a new city. It reminds me of being in Europe. Oh Europe! But, that's another post for a later day.......

So apparently I live super close to everything good. Washington Square Mall is about 10 minutes. We're talking H&M, Nordstrom, Pottery Barn, Williams Sonoma, Apple, among others. One of the best malls I've ever seen. Costco is also about 10 minutes. Here I am testing out a desk..... haha!

Church is about 10 minutes away. The temple is 10 minutes about as well. My sister and I just happened upon it while driving. And yes, that is me jumping at the bottom of the photo :)

Downtown is only 15 minutes. I love my location, not to mention it's a super nice area and neighborhood.

Elise and I explored Lewis & Clark College a bit since that's where our parents went to school and met. It's a beautiful area, set in the woods.

The river front would also be a fun place to hang out at night. You can stroll along the river and stop at an occasional shop or two and try a delectable vegan pastry :)

I stocked up on furniture at Ikea. Couldn't resist taking a picture, but here's your first clue to how environmental-friendly Portland is.....

Oh, there will definitely be more to follow on this subject! Environmental-friendly that is :)

For FHE, I also got in my first hike, of the many to come, at the Tualitan Wildlife Refuge.

I love this city already!

Portland Day 2 - No Sun

After such a long day, we slept in pretty late. Fortunately church wasn't until 1:30 pm. How was church? Well......the ward is super big, but also super young. It wasn't very encouraging. I guess a lot of kids come home for the summer, thus it's youngness. My two roommates (who are way cool by the way) go to two different wards so I think I'll go try out the other ward next time and then choose which one to officially attend. We shall see.....

Elise and I drove to my school to time how long it would take. Google Maps said it was 30 miles. It took us 25 minutes, but that's without traffic. It's a little bit of a commute, but I would rather live where I live and with the girls I live with. The drive is sweet. It's through the back farm country with apple farms, vineyards, alpacas, miniature horses, and LOTS of greenery. I think it will be a pleasant drive.

Portland Day 1 - 13 hr. drive turned 16 hr. drive

Granola or bust!! My sister, Elise, and I left early Saturday drive for the long drive to Portland. Yes, road trip! Except we didn't know how long it would really be....

I had rotated the tires on my car 2 days previous and thought everything was fine and dandy. Until the car started shaking uncontrollably. So much so that we stopped in Boise to get it looked at. Turns out my back tires (that were now on the front) had a huge groove in them. The rest of the tire had perfect treads except for that one spot. New tires here we come! I decided to wait where I can buy them tax free (here in Oregon) so they just rotated them back to how they were before. Pointless stop? After 2 hrs. I might be tempted to say yes, but at least I now know I need new tires, the shaking stopped, and they found a screw in my tire which they repaired. We were back on our way!

We passed a car with 2 bumper stickers: "Obama Sucks" and "Honk if you Love Arizona." Honk we did!! The dude waved enthusiastically at us as we passed him on the left. As for the first bumper sticker, I'll leave that one up to you...

Once we finally got to Portland after the forever long stretch of river driving along the Oregon/Washington border we hit some unexpected bumper to bumper traffic. We had to quickly find an alternate route using the GPS. After navigating though downtown for a while, we finally were on our way once more. Of course, it was Sunday the next day so we took a pit stop for some groceries.

After all was said and done, we got in about 1 am. The longest day of my life...... But adventure is waiting in store!

Goodbye Utah

All of these goodbyes are too much for me. Before leaving Utah I had a Bucket List of things to do, either things I hadn't done before and always wanted to do OR things I loved to do and wanted to do just one last time. It was a pretty good list. I actually was able to do a lot more than I expected, squeezing everything in within the last 3 weeks. Are you ready for the list....? (and in no particular order....):

1. The Living Planet Aquarium

2. Hogle Zoo

3. Hike the Y

4. Eat at Gourmadise - European bakery in downtown SLC

5. Baseball game - UVU will have to do for now....next time, it's the Salt Lake Bees!

6. Drive-in movie theater - loved it so much I went twice in one week!

7. Hill Air Force Base Museum - coolest place EVER!

8. BYU Museum of Art - Carl Bloch exibihit

9. Picnic

10. Salt Lake Temple

11. Mt. Timpanogos Temple

12. Inn & Out

13. J'Dawgs

14. Play croquet

15. Real Salt Lake game

16. Shave Ice

17. Mtn. bike Deer Creek Reservoir

18. Mtn. bike Lambert Park

19. Mtn. bike Provo River Trail

20. Hike Stewart Falls - only attempted (still packed with snow)

Best part is, I get to save the things I DIDN'T get to do when I come back and visit in August:

1. Spanish Fork Reservoir

2. Longboard

3. Moab

4. Antelope Island (mtn. bike)

5. This is the Place - Heritage Park

6. Salt Lake Bees

7. Wakeboarding

8. Hike Ensign Peak

9. Lava Hot Springs

10. Timp Caves

11. Hike Timp

12. Mtn. Bike Big Springs

13. Live Jazz in SLC

14. Comedy Sportz

15. Manti Temple

16. Rodeo

Utah has treated me extremely well over the last seven years (minus the one in Spain). It is an outdoors-(wo)man's paradise! Not to mention summer is the BEST part. There is always so much to do and so much going on. Not to mention all of the individual city festivals that go on all summer long. And I don't even get to enjoy it this year. You all better live it up for me!! Starting with the Scandinavian Festival in Ephraim next weekend. Good thing I had Swedish meatballs at Ikea today to make up for it. Utah, I will miss you dearly!