Vacation!

Andy and I went to Oregon for a long weekend. My cousin Sean married his longtime girlfriend Megan, and we couldn't be more excited for them! It was a great weekend. We arrived late Thursday night and on Friday spend the afternoon touring Portland with a brew-master and visiting a few of the breweries in Portland. I think Andy was in heaven! We visited 4 breweries and a tap-house and had a wonderful time. We had just enough time to change and walk from our hotel to the church for the rehearsal/welcome dinner. It was great to see everyone, even if only for a short time that night. On Saturday, we went to the Saturday Market, which was just few short blocks from our hotel. It was pretty fun, and I loved looking at all the artist booths. We met someone who makes some really tasty jams (http://www.guyotfamilyfarms.com/mystore/), we saw some monster purses (each with their own name, http://store.ladymdesigns.org/index.cfm?fuseaction=product.display&product_ID=6) and an artist who does all her art with numbers (http://www.siennamorris.com/)!



Saturday evening was the wedding. The vows were wonderful - the bride and groom wrote their own and you could tell they put a lot of thought into them. The reception was totally amazing, and it was fun to eat and dance with family for awhile.

Sunday we didn't have any real plans. While at breakfast, the power went out. Now, this shouldn't have been a major problem, but the breakfast was in the lower level - no windows, and they have no emergency lighting! It was totally dark! Then, the fire alarm went off, so instead of darkness, there were strobe lights in the room. What an adventure trying to navigate out of the basement with just a few smart-phones to light the way! Once the breakfast adventure ended, we had a bit of a lazy morning and then hopped in the car and started heading towards St. Helens. We stopped at a golf course along the way and hit a bucket of balls at the driving range. It was tons of fun, and we all got a good laugh because I totally suck at golfing! When we got to St. Helens, we walked along the river for a bit and then visited two of the local bars. Those of us from the east coast learned about a shot called a duck fart...