Wednesday, June 15, 2011

My Weekend in Pictures

Instead of babbling on and boring you about my weekend in Portland, I've decided to pull just a small handful of photos from the file and share them. I seriously went overboard and have probably a couple hundred shots just from two days in the lovely sunshine!

First up was a visit to the Rose Festival area. Mainly I was ready to watch the Dragon Boat races. Teams would load up and paddle down to the start area. Then when the horn went off it was a race to the flags. If you look at the following picture you'll see two people hanging off the front of the boats reaching for the flag. This particular heat was neck and neck - and it was two boats full of breast cancer survivors. Notice how they are rocking the pink paddles!




After watching about 4 different heats we picked up our blanket and moseyed along the water checking out the ships. It was Fleet Week and had I felt the desire to be patient, we could have waited in line to go check out some of the ships.


We decided to head up and zig zag through the downtown streets visiting any random shops we felt like. But I was sidetracked when I saw the Grand Floral Parade and the Budweiser Clydesdale Horses!


Next top was Powell's Books, which if you haven't been there, it is HUGE - this picture does not do it justice. Biker Boy sent me in the direction of the sports books and went on his own way. Later we met up and I plopped down $40 for 3 new books. You'll see those later!


I was hungry, it was time to put food in my belly! So we had a lovely lunch at the Deschutes Brewery. The rush had passed, so our server let us just hang out and take our time, and even brought us 3 specialty beers to sample. I don't even like beer, but dang it I tested each one of them!


After this were the naked cyclists from my previous post. We found this awesome vintage clothing shop that I had so much fun in! It was called Magpie - for any of you Oregonians familiar with the area. Loved it - and what an adorable tiny dog sleeping on the counter!  Foot Traffic was the next big stop to check out shirts and anything else I might want. You'll see that later, too!

Then we were back at the water and the Rose Festival. By this time all of the big winning floats were lined up on display. They smelled so good - all made from various forms of plants. My favorite was made by the Reser folks, and it is pictured below.


There was more shopping at Portland Running Company before I took a power nap on the couch. We ended up spending the evening babysitting BB's nieces while his brother and sister-in-law had a night out. ---that gave me some quality time with facebook.

The next day we went to the Oregon Zoo! BB's brother joined us, with his nieces, and we all had a really great time! SO many cute animals that I wanted to keep. It would be mind numbing for you to see all the photos, so I pulled out just a couple. First up ... a Beaver!!  -- Come on, I wouldn't be a good OSU girl if I didn't fawn all over the adorable little beaver it its lodge. There was even a baby!


And here is the trio of the day. BB's niece, A, was my little shadow. I don't know that the two of us ever really separated, but that's totally okay. She knew the animals by their names, she was on her 3rd visit this week. Basically, I was her - but in high school. Nearly every week I would be at the Wildlife Safari visiting "my" animals. (Wildlife Safari is a drive through park where animals actually walk right up to your car!)


In the African section we came upon the cheetah area. Come to think of it, I never saw a single cheetah. This is okay - Wildlife Safari (very close to my town) is a top cheetah breeder, so I'm just really used to seeing them. But you know what's cool about a cheetah? They are BORN TO RUN!


I was on a mission of sorts. Animal butts. I just love them. They are so cute! I mean how can you not like a polar bear toosh? The elephants and this rhino, however, well, they were showing off something different...


And this concludes my weekend in Portland, Oregon! It was absolutely beautiful and I had a fabulous time!




Now - the shopping part! Here are the books I picked up that I can't wait to read!





And then there were the clothes, stickers, water bottle, hat and energy gels! Hm, it is kind of hard to see. The bottom is a grey t-shirt with a green Oregon and 13.1.  I picked up a Hippie Chick sticker for my race bib scrapbook project. And then the Nike shirt is for Pride weekend. The whole front is a bunch of words (equality, lesbian, transgender, etc....) that make up the Nike and the Swoosh. And then I bought the hat to wear at Lacamas Lake 1/2 Marathon, and that little bottle I'm hoping to use at Seattle so I can carry some electrolytes with me as Lesley suggested.


13 comments:

  1. I need that Nike Pride shirt in my life. Did you get it from the Nike store?

    And your weekend looked like a fabulous time!

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  2. I sure did! Picked it up at Nike Town. Maybe they sell it online? Not sure! I love it!

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  3. I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE Run Like a Mother! Great book. Looks like a fun weekend.

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  4. ooohhhhh...that Brain Training book looks neat!

    I'm gearing up to coach a running club and that could come in handy!

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  5. What an awesome penis. I mean, weekend. WEEKEND. WHO SAID PENIS?

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  6. those horses have some nice booties. seriously! they look good!

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  7. Love the shopping loot!!

    Sounds like you had a grand time.

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  8. Looks like a great weekend!

    I just recently read Running for Women and really liked it.

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  9. Wow, got this really odd pop up when I clicked on comment...

    So, there are currently no cheetahs at the zoo. He went to a different zoo and they are waiting to get a new girl cheetah. And the rhino just got a new girlfriend after his last one passed several years ago. Clearly he is ready for some action!

    Have you seen my collection of zoo tooshies? I have a natural talent for photographing them. It's a gift.

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  10. We should do the zoo together sometime and get all the tooshie photos we can!

    I think I took more of their backsides than their faces. I was about to do a blog of JUST the animal butts!

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  11. I like the Nike Pride shirt. Will have to purchase it online.

    So envious of your weekend in Portland. Mark and I loved the Oregon Zoo when we visited it, but we wished it hadn't rained that day. Boo!

    I really want to read Kara Goucher's book.

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  12. Love Powells!! I try to visit when I'm in Portland. Looks like you got a lot of good stuff!

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  13. What an amazing trip!

    Jealous!

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