Our visit to Portland back in September was the second leg of a two week trip that included 3 states and two fabulous destination weddings.  My aunt Jan and uncle Larry live there and were kind enough to host us for a few days.  We had so much fun hanging out with the family, seeing a few sights and getting some much needed R&R.

Our first day there we slept in and spent the afternoon along the Riverwalk in downtown.

Anybody else feel bad for the poor little duck in the back?

The 8-mile Riverwalk is home to four historic bridges.  My cousin Matt is a civil engineer and part of his job is to inspect bridges.  He later shared with us that these four were among some of his first projects.  Pretty cool, huh?

Have to show of a few shots of our cute fam!  This is Larry, Jan, Ali & Matt.

Ali, Matt and their furry kids, Izzy & Bella.

By this point in our trip, we were missing our little Molly pretty bad.  Luckily, we had a chance to get our puppy fix with Bella, Izzy, Jack & Koda :-)

We also had a chance to have lunch with one of Ryan’s old college roommates, Jacob and his wife Jen.  We goofed and forgot to get a shot of all four of us, but at least we managed to snag this one.  Having friends in other states is so much fun!

Our last sightseeing adventure was to Multnomah Falls.  The drive up was gorgeous – full of green trees and winding roads.  Exactly what you’d imagine Oregon to be.

It was pretty much pouring rain when we got there, but we couldn’t pass up the awesome photo op.

We hiked up to the bridge with our cameras and an umbrella we bought at the gift shop to get another view.  Love this shot of the base of the waterfall.  Looks so deserted, doesn’t it?

The 105mm Macro lens sure came in handy for this next shot.

And we made friends with this little guy too :-)

For our our last night we spent the evening out on the town.  We had dinner with the whole fam at one of the many fabulous microbreweries that the city is known for.  Then drinks with Matt & Alli at the Portland City Grill for some awesome city views.  And our last stop was for dessert at the infamous VooDoo Donuts. It’s a funky little hole-in-the-wall donut shop known for it’s unusual take on donuts.  To give you a little “taste” of the menu (no pun intended), they serve donuts such as the Bacon Maple Bar, the Oh Captain My Captain (vanilla frosting with Captain Crunch on it) and the Old Dirty Bastard (chocolate frosting with oreos and peanut butter)!  I had a VooDoo Doll (chocolate frosting with raspberry jelly filling and a pretzel “stake”) and Ryan opted for the Old Dirty Bastard.  Don’t let the crazy names fool you – they were delicious!

Thanks to our awesome family for the wonderful time and for giving us such an awesome place to crash!  Our time spent in Portland was definitely one of the highlights of our trip.  We can’t wait to go back very soon :-)