Portland Plane Ride

I like to look out the window on plane trips. On my flights to and from Portland I made sure to get window seats, and I was even more impressed with the view than I thought I would be, especially on the flight up there.

Departing DFW. Talk about "little boxes all the same".

It's Pacman. Totally.






Denver

Mt. Rainier & Mt. St. Helens.

Um, "aft" means "behind". So apparently you're not supposed to step behind the line. You know, the area where you see this GIANT FOOTPRINT! Gulp.

Portland

I really enjoyed my trip to Portland. I had been there once before, but for less than 24 hours, so I was looking forward to being able to spend more time looking around. Not to mention that I was going to meet one of my bestest blog friends, Michelle.

I spent most of the plane ride up there reading Fugitives and Refugees: A Walk in Portland, Oregon by Portland author Chuck Palahniuk. It's a rather unorthodox combination of a travel guide and a memoir. It was fun to pick out things to do from reading this book, and I'm sure Michelle got tired of me saying "The Palahniuk books says...".

I saw some amazing scenery of the type that I rarely get to see, saw some great art, went to an amazing Chinese garden, went to the largest bookstore I've ever seen, arm wrestled a woman, and I had some really good food. I got to see a couple of good bands (one of which was from Texas of all places. Texas!) Hell, I even got to see a bald eagle!

And there was beer. Oh was there beer. I'm now obsessed with Rogue beer (Soba Ale, anyone?). You've got to love a town that offers growlers of beer to outgoing travelers at its airport (save room in your bag). I didn't get as much of the great Portland coffee, with a couple of exceptions, as I should have due to my difficulty in getting out and about at a reasonable hour. I did have my first ever Spanish coffee, though.

All in all it was a fun trip, and one that I hope to make again some day. A big "thank you" goes out to Michelle for being a good tour guide and drinking buddy, and for putting up with me for five days. Thank you!

I will post more about some of the things I did on this trip, but here are some photos to start with:

A Leaf

When I looked out my back window the other day and saw this leaf, I knew I had to take a photo of it because it immediately reminded me of m. heart. So this one's for you, m!



I'm leaving on my trip to Portland today. To meet Michelle, drink some beer, see some sights, and get rained on!

Mission San Xavier

After the fam and I checked out El Nacimiento, we headed to Mission San Xavier Del Bac. It is located on the Tohono O'odham reservation near Tucson, and was built between 1783 and 1797. It's a really beautiful building.

It is unknown why one of the towers was never completed.

The mission is currently undergoing a restoration process. You can clearly tell which side of the exterior has been restored and which hasn't yet.

I love this nativity scene.

Although I had been to the mission before, I had never noticed that the door handles were a snake and a mouse.

Exterior door handle

Some of the local Native Americans cook and serve food underneath these shelters in front of the mission. Although the weather looks really nice, it was unbelieveably windy on the day we were there. We bought some frybread with cheese on top, and the wind would've blown the cheese right off if we hadn't folded our plates in half.