Waterfalls, Portland, and Home

As I started writing this post, I realized I called the falls in the last post, Horsetail Falls.  That was wrong, the ones we saw just before Cascade Locks were actually at a place called Starvation Creek.  I fixed that last post now.  Anyway, in the morning we had a quick breakfast at a little restaurant next to our hotel, and headed toward Portland.  

First we made a quick stop at Horsetail Falls(the real one).  It was beautiful and they had built these stone walls and stairs down to where the falls were. 

 

 

  

We left after enjoying it for a bit, and headed for Multnomah Falls.  These were also beautiful, but much more crowded of course, which isn't my favorite thing.  Ha.  We hiked up a bit though, and thankfully Reed was happy to ride in the hiking pack, because it would have been stressful on the steep, very crowded paths, if he'd wanted to walk on his own.

 It was pretty amazing.

 They had a bunch of search and rescue dogs there for people to meet, which I would've liked to do, if not for the crowds.  So we admired the cute dogs, including a rottweiler puppy who was in training, from afar.  Then I went into the gift shop, stressed for a while about what souvenirs to get for the kids, and gave up and left with nothing.  I regretted that immediately though.  Ha.  

We only had a few more hours before needing to be at the airport, so we headed for Portland.  We wanted one more good meal, and my dad and Trudi had recommended a place called Island Cafe.  We found it and were very glad we did.  It was a cool little place down at the dock, and you could eat inside OR out on the water.  

It was nice out so we ate outside. 

One thing I wanted to do was try some seafood during the trip.  I am not a big fish eater, but I want to teach myself to be, so I figured this was a good time to try some.  I got the tacos with Alaskan Halibut and jalapeno ranch, and came with chips and mango salsa. It was all SOOOOO good.  Jess had fish and chips and loved his too.  I just mentioned this to Jess while typing this and he said "It was delicious.  I want it right now."  Me too.  I could eat that every day.  It was fried in a beer batter so not the healthiest way to have fish, but whatever.  Ha.  

Last on my list was Blue Star Donuts.  While planning the trip I came across two Donut places to try.  The other was Voodoo Donuts, which was the touristy place, but from looking it up, and talking to a couple of people, it sounded like Blue Star Donuts were actually better.  Voodoo makes funky ones, decorated in funny ways and all, and apparently you can wait for hours.  So we went for Blue Star, and it was awesome.  I felt pressured to decide quickly, and picked a basic cinnamon sugar donut, which was fine but didn't blow my mind.  Jess was the smart one here though, and picked a Blueberry Bourbon Basil donut.  It was one of the best things I have ever tasted.  He thought so too.  I felt bad because he ended up sharing.  I should have chosen the same thing.

Reed thought he was cool in Portland again.  :)

Pretty soon it was time to head for the airport.  Reed was adorable, wearing his little backpack.

Until he suddenly had had enough traveling, and screamed his head off in the airport as we got to our gate.  It was full-on tantrum screaming, writhing around in my arms and hitting the highest, screechiest pitch possible.  Everyone was turning to stare, so I took him to the next gate, so everyone we would be flying with wouldn't hate us immediately.  We sat down and he calmed down pretty quickly, thank goodness. I was getting PRETTY nervous about the flight home.  He started being his sweet self though.  

When our flight boarded, he was calm, and we got the Kindle out with one of his shows.  He was so sleepy and I was sure he'd fall asleep any second, but he just kept watching his shows, playing, and looking out the window.  He stayed perfectly happy the whole time, thank goodness. 

JUST as we started the descent into Las Vegas, he decided it was naptime.  :)

We had such a good trip, and thankfully my dad and Trudi took great care of our big kids, so we didn't have to worry about them, as much as we missed them.  They even got an awful stomach bug, starting the very day we left, and Grampa and Grama Trudi had to deal with all that goes with that, on top of getting them to baseball/softball games when they were healthy enough to play.  

We missed them lots and were so glad to come home to them.  Aunt TT took care of them on Sunday, until we got home around 8:30 or 9 pm.  We thought Reed would be SO excited to see them, but when they rushed him at the door, he acted like he'd seen them minutes before, and seemed annoyed when they surrounded him.  Ha!  Pretty soon he seemed to realize, and was running around playing with them, clearly SO happy to be home.