Mother's Day Weekend in Portland

I thought that, since Father's Day is only a week away, it'd be fitting for me to post about our Mother's Day weekend in Portland. This weekend can also be known as "The Weekend We Decided to Take a Break from Traveling Thanks to Finn." 

Mike suggested Portland for Mother's Day since it's only a few hours away.  There isn't a ton to do in the city, but enough downtown and the surrounding area to make it worth a weekend trip, so I eagerly agreed. In the weeks leading up to our trip, I pictured a few different scenes.

1.  Us strolling down very hipster streets with our smiling one year old looking out from his stroller.

Reality: Mike and I walking down the street, Finn trying to escape from his stroller so he can crawl around and a homeless guy begging for money.

This is not a bad selfie. It's me taking a picture of  a man WITHOUT HIS PANTS ON.  Why?????

2.  Mike and I sleeping soundly in a king size bed as Finn slept soundly in his pack n play. 

Reality: Finn waking up multiple times throughout the night. I should have known that this would be the reality because he never sleeps well when we travel.  Actually, he never sleeps well, but that's 

another post. 

3.  All three of us enjoying a nice, leisurely Mother's Day brunch full of mimosas and savory breakfast foods.

Reality: Us waiting in line for 45 minutes to get in to a brunch place, which meant Finn had used up all of his patience before we even got seated, so Mike and I spent the entire brunch rotating walking around with Mike.  I did get a mimosa though. 

4.  We would arrive home and Finn would be happy to play with his toys and stretch his legs after a few hours in the car.

Reality: Finn screamed anytime I put him down or tried to let Mike (his father who he normally adores) hold him. 




My peaceful and relaxing weekend that I imagined never happened and I think we have both realized that traveling with a one year old is not relaxing.  There is a difference between a trip and a vacation and this was definitely a trip. That being said, it wasn't all chaos.  There were a few moments of fun and funny, which were much more appreciated after lots and lots of crazy.

It was colder than I expected and I had left Finn's jacket back in the hotel room.  I wrapped my sweater around him thinking he would last two seconds before he pulled it off.  Instead, he rode around like a little old lady with her sweater wrapped around her for about ten minutes before it fell off and I wrapped it around him again. Repeat. 

Mini Stonehenge

There were some pretty streets and the weather was gorgeous.

My best friend Karen's boyfriend (did you follow that?) recommended Powell's bookstore and it didn't disappoint.  It's a huge bookstore with shelves and shelves of books.  Mike was less than impressed and just kept saying "I've got my kindle," while I was restraining myself from buying every book in sight.  In hindsight, I should have told him I would just spend the rest of the weekend there.  Peace and quiet and books. What more could I want for Mother's Day?

We did buy Finn a few books, though.  One was used, one was on the banned book list (Moo Cluck Baa), and this one.  Guess who picked it out for Finn? :D 

Brian, Karen's boyfriend also recommended VooDoo Donuts, which has all sorts of donuts made fresh.  We went Saturday morning and were so hooked we returned for a second bite on Sunday!

We passed by Finnegan's Toy Store.  The toys were a little too old for Finn, but still exciting!

We went out to dinner one night and Finn spent the entire dinner staring at the baby girl at the table next to us.  It cracked us up!

We spent Saturday afternoon wine tasting which was as wonderful as it seems, especially since Finn napped through most of it!

And, despite his poor travel behavior, Finn had many moments that reminded us how much we love him and how lucky I am to be his mom. 

The Last Few Days

If you've been following along and made it this far, props to you.  It hasn't been consistent and it's probably been a little boring at times (just like our trip!), but it hopefully was interesting and the pictures were hopefully pretty! 

Our last few days weren't the most exciting or touristy.  The big highlight was stopping in Salt Lake City to see one of Mike's friends from high school. We also stopped in Boise, which is supposedly up and coming.  Unfortunately, we had spent all day driving and Finn was WIRED, so going out to dinner was a poor idea and we paid for it by having a child who refused to sit in a high chair.  Oh well.  I feel like I can't complain because he was such a good traveler for the majority of the trip.  Boise was cool though.  Such a good stop. 

One last Chick-fil-a (the closest one to us is at least a half hour away)

This was fun. 

We spent a lot of time in hotels and luckily one had a pool!! Finn and Mike went for a little dip :)

When we finally made it to Washington, we all let out a sigh of relief and I may or may not have cheered. Even though we still had a few hours to go, it was still pretty exciting.  Our GPS would say "welcome to (insert state)" every time we crossed a state border and this was definitely a well-received welcome!

Driving across country was an item on my bucket list and I didn't know if I'd actually ever be able to actually check it off. It was an incredible experience and it made me realize how beautiful our country is.  I also feel like I learned a ton about the people and the different cultures of our country (people in the south really are extremely friendly). There were definitely some things that got old (eating out, living hotels, the car), but at the same time, I feel like we could have spent an entire driving and stopping and still enjoyed the trip. It was such an amazing experience and I can't wait to do it again when we move back to the East Coast (fingers crossed!!).

Day Twelve: Zion National Park

A week into our cross country trip, we realized that we had an extra day.  We originally planned on spending a night in Seattle, but decided we would rather spend that somewhere along the way, instead, and man am I glad we did.  My parents went to Zion last year and LOVED it and everyone we know who has been raved about their time there, so we knew we couldn't pass up the opportunity to spend the day hiking around.   Luckily, Finn was feeling 1000x better thanks to the antibiotics.  Plus, we figured some fresh air was better than spending the day in a dirty hotel room, so we set out to explore Zion.

Since we weren't staying near the park, we drove into the park and parked there.  I HIGHLY recommend doing this if you can (or at least doing that drive at some point) because the view as you drive in is awe inspiring.   Both Mike and I just kept saying "this is so cool!!"  The only drawback to driving into the park (as opposed to taking a shuttle in) is that parking is extremely limited.  We were able to find a parking spot and the shuttles within the park are easy to use, so we were on our way. 

Since we wanted to keep things simple at first and make sure Finny was feeling okay, we started out easy and did one of their paved trails. Finn was happy as a clam hanging out in the backpack, eating a granola bar, and waving to every single person that walked by (even if they weren't looking his way).  Clearly, the medicine had kicked in because he was living his best life. 

So you can't see them in this picture, but there were tiny little dots that were moving down the side.  Turns out, they were rapellers.  It was pretty fun to watch them move down the rock, but it confirmed my belief that I will never be doing that.  Hard no. 

 The trail ends at a river with a great backdrop, so we asked a guy to take our picture.  We saw a bunch of guys in wet suits walking and they were planning to walk through the river, which is a popular hike.  In the summer, the river gets pretty crowded with people, but the air was still cool and the water was chilly, so these guys were the only ones we saw.

Finn waving to the camera!

I just couldn't get over how beautiful it is!

We ventured off of the paved path and followed the river about halfway back (that ran along the paved path), but we couldn't resist taking a selfie!

Since Finn was in such a good mood, we decided to keep going and did one of the moderate hikes.  The moderate hikes aren't particularly difficult, but they aren't paved and I'm guessing little kids might have a hard time because it was a little steep at times.  That being said, the elevation allowed for some great views!

We spent a total of four hours in the park hiking and I would venture to say that we both would have stayed another night if our schedule would have allowed.  We only did two trails and feel like we barely scratched the surface. The Grand Canyon was beautiful and I have no regrets about going, but we both agreed that this was completely unexpectedly awe inspiring.  I am so glad we added this last minute and I know it is somewhere we will be back when Finn is older. 

Waiting for the shuttle.  Finn discovered his dislike for grass.  "Mom, what is this scratchy stuff? I'm not touching it!"