Portland!

Hannah is the reason that I survived student teaching. There is absolutely no way I would have had such a great experience if she wasn't right there with me, experiencing it at the same time. We are so similar when it comes to school (we are both kind of neurotic about it), and so we were a perfect team.

After we graduated, she and Landon moved up to Oregon, because Landon got a great job up there. I was SO excited for them, but so bummed for me because I knew how much I would miss her. 

My Spring Break was just a few weeks ago, and Dave and I decided that we were going to drive up to Oregon to visit Hannah and Landon. We were so excited to go, and the trip was perfect. It was so much fun to see them!

We drove on Thursday night to Boise, and spent the night there. We ate at a really yummy restaurant called Qdoba (which I had never heard of before), and even had time to sit in the hot tub of the hotel before going to bed.

The next morning, we stopped to find a few geocaches, and then we were off. We filled up at the funniest gas station we had ever seen. The locals were probably really bothered by us taking pictures in front of a gas station, but we couldn't help it.

We got to Portland a little earlier than expected and Landon and Hannah weren't quite finished with work yet, so we had time to check out Powell's Bookstore. It was like heaven for me. I am obsessed with books, children's books mostly, but I just love books. So much. This bookstore had 6 floors jam-packed with books. I wish we had more time so that I could just wander around the place. I bought a children's book (of course), and a classic (of course), and Dave bought a World War II book (of course). Are we that predictable??

 The people in downtown Portland were so funny. It is definitely a great place to people watch. There were all sorts of neat people. :)

Then, we went to Hannah and Landon's house and it was SOOOO great to see them again!! I think we spent a few hours just talking before we ever decided what we were going to do. We just had so much catching up to do! Their house was so cute, and it was fun to see them in such a cute little neighborhood. :) We ended up going to the Black Bear Diner for dinner (which was VERY good), and then we came home and played Ticket to Ride and Killer Bunnies (which might need an entire blog post dedicated just to explaining this silly, but awesome, game), all while enjoying some DELICIOUS chocolate cake from Costco and some Tillamook Chocolate Ice Cream. It is nice to know that there are other chocolate lovers out there in the world besides me and Dave. :)

The next day, we were lucky enough to have Landon take us all flying! We couldn't believe how much fun it was! Dave got to ride in the front and be the co-pilot, while Hannah and I sat in the back and just chatted the entire time - we had a lot of catching up to do, just as girls. :) Landon was such a good pilot and the views from the air were unbelievable. Oregon is really so pretty, and so green - just like everybody says.

 Dave felt so strong because he helped to push the airplane out into the driveway. :)

 Dave got to hear everything Landon said over the radio because he was wearing the headset. I could only hear a little bit because the engine was pretty noisy and I had no headset, but the little bit that I heard was really cool! It was like he was speaking a different language. Hannah had to interpret for me. :)

 Landon even let Dave fly the plane for a bit! Hannah was getting pretty nervous when he was flying, so luckily Dave only flew for a minute or two.

 Newport, Oregon - the city we flew into.

 After we landed in Newport, the airport let us borrow a car (how cool!!), and we drove down to the beach to walk along it. It was so fun to be able to hang out by the ocean!

 A killer sandcastle that we saw.

After we had walked the beach, we flew back and Hannah cooked the yummiest Fettuccine Alfredo ever. It was so good! After dinner, we went on a walk to find a few geocaches (thanks to my hubby), and then we came home for another round of Killer Bunnies. This game is addicting, ridiculous, and awesome all at the same time. I kind of felt like we were playing Pokemon, and I kind of liked that. :)

We had to leave the next morning, which was so sad. I wish we could have had more time, but the time we did have was SOO great. People kept telling us we were crazy for driving 11 hours for just the weekend, but we loved it. We love driving together - it lets us just hang out, the two of us, with nothing to do but be together and talk. It was great. And we would make the drive again in a heartbeat to see those guys again. We love them and we loved the trip. We can't wait to do it again!

 We took a few pictures from the car of the gorge on the way out - they didn't turn out nearly as pretty as they were in real life. The gorge was SO beautiful! 

Thank you to Hannah and Landon for such a fun trip! Dave and I are already trying to plan a time when we can come out and visit again. We just loved it! :)