City of Roses

While most of you were frying through the dreaded Northern California summer heat wave, I was in Portland, Oregon with a couple co-workers on a business trip. We were there all last week then had to live through an obnoxious 2 year old kicking and screaming the whole flight back.

Work was work but come 3:30, we were on vacation. The first night we drove into downtown Portland and ate dinner on the river. A beautiful warm day in the mid-90's was more than comfortable for us Sacramentians. We took full advantage of it enjoying a salmon special dinner overlooking the tall business buildings downtown, the noisy freeway overpass across the river, the local canoe rolling team as they practiced, the ducks begging for more bread and locals boarding their yachts for an afternoon stroll.

The next night, we trotted north of Portland along the beautiful Columbia river to Multnomah Falls. The second highest year-round waterfall in the country.

My co-worker, Todd and I made the strenous 1 mile hike to the top of the fall. The trail was paved with goregous views of the Columbia river across the freeway.

We had dinner at a nice restaurant at the bottom of the falls with great outdoor scenery and views of the falls.

The following night was all for my older co-worker Sandy, who has been looking forward to visiting the local Indian casino west of Portland. We met up with her son and his family and they took us on a 30 minute drive through scenic vineyards to the casino. I even got to see some deforestation along the way which seems sad after the pretty nature walk 24 hours prior. I tested the penny slots with $2 and walked away with a $0.01 voucher. A little souvenir I suppose.

We had a delicious seafood buffet on the company and I single handedly saw a woman win a porsche! She was very disgreet about her bright flashy screen until the men in black came with paperwork and people started to gather and congratulate her.

On our last night in town, we were right back where we started from, the riverfront. We had a nice meal outdoors and headed back to the hotel to pack. Afterwards, a couple of us met up at the hotel lounge for a few free games of pool and a glass of wine.

Portland is known as the city of Roses with a beautiful rose garden in the center of the city. We didn't have time to tour it this time but definitely save if for a future trip if the opportunity comes around. Also, we can't pass up the Oregon coast next time either. Work? Who has time to work?