The Rest of Our 7 Weeks in Portland
Writing a Blog is Time Consuming!
So, this blog has sort of gotten away from me. I started so strong, posting about all our travels from Michigan to Oregon… then we got to Portland/Lebanon and were so busy visiting all the time that we weren’t posting at all! Ugh!!
I’ve slowly been updating as much as I can, but slow connections are sure a pain when trying to do this. Also, I find I get the most blogging done while we are driving, but we didn’t drive a lot for 7 whole weeks… so, yeah…
Anyway, here comes one big post with the rest of what we want to note from our fun times with close family and friends in Portland. Next will be an update with the rest of our time with family in Lebanon. And then I’m determined to get fully caught up and post most about the day to day travel and places we visit, as we visit them. I think that makes the blog more interesting than weeks-old pictures. We shall see how it goes…
Making Up For Lost Time in Portland
Since we moved to Detroit, we’ve come back to Portland area at least once a year, every year. We always come right around Christmas/New Years and spend a week visiting everyone we can squeeze in and having a family holiday celebration. Most years I’ve also been able to come a second time during one of my school breaks.
Well, 2020 was of course a different year for us all. We headed home to Detroit from our 2019/20 holiday visit early in January, and by March everything had changed. Obviously, we weren’t able to fly back to Oregon the next holiday season. Bigger and more devastating than missing the holiday time, we missed being at our youngest son’s wedding in person in October 2020.
Mike and I were very careful with COVID and took it very seriously (we still do, but of course we feel MUCH better with our vaccine than we did before). So, we just could not fly in October with all that was happening (also, Detroit was hit VERY hard with the first wave). We did get to attend the wedding both virtually by a live feed the bride and groom provided and on FaceTime (Alex was kind enough to hold the phone up for us through the entire ceremony), so we took solace in that. And were able to watch Daylan and Lauren marry as though we were there.
So, we clearly needed some catchup time with our family. We decided in late 2020 that we had to spend summer in Oregon and it was time to make the motorhome life a reality and get back to see the family one way or another. We figured we could drive there no matter what. And, if necessary, we would just keep to ourselves in the motorhome on the way, depending on the COVID situation by the time we left.
SO, we spent seven weeks in the Portland area this summer. July 8-August 27. Some of it we already have shared about, and here is out catchup post of the rest of our time in Portland…
The Rest of Our Time in Portland
We looked for a nearby brewery one day and found Assembly Brewing. When we stopped in just hoping for some good beers, we found out that they not only make beer, but they make Detroit style pizza. Now, we tend to turn our noses up at the current fad of Detroit style pizza all over the nation by people who don’t know how to make actual Detroit style pizza (yes, we know we are ridiculous acting like we know something about something when we have only been there five years… but we feel how we feel!).
So, we rolled our eyes and ordered a pizza…and… to our surprise, IT WAS AMAZING! It was truly a Detroit style pizza and tasted like it should (in our pretending we’re really from Detroit opinions at least).
We were seated outside this whole time, but then Mike went in for the restroom and discovered the dining room walls are covered in murals inspired by the Diego Rivera murals found in the DIA (Detroit Institute of Arts). While Diego Rivera’s murals depict auto industry workers at an automobile factory, the murals in Assembly show beer and pizza being made. After seeing the murals that took us right back to Detroit, we looked up the place we were at and found that the owner is from Detroit… and that explains why the pizza is legit.
While staying at the Fairview RV Park for a total of 30 days (2-14 days at a time), we decided to invite some friends over for a swim, BBQ, and some drinks. They had to see the catio and the kitties, and check out our “home” after all!
Jessie was kind enough to have us all over to her new house for some delicious drinks, laughs, and of course time with Kiwi, the princess pup!
Our friends Kelley and Ryan had us over for a visit and drinks and delicious dinner… so fun!
Beautiful Rosie 
Margarita and Appetizers
One evening we were able to meet up with a couple of Mike’s college friends.
Me, Mike’s college roomie Scott, their dormmate Shannon, her hubby, and Mike 
The Vern (used to be “something Tavern” until the sign was hit years ago and the “ta” was taken out.
Our oldest, Alex, went on a vacation to San Diego and Mexico and we got to pick him up from the airport and get in an extra little visit. Here was our game of cutthroat at the beautiful Peppermill in Aloha. I’m pretty sure I just kicked both their asses in like two turns each game… yeah, that’s how I’ll remember it.
Our friend Kaya hosted an outside viewing of The Rocky Horror Picture Show on her fancy projector. She provided popcorn and a link to the many obnoxious shout-outs fans do during the show… it was so fun! Mike had never watched it. I had watched it years ago, before being forced (I was so innocent!) to attend the play with Jessie… back when we lived in Eugene. It was quite an experience!
AND we finally got to meet Kaya’s famous Bojo (her 20 year old king of a cat who I have loved since I saw pix a few years ago).
Mike and my 11th Wedding Anniversary was on 8/21/21 and we spent it visiting. We started the day having breakfast with Nick!
Mike was nice enough to be okay with me spending the afternoon with my lovely ladies for some pampering. We had brunch and pedicures!
Yummy drink at brunch! 
Pedis! 
Had to have yummy champagne with our pedis 
Umm… I’ll just say that those were the wrong pants to wear for a pedi, and pulling the legs back down was NOT pretty. They’re very “narrow” around the ankles.
The woman at the salon had to help me after Jess and I failed and Jess offered to cut them off of me (gee thanks). The woman was a bad ass and saved me and my pants! (HOW EMBARRASSING AM I?!)
Purdy Toesies!
We know we’re adorable. Thanks!
Then we all spent the evening at Jim’s for his birthday party (which was also a bit of a goodbye to a good friend of all our good friends, Stephi, who moved to Switzerland!).
First of all, check out these cute (and SO FANCY!) cocktail making stations Jim and Hillari set up!
And the beautiful slushie drinks Jess made… and the fancy cocktail Kaya made. Apparently I cared more about the booze than anything, that’s what most of my pix are of… Sounds Right.
But I also enjoyed Jim getting birthday swats (this dude deserves them!), so those are the only other pix I got. Here are Summer and Jessie taking out a lot of pent up anger on Jim. And then Hill protecting him… (for the record, he was standing there willingly and provided the paddle…so I think he was ok… and probably better than ok 😉 )
This is our friend Jeremy at Jim’s birthday celebration. He was at many of the gatherings posted, but he seems to hide from the camera a lot or something. So, here’s his very own spot on this post.
His glorious beard needs a lot of space anyway.
One last dinner with all the kiddos for Nick’s Birthday. His bday is 8/23, we had dinner 8/22 because he was heading off on a big trip on his birthday. (love seeing our boys do some traveling this summer!)
…ate vegan Mediterranean food 
…took a walk through the neighborhood 
…had some dessert
And one last lunch with these two cuties… right on the Columbia River on a beautiful day!
And some other random pix left over from our time there…
Beers at Stormbreaker Brewing 
Frito pie at Fixin’ To… YUM!
Me and Jess just being normal.
Girls’ Table 
Cuzn’t Tom and his daughter Alayna, so glad I got to see Layna a few times this trip!
Steeplejack Brewing (old church building made brewery) 
Steeplejack Brewing 
Steeplejack Brewing 
An afternoon in the gorge, walked a bit of this trail 
And, just like that, seven weeks had passed.
It was so nice to have this time to make many new memories with so many people we love so much!
Thanks to everyone for putting up with us and putting aside time to spend with us while we were around. Thanks for the place to stay a couple nights, the food and drinks you bought/shared, the many many laughs, and just for being such great folks.
We had an awesome time and look forward to the next visit!
Love reading your blog! I’m learning about a lot of new pubs\breweries to check out 😀 You kids be safe on your travels and continue to have good times ❤️🤗
Thanks! We definitely love hitting up the local breweries. In fact, we are currently sitting at Institution Ale in Santa Barbara and it’s great! 🍻 Glad you’re getting some inspiration.
Thanks for the comment!
I love your blog!! So glad you were here for so long!! Can’t wait to read more about your next adventures!! Love you both!!
Thanks! Me too, it was nice to get in so much quality time! Love you!
For the record, I think it was Hillari who tried, in vain, to help with your pants. 😂
😂 Well, I guess your smart ass comment took over the moment in my head… as usual! I should have known Hill was the helpful one. I’ll make an edit to that later.
Good Blogging and you guys look like you are having a Ball. Good for you. Those pics say it all and thanks for the share.
Thanks, we are! Appreciate you reading and checking in on us and our house. 😊
Hi guys 👋🏻! Thanks for all the pics and commentary! Don’t know where you are now, but missing you since you left! Can’t express how much I enjoyed all our get togethers here! Drinking a Bear Republic (Thru the Haze)IPA as I comment. Keep on updating and continue safely on your adventure! Love you much!❤️❤️😎 Dad.
We enjoyed it too! We’re in Santa Barbara right now. Love you too
What a fun time. So glad you got to spend so much time visiting.
This post needed more of that Tom guy, he seems very cool.
Me too!
He is the coolest!!