Sanity Savers

I have the best husband in the world!  Not only does he give me all his support when I am trying to accomplish the next-to-impossible, he plans little get aways for the sake of sanity during all the madness.  This last year we have taken off on a few "sanity savers." 

One of these trips was to Downtown Portland.

In May Eric kidnapped me for a night in the big city. We went to downtown Portland, caught happy hour at Henry's and checked into the Riverplace Hotel located right on the waterfront. From there it was a beautiful walk to the Cirque du Soleil show, Kooza.  The performers and costumes were absolutely breathtaking, and I love walking through the city at night with all the lights and people.  With all the bridges lit and the city lights reflected on the river, it is quite a sight.

The next morning we woke to sun (yippee!) and took an energetic 3 mile walk along the waterfront and across a few bridges.  Of course we had to stop at Whole Foods Market to get a scone and milk for breakfast.  We then got cleaned up and walked to Portland's Saturday's market for some Portland Culture and Arts.  I have always loved the excitement of Saturday's Market with its street performers, artists and international foods.  Portland is such a pretty city with so much to see and do.  I love living here.

The second weekend in July we took another weekend and went to the coast for a few nights in Lincoln City. When we go to the coast, we are always on the hunt for the best clam chowder - pretty hard to do since we have worked hard at perfecting our own recipe, but the bowl we had at Dory Cove was pretty good:

After dinner it was too late for a walk on the beach so we thought we would join the city at the theater for their opening night of Eclipse, the third movie in the Twilight saga.  We were quite surprised at the turn-out:

Everyone must have gone into Portland for the big opening a week earlier.  We enjoyed an almost empty theater.  I guess all Eric's stress at dinner about getting a ticket was for naught - the ticket booth wasn't even open, we had to purchase our tickets at the candy counter.

The next morning we got up and walked to the Sea Dog Cafe for a HUGE breakfast and great local company, then we walked around the corner and decided to try our hand at glass blowing.  I was able to make a glass float to bring home as a memento of our trip:

With the fog rolling in along the coast when we were done at the glass studio, we decided to go hiking up around a lake rather than on the coastline.  After finally finding a trail head that was not closed due to footbridge repairs, we had a beautiful hike.

Then Eric went surfing to cool off...

If we had been in Hawaii, I would have joined him but it wasn't quite warm enough for me this time.  It takes a tropical beach to get me in the ocean.  How glad I am I married my best friend and that we still know how to have fun together after all these years!