Oregon Trip | Hello Rivers & Mountains

Last Thursday (10/16) we flew to Oregon for Todd’s sister Amy’s wedding weekend.  Amy & Luke got married at Aunt Diane’s house on the KcKenzie River.  It was a destination wedding, since none of us lived in Oregon except for Todd’s mom’s sister Aunt Diane. 

Our flight was around 9am out of San Diego, which meant we had to leave pretty early for the airport.  The good thing was there wasn’t any morning commute traffic yet.  The shuttle from parking to the terminal was a bit slow.  Todd got randomly selected for further screening at security.  Got to the terminal and I got an egg, cheese, and sausage breakfast sandwich at The Counter.  Also got Pannikin coffee.  It was a big sandwich!  We were Group B on Southwest so we got to sit together.  The flight was about 2 hours and 15 minutes.

We have matching noise-reduction headphones!

We decided to fly into Portland because it was a direct flight on Southwest Airlines.  We could have flown into Eugene and saved the two hour drive, but it wouldn’t have been a direct flight and would have been more expensive.  Besides, I’ve never been to Portland (or Oregon for that matter), so I wanted to see what this PDX hype was all about!  I’ve been to all the Western US states except for Oregon.  Even Idaho, Wyoming, Montana, etc.  But never Oregon.

Getting out of PDX airport took forever.  First we had to get our baggage from baggage claim and that took forever.  Then Budget rental car totally lied.  Todd had booked the car rental with them because he had looked up on the internet and they were supposedly inside the airport.  Total BS.  We had to take a shuttle to the rental car and it took forever.  Not only that, the line at the counter was SUPER long!  We waited half an hour in line to get our car.  It was egregious.

On the drive from the Portland airport to lunch.

We drove to Olympic Provisions for lunch.  I found the recommendation on Kelly Purkey’s blog. 

I had parsley pecorino sausage on polenta.  

Todd had bratwurst with sauerkraut. Both were quite delicious!

Next we had to pick up some doughnuts from Voodoo Doughnuts.  Todd had been to Portland on a business trip before and gone to Voodoo Doughnuts.  He went at 9pm though, and there was no line.  NOT the case this time!  We had to pay for street parking.  Then we had to stand in line for about 20 minutes to get our doughnuts.

They have all kinds of doughnuts!

We ended up getting apple fritter, Portland Cream, Bacon Maple Bar, Lemon Powdered Sugar, and Raspberry Romeo.

This one I moved the Portland Cream so you could see the apple fritter.

We shared the first three and saved the rest for the next day.  I felt sick from eating so much donut! Blegh!

After doughnuts we drove two hours down to Springfield/Eugene to Aunt Diane’s house.  It is in the country on the banks of the McKenzie River.

Like, literally, ON the river!  This is the view from the deck of the house.

Todd, Amy the bride, and me!  Photo taken by their mom Sylvia.

We had a really nice homecooked dinner out on the deck.  Luke’s family (his parents and his three brothers and their wives) were all there.  Todd’s parents and Sylvia’s sisters and BILs were there too.  The house belongs to Aunt Diane, Sylvia’s sister.  Oh and Amy’s best friend Linda was there too.

After dinner we played a game of Family Feud.  Amy & Luke put the game together and it was one family versus the other!  Luke did a great job MC’ing the whole thing.

First the dads went up against each other on the buzzer.

Then the moms.

Then the brothers.

We all got turns and it was fun.  We lost though. 

That concluded day 1 in Oregon for Wedding Weekend!  We drove back to the hotel in Springfield and got some good sleep.