PORTLAND, OREGON MOVE - PART 1 :

Well, this is my first "official" post from Portland, Oregon!  We left Long Beach on the evening of June 28th and headed north!  With stops at my parent's house and Mark's parent's house, we finally made it to Redding, CA.  Yay... The kids were delighted to stay in our new digs... A HOTEL!  Wow, they've even got a pool (and free breakfast)!  Not much to say, other than it was extremely hot and Redding is Redding...  Next stop, Klamath Falls.  Another hotel...  Yay... Again, I booked us at a place with a pool and free breakfast!  Woot!  Big spenders!  With another night under our belts, we took off for Bend, Oregon to meet up with some friends from Long Beach, who moved up there a few years back.  Yep, you guessed it... hotel with a pool and breakfast...  Next stop.... DUH DUH DUH... PORTLAND!!

We got into town on July 4th and haven't looked back!  After our week long stay at the downtown Marriott Residence Inn, our wonderful relocation company, who shall remain nameless, placed us in corporate housing for a loooooong 3 weeks.  Our housing consisted of a nice 3 bedroom apartment right on the corner of the BUSIEST street west of Portland... and right across the street from a shopping center.   One would think of this place as an "ideal" location, but with +90 degree weather and NO AC, it was necessary for windows to be open 24/7 - keep in mind... BUSY street and grocery stores...  It's a little known fact that most deliveries to grocery stores occur in the middle of the night...  truck traffic turning onto our street + windows open = NO SLEEP FOR 3 WEEKS!  Lucky us!

Next stop... Portland

Better not lose our baby!

Goodbye SoCal!

A whole-lotta-nothing...

Mad Max!

Our first tree encounter!

Good Lord, what's that smell coming from the backseat?

Crater Lake, Oregon

Hiking in Crater Lake National Park!

Happy 4th of July!

  

Gotta love the land of full-service gas stations!!

 
Here are the kids enjoying their 20 minute game show of, "There Goes My Underwear!"

And the endless rides up and down the elevator, with laundry in tow!  Ah, the memories!  

Countless Streetcar rides (free, too!).

Bought a family pass to the zoo and the indoor children's museum!

 Made silly art projects!

 Moved our stuff into our new house!

 ...and discovered that 2500 sq.ft. is a lot of cleaning for one person!

That's it for Part 1... stay tuned for Part 2!!