Portland, Oregon

This last weekend Troy and I went down to Portland, Oregon to visit with his cousin Nicole and her husband John. It was a quick overnight trip filled with new experiences and lots of laughs. Portland is about 2.5 hours from Seattle, so our drive was pretty easy. We've taken the train in the past, but the weather was promising heavy rain so we didn't want to risk it.

Nicole and John own a great old 1920's vintage home in Portland and I of course fell in love with it. My love for old homes is probably due to the fact that I grew up in one. The coolest thing about their house was the theatre down in their basement...yes, I said theatre. They built a stadium seating platform to put the four rows of theatre seats they bought from a movie theatre that was going out of business. They even had the purple curtains on the wall to give a real theatre feel. They have a projector and screen so it was truly like being at the movies! Of course Troy wanted to rush right home and build one. Ingenious!!

We toured the city, ate at great restaurants and went to a Roller Derby! It was so cool. They both have friends who are part of Oregon area roller derbys, and this was the all star races. Of course they were against the Seattle team. Troy and I were sitting amongst the Oregonions, but were secretly rooting for the Rat City Roller Seattle team. It was a lot of fun. Thanks John and Nicole for a great visit!