Summer Bucket List

Francesca posted recently about the Summer Bucket List Challenge and I thought to myself, Ooh ooh! Yes, let's! Now, I'm kind of cheating, since I already had most of this list in my head as part of my goals for the summer/year. But it's a good excuse to be part of a bigger community of...

Rose Garden

Last Saturday, the weather held nicely all day, so at the last minute, we decided to make a quick trip to the Rose Garden. The two of us went there on our first trip to Portland, in September 2011: Even though it was so late in the year, there were still a ton of beautiful...

Rhododendron Garden

Last fall and winter, I joined a bunch of Meetup.com groups, in hopes of meeting people and learning about interesting places in Portland. One was a group called New to Portland Moms. Well! That's exactly who I was (or who I was about to be)! They are a very active group, with outings most days...

Tulip Festival!

On Thursday afternoon, we did an afternoon outing at the Woodburn Tulip Festival! Though I grew up in the Seattle suburbs, I never went to the Skagit Valley Tulip Festival. I would hear about it and be so interested, but I never made the effort to actually go. A few weeks ago I was thinking...

Lessons from the Market

Even though spring officially started over a week ago, Mother Nature really kicked it into gear this weekend. Clear blue sky, temps into the 70s. In March! In Portland! We decided that it would be a crime not to enjoy the weather, so we decided to have a Family Outing. I'd heard about the Portland...

Out and About

Here's what we've been up to in October: When Andy went back to Brooklyn for a long weekend at the New Yorker Festival, I went up to Seattle to see family one last time. I also got to go to Issaquah Salmon Days, my favorite small-town festival! And then some lovely ladies threw me a...

A Whole New World…of Driving

1. I mentioned this when we were in early August, but man, these people drive SLOW. As in, they drive UNDER or EXACTLY the speed limit. As in, 29 mph (or 25!) on a main arterial clearly marked 30mph. I just want to car-slap them and promise them that God or police will not smite...

What a Difference

People ask me what brought us here and/or why we moved. I usually answer something about a lifestyle change. Now that we've been here for two weeks, there are some things about this new lifestyle that are pretty great indeed. It's a lot of small things, but the ease of doing so many things is...

One More Thing…

As if enough things weren't already going on this year, we're also moving across the country at the end of August. I have a LOT to say about this, as you can imagine. This has been a long time coming, for those of you longtime readers. I moved to New York in the summer of...