More On Our Trip

After a couple days in Chicago, we boarded a plane and headed to Portland, OR. We moved back to Illinois about 15 years ago after having lived in Tacoma, WA for almost 10 years and this was my first trip back to the Pacific NW since leaving Tacoma. I was not disappointed. Okay, I'll admit that it was a little cooler than I would have liked, but I loved living in the NW and didn't realize how much I missed it until I went back.

Our flight was on time and uneventful. The girls traveled well and after gathering our luggage we headed off to pick up our rental vehicle. So far, so good.

We left the airport hungry and in search of the hotel we were staying at that weekend. Unfortunately, the GPS on Dave's phone wasn't working so we were blindly trying to find our way around Portland. We weren't doing a great job of finding the hotel, but we did find a Carl's Jr. and stopped to eat lunch. I was thrilled!! My first visit to Carl's Jr. in 15 years. Wow, it doesn't take much to excite me does it? LOL!!!

After some driving around and a phone call to the hotel, we finally arrived and got checked in. We stayed at the Doubletree Portland. I must admit, I wasn't expecting much from the hotel based on the rate we were paying, but I was very pleasantly surprised. It was a nice hotel. Our room was clean, big and comfortable. The hotel was large with a couple restaurants, a bar, lots of conference rooms and a pool (Lili was thrilled). When Dave went to check us in, he was told that we got a really good rate and later overheard someone in the restaurant say they were paying over 3x's the rate we were paying. Score!!!!

I spent part of that afternoon finalizing plans for our Toukoul Adoptive Families Reunion that weekend and then we took Lili to the pool to swim. Did I mention that it was a little cooler than I would have liked? Cooler temps in an unheated pool = cooler water temps. Lili didn't care, but it was a little harder for mom and dad to tolerate.

We ate dinner at the hotel. We were impressed with the hotel, but the restaurant service left a lot to be desired. After dinner we went across the street to the Lloyd Center for some shopping. I was still on a mission to replace my sandals that had met their demise in Chicago at the teeth of Naomi. It was a successful shopping trip as I returned to the hotel with two pair of new sandals in tow.

Our first day in Portland was nice and low key. Now it was time for a good night of sleep so we could tackle Friday which was going to be a busy day for us, but one I was very much looking forward to.