A visit from the 2110 girls + Mike!

Pauline had been planning a trip to visit Portland at some point this summer, and we were able to coordinate it so that it coincided with Amanda and Mike's West Coast road trip; also, since Jo lives up in Seattle, she took a few days off to come down as well...it turned into a 2110 reunion! What's 2110 you ask? Well...the girls and I (along with Christal who couldn't make it) lived in a house at 2110 Wesley in Evanston during our senior year in college. They were all bridesmaids in our wedding, and I was also a bridesmaid in Amanda and Christal's wedding. Ever since college, we've been able to stay close even though we were all scattered throughout the country. The weekend worked out perfectly as it was the weekend Brad was in Las Vegas for his best friend Paul's bachelor party and it was also Pauline's birthday!


One of the first stops the group wanted to make was to VooDoo Doughnut! So of course, I couldn't say no. They are known for having wacky doughnut creations such as a maple bacon doughnut, a doughnut that looks like a voodoo doll (with jelly inside), and doughnuts topped with Tang, cereal, candy, etc. It was a 45 min. wait...but it was worth it!


Here's a pic of the display case. It made for the hardest decision of the day - which doughnuts to pick??


After VooDoo, we headed to both the Farmer's Market and the Saturday Market (definitely must-dos in Portland if you're ever visiting). While at the Saturday Market, we ran into Matt and Kristina. Portland can be a small city sometimes :)


For Pauline's birthday, Mike gave her his absence - he went to the Portland Beavers baseball game while the girls got a night out to celebrate Pauline's birthday. We met up with Courtney, who lived on our floor in our sophomore year dorm, along with my personal trainer and some of his friends at a club downtown.


The next morning Brad came back to Portland and cooked us all a big breakfast. It's what we do for our visitors :)


After breakfast, the girls and I headed out to do what we do best - shopping! Mike and Brad headed to the International Rose Garden. Before they left, they cleansed their sense of smell with an inhale of Pauline's peonies (that Jo got her from the Farmer's Market).


I know this picture is kind of random. My company picked a select few of us from the office to attend the Portland Business Journal's 100 Fastest Growing Private Companies Awards Ceremony at the Portland Art Museum. We have ranked #1 for 2 years in a row and then last year we ranked #16. This year, we won #19!

Stay tuned...the next blog post will be about our weekend trip to Seattle this past weekend.

San Francisco - Google, Lite Brites, Bouncy Rooms, and Good Food!

I got the opportunity to travel to Santa Rosa, California for work (in beautiful wine country) last week, so I took it :) We've been looking for opportunities to fly down to San Francisco (it's only a 1 hr 20 min. flight) since Renee, my cousin, and her family live out there. We hadn't seen them since our wedding 2.5 years ago, and we also haven't had the opportunity to meet Nina, their newest addition (who is now 1 years old), so we were long overdue for a visit. Jon, my brother, was also recently hired by Google to be a Software Engineer and moved out a few weeks ago with his fiancee Stacy, so it was a bonus that we would get to see them along with Renee, Danny, Naomi, and Nina. Luckily, since we had already been to San Francisco before, we didn't feel the need to do the touristy stuff. We just took advantage of getting to spend time with family and having some good eats! We hope to see them all again soon, hopefully in Portland!


Prior to picking me up from Mill Valley, CA, Stacy and Brad visited Jon at Google for some breakfast. They have free meals as a perk for their employees and family! We headed over to Google again for a light dinner early evening, and Jon gave us a tour of the campus. In this pic, he is wearing a Noogler hat indicating that he is a new employee to Google (he just finished his first week there!)


Another fun bonus they have on the Google campus are the bikes that people can ride as they travel from one building to another or in our case, to get around faster as we toured the campus. Here's a pic of Brad on one of the bikes for the shorter people.


Jon and Stacy have a cute Pomeranian named Angel. After the Google tour, we headed back to Jon and Stacy's apartment complex and watched as Angel ran after all the runners who came by.


Of course, Brad and I couldn't visit Naomi and Nina (Renee and Danny's two daughters) without bringing them some toys! We bought Naomi a Lite Brite...a little blast from the past. I remember playing with these when I was her age.


Nina was a cutie! I love this pic of her riding the inflatable purple donkey. It was adorable watching her ride this little animal toy.


Danny set up a bouncy room for Naomi to play in while we were just chilling on Sunday. It looked so comfortable that I decided to hop in it too.


What's a trip without a good meal? Renee introduced us to San Tung...a great restaurant in San Fran. We had some of the best wings we've ever had!

Hopefully we'll get another chance to travel to San Francisco! Thanks Renee, Danny and fam / Jon and Stacy for hosting us!

Visiting family in Canada

Over Memorial Day weekend, I flew to Toronto, Canada to see family. My mom and brother Chris also came into town for the weekend along with my Uncle Jack, Aunt Linda, and cousin Nick from Chicago. It was like a mini-family reunion! I hadn't seen most of my family since our wedding, so it was great seeing everyone...and we had great Chinese food in the process!

Yum! My mom and I walked to Chinatown (about a 30 min. walk from my grandma's house)and enjoyed some congee and some noodle wrapped "you tiao" - a Chinese oil stick.


For dinner, we met up with my Uncle Jack, Aunt Linda and her sister's family, Nick, and my Aunt Cecilia. Yet again, yummy Chinese food!


Lychees are in season - we found some plump, juicy lychees from one of the markets in Chinatown along with some dragon fruits and star fruits. It makes me wish we had a big Chinatown here in Portland.


My Aunt Cecilia and Uncle Henry treated us to a little getaway to Niagara Falls. The family traveled down to Niagara Fallsview Casino Resort and had a great Chinese (surprise, surprise!) dinner together.


This pic is a view of Horseshoe Falls from our hotel room! My Aunt Cecilia and Uncle Henry are platinum status at the casino, so they get comped rooms (like this) and free meals (like our dinner).


After dinner, we went for a walk by the falls. It was phenomenal how big the natural falls were in person. I had been to Niagara Falls when I was a lot younger, but I was on the Buffalo, NY side. The Canadian side is much prettier!


This is the view from our other hotel room of Bridal Veil Falls, which is on the Buffalo, NY side. If you really check out the pic, you can see the bridge that connects Canada to the US (and is also telling of how long the line is to cross the border when you see cars lined up along the bridge...).