Honeymoon: Day 9

Sunday, July 5, 2009---The End of the Road

After spending a very comfortable night in the lovely hotel in downtown Portland, Jacob and I woke to get packed, checked out, and ready to head to the airport for our flight back to Colorado.

But we had some time to kill...so we dropped all our luggage at the car that was parked a few blocks away and made our way down by the river again. Every week there is a little sidewalk shop open with many a food, craft and art booths to behold. We needed some breakfast and so treated ourselves to an "elephant ear" which is basically a big flat scone type dough that is fried and then coated, and I do mean coated, with whatever topping you want. We got cinnamon and sugar as apparently it is the "original" elephant ear topping. It was delicious that is for sure.

After perusing around he booths we decided we should get on our way to the airport. We still had plenty of time but wanted to make sure we had enough time to fill the rental car with gas before returning it. This turned out to be more of an adventure than anticipated. We ended up having to stop at a hotel to ask the front desk receptionist where the closest gas station was. And I witnessed first hand Oregon's weird law about not pumping your own gas. So silly to me.

So, we returned the rental car and then tried to manage all of our luggage as we walked to the check in counter. We had been able to pack up most of our wedding gifts from the Hillsboro open house but that meant we both had the maximum amount of free luggage allotted by Southwest. It was a lot. And the walk from the rental car return to the check in counter turned out to be a little bit longer than expected. I'm sure we looked pretty awkward juggling 4 or 5 pieces of luggage each.

We made it to the counter, checked our luggage, and then learned that our flight had been delayed for some unknown reason. Every other airline with flights into Denver was running on time...but not Southwest. The guy at the terminal said it was because of weather in Denver but I think that was silly. I'm pretty skeptical when every other airline can manage to fly into Denver but we can't. Somethings shady if you ask me. We ultimately ended up with a delayed flight, but not as delayed as it was initially thought to be. Still a little annoying.

But our ride was kind and picked us up in Denver even though we were a couple hours later arriving than we had planned. (Thanks Heather!) We made it home at about 11:30. But we came home to half of our wedding gifts from Utah still wrapped in our front room. (Thanks again to Heather, Lori and Kimber for hauling them from Utah to Colorado!) And unopened gifts were just too much to resist. So we opened them all and had a great time doing it!

It did make for a late evening and Jacob had to work the next day. Luckily, I had taken the day off so I spent my Monday sleeping in and then unpacking, putting things away, and doing laundry.

All in all it was a fantastic trip that went really smoothly. We were able to enjoy parts of the country we had never been to and a whole new country to boot. It was hard coming back and getting back to work but, on the other hand, it has been really fun settling into our house together and adjusting to real life.

Thanks again for all who helped make our wedding and honeymoon a time we will never forget! Special thanks to all the friends and family who helped celebrate with us. We love you all!

Honeymoon: Day 8

Saturday, July 4, 2009---INDEPENDENCE DAY!!!!

Let me begin by stating that I LOVE the 4th of July! It is one of my favorite holidays, second only to Christmas to be honest. I love the fireworks, the colors, the flags, and the feeling of the day. I can't get enough of it really.

But I must also confess that I have NEVER spent a 4th of July away from Utah county. I woke up that morning feeling a little out of sorts. It wasn't really feeling like the 4th despite wearing my "everyone loves an American girl" shirt. Jacob and I headed over to his parents' house where we were shuttled to the parade route for the Hillsboro parade. His dad had saved a spot in the nice shade. My parents also joined us for the festivities. I was feeling a little melancholy and then I heard the sirens from the police motorcycles indicating the start of the parade and suddenly everything was right with the world. This wasn't quite like the Provo parade but I must admit it was really enjoyable. I guess this parade has been termed the "pinata parade" because of all the candy tossed to the crowd, well the kids more like. When I heard that I was determined to get candy even if I wasn't a "kid." And don't you worry, my dad also followed suit. He was begging for candy as much as the rest of us...and the kids across the way. We ended up with SO much candy!!!! YUMMY. Good times.

This parade entry was the mother load. So much good stuff...candy, cookies, jerky.

We then went back to the Brunson's for lunch...more burgers and pork and pie! After all were fed and happy, my parents left to explore the coast and I fell asleep on the couch while Jacob helped his dad clean up the back yard from the night before. So lazy of me!

Jacob and I had to make good on the challenge extended by his mother so we both played her in a game or two of Pente...we all won some. I lost some too. His mom introduced me to the game last time I was in Oregon and I have been hooked ever since. I think she was excited to see if she really was the best Brunson Pente player. Turns out, we can all hold our own.

We then packed up all our stuff to head for our 5 star hotel in Portland. I learned something about 5 star hotels. Yes, they are a bit fancy, but the people that stay there are snotty. Just checking in Jacob and I heard two people complaining about the lack of coffee pots in the room (even the motel 6 has pots in the rooms) and the lack of slippers ("oh, another thing. I noticed I don't have slippers in my room. Is that a problem?"). It was pretty funny.

We relaxed for a bit in the room before heading to Pizza Schmizza for a slice or two. We were there towards closing so our options were limited but delicious just the same. When Diana was serving her Mission in Oregon she took a picture of the Pizza Schmizza and sent it to me because she and I used to always say things like "Enrichment Schmimrinchment." So I was pretty pleased to be eating there. Jake and I finished our pizza and then made our way down to the river to watch the fireworks.

And that was my favorite part of the whole day. Watching fireworks with my husband. Best ever!

Happy 4th of July!!!

The Weekend

I thought I would take a little break from the honeymoon recap and just say how excited I am for the weekend. I'll make a list of why I am most excited...a top 5 if you will.

5. The house is already clean and the yard work is done. I may get to take it a little easy this Saturday. YES!

4. We are having a house warming party tonight and I am excited to see who may show up. I'm also excited to eat all the yummy treats and snacks we have made.

3. I'm a little excited to go to our stake party on Saturday night. Last year Jacob and I went but we weren't even dating then. I remember I was becoming interested in him and was a little jealous when he sat by another girl during the little performance part of the evening. Funny little memory...

2. I'm looking forward to our 3rd week in our new ward. It's really strange not being in a singles ward anymore. I'm finding the adjustment a little difficult. I don't think there are many people in our ward that are our age. And those that are close to our age already have children...like maybe 5 of them... It's weird, but good.

1. And most importantly, I am ready for a break from work. We are moving offices and it seems like I am in the middle of so much drama that I really just don't want to be part of. And I am so not looking forward to returning to work on Monday to a new building, a new shared office with a new supervisor. It's just not great. But I'm sure I will deal with it...

So,

BRING ON THE WEEKEND!

I am ready.

Honeymoon: Day 7

Friday, July 3, 2009

Jacob and I woke up early to catch the bus that would drop us off at the train station so we could take our train ride back to Portland. I had never traveled by train before and Jacob had not in the US. We were both really looking forward to the experience.

And it did not disappoint. Jacob had reserved a sleeper car for us so we had our own private room with two big comfy seats. We traveled along the edge of the Puget Sound for the first bit of travel and it was absolutely lovely. We were able to play some games, eat some snacks, and enjoy lunch in the lounge car. I felt a bit like a character from Harry Potter traveling to Hogwarts.

But no, we ended in Portland.

At the train station in Seattle

Enjoying our cozy seats.

FUNNY STORY ABOUT OUR TRAIN RIDE:
Each sleeper train car has an attendant to help out if you have questions or need your beds put down. Well we lucked out because we got "Crazy Tom." Yep, that's what he called himself. He was coming through the car as we neared Portland to let everyone that was getting off at that stop know they needed to start getting their luggage and start getting ready. The room across the isle from us had their curtains drawn and weren't responding to Crazy Tom's knocks on the door. He turned to us and said "I bet they are doing the hot and nasty." I sort of laughed and Jacob looked at me with the best face ever. His jaw was dropped and he was all shades of red. Then Crazy Tom proceeds to explain that "we would be surprised at all the things that happen in those rooms." It was pretty funny! And Jacob's response was priceless.

At the train station Jacob left me to gather all the luggage while he headed to pick up the next rental car. There was a slight problem with this plan: my cell phone had no reception...not sure why. So when I tried to call Jacob to let him know where I was waiting, no dice. And he tried to call me several times. He was getting worried and I was getting hot out there with all the luggage. Eventually I went inside and used a pay phone (when was the last time you did that?!?) just as he was pulling up to the station. It all worked out in the end but it was a frustrating few minutes. It made me keenly aware of my dependence on my cell phone.

We arrived at his parent's home in good time. I felt really useless because his mother and her sister were so busy getting things set for the open house and I asked if I could help but there wasn't much for me to do. Eventually I had to start getting ready myself. I had to fake do my hair and it wasn't going so great. But luckily Jacob's sister, Rachel, helped me out and even more luckily, I was wearing a veil so it didn't really matter what the back looked like too much. And the front looked decent. I was pretty satisfied. My parents arrived and then I put on my dress. I was pretty surprised it still fit after all the eating from the week prior!

The open house went really well. It was a good time with great food. We had burgers and pulled pork with several salad options. We also had so many good pies and ice cream. The flowers were red, white and blue and I loved that!

After the open house we opened our gifts. My parents left after the gift opening and other neighbors came back over for fireworks. Jacob's parents had bought a huge set of fireworks from Costco. It was a lot of fun. I introduced his family and the neighbors to dancing around the "flashers." Had to be done. The strobe light will not be denied.

Rachel enjoying some pie.

After the fireworks came to an end Jacob and I headed for our hotel. I really was exhausted at this point. I fell asleep pretty quickly that night.

EMBARRASSING MOMENT OF THE EVENING:

At some point between opening presents and lighting off fireworks, I had gone upstairs for something. Jacob's mom and some of the neighbor girls were in the living room picking out fire works and Jacob was outside in the back yard. As I was heading down the stairs somehow my feet came out from under me. I could see it happening in slow motion but had no way to prevent it. I landed on my back and slid the rest of the way down the stairs. Oh, but don't worry if I wasn't wearing a perfect stretchy skirt that came up to my armpits as the sliding came to an end. Jacob heard the fall outside. The neighbor girls looked around at me, skirt showing things that shouldn't be shown, and asks if I'm okay. I quickly respond that I am fine and jump up to try and make myself modest. I walk outside to Jacob and tell him what happened. He demonstrated concern for my back and then probably had a good laugh to himself. I really was fine. Slightly bruised in body and definitely bruised in spirit. But what can you do!

I was sore for a few days, that is for certain.

Honeymoon: Day 6

Thursday, July 2, 2009

For those of you who have commented about the number of pictures taken and then posted on this blog...just think...this is only day 6! Three more days to go. Aren't you so lucky?!? But really, we have a lot of pictures because we both enjoyed playing with the new camera.


This day began with a morning jaunt down to Pikes Public Market; fish-throwing, flowers, and all. We ate breakfast down at the market where we found some tasty cinnamon rolls. We walked around a bit and enjoyed the market. It's a shame we don't live there because the flowers were amazing and so cheap! Jacob was ready to buy me some sweet peas but I told him that it would be silly. I did take a lovely picture of them though.








After thoroughly exploring the market we went back to the hotel to figure out the schedule for the rest of the day. Jacob's mom had talked about the Seattle underground tour and we wanted to see about doing that. So we figured out a little more about the bus system and decided to walk down to the tour. It was a nice walk down there but I was certainly glad we had figured out which buses stopped near the hotel because it would have been a LONG walk up the hills back to the hotel.


The tour was really fun and rather interesting. Seattle was built poorly and then reconstructed after a fire and was built as they were trying to level off the tide flats. So, there are buildings that were originally 5 stories high but only appear to be 4 stories high because the initial bottom level is now underground. I'm not sure I can explain it adequately and the only picture I have is of one of the skylights that are actually on the sidewalk. Go on the tour if you are in Seattle. It's pretty good.



So, after the tour we stopped for lunch on the way to the train station. We needed to find out if we could check baggage early as we were riding the train to Portland the next day but returning the rental car that night. We ate at a really good sandwich shop.


We then made our way to the train station to ask our questions and were pleased to learn we could check bags early and our plans were solid. We made use of public transportation and caught the bus back to our hotel. Nice thing about Seattle is that all the public transportation is free in the downtown area for the majority of the day. This was a good thing because we initially caught the bus heading the wrong direction and had to get off and correct our course. We were outside the free ride zone at that point but only had to walk a couple blocks to be back in the free zone. Good times. Plus we got to see a portion of the Chinatown section of Seattle.

I was really tired by this point (what's new?). We re-packed our luggage to arrange for dropping off all the big stuff at the train station and keep the essentials for the next morning. Jacob went to get the car from the parking garage and I stayed and slept for about 15 minutes. We then loaded the car and headed for the train station, dropped off luggage, and made our way to the airport to return the rental car.

We had planned to ride the bus from the airport back to our hotel. It was going to cost us something like 3 bucks to ride but we didn't have anything smaller than a 5 dollar bill. The bus driver let us ride for free instead of overpaying. Nice! It was a pretty short bus ride back to the hotel and the weirdest thing...they drive underground on tracks that look like they should be used for a subway. Great thing was the end point for the route was right across the street from our hotel.

Me and the monorail

When we got to the hotel room we took a little break before deciding to ride the monorail to the Space Needle. The Space Needle may have been my favorite part of the whole day just because of Jacob's reaction to it. He is not that keen on heights so this was a big stretch for him. He was a good sport even though he looked a little nervous as he watched the elevators on the outside of the needle moving to the top.

Jacob waiting to enter the elevator. Can't you just see the apprehension on his face?

When we got into the elevator he wouldn't look out the window to the scenery as we were ascending. It was pretty funny. Then, when we were in the observation deck he would barely move away from the very center of the building.

Holding tightly to the wall

He eased a little into it and was able to make his way to the outer edge of the interior building where the tables were located. It was then that he realized there was an outside rim to view the city from.

He was really hesitant about embarking out there at all. Eventually he mustered enough courage to stand at the inner edge of the outside rim and snap a picture. He returned inside pretty quickly.

I, on the other hand, enjoyed the view and didn't have any problems with the height. I'm usually good as long as I feel safely connected to the floor of a building or strapped into something pretty tightly.

We did have a good time taking pictures both inside and outside of the Space Needle. And it was fun being up there and seeing the city from that vantage point. I'm glad we went and I'm glad Jacob put on his brave face and made it to the top. I think he was so proud of himself he even called his mom.

We decided since it was our last night in Seattle and really alone that we should go out for a nice dinner. However, neither of us were up for too much more exploring and wanted a guarantee that we would be satisfied with our food choices. You should know that I usually have rules about only eating places I couldn't eat if I were home. And I did stick to those rules, but not totally. We decided to eat at the Cheesecake Factory because it was close to the hotel and we knew we would find something we liked. I wasn't that hungry from lunch still so we split an entree. It was HUGE. I felt like I ate a whole dinner myself.

Feeling fat and happy, we headed back to the hotel and were still too full to finish off the cheesecake we had purchased the night before.

And that concludes our crazy day in Seattle.

Honeymoon: Day 5

Wednesday, July 1, 2009

Jacob and I had decided that we wanted to spend a little time biking around Victoria, especially along the coastline. But we also had a deadline to check out of the hotel and be catching a ferry.

So we rented some bikes and set out on about an hour long bike ride. It was so great! And I would really recommend biking Victoria. We biked through the park near our hotel and then down the coastline just about to the downtown area. We headed back to the hotel right before reaching downtown. The coast was lovely and the biking was really refreshing and fun.




We then quickly checked out of the hotel and headed to a grocery store for some last minute Canadian candy. It was Canada Day after all. We thought we should celebrate by bringing back a sweet bit of Canada.

We still had some time to kill before catching the ferry so we started out looking for a gas station but ended up on a random drive. Turns out it was one of the highlights for me. We drove a road that all the tour buses drive because of it's scenic view of the coast. We pulled over at a parking spot and climbed down the stairs and onto the rocks overlooking the ocean. It was a great view and enjoyable just to sit and watch the ocean.

We then drove down near the fisherman's wharf for some Fish n' Chips before catching the ferry. This was also a lot of fun. The Fish n' Chips joint was recommended in one of the guide books we had and it was extremely delicious. So filling! Jacob and I have discovered that a fantastic thing about being married is sharing food. Why buy two full meals when you can split one and save? We bought a two piece fish n' chips and ordered some extra onion rings. We didn't even need the onion rings because the fish was so huge and filling. Really good. And a really fun part of Victoria that I would have been sad to miss. They have houses on the dock that people actually live in. And then there are a bunch of shops and restaurants. There were also a lot of kids feeding seals. That was fun to watch.

We then caught the ferry headed back to Washington. This was a less exciting ferry ride because we weren't weaving through islands. But it was fun to be on a different type of ferry. Mostly I was tired and tried to sleep a little.

Leaving Victoria. You can see a Canadian flag on the island and the US flag from the ferry.

The view as we approached Washington.

We landed in Port Angeles and headed for another little ferry to cross the Puget Sound and get us more near Seattle. By the time we got to our condo in Seattle it was getting pretty late and we were both a little hungry and tired. But the condo was really nice (thanks again Aunt B!) and being in the city was exciting. So we decided to go to the Cheesecake factory and pick up some cheesecake for dessert. By the time we walked back to the hotel I had decided it might be nice to go for a little swim. So we dropped off the cheesecake and headed to the pool. It was a little chilly. We didn't last terribly long but it was pretty fun just the same. We then went back to our room and enjoyed the cheesecake.

Cheesecake is an excellent way to end a day.

Honeymoon: Day 4

Tuesday, June 30, 2009

We woke up and got ready for what was supposed to be breakfast but was more like brunch or just plain lunch. We decided to drive into downtown Victoria for breakfast at a place recommended by the tour book we had. Driving was a mistake. We should have just walked. By the time we got there it was more brunch time than breakfast and the slow service definitely made it more like Lunch. But then the food arrived and I knew it was totally worth it. It was delicious.

After eating way more than could have been good for me, we walked back to the car and decided we we drop the car back at the hotel and walk around downtown Victoria because we had already seen so many cute shops and things we needed to explore.

Our first stop were the totem poles right near our hotel. Our hotel was pretty near downtown and close to the museum in Victoria. Canada had a ton of totem poles. They really were everywhere.


We then stopped by the lovely Parliament building right on the wharf. After a short look around inside we made our way to the Empress hotel. It is a beautiful building with some very strange bushes out front. Not sure what they are supposed to be but definitely worth taking a few photos of.



This was in a nice trellis area on the grounds of the hotel and the next photo was taken inside the conference room of the hotel. Notice again the totem pole.


From there we walked downtown which is mostly made of tourist shops mixed with other more unique and fun stores. Jacob especially loved the alley that used to be famous as the main location for "ladies of the night" seeking business. I really enjoyed the Chinatown section of the city as well as Market Square where we purchased a nice kite that hopefully we will be able to test out sometime soon.

China Town

Market Square

Jacob in the alley.

I was pretty tired at this point but a little ice cream cheered me right up...that and a little time resting at the hotel before heading to a grocery store (our favorite was the Savon Foods) and then to Buchart Gardens. I have a ton of photos from the gardens. I'll try to limit the ones I share to the really fantastic shots. But it was amazing. And we were there at the perfect time of day because we got to see the gardens by day light and also lit up by the lights in dusk. Jacob and I highly recommend seeing the gardens at night. Awesome!

These yellow flowers were huge! I think they called them trumpet horns or something.

Entering the gardens.

The sunken garden was my favorite. It was amazing, especially at night.


They even had flowers on top of the garbage cans.


The fountain in the sunken garden. It reminded me of the Fountains of Bellagio without the music or the cool lady saying "the next showing of the fountains of Bellagio will be at the quarter to the hour."


Jacob and I in the rose garden.


This particular rose was the "Sexy Rexy" from New Zealand. They know how to name a flower!


Near the entrance to the Japanese Garden.


I just like this one of my feet and the rock path.


Jacob felt a little bit zen while in the gardens.

This last photo is from the green house. Gorgeous!

That about rounded out the night for us.