Victoria, BC

Victoria was our last stop on our cruise. : ( When we were on the ship at Glacier Bay, we did a Murder Mystery dinner with A&J and met another couple who was from Victoria. They're familiar with Portland, so they said that even though Victoria is cute and great for wandering around that we could do that in Portland and that we should see The Butchart Gardens. So, we did and stayed for their fireworks display. While the gardens were completely amazing, I think we made the wrong choice. We knew we would be arriving in the late afternoon and that the sun would go down, but we underestimated how quickly that would happen. We didn't get to see all of the gardens, so it was kind of a bummer. What we did see, though, was amazing. And not getting to really see Victoria just means Jeff and I can go up there for a long weekend sometime. : )

The Sunken Garden - it was a limestone quarry on the Butchart's property. Mrs. Butchart didn't care for the eyesore once the quarry had been exhausted, so she prettied it up.

We were given a plant and flower guide, so hopefully I'm identifying these flowers right. If you know I'm wrong about something, let me know and I'll change the captions. : )

Dahlia

A big bunch of flowers that I'm not going to try and identify. I just loved the colors.

Ageratum, Floss Flower

Pretty Landscaping

I don't know what these are, and I'm sad, but my best guess is some sort of zinnia. They were my favorite flowers of the day because they were so cheerful and brightly colored.

Fuchsia

More pretty landscaping.

Agapanthus, Lily of the Nile

Me! On an orca on the Rose Carousel.

Jeff and I on the Rose Carousel.

Jeff rode on Bella, the Butchart's dog. At least that's the story from the kind lady who took our picture. : )

Dahlia

These could be one of several; I can't tell for sure. :-P

Arum, Lords and Ladies

These were in the Japanese Garden, but I'm not sure what they are.

Gladiolus, Acidanthera

Heliotropium, Heliotrope or Cherry Pie plant

Fireworks!

After Victoria, our ship headed back to Seattle. We arrived early the next morning, and decided to hit up SweetIron again on our way out of town for some waffles. Since we started the cruise there with such amazing food (the cruise food couldn't even compare), we decided to end our cruise with such amazing food. : )

One Day before Alaska!

Our cruise left on Sunday, so Saturday morning we headed up to Seattle to spend the night. The hotel we stayed at had some pretty great views. Here's the Space Needle, and the sound. Mostly I liked the picture of the Sound because of the sunshine rays in the top right corner (click the pictures to make them big; really, you need to because I think they're worth it!). ; )



Our hotel was within walking distance of Pike's Place Market, so we decided to go watch people throw fish around. Of course, we totally neglected to bring our camera to get pictures. We found a cute Irish pub to eat at called Kells. Apparently, there's one here in Portland that we'll definitely need to check out sometime in the near future - they had a really good scotch list! We wandered around some more and hit up some stores, then headed back to the hotel to relax.

The views from our room were just as great at night.




The next morning, we were up and running. Our first stop was breakfast. Due to my terrible map reading skills, the place we'd decided on the night before was ruled out due to distance. Thankfully, my map reading skills allowed us (Jeff) to find the most AMAZING breakfast EVER. Seriously. Every single person needs access to a SweetIron for their unbelievable liege waffles. The words incredible deliciousness don't even begin to cover the amazingness of their waffles. I went for a brie and basil waffle. It was so good that I made Jeff order me another waffle. We decided to split a prosciutto with house-made cream fraiche waffle. He refused to let me eat anymore after that. : (

On the upside, he did remind me of the cruise we were about to take and that we could shop at Patagonia if I stopped stuffing my face. So we headed off to Pier 66. We walked to Patagonia where I found a super cute shirt:

Then, it was time to board the ship! It was a fairly quick and painless process. Once we were on board the Norwegian Pearl, we decided to grab lunch. Because, you know, the waffles weren't enough. : ) Once we were done with that, we were able to head to our room. Our balcony was starboard, so we had great views of Seattle. See?




Bon voyage, Seattle!

Our next day was spent at sea, so there aren't any real exciting pictures from that. We pretty much ate way too much food, caught up with A & J, ate way too much food again, played trivia, drank some alcohol, ate way too much food, and slept.

Next stop, Juneau, Alaska!

Bliss is . . .

morel mushrooms, dipped in a bit of egg and milk, rolled in saltines, fried in butter, then eaten while still hot with a delicious beer.




Heaven is all of the above while served as a side with carnitas.

We are here, we are here, we are here!

Portland is awesome! Our apartment is cool, but the area we live in (Orenco Station) is fantastic! There are several restaurants in the area. There's also a wine store that carries our honeymoon dessert wine that's always been hard to find (Robert Mondavi's Moscato). And there's a great pet store that carries the cat's food and other good quality foods and a grocery store that's kind of a mix of a Whole Foods type store and your normal Shaw's/Star Market/Hy-Vee/Food Lion/Fareway/Schnuck's whatever else they call it type of store.

We made it here early Wednesday afternoon. The truck was unloaded and returned by supper time. Grandma and I unpacked the kitchen while Mom & Jeff took the truck back and then we went to eat at the Orenco Station Grill. We thought it was good, but I just saw some reviews on yelp and nobody else agrees with us. I stayed up late unpacking our clothes and organizing our new, pretty, beautiful, wonderful walk in closet.

Thursday we did some shopping and got most everything else unpacked. We still can't find a shower curtain/bath rugs/etc that we like, but we've got the other necessities. I've been craving pancakes, so we ate at IHOP - yum!

Friday we went to the beach! We went to Cape Meares to the lighthouse. Jeff and I walked up to the Octopus Tree. I saw a big scary beetle and a big scary spider web. But I also got to meet the prettiest red nosed pittie. He was a big sweetie and didn't even bother to sniff Jeff before he started giving him kisses. It made me really sad when the owners said "Thanks for petting our dog - most people think he's some ferocious killer or something and back away."

We drove to Oceanside spent some time on the actual beach. We noticed signs all over saying "Boycott the Anchor!" and bumper stickers saying "You won't see me at the Anchor!" Mom googled when she got home, and it seems The Anchor ticked some people off by expanding and then bringing in strippers.

We ate lunch at The Schooner, which was OK. Then we went to the Blue Heron Cheese shop. They had some amazing cheeses there. We came home, and Mom, Grandma & I went to eat at The Merchant of Venice. Grandma had an amazing tomato soup. Dessert was Sweet Cream, which I need to find a recipe for.

Saturday morning we dropped Mom & Grandma off at the airport. Then Jeff and I went exploring and grocery shopping. We napped, watched Sahara, made carbonara for supper then went to bed.

Odwalla, where have you been all my life?

I've decided that I'm addicted to Odwalla's Strawberry C Monster smoothies. I love them. They're orange-ey. And strawberry-ey. They make me happy and I'm a bit miffed they don't come in the big carton size.

And has anyone tried the new M&M Premiums? They are a.m.a.z.i.n.g! I've only tried the Triple Chocolate ones but I'm absolutely positive all of the other flavors must be awesome, too. Try them!

The downside is that they include corn syrup, and I've been trying to cut high fructose corn syrup out of my diet. Who knew that would be so hard? It's in everything! Bread, buns, ice cream, juices, yogurt, ketchup, marinades and the list goes on. And on.

I started cutting out artificial sweeteners a few years ago after hearing all of the issues that it causes my cousin. I went and read more about them and decided they needed to go, and they have. Except for my occasional Yoplait Boston Creme Pie yogurt. I can't figured out how to give that up, but I only eat it once every couple of weeks so I think I'm going to be ok. ;)