Coming up roses

Portland, Oregon: City of Roses

Everyone who's been after me (nay, hounding me) to take vacation this year, I bow down before your everlasting wisdom.  Hit me over the head with your DUH stick because the trip to Portland, Oregon was a wonderful one and a much needed break from work and the oppressive Texas heat.  I may have teared up a little bit at the airport on Tuesday afternoon when my sister dropped me off - I do miss her so much already.  If you guys don't follow me on Instagram, you won't have realized that we pretty much ran and ate the entire city.  Okay so that's a slight exaggeration but it sure felt like we did.

There were so many highlights to the trip: staying up late with Siri watching scary movies, crawling around the corner in the morning for freshly baked croissants, eating all the ice cream, meeting the beautiful and talented blogger Christine, exploring the Oregon wilderness and generally getting acquainted with my sister's new home.

With a slew of items to hit on, I'll start where it's easiest and closest to my heart, with my sister.  It was my first time visiting her in her first "grown-up" apartment and I was immediately impressed at how accommodating and gracious of a hostess she was.  Her place was immaculate and she had stocked the pantry and fridge with food just for me.  Even at twenty-something years old, my sister will always be my little sister to me - forever stuck at five years old.  I had to physically restrain myself from buying her groceries and paying for every single meal.  She's turned into a perfectly capable young woman and I'm so proud of her for how far she's gone already.

Siri's apartment was comfy cozy, with the rooftop deck right outside her living room windows.  The cross breeze would float through it in the evenings and cool the room down after baking in the evening sun.  Her upstairs neighbor is a concert violinist for the Portland Symphony and her interminable practicing would wind its way downstairs until we were both humming Tchaikovsky before we went to bed and when we awoke in the morning.  Initially, when I was tenaciously getting up early in the mornings, I would wander around the corner to the neighborhood artisan coffee shop and grab a latte, then cross the street to the bakery and wait in line for one of their morning buns or chocolate croissants.  I think I could rinse and repeat that morning routine into eternity.