Back in Ashland

We're in Ashland, Oregon for the night. We're staying at the Ashland Hills Hotel and Suites, which is the same place we stayed in March when we were driving Noe home from Seattle to San Francisco.

It's a great place. I'd highly recommend it if you need a place on the area and you're traveling with pets. The pet friendly rooms are all suites and are a nice size. They have a large green space for dogs and a restaurant (with really good food!) with an outdoor patio where your dog can stay with you while you dine.

Zombie Car

Funniest thing I've ever seen on a road trip: A Zombie Car (hitched to the back of an RV) complete with Zombie driver. Hilarious.

On the Road Again!

Goodbye, Portland!

Next stop: Ashland, OR!

Today we'll be driving on Interstate 5 for 275 miles. :)

Our Day in Portland

We've had a nice, relaxing day exploring Portland! One of the biggest perks of our hotel is that we are able to leave Wallace in our room while we are away, as long as he is crated and not barking. Wallace is really good when we leave him at home, and we can tell from the Wallace-cam that he usually stays in his crate and rests while we're away. Anyhow, it's nice to be able to leave him for an hour or two while we head out to eat or explore on our own a bit.

Dick and I had a nice breakfast at a local shop this morning, then headed over to Powell's Books. It's HUGE!! I read that it may be the World's largest independent book store. It's a full city block, with multiple stories. Really amazing!


Powell's Books


one of the entrances to Powell's Books


A very cute book they were featuring about a dog named Larry who gets lost in Portland. He explores all the highlights in Portland before he is reunited with his person. :)


one of the many large rooms in Powell's Books

We came back to our hotel and took Wallace out on a long walk. We walked to and along the waterfront park. We probably walked about 3 miles or so, which was a great way to see other parts of Portland and letting Wallace explore a bit.

A great way to help me raise a LOT of money for the Immediate Impact Walk

San Francisco/Bay Area Friends:

Okay, here's a BIG opportunity for you to help me raise a LOT of MONEY for the Immediate Impact Walk!!

our friends at glassybaby are planning a special event in San Francisco to celebrate glassybaby reaching $5 MILLION in Giving.

The short story is: they will be selling a special edition glassybaby named "Give Me Five" through a 3rd party site (http://www.brownpapertickets.com/event/2597457). When you make the purchase on the site, indicate which non-profit organization you want to support (Immediate Impact Walk), then pick up your glassybaby at the San Francisco Ferry Building on Thursday, September 22nd (at 6:30pm-7:30pm) where all of the teams will take a huge photo together of all of the lit glassybabys. The CA non-profit organization that has the most people with the special glassybaby at the event wil be awarded a gift from the glassybaby white light fund.

the glassybaby white light fund will award the following donation amounts:
$55,555.55 for the winning organization
$15,000 for 2nd place
$10,000 for 3rd place
$1,000 each for 4th-10th place

Let's see how many people we can rally together to purchase this new glassybaby and (most importantly) come to the SF Ferry Building on Thursday, September 22nd!! If we get a large enough of a group, we can raise a LOT of money for the Immediate impact Walk!!!

Please let me know if you are able to participate (just click on the link, purchase the glassybaby,, indicate that you want your purchase to support the Immediate Impact Walk, and plan to pick it up (and take a photo with the group) on Thursday, Sept 22nd @ 6:30pm.

This could be HUGE!! Let me know if you have any questions, and I hope to see you there!

With Gratitude,
-Trina

Here are the specific details:

where: on the bay side of the san francisco ferry building (behind sur la table, by the gandhi statue)

when: thursday, september 22, 2016

6:30 pm
check in, pick up your glassybaby, take pictures with your team

7:30 pm
photo taken on bay side of ferry building with our glassybaby giving community holding their lit 'give me five' glassybaby

how: register online: http://www.brownpapertickets.com/event/2597457

cost to register: $44.00 ($46.53 w/service fee)

100% of the registration price $44 per person, each of whom receives a special-edition 'give me five' glassybaby votive will be donated to the top 10 non-profit organizations who rally the largest teams (minimum 10 people) to the ferry building.

the glassybaby white light fund will award the following donation amounts:
$55,555.55 for the winning organization
$15,000 for 2nd place
$10,000 for 3rd place
$1,000 each for 4th-10th place

Wallace at the Westin!

We're staying at the Westin Hotel in Downtown Portland for a couple of nights. We've stayed at a couple of hotel/motels with Wallace before, but this is by far the fanciest!

They have really nice amenities for their canine guests. They brought up food bowls and a mat for Wallace, plus his very own dog bed!

He seems quite comfortable here already. :)

Mt Saint Helens

A nice visit to the Mt Saint Helens Visitor's Center. I last came here in the Summer of 1980, just weeks after Mt Saint Helen had erupted. Pretty neat to see it again after so many years!

The had a nice 1-mile hiking trail that allows dogs. We all enjoyed the beautiful walk and scenery.

Wallace and his Sock Monkey

This is the second night in a row that I've noticed Wallace sleeping in his crate snuggling with his Sock Monkey. It's adorable.

Maybe he sleeps like this every night but I never saw before since he's not usually in the same room with us. I love looking over and seeing him sleeping like this.

Last night in Seattle

Sunday night dinner means Bizzaro with the NKC!

Top Pot!!!

What a great way to start the day!!
Thanks, Reeves!!

Harry Potter Trivia Night at Unicorn!

Six of us formed a team and participated in the 3-1/2 hour Harry Potter Trivia Competition in Seattle this evening. We managed to not come in last place, and considering for hard the questions are, we did okay! Most of the crowd was much younger than us. They were the generation that grew up with Harry Potter. We knew that going in, so we had fairly low expectations of our outcome.

The surprising news is that we won one of the bonus question rounds! That means we won Jell-O shots for the team! WooHoo!! Even funnier: it was my first ever Jell-O shot. LOL

The prize came as a sock which Dan took to the bar to collect our shots (even though the sock says Free Beer). A cute nod to the free elves in Harry Potter. :)

Paula enjoyed a "fancy" white wine from a can. It went well with our super yummy bar food of tater tots, truffle popcorn and funnel cake.

Fun times!!

Sent from my iPhone- please ignore any inadvertent  autocorrect typos. :)

8oz Burger with the Gang!!

Our Morning with Krish & Sri

We had a wonderful visit with Krish and Sri. They invited us over for breakfast and lunch (separate, not brunch) of homemade Indian food. It was amazing, as always.

They were very happy to meet Wallace, and was happy to be there!! He loved Krish and Sri, and especially loved her parents.

We went on a little walk around the neighborhood between courses. When we came back for lunch, Wallace spotted his first bunny in their backyard. He was fascinated.

Sri also played her Veena instrument, which was beautiful!!

XXX Burger with the girls

Oh, my...

Root Beer Floats and Hot Dogs. We're stuffed.

Star Trek Exhibit at the EMP Museum

Dick and I went to a quick visit to the EMP Museum in Seattle today to check out the Star Trek Exhibit. It's the 50th Anniversary of Star Trek this year. My Mom is an old-school Trekkie, so I grew up on it, and used to go to conventions with her. The exhibit was really great. It covered everything from the original Star Trek television series to the current reboot movies, and each of the TV series and movies in between.