Portland, Oregon Dec. 6-10

We Love Portland!

Hello blog followers! We (I) haven't been very good about updating this the past couple weeks but will have some down time during Christmas to get it up to date.

We loved Portland and especially liked staying at the Hawthorne Hostel in the Hawthorne district. We arrived on Dec. 6 via the Amtrak Cascades train. It was very scenic

and we were both impressed with how nice the interior of the train was, we recommend taking it. The first couple days we wandered

around and did a little hiking up Mt. Tabor (the only expired volcano within a major city border) and had some really good views of the city and

of Mt. St Helen's and Mt. Hood. The highlights of our trip were eating cheap delicious food (bad service though) and our day trip through the Columbia Gorge. The whole time we were in Portland the temperatures were below zero and windy- burrr I can still feel the cold in my bones. Because it was so cold all the beautiful waterfalls in the Gorge were partly frozen creating some amazing natural art, I have updated a sample of the amazing scenery we saw. On the way we stopped at a fishery and saw a 70 year old Sturgeon, it was 10 feet long! We met good friendly people in Portland from all over

the US and enjoyed some famous micro brew's at some of the McMenamin's brewpubs, our favorite was Backstage...a restored backstage of a theater, 7 stories high with the "Ruby" brew a raspberry delicious beer. We will be back to Portland- that is for sure!

p.s. the last pic of sebastian with the little tree is the world's smallest park, it's in the Guinness Book of World Records!

Day 3+4 Journey from Whistler to Vancouver

1-2-3-ZOOOOOOOOM!

Ziplining was awesome! Thanks Kira for the 1/2 off coupons :) We had clear skies on Wednesday perfect for our 12:00 ziplining experience. We were picked up by a shuttle bus and taken to the site on Cougar Mountain. We were the only two on the whole bus! It was our own private tour, no one else brave enough to endure the cold ;b After a quick tutoral on our harnesses and safety we got to ride snowmobiles (cars can't access) up to the first zipline (1 of 4) with our two guides - young girls from Saskatchewan and New Zealand. We were a little alarmed as everytime they tried to open a carabiner they had to blow on it to get the frost off. I mean everytime! But after the first line was pretty exhilerating and fast we got excited to continue to the second two. We coasted a bit and were able to ride with each other. So much fun! Highly recommend it!

After our zip we gathered our 20,000 bags out of storage and grabbed a sandwich at Portabella from the famous Fairmont Hotel...mmmm can still taste it now. 4:30 our bus cruised out of Whistler back down to Vancouver into the darkness...arrived in Van about 7:00 and decided to brave the nine block walk to Steph's place. Right in front of Stanley Park - perfect! Yesterday we slept in and then took care of business, Sebastian is now officially done with school! WOHOO! Today we are heading out to Grouse Mountain to check out the views of Vancouver and Saturday we get to see a friend compete in a Judo Competition. He is #1 for his weight class in British Columbia, should be a good show. Until then! K&S

Day 1+2 Whistler Village, British Columbia

Welcome to our first Travel Blog! We are going to try to keep it regularly updated these next six weeks!

After a late Sunday, Nov.29 cleaning our apt. and packing up our lives (till 3:30 am!) we awoke excited to get our trip started! Just as we were making the last minute adjustments to our packs, Tony Devellano (neighbor & friend) stopped by to check out his "new office" (taking over our apt.) just in the nick of time to drive us to the bus depo! It would have been entertaining for others to watch us haul our 5+ bags across the highway at 9 am but we were happy to kick it off with a coincidental free ride:)

We were lucky to have fairly clear skies on our departure for a nice last ferry leaving Vancouver Island. After a couple hours layover in Vancouver we headed up to Whistler via Greyhound and clear skies (see sunset pic). We quickly transfered to a city bus to get to our accommodation, the Belle Neige. Uncertain about our whereabouts, bags and all we hiked in the darkness tiredly searching for a sign of our B&B...15 min. later and passing two bus stops we should have gotten off at we found it! Cozy and warm, phew.

This morning weawoke early to blue skies and hiked (literally) through the snow - there's lots here! to a little breakfast cafe. All the while taking in the breathtaking views of the Coastal Mountain Range. Next stop: Whisler Village. Smaller then we had expected but a cute little town we hopped on the Gondola and picked up our tickets for the Peak to Peak Experience. It was really breathtaking because it was so clear that you could see all the mountain peaks. We ate some chili on the peak taking in the views. With our frozen toes we hurried to the village center + picked up dinner to go and

headed to our B&B to relax. All in all a great start to our trip!