Boise Book Club Babes "Do" Portland & the Gorge

Every June, my book club comes to visit me in Oregon...for those of you who don't know, we have been together for more than five years, and I make monthly treks to Boise to hang out with them still...each year we do something different---the first year we explored Silverton area, the next year we went to the beach, last year we did area vineyards, and this year we focused on the Gorge & seeing some of Portland.

We stayed at the Embassy Suites in Tigard (near Washington Square Mall)...because they were supposed to have a room that slept 6 adults comfortably (and for which we paid a high premium rate)...well, let me just have a momentary tirade about what a ridiculous situation that was...it had 2 double beds, and a pull out couch whose cushion was barely 2 inches wide...we didn't have pillows or blankets for the couch and when we called to get some we were told to just take them off our beds...nor did we have enough towels/washcloths for all of us...not to mention running out of TP on the 2nd morning!

But all that said, the beauty of book club, is it doesn't matter the circumstances, we just all have a blast!!
On Friday morning, we headed out to Multonomah Falls...which has a gorgeous waterfall which we really enjoyed! Forgive the sideways pictures...Matt usually does the picture manipulation for me...but he's busy working on projects!!

Then we shopped, shopped, shopped at the outlets in Troutdale...we all found some good stuff...and are beginning to prepare seriously for our Tuscany Trip in June 2008.

Friday night we ate at Cafe Castagna on Hawthorne in Portland...we have a tradition of ordering lots of stuff and sharing it...which was lovely at this Italian bistro...it was fabulous food and they took reservations which was a plus on a Friday night!

Marnie had been to a fabulous place for Spanish Coffee (a afterdinner treat with lots of alcohol and quite a show to make it. We went to Higgin's first on our waitresses recommendation but ended up at Huebers where this guy made some for everyone (except me-I was DD)...yes, that is really him pouring Kahula over his head into a mug. When we asked him how many he had made, he said, "In 17 years, I'd say about 350,000 or so!!"

Saturday morning we headed to La Provence Bistro in Lake Oswego...it is a favorite of ours for breakfast/brunch...the surprise was I had arranged with my work friend Barb Jensen to bring local author Maryanne Radmacher to meet us so she could discuss her new book, "Lean Forward into Your Life" which is my selection for book club in the next rotation. We had a simply fabulous time and before we knew it more than 3 hours had gone by!
This is the crew...from left to right: Kristi (Medical School & fellow vacationer), Marnie (Mom to Cole & Ellie & the friend I usually stay with in Boise), me, Patty (who all our kids call Patty-cakes), Barb Jensen (my colleague & friend also known as Aunt Mimi to Mateo), Maryanne (squatting in front...we loved the pig tails!!), Teresa (who is orginally from Glide, OR) and Natalie (who got to be here in person this year--we had to hold a photo of her last year when we took this picture).

The best part is we have decided on a location for our Tuscany Trip...from June 14-21, 2008, we will be in a villa in Greve (about 1 hour south of Florence) in the Chianti region. We Millers will likely add on 2-3 weeks before...just for some fun! I mean if you are going to take a 2 1/2 year old on a 20+ hour plane trip...you might as well spend several weeks over there before coming home.

The girls all flew home on Saturday night...and Mateo and I flew to Spokane to see my dad for Father's Day...nothing like keeping busy!

Love from Oregon, Sarah