Here’s my week in Instagram pictures and Bloglovin mini-posts from Saturday July 8th to Sunday July 15th. No, that’s not exactly a week. But I’m cheating this one a little in order to make it span the entire trip to Oregon and Washington, and the wind-down day back in Dallas afterward. This was my last “fun” trip before hitting “too pregnant to fly” (I still have one more work trip to go), and also included my birthday.

 

 

 

 

When we got in to Portland, we checked into the hotel, which had a view of a perfectly branded Mt. Hood – or rather Ikea Mountain and hen headed out to meet up with Myra and Brien, who live in Portland. They brought us to Salt and Straw – the only time in recent history that I’ve waited in an out-the-building line for food. Donuts, I would not do this for you.

 

Bloglovin:

Pixel Pillows And Pixel Blinds At Aloft, Portland

In another example of nerdy-influenced motifs getting more mainstream play, here’s pixelated pillows and blinds in our hotel room in Portland.

 

See full post on Bloglovin’..

The 9th was my birthday, and that day we drove to Oceanside on the coast. We played around there for a few hours before driving up along the coast. We stayed in Manzanita that night. I’m missing parts of the story here, because parts of the trip I used other, fancier cameras and haven’t yet posted all the photos.

 

 

 

After the night in Manzanita, we continued up along the coast to Astoria and the mouth of the Columbia River.  For the record, I’ve never seen The Goonies; I just wanted to see a shipwreck.

 

 

 

(Things are a little out of order here, due to my posting order.)

We continued on towards Mt. St. Helens, where we stayed in a cabin for two nights, and spent the days hiking and otherwise looking at the outdoors.

 

Thom’s Two Cents:

 

 

 

 

 

 

We hiked to the treeline, a hard hike for a pregnant person. I actually didn’t realize how hard it was until later that night when my muscles made it really clear. Still, I’m glad we did it. Pregnancy might force a different pace on me, but its good to do things I’d normally do, even if I don’t make as good time.

 

 

 

 

Back in Portland, Myra and Brien took us to Pokemon… its a poke place! They have a toilet from the future. Also the poke is really really good, maybe I should have lead with that.

 

And then there was some special moonshine, (which I didn’t have to try, how convenient!) and some more delicious eating around Portland. Again I’m missing some of the timeline due to switching to the better cameras.

 

Myra came along with us one day to explore waterfalls in the gorge. Unfortunately we couldn’t do Oneonta, with its Pinterest picture hike back through the high walls of the creek, due to a wildfire. We did keep up our tradition of taking a selfie with a picture of the missing member of the trifecta.

 

Thom sees it like:

 

The last day we spent wandering around town, and apparently I only posted pictures from eating places. We also visited the rose garden, but that will have to be its own post as I didn’t instagram it.

 

 

On the last day before going back to work, we were back in Dallas. We went down for brunch at Armoury, which we chose because our friend Joey was working, and it was his birthday. But its also a nice, easy brunch spot. The Bloglovin post actually didn’t turn out to be a very “mini” post, because… shit happens.

By the way, that “cocktail” down there in non-alcoholic – one of my favorite things about Armoury is that they will make a good virgin drink without fuss or side-eye.

Bloglovin:

Brunch at Armoury, Deep Ellum, Dallas Texas

Armoury D.E. – in Deep Ellum, Dallas Texas

Unlike many of the brunch spots that Dallas local press fawns over, a trip to Armoury usually doesn’t require a long wait for a table. This is perhaps because Armoury is more of a true bar than a restaurant, but it has food, and you can have that food without waiting an hour.

Read full post on Bloglovin.. 

Let me know what you think of the Instagram roundup posts, as its an experiment I’m trying. I’m hoping to do them once a week, if I can get into a rhythm. The Bloglovin posts are also a bit experimental – I’m trying to use it for quick, casual posts that have a set of pictures – things that I don’t want to edit down to Instagram but are more in the moment than a blog post here.