Tuesday, October 29, 2013

i left my heart in portland... & other cliches.


portland is the sort of place you only dream of,
waking up and wishing it were real
and cursing that daylight peeking through the blinds for making you leave such a magical town.

it's a place where you're up to your ankles in leaves,
and if you're mentally (or verbally... i don't know how confident you are, person reading this in a public library!) telling me "hey, girl. that's just autumn. that's just what happens with the trees, lady!"
well then i invite you to scroll on up there and re-view those snapshots of leaves upon leaves
and multiply that by a 360 degree eyeball view
and there you will have a mental image of portland, oregon.

kelli + jared are there while jared is attending the united bicycle institute for several weeks
so we took advantage of the free place to crash (with those amazing and lovely married folk i mentioned, oh, four seconds ago)
and took our butts up to the northwest
never knowing just how deeply we would fall in love with the place.

adam leaned over to me through one of the many walks we took beneath orange trees
and beside food trucks and hip young people
and said, "i mean, wouldn't it just be rude of us to not raise children here? i think it would be terrible for us to know that this place exists and choose to raise them elsewhere and we need to think about those babies, right?".
right, adam. you are so right.

while we were there,
we were served nearly all of our liquids in mason jars,
we spotted too many westfalias to count,
and i said some variation of "ooh! i really like her beanie/scarf/cardigan/wellies!" nearly every five minutes...
not to mention eating the best sandwiches ever. and i mean ever.

my favorite thing about portland was watching my husband so quietly soak it all in
and seeing him fade into the pacific northwestern background so fluidly.
i think he could love it there. i really do.

i could, too. i actually don't think i have ever taken as many pictures in a three day period as i took in portland.
that's a sign, right? probably.
it's also my way of saying "hey, y'all. there are more pictures. brace yourselves."
so, there's that.

portland,
you beautiful place, you!


xo.

7 comments:

  1. I've never really felt at home anywhere, not more than for a day or two. Someone once said you can never run away from yourself, so there's never any point in running from anything. I guess there's a truth to that.

    /Avy

    http://mymotherfuckedmickjagger.blogspot.com

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  2. i live here, PDX born and raised. this made me smile :) Just be aware it is sunless for weeks on end... literally, WEEKS with just flat white skies and then, if you're lucky, you get some sunbursts on one day and then it's right back to the sky dirge. I think the columbia river gorge and the great town makes up for it :) But we've had a gorgeous October so check back with me mid-February

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  3. thanks for finding me...love your photos and your blog! ;)

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  4. I love me some pacific northwest, I could never leave this place. I am Olympia, Wa. so definitely different from Portland. We have our own weirdness to us. Great photos! and wonderful words.

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  5. Ohhhh, Portland so has my heart. So much so that, despite my love to exploring new places, every time I have the chance to travel, I end up right back there. The quirkiness, the friendliness, and those views can't be beat. I could live and die in the Columbia River Gorge and be so very happy.

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  6. Thank u Ayley for ur kind comment on my blog. I know it s gonna sound as a cliche. but as I was going through ur blog I was enjoying it more and more. Love ur sense for the small daily wonders, around and between us. These pictures are just about that:) x

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  7. Thank you for the lovely comment on my blog! Your trip to Portland looks great, I love the west coast and hope to live there someday. So glad I came across your blog, it is so nice to see the love that you and your husband have for each other and for life.

    -Maryam

    www.maryamnortonphotography.com

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