we arrived in portland on a thursday afternoon after a long flight from chicago. after taking the train from the airport to downtown (so cheap and fast!) we tracked down kenny and zuke's delicatessen and ordered two ginormous sandwiches. after lunch we ran around the city and tried to take it all in. portland is so green, trees and moss everywhere and i dare you to try to find trash or litter on the ground (quite the change from some parts of chicago). there are recycling bins everywhere and the clean and quiet train that runs downtown is free in some parts! craziness. we stopped in the infamous powell's books for a cookie break (me) and a little reading time (h). the store was a maze of books with multiple levels, absolutely a must-see for any avid reader. that night we met h's brother (who teaches law at university of orgeon) and went to dinner along with his girlfriend to lovely's fifty-fifty. we ordered a few pizzas, with v interesting and delicious toppings:: salumi finocchiona with mama l’il peppers & green olives and one with wild nettles with taleggio, pancetta & parmesan.
day two was a foodie day. we stopped by stumptown coffee for some local coffee and then hung out at the ace hotel lobby (it has a comfy lounge area). afterwards we hit the food carts downtown. i had my first philly cheese steak sandwich and it was ahhmazing. h attacked a giant burrito and enchilada. we snuck out of the rain into our hotel lobby to eat our lunches (the only drawback to the food carts). after lunch, we headed to voodoo donuts... hellooo, sugar. we waited in line for a few minutes to buy three cereal/sugar coated donuts ($5 total!) the wait and sugar comma was totally worth it. chicago needs to starts to put cereal on their donuts. stat.
day three. the day we got engaged! saturday started off with h singing in the shower... and i was annoyed (full disclosure: i'm not always a morning person). so crab cakes (me) wanted to do photo booth photos at the ace hotel because h didn't want to do them the day before (little did i know he was waiting for a special occasion). we took a few (far left) but the first two didn't really turn out.
we headed to the river to go to the saturday market. while we were down by the river h got a call from the hotel, there was a package for him in the lobby. he told me his mom sent me something in the mail. weird. but she is pretty sweet so it wasn't totally unbelievable and i was excited to open up whatever she sent. we walked back to the hotel, picked up the package and then walked back to the river and sat on a bench (it was finally sunny outside!) h told me to turn around and open the box so he could take a photo of my reaction. i opened the small box and i was surprised to see it was empty!
when i finally turned around i was absolutely shocked to see h holding a sparkly diamond rosegold engagement ring! i started crying and i barely heard him say "will you marry me." i was in total disbelief... was this really happening?! after i got over the shock and surprise, it sank in and i said yes. (needless to say my mood drastically improved and i realized why he was so giddy that morning). the rest of the day we were on cloud nine... we called and friends, i starred at my sparkly ring and shared lots of smooches.
i would love to hear your engagement story! were you surprised?
xoxo,
jillian
