Cheers!

This was our theme song for the weekend.  Play it while you read the post, then maybe you can feel like you were there with us and my ramblings won't seem so crazy! 

So this blog post has very little to do with running- but if you are interested in how to have an amazing girl weekend that involves a lot of laughing, chatting, walking and consuming of delicious food than look no further!

My girlfriends and I have been planning this "girl trip" for several months now and between all of our crazy schedules we settled on October 19th-21st in Portland. So we booked a hotel right downtown and decided to have one dressy go out night and then do a lot of shopping/eating/walking the rest of the time. It was perfect.

Sarah, Jaime, Kendra and me in our hotel lobby

We ate sushi, frozen yogurt, pumpkin pancakes, cheese plates, burgers, halibut, duck and fancy desserts. And truffles. And doughnuts. Oh, and pineapple fried rice and fresh spring rolls from a food cart at 2:30am. I think I need to run 50 miles to burn it all off but it was totally worth every bite!! Oh, and a chocolate dipped macaroon. Better make it 55 miles.

Mmmmm....beer

We shopped at the mall, the Portland open market and stores like Nike, Lush, Powell's book store, Paper Source and Prana. We parked the car when we arrived on Friday and never got in it again until we left on Sunday so we walked A LOT!!

Right across from our hotel.  By the way- don't drink that water. 

Here is a list of the places we went that I really enjoyed and suggest you visit if you are ever in Portland:

*Breakfast- Mother's Bistro (http://www.mothersbistro.com/) -we waited a very long time for a table on Saturday but it was worth it. I had pumpkin pancakes and chicken sausage links and a Bloody Mary (which was really, really good). The girls all enjoyed their food as well, no complaints other than the long wait.  Eat here and make your belly happy.

*Shopping- The Portland open market on Saturday was really nice. It is HUGE and has a lot of neat things to buy. I almost bought a duck tape wallet, but I did buy peacock earrings and some warm gloves that I LOVE. Also- go to Powell's book store. It is an independently owned bookstore that fills an entire city block (there are maps available!). I could have spent the day there. http://www.powells.com/

My fancy friends- Kendra, Sarah, me and Jaime

*Dinner- We had a really nice dinner at the Heathman Hotel. Sound familiar? We didn't see Fifty Shades there much to our dismay!! It is a classic french inspired restaurant -the presentation was really nice and the food was fantastic. After our meals we shared a cheese plate and then we each chose a different dessert so we could taste them all. It is pricey but overall I would say if you want to splurge on a meal you would not regret it here. http://portland.heathmanhotel.com/restaurants/restaurant-menus.aspx

My dinner at the Heathman.  Halibut, leeks and fingerling potatoes. 

*Entertainment- We decided to go see this show http://www.darcellexv.com/ on Saturday night and it was hilarious! We called and reserved a spot and they said to arrive by 10pm for the 10:30pm show and after a taxi incident we arrived at 10:05pm to be informed that we needed to wait in line they only take reservations up until 10pm. So make sure to get there very early!!! We still had decent seats but I would have been mad if we didn't get in to see the show. We stayed for the male centerfold show at midnight but to be honest it wasn't really much of a "show". Mostly the guys just took off their clothes and then went into the audience to give out touchy feely lap dances. Not really my scene! I was not really paying attention and suddenly one of the guys was right on me dancing and so I tucked my dollar bill in his undies and Kendra was just sitting by me chuckling knowing how uncomfortable I was. Then he moved on to her and it was my turn to laugh at her! Ha that was probably the best part for me. We left soon after that. So watch the Darcelle show, but I would say the centerfolds are not really worth it. Good thing we didn't pay extra for that part!

The cast of the Darcelle show.  I think the lady with the legs must be a runner!

*Dessert- Kendra talked about Papa Hadyn and their desserts so much we had to stop in and get something when we walked by. I wanted one of everything but I chose a chocolate dipped macaroon and it was amazing. Holy yum. Go eat dessert here http://www.papahaydn.com/ you will not be disappointed. And if you love chocolate half as much as I do, do yourself a favor and stop by one of the many Moonstruck Chocolate Co. cafe's and have a truffle. They also have drinking chocolate and many other amazing chocolate things to eat. http://www.moonstruckchocolate.com/ . We also went to Voodoo Doughnut on the way out of town -I am not a huge fan of doughnuts but I admit these are pretty creative and tasty. I ate a chocolate one that was dipped in crushed butterfingers. Maybe I need to run closer 100 miles to burn all of this off...

We may have re-enacted a little Gangnam Style in our elevator

Almost but not quite the same...

*If you are hungry at 2am then I recommend walking really far in the rain to wherever the food trucks are.  Totally worth it, and you get to meet fun people like Michael from Poland who made Sarah some french fries and a Gyro and watch really drunk people wander by several times in search of their hotel.  The food trucks are open during the daytime too, but we learned they stay open until 4-6am for the bar folks!  They literally made fried rice for me while I watched them, and rolled up my fresh tofu spring rolls.  Good stuff.

I was laughing so hard that I was crying here.  Good times with some silly friends. 
I recommend bringing a friend with a long arm -thanks Jaime!!  Push the button!

It was nice to get away from everyday life for a few days though. No long run to do, no kids to feed, no work, no bills, no chores! It was a nice way to recharge and spend time with friends I have know most of my life. I met Kendra when we were about 7, Jaime when we were 11 and Sarah and I met when we were about 16. I am thankful for good, lifelong friends. Cheers!