When Texas Came To Portland... (Part 1)

Last Thursday, I boarded a plane to Portland, Oregon to spend the weekend with some friends I met in China in 2006. I can't tell you how much I'd been looking forward to this weekend, not only to see beautiful Portland but to FINALLY get to see Brynn, Trina, Jess, and Candi after almost THREE years.

Before I tell you about my trip, I have to tell you about these amazing friends I went to visit. The friendship we have is completely a God thing. Rewind to July 2006....on my flight with my team of 8 people heading to Yining, Xinjiang, PRC, the school where we were to teach called and backed out of the program. So when we land in China, my team has no place to go! The organization I went with scrambled to make other arrangments for us, and in the end, we were partnered with another team headed to Nanning, Guangxi. I thought, "this could be REALLY awesome or REALLY bad!" Thankfully, it was one of the most life-changing summers of my life to date. The Lord moved mightily in the hearts of some of our students that summer. You may remember the story of Apple who is now a believer and one of my dear friends. The Lord also blessed me with some incredible friendships of people on the team we were partnered with....this is where my friends from Portland come into the picture. Almost instantly, I felt as though Brynn, Trina, and I were kindred spirits. I loved their company and it felt as though I had known them forever. We laughed together...prayed together...explored China together...lived life together for five weeks. Jess was the team leader for the other team, and he picked on me about my conservative, Texas lovin', "southern belle" ways. I loved it! A couple of weeks into our trip Jess' wife, Candi, came to visit us in China, and just like the rest of the Portlanders, she was awesome too! Looking back to the circumstances that led me to Nanning that summer, God's hand was in all of it, and I am so thankful! I love these precious people/blessings.

Thursday night after two delayed flights and a lengthy layover in Dallas, I arrived in Portland...FINALLY!!! Brynn picked me up at the airport and we went back to her house. Both of us were pretty exhausted from the day, but we ended up staying up WAY too late talking and drinking sweet tea (that she learned how to make just for me). Little did I know how literally EVERY MOMENT of my weekend in Portland was packed with things to do.

Friday started bright and early with a little bit of Dutch Bro. coffee on the way to work. I LOVED the coffee....and I'm not a coffee drinker at all. Then it was off to Warner Pacific College where Brynn is an admissions counselor. Mid morning, I went and met up with Jess, Candi, and little Ella. Little Ella will always be the way I will know "how long" I've known Jess and Candi because Candi found out she was pregnant RIGHT before coming to see us in China. The four of us drove around Portland and they took me to Voodoo Donuts. It was crazy! Definitely culture shock for this Texas girl. I mean, seriously, who has a donut in the shape of a voodoo doll complete with a pretzel stick to poke the doll?!? C-R-A-Z-Y!!!!

Jess and Candi took me to meet back up with Brynn at lunch. Brynn and I then went and picked up Chinese food and met Trina for a picnic. Eating Chinese with them brought back so many memories from China. We did have a slight mishap with the food though. They put our order in plastic containers and the food was so hot it melted throught the plastic. Whoops! So when we opened it, the food kinda went everywhere and we had to be innovative with how to eat it. Trina came to the rescue and got us bowls and napkins.

Brynn and I said goodbye to Trina and then we took off to do some sight seeing. We drove up to the Gorge and visited several beautiful places. Our first stop was Multnomah Falls. We then drove up the Historic (beautiful) Hwy and stopped at Crown Point and Larch Mountain. We took TONS of pictures while we were up there. I can't describe to you the beauty of the mountains. We serve an amazingly beautiful and creative God. I love that I was able to sit and just be in awe of HIS vast creation which reminded me how BIG He is, yet at the same time to be reminded of how intimately He knows me. How can He be so immense, but at the same way know and care of every small detail?!? What an AWESOME God we serve!

The night didn't end there....Brynn and I went back to her house, changed clothes and met up with one of her friends for dinner at the Montage. It was a neat place to eat. The food was really good, but the leftovers were what made the experience! They package your leftovers in the shape of different animals made out of aluminum foil. Mine was a swan, Brynn's was a snail. :D

We then went downtown and walked up to Portland City Grille to get a view of the Portland skyline. It was beautiful...I'm such a sucker for city lights...I love them. We then went to a place called McFadden's for an evening of dancing. So much fun!!!

Ok guys...that's just the end of day 1. More to come on the rest of the weekend when I have a chance to get the posts up. Hopefully it will be soon. I'm only going to post a few pictures, but I am planning on putting together a slideshow of some more pictures. When that is finished, I'll post it on here as well! I know that was long, but thanks for bearing with me. I want to have everything that we did written down so that I can look back and remember it all.