Travel

Portland day 3

March 2, 2008 by Jess Leave a Comment

Another busy in Portland! We spent the day checking out various places, our favorite being the Lloyd Center Mall. The last 2 classes at CKC went really well, then we made a mad dash for the Outlet centers that were 20 miles south of Portland. They closed at 8pm and we didn’t get there until 6:30 so we didn’t have very long. Along the way the car beeped that we were out of gas – so not wanting to do a repeat of our Seattle trip where we ran out of gas on the highway, we pulled off and filled up in a place called Wilsonville. We were both starving too, so we grabbed a bunch of snacks from the store there. We are not making the healthiest food choices on this trip…. Wetzels pretzels for lunch (they are the best though!), then our convenience store purchases included laffy taffy, chocolate bars, quesidilla chips, beef jerky and chex mix. We only had luck at one store (Guess) at the outlet center but it was totally worth it, we left happy, lol. We got back in the car and Nicole says “It smells like a convenience store in here!!”

Then it was back to the hotel to get ready to go out for dinner. We finally decided on a restaurant called Stanfords – it was right by the mall thats near here and it sounded like a great place! The write up about it said it was always busy, the place to be and had the busiest bar around! yay!! We got dressed up and headed for this hot spot. However when we got there, the hostess took us to the dining room and it was empty! She asked if we would rather sit in the lounge/bar area and Nicole is like “um…are there people there?” LOL. There were a few tables but it definitely was not booming like we expected, but it was already 10pm… but it was also Saturday night too… The food was awesome though!!!!

Portland Day 2

March 1, 2008 by Jess Leave a Comment

6 classes down, 2 more to go.

Today was such a busy day but fun! I am pleased to report that we only got lost ONCE today (opposed to 5 times yesterday). We started our day at the CKC show – in the vendor fair. Crazy busy! We did some shopping and left about an hour later so we could find Joann’s. (We don’t have Joann’s in Canada so this was quite the excursion for us, lol). We found it with no problems, and NO MAP!! Amazing! We were only going on directions given to us by the parking attendant at the conference center as we were driving out of the parkade. There was so much on sale at Joann’s too! I had to buy a bunch of ribbon for one of my classes today, then we went next door to Walmart to get sanding sponges for the class as well (which I forget to get yesterday). We were taking our time as I had in my mind that my first class wasn’t until 4:10. After stopping at Wild Oats (I absolutely LOVE this place!) we got back to the hotel with all our stuff, dumped it on the floor and prepared to lie around for awhile. Nicole took a look at the room and said “oh we forgot to put out the sign on the door that we needed the room cleaned, so I guess they just didn’t come at all”. I was looking at my bed which was perfectly made and said “What are you talking about?” then I saw her bed, which was a disaster! Lol!! She had left so much stuff on it, that they didn’t even touch it! We had a good laugh over that 🙂

So then while I was cutting ribbon for the class, we were watching tv and stuffing our faces with almond hershey kisses (the bags here are WAY bigger – like twice the size of the ones we normally get). We ate half the bag in about 5 minutes. Nicole suddenly asks me what time the first class starts and I was like” 4:10, we still have awhile”. We actually had 4 classes today all back to back and all in the same room – my 2 classes were first then Nicole’s 2 classes. She questions that saying that is an odd time. So I was like “yeah its 4:10 to 5:10 and then 5:30 to 6:30…. wait…. how can that be if your first class starts at 6….” We both grab the schedules at the same time to frantically look and Nicole exclaims “It’s at 3:10!!!!”. YIKES – it was 2:40 and we weren’t ready AT ALL. We hadn’t even gotten changed yet, I hadn’t finished cutting the ribbon, we thought we had plenty of time. I don’t think I’ve ever rushed around so much, but within 5 minutes, we had both changed our clothes, thrown all the kits and stuff in the bags and were down in the car heading out of the parkade. We rushed through the doors of our classroom at 2:55. Whew!

Anyway, all our 4 classes went really well and we had a lot of fun with everyone – what awesome groups of people we had! The funniest comment from someone was “so where are you from that makes you talk like that?” LOL – another reference to our “accent”. Nicole and I find this hilarious.

After the last class ended, we headed off to PF Changs for dinner – so yummy!

Our door today 🙂

evidence of the eaten hershey kisses….

our half cleaned room, hehe

shopping? ….what shopping?

PF Changs….mmmmm

Portland Trip day 1

February 29, 2008 by Jess Leave a Comment

What an incredibly long day its been. Nicole (from www.tilanofresco.com) arrived to pick me up at 8:30 am this morning and with the car absolutely FULL of class kits (over 400 various kits), we set off on our journey to CKC Portland. From out previous road trip to CKC Seattle, we don’t have a very good track record for getting places without getting lost along the way. We stopped off at a Starbucks only minutes from the border and we got lost trying to find our way back onto the highway. I know, it sounds ridiculous! We did however make it all the way to Portland without getting lost or sidetracked along the way, the sun was out and by the time we reached Portland it was actually warm out! (20 degrees celcius). We got lost trying to find the Walmart Supercenter, so we gave up and decided to go straight to the hotel, then we got lost trying to find the hotel. Finally we made it! The Jupiter Hotel. Well…. its….different. It’s not like any hotel I’ve ever stayed in before, its totally funky and retro! But it sure seems to be a popular place – there are always people around, the bar and restaurant are constantly booming. We burst out laughing when we saw our room – green shag pillows on the bed, a mural of a babbling brook on the far wall, and the doors were painted with chalkboard paint (there was a cup of various chalks inside for us). There was also a little something on the bedside table too…. you can use your imagination for this one. 😉 Oh and when we checked in they told us quiet time starts at 2am!!! lol! There were also 2 pairs of ear plugs waiting in the room for us.

Our funky room

Handy little ear plugs, wonder if we will use them…

We thought it would be fun to write our names on our door…. then thought maybe if people knew there were two girls inside we might get some unwanted knocking on the door so for safety reasons, we changed it….

Then it was off to CKC – Nicole was teaching 2 classes around dinnertime. The classes went really well, everyone in the classes was so nice! And apparently we have Canadian accents 🙂

We didn’t leave the convention center until almost 9pm. Other stores we wanted to go to were already closed so we headed towards the Walmart Superstore. We had a map but of course we got lost again (this was the 5th time getting lost today for us). We finally pulled over at a Holiday inn and went in to ask for directions. We were told we were 135 blocks away from where we were trying to get to! How in the world we wound up there we have no idea!!

We did make it to Walmart eventually – this is a 24 hour one too – exciting for us! LOL!!! Well actually the exciting part is being in Oregon and having no sales tax!!!! We grabbed snacks, and some stuff we can’t get in Canada, and headed back to the hotel but we didn’t get back until after 11, and we still hadn’t eaten dinner. The bar at the hotel was open (and was quite busy) – so we went down to see if they were still serving food. They were serving a select menu and we were starving so we stayed, and actually the food was really good! Eating dinner at midnight is not something I usually do though. Oh and something else funny, we got ID’d a couple times tonight – I love it when this happens! Getting ID’d at 30 years old is very exciting, lol. 🙂

the lights around the outdoor lounge at the hotel

CKC Portland Classes

February 24, 2008 by Jess Leave a Comment

All weekend I have been busy putting together the kits for my classes at CKC Portland later this coming week. I’ll be teaching 2 classes for a little coaster album “Betcha Didn’t Know” and 2 classes for a Pet themed accordion album. Should be fun! I should have some extra kits left over, so I might do a couple giveaways for them next week on here 🙂

Away again

January 28, 2008 by Jess Leave a Comment

I have not been a very good blogger lately, its been all I can do just getting the Year in Review challenges up! The last couple weeks have been crazy. I came down with a cold just over 2 weeks ago, and a few days later traveled to Houston,Texas for 5 days. The great thing was that when I got there, I felt so much better! I was thinking that Cold FX stuff really worked! yay! Houston was so much fun, I stayed with Scott and his family and they were awesome!!! What a cool family they are, I had a blast hanging out with them. The weather was on the cold side though, it was about what Vancouver was at the time. It even rained one of the days I was there, so I really felt right at home. Of course a couple days after I left Houston, the weather got better and its much warmer there now. Go figure!

I had a long day of traveling back home, 3 flights and the last one got delayed due to a malfunctioning propeller. They actually made us all get off the plane only seconds before we were about to leave for the runway. Luckily I had my laptop and the boxed DVD set of Lost Season 3 with me. (Thanks to my mum for letting me borrow it!). I watched it on all my flights and during layovers at the airports. (it was hard to find an electrical outlet to plug the laptop in – in some of the airports). I am all caught up now and perfect timing – the new season starts this Thursday with a 2 hour episode, I CANNOT WAIT!!!!!

The morning after I got back home I got sick again, although this time worse then before. And I’m still sick and on antibiotics now too. The past few nights I have had hardly any sleep, maybe a total of 3-4 hours for all 3 nights put together. Between coughing most of the night and just not being able to sleep at all, its been driving me crazy. It could also have something to do with the fact that I have been taking daytime cold medicine instead of nighttime before going to bed. Brent just pointed this out this morning, I didn’t even realize it was daytime stuff!!

So now I am away for a couple days again, this time I am over on Vancouver Island looking after my parents house & pets while they are away. I am so happy to be here – out in the country, it snowed today so everything looks beautiful. I brought the dogs with me too cause they just love it here, so much room for them to run and play outside. I had to get up at 5am this morning to be at the ferry at 6:30 – so I planned on sleeping the rest of the morning when I arrived at my parents. No such luck. With 4 dogs and 2 cats in the house, every time I finally managed to fall asleep, a dog would bark, or a cat would walk by the room and a dog (usually Zoey) would bolt after it, or a dog would jump on me. ergh. I finally got up off the couch, went into the bedroom and closed the door. It was only minutes later when a bunch of little dogs gathered outside the door and started scratching on the door until I let them in. Needless to say, I didn’t get to sleep. lol

Year in Review Challenge #4

January 28, 2008 by Jess Leave a Comment

How’s everyone doing with these challenges? Here is #4 – this will be the last one for January so make sure you get all your January challenges uploaded

I will announce the 2 January winners (one for favorite layout, one random winner out of everyone) on February 1, along with the first challenge for February.

Challenge #4:

For this challenge I want you think about your favorite moment or the best memory you have from January. It does not necessarily have to be an event or anything major. For example, if you have kids, it can be something your child said to you one day that just made your day. Or something a friend did that made you smile.
Focus on your journaling for this also, say why this stands out as a great moment, why it is something you want to remember.

For mine, I did a layout on a trip I recently took to Texas.