Little did we know when we booked this trip back in December that we'd be getting the first real snow in over 6 years in Portland! The weather folks reported it might snow on Thursday...then it got more and more real. I went to work, Charlotte went to school and by 9am folks south of us were reporting lots and lots of white stuff coming down.
The minute it started snowing in Forest Grove, I got out of work and headed home. Before I got home schools were being released two hours early. Victor and I got his car loaded (he has the chains) and headed to get Charlie from school...this is how the roads looked about 1/2 mile from school.
I knew that Portland would become a mess, FAST, based on schools getting let out early and the amount that was now predicted to come down. I insisted we park at the MAX station in Hillsboro and take the train into town...I'm SO happy we did. Max only got held up once, near the Steel Bridge where the TriMet employees were having to manually switch the tracks...I've NEVER been so happy to make it to PDX without getting cold & soaked!
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| Inside the the terminal looking at the upper level (COVERED) pick-up area., |
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| PDX is famous for it's funky carpet, so here's our foot/carpet shot! |
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| Bag checked, we are ready to wait... |
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| TSA lines were short, we had to wait a few hours, but we were happy to be inside, warm and plane was only a little late. PDX ground crews did an excellent job keeping things clear! Totally uneventful flight and less than two hours later, we landed! |
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| Mom, what's up with all those machines I can't touch?? |
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| We rented a car and drove straight down the strip to our hotel, Treasure Island. |
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| Light from the Luxor! |
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| NY NY |
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| M&M Factory |
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| Coke store. |
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| Paris in Vegas |
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| Our home for the next 3 nights! |
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| Venetian sorta across the street. |
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| Funny thing the day before we left. Victor emailed or texted Ray (in NJ) to wish him a happy birthday on the 5th. Turns out Ray was in LV that week for a cabinet makers convention and was staying ACROSS the street at the Palazzo until Friday morning. We texted him once we got our room number and a 20 minute walk later he was there. |
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| Really can't believe we got to see him. Only for about an hour and then he had to go crash until 5am when he was due to catch a shuttle to the airport to fly home. We'll be staying with Ray, Lori and the kids in August when we go to NJ!!! |