Portland and San Francisco

As if I have not been on the road enough lately, I spent the first week in December in the west coast of our lovely US of A. Except, it was not so totally lovely that week. It all started when I flew into Portland on Sunday night, into hurricane like winds. You may not believe this, but I swear it is true. Just read the Oregonian:
http://blog.oregonlive.com/breakingnews/2007/12/sunday.html

In Portland, I was visiting my sister Laurel. She was in transition between places to live, so we stayed at the Avalon Hotel, which is WICKED. If you go to Portland you simply must stay there.

We got to have dinner at Veritable Quandary, which was super yummy. And, we got to move Laurel into her cute new house near Hawthorne Avenue. It even stopped raining that day just in time for the move. Here are some photos. The U-Haul part was especially fun...



From there it was off to San Francisco to catch up with some old friends for a few days. The weather was: raining! It did get sunny the last day, which was nice. I stayed at Lory's house in Pacific Heights. She has moved into a new place which is just fabulous. Her shower pressure was a bit lacking, but she's had it fixed since and is super happy. I also go to see Mary Ragan, Corbin and Ho at their fantastic house in Menlo Park. And, I caught up with Michelle and Becky. We hit the Christmas party scene Friday, here we are all dolled up (except for me - that sweater needs to go).


When I got home after being on the road for two weeks, I was convinced I was done traveling until Australia and New Zealand in February. Since then, however, a couple of January Vegas trips snuck onto the calendar. More detail on these later.