Pink Monkey Notes

In reference to the title of this posting, the next few postings are the Pink Monkey version of the last couple months. For those of you that don't know what Pink Monkey is, it's like Cliff Notes, but with a cooler name. So instead of writing a whole novel about my goings on since my last post I'm summarizing. There are 3 other posts so read on!

Pink Monkey Part 1

I went on vacation a couple times in since the middle of August. The first trip was my graduation gift to myself. I've always wanted to go to Europe or back east somewhere, but unfortunately I didn't want to wait long enough to save for that. So I chose to go to California and visit some friends.

My first trip I flew out of Idaho Falls to LA where I had lunch with my friend Karen at Johnny Rockets and then I flew up to San Franciso where I stayed a couple days with my old roommate Jamie and some of her family and then drove up to Healdsburg and Cloverdale to say goodbye to her family before she drove back to Idaho with me. She was coming back up to school this fall I rode back with her and then she stayed on my couch for a few days before school started.

The first night I flew into San Franciso about 10pm and then took the hotel shuttle to my hotel and then got to enjoy a lovely evening in the company of Me, Myself, and I. The next day Jamie and some of her family met up with me.

I loved San Franciso. We spent a lot of time on Fisherman's Wharf including Pier 39 and then went out to Alcatraz, drove over the Oakland Bridge, by accident (I'm happy to say I was not the one driving) and the Golden Gate Bridge. And we went to the shore where we found some sand dollars right on the beach and got to feel the waves come in from the ocean.

We bought a city pass for each of us and were able to go see a lot of incredible things while were were there. We went to the California Academy of Sciences where there was an incredible aquarium, an exhibit on Mammals, and an Rainforest habitat. We went to the Aquarium of the Bay and rode a cable car. And walked through the De Young and the Legion of Honor Museums.- Both museums were inside city parks. Pretty cool. I also ate at my first Hard Rock Cafe and at a really good place called Wipeout Bar and Grill. I also got to try some authentic San Fran food including Clam Chowder in a sour dough bread bowl at Boudin's Sour Dough which is a bakery right on the Wharf and supposedly the moist bay air makes all the difference in their Sour dough start.

Unfortunately I've been trying to upload pictures for an hour and my internet connection just doesn't like that idea, so I unfortunately don't have any pictures.

Pink Monkey Part Zwei

My second trip was a couple weeks later to Portland Oregon. Marlene Nelson one of my old roommates got married.

My roommate Maria and I got an awesome deal off of Priceline for both a hotel room and Portland and plane tickets from Boise to Portland both ways and a rental car, for less than we would have paid to fly out of SLC!

We obviously went to the wedding at the temple and the reception, which was cool because they had hung fabric in the cultural hall to make it a tent, did some touristy stuff such as visit Multonomah Falls (sp?), but really mostly we did a lot of eating. BowThai, All you can eat Indian food at a place called Nameste, Baby Back Ribs, P.F. Chang's, VooDoo Doughnuts,Moonstruct Chocolate Cafe etc. We had a ton of good food. We didn't really pay to do much besides eat and drive so we got to try some amazing food. Unfortunately my internet connection doesn't like uploading lately so I'm going to give you a link to VooDoo Doughnuts because they were amazing doughnuts! With names you will find no where else. http://www.voodoodoughnut.com/

We went to the Portland Art Museum and saw in person WaterLilies by Monet, another piece by Van Gogh

We went to the Rose Gardens in a city park there and they were just gorgous.

We went to Powell's bookstore which was several floors high and covered a full city block.

We bought a lovely wedding gift that didn't make Marlene blush, and just had an awesome time! It was kinda a sad trip home knowing we had no other future travel plans. Overall an awesome time! The more and more I travel though I've decided that I agree with Saint Augustine when he said "The world is a book, and those who do not travel read only a page." We all know how much I love to read, and I think traveling is becoming as big of an addiction for me. :0)