Cruisin’ on the Willamette

On the last day of the epic staycation that was HannahFestNorthWest, Andrew and I took a two hour cruise on the Willamette River. I had purchased a groupon for The Portland Spirit, so it was a cheap little excursion. I honestly wasn't too impressed by the food (my gumbo was basically just stew? with carrots? what?! DO YOU KNOW HOW GUMBO WORKS, CHEFMAN?) and the live music was a little bit disappointing (country music covers=whyyyyyyyy?). However, it was a absolutely beautiful day, and there were many lovely sights to see on the river.  It was really neat to see parts of the Willamette and Portland that I've never seen before.

pirate boats!

Apparently, paddle-boarding is a thing.

kayakers

adorable little floating houses

a llama leading a bunch of goats around a golf course right on the river.

Before you get on the boat, you have to have a cheesy picture taken. I, of course, blinked right when she took the picture. (I should've just worn my sunglasses! Curses!) Towards the end of the cruise, the employees find you and offer to sell you the photo for $12. I chose not to buy it since I'm all blinky in the photo, but then some super-nice maybe-drunk older ladies bought the photo for us because they thought we were cute. Hooray for nice people!

The Grand Lodge

For the first part of our little staycation, Andrew and I drove out to Forest Grove and stayed at The Grand Lodge for two nights. The Grand Lodge was a "Masonic and Eastern Star Home" back in the 1920s. Its now owned by McMenamins, the company I work for. It's has a hotel, frisbee golf course, two restaurants, two bars, a spa, and a soaking pool!



One thing I love about McMenamins' properties, is that there's art and paintings everywhere. Every wall, corner, nook, and cranny is painted or decorated with something.

Me and Andrew had a lovely time at the Grand Lodge. We both had our first massages ever, which was ahhhmazing. We ate lots of yummy food, drank some delicious cocktails, walked around a lot admiring the property, and relaxed as hard as possible. It was definitely a good way to start off my staycation!

HannahFestNorthWest

I just wanted to let you guys know that I'm going on vacation! errr...a staycation! I have a week off work, so I'm filling it with lots of fun and chillaxing in the local area. Tomorrow, I'm off to Grand Lodge for a couple nights. After that I have some loose plans for a trip to the beach, a house party, a 3 hour Portland cruise, and some hangouts with some of my favorite people ever. I probably won't be around the interwebs much the next week, but I'll be taking lots of pictures of my adventures so I can show you guys all the wonderfulness later!