Einen lieben Nikolaus Euch allen! Ich habe die Stiefel meines Patenkindes und seines Bruders bereits gefüllt – das ist genauso aufregend wie selber Stiefel rausstellen- LOL.

Happy St. Nicolaus Day! I already filled the boots of my little godson and his brother (that is the German custom – the kids place their self polished shoes/boots the night before the 6th outside and if they were nice they get them filled with Sweets by St. Nicolaus). I was as excited to fill them as I used to be excited to receive them as a kid – LOL

But her are more pictures of Portland and…Waterfalls :-)

I really loved the brick buildings in Portland – I have a soft spot for brick buildings!

and for pizza – LOL

oh and for coffee

The coolest thing on our last day in Portland was the huge Saturday Art Market. Wow. Lot’s  of stands with wonderful self screen printed T-Shirts, self sewn clothing, self crafted jewelery, lamps, wallets, purses, – everything just handcrafted. This places spilled over with colors and inspiration – I was so so happy there! I bought myself some beautiful earrings and we bought a lot of cat and dog toys (well….we have a soft spot for animals too – LOL)

And we did all this whiles listening to this wonderful group of young people singing 80s songs a Capella- awesome

And then we went back to Seattle – with a picnic in the car and a different route this time – the Historic Columbia River Highway. BEAUTIFUL.

We had our picnic outside in the sun – still pretty cold  – with this view:

And Waterfall number I. on our way…I have to look up the name again – mmmhhh

And then a little big bigger – the Bridal Veil Falls – you hear it around the corner while hiking:

And then the Multnomah Falls which are the second highest year round waterfalls in the United States – pretty impressive – I tell you!

It rained – and so I did not a lot of photos there -my little camera got wet :(  – this is just the upper part of the waterfall.

and the lower part of the waterfall – you have to connect those two photos in your mind- LOL

And some last impressions before it got dark

The next day we flew back to Newark on the Eastcoast and more with the last photos about it later :-)

Have a gorgeous Saturday!

Nat

And that my friends means Home of Nat- LOL. I love Art and I love good Microbrews- no doubt about it.

Seriously – I fell in Love with this city. I loved how green it is, that it has a tram, that the public transportation in the city center is free, the people – everything. We had a great time there!!!

So here is a happy photo- as you see I still have no fish lense- LOL

And if you are really hungry – I tell you…Portland is THE place *snigger*

We had some tea and lunch at Chinatown

and then went to the awesome Chinese garden  – which is a whole block and pretty big. A real oasis in the middle of the city!

At night we visited Rogue and Deschutes (Rogue is one of my favorites – their Chocolate Stout is to die for and I haven’t had one in a lonnnnng time!)

Oh and I think we need some of those signs in Hamburg too :-)

ok- a little bit more about Portland tomorrow. I hope you are not tired yet ….you know like the eye rolling when the dia-show never ends- LOL.

Nat

Here we go again – LOL.

So from Seattle we drove down the Westcoast – amazing – I loved this.

The weather wasn’t the best- but it was still cool.

I was totally amazed by the vegetation in the temperate rainforest there. Awesome huge farns and wonderful mossed trees.

And then finally we entered Oregon – State number 25 on my “Visited US-States”-List.

So – Portland tomorrow? See you there- LOL

Nat

Want to see more Seattle photos? – Here we go.

We went to the Seattle Public Library- such a cool building- and the inside is amazing too. A real public place with lot’s of people just enjoying coffee, knitting, reading and relaxing.

Oh and this spinning elephant neon sign was my favorite- isn’t that the cutest?

One day we went to Fremont- the so called Center of the Universe-  LOL. Loved that place.

Lot’s of fun art on the street.

And what do you think you would find at Troll Ave right under the freeway?

Yep – a Troll eating a real Volkswagen Beetle! LOL

And how the heck did they get this statue over?

Oh and at the International District this hotel cracked me up – wow- I’m glad those rooms are fire proof and at low rates too!!!

Oh and did I tell you that Seattle totally reminded my of Hamburg?

And tomorrow you can follow me along the WestCoast to Portland, Oregon :) if you want.

Nat

Puh – endlich habe ich meine Fotos runtergeladen und aussortiert  – hui hier sind ein paar :-) Seid mir nicht böse, dass ich nur in Englisch poste heute :)

Puh – finally I downloaded the photos and organized them – so here we go :-)

The flight from Hamburg to Newark took 11 hours instead of 8 hours. We had to fill up fuel in Newfoundland as the headwinds were stronger as expected and the weather in Newark was pretty bad. It took also longer as the pilot had to pay the 15ooo Dollar bill with his very own credit card and it wasn’t authorized for so much. I wonder how this conversation went “Hey Hank, fill it up please and two Slim Jims to go!” LOL

*Newfoundland*

We had a nice family dinner and met the newest member of the family – Maui – my brother in law’s cute new dog.

The next day we got up at 5 am to go to the airport. It wasn’t bad as we were still on German time – but the 6 hour flight felt as lasting for EVVVVVEERRR. A nice treat was the photo of Mount Rainier from the plane.

In Seattle we had an amazing bed and breakfast place at Capitol Hill with two rooms- the living room included a fireplace. Right around the corner of our house we found this newly painted garage door – love it.

We met our friends K. and M. who flew in from San Francisco to see us and who had amazing news for us. We celebrated the news and K.’s birthday and had a wonderful evening!

The next day we went with our friends to the Experience Music Project– which really rocked. We had a lot of fun there and I just love the Gehry building.

and doesn’t the sky here look like a face?

We went up to the Space Needle and had a great view over the city and saw the mountains- gorgeous.

It was pretty windy up there…can you tell?

We went to Pikes Place Market -I boy….I love love love this place!!!! The very first Starbucks is located there too and – LOOKSIE – the label was different in the beginning- LOL . Had to be pc-fied – I guess – LOL.

And those guys really made me happy- I loved it – you can catch a glimpse of my shoulder too – LOL. Listen to those street musicians:

[youtube width=”325″ height=”271″]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ooYhHQj8bXM[/youtube]

The market itself was a eyecandy and ….candy – LOL

hehehe- and this one I love- LOL

Seattle reminded me a lot of Hamburg- with all the green, the water and the harbour.

More tomorrow :-) I hope you like my travel stories- LOL.

Nat