Food, Shopping, and Spa Treatments = Girls Weekend!

I’ve been a bit remiss on writing lately. I was out of town for a week in Texas and came back only to come down with a nasty cold, my second of the year. In between Texas and the cold came an all girls weekend down in Portland, which can be summed up as: food, spa, and shopping.

We went to celebrate HC’s engagement. Seven of us piled into 2 cars and armed with fresh Starbucks, 2 GPS units, and 2 walkie talkies (who knew HC knew CB lingo?), we made our way down to Portland.

AS and HC as we make our way down to Portland.

We arrived down in Tigard and checked into the Embassy Suites.

The Hotel

Once we dumped off our bags, we met up again downstairs to head out for dinner. We decided to go to the local outdoor mall to grab some dinner. Given there was 7 of us, I figured it would take awhile to get a table on a Friday night, but it took just about as long to park….

Waiting for Dinner....

We ate and toasted our friend and soon to be bride at the California Pizza Kitchen. It was a yummy dinner and one we can’t get where we live. Dinner at CPK

By the time we ate dinner and got back to the hotel, it was pretty late so after a little bit of visiting, we decided to call it a night so that we could get up bright and early for some serious shopping.

AS and JT at Breakfast.

We piled back into the car and headed up into the city. We parked and walked over to get some coffee (while the free breakfast was good, the coffee was pretty bad). As we sipped our coffee, we made our way over to the Max line to ride it over to Pioneer Square.



The girls waiting for the train.


We all crowded in for a little photo.

Joke was on us. The Max went about 3 blocks and stopped due to construction. There was a shuttle available, but we decided to walk the rest of the way. As it was, the last “stop” was right across from a Nordstrom Rack, which we took as a sign to stop. After a little shopping (and not finding any shoes that were the “ones”), we walked up to Nordstrom’s. HC had a final item she needed to pick up before the wedding. After a little looking and some help from one of the sales associates, mission accomplished. Our next stop was the Nordstrom Café, which was very good.

Enjoying lunch at the Café.

We had just enough time after lunch to get in a little more shopping before taking HC to her big surprise. A little shoe shopping later (doesn’t one of the photos have a bit too many – or perhaps too few – legs?) and success.


HC, RB decided on a similar pair of Ruby slippers. LN also bought a pair as well.


We wandered over to Saks and Williams Sonoma. AS got a little makeover at Saks. They gave us some water and free perfume samples. We couldn't browse too long though...we needed to make to over the Spa for our final surprise of the weekend....


AS post make-over and RB


Alas….it was now time for our surprise…The Spa. We each had a treatment, be it mani, pedi, haircut or a massage. We relaxed and enjoyed the next few hours joking around and being pampered.


LS had a connection to a restaurant out in Beaverton, so we ate at the Hall City Grill. It was amazing. The food was fantastic. I think we all agreed the desserts were the best part. It was a long day, capped by really amazing food.

Dinner at the Hall City Grill

We were a little pokey on Sunday, and got up to have breakfast. We made 1 stop before heading back up the Gorge. We had a little after breakfast treat at Saint Cupcake. It was delightful. We all enjoyed a little sweet treat.





It was a really fun weekend and we all decided to try and get together once a year to have another girls weekend adventure.