Portland, you'd think it was middle America...

The countdown has begun! As I mentioned in a previous post, in the next few months we'll be traveling around to see all the family before we leave on our trip. This weekend we headed up to Portland to visit with Alice and Eric (Jeremy's paternal grandparents) and some more members of the Hermann clan: Jim and Sharon (Jim is Jeremy's uncle...Randy's younger bro), and Jim's two daughters (Megan and Heidi) and their families.

With Alice and Eric:



Portland...now with 20% more Hermanns!:



Alice and Eric live in Vancouver, Washington, right off the Columbia River. They have a really nice little place with a gorgeous view. This house number 50...no joke, Alice and Eric have bought and sold 50 houses in 47 years of marriage. Eric calls it an "Escrow fetish."



They also have a nice little boardwalk where we took a stroll...that's their house in the background, the building in the middle:



We also got to see Jim and Sharon's gorgeous house on the river. This is the front of the house:



And this is view from the back:



Last time we visited Portland in 2006, Jim and Sharon were at their house in Palm Desert. And this side of the family couldn't make it to our wedding because Heidi was due with her first child on the day of our nuptials. So, not only was it my first time meeting Jim and Sharon, but it was our first time meeting Hudson Mac, Heidi and Grant's little man.



We had a lovely dinner out on the Hermann's porch that night and took a beautiful boat ride the next morning. Jim is a big fisherman so he knew his way around the river. Thor, Jim and Sharon's dog, also went with us. Thor was very busy pacing back and forth on the boat, looking in the water for little creatures.







And, I have to show you the ridiculous rental car they gave us...of course when you're driving an electric blue Mustang, you just have to do a photo shoot on the hood of the car...too bad I didn't pack my bikini...





Between the car and the guns, you'd think we visited middle America or something. OK, and for the record, Jeremy was SO EXCITED when Jim brought out the gun. Seriously, he turned into a 7-year-old.



We had a lovely time in Portland...the Hermanns are such a sweet family and it was really fun to hear stories of Randy as a little kid. :) We also got a family history lesson from Alice...here is a photo of her parents with their parents. We think Jeremy looks a lot like Alice's dad (third from the left):



Check out all the beautiful photos from the trip on my Flickr here.