california | Our Oregon Trail

Rose Bowl Champions

January 4, 2014 by kristikrass

Happy New Year! If the first few days of 2014 set the tone for the rest of the year, let’s just say it’s going to be one heck of a trip around the sun. Jeff and I are still basking in the exhilaration from Michigan State’s win in the 100th annual Rose Bowl – the school’s first Rose Bowl victory since 1988. As soon as the Spartans crushed Ohio State in the Big Ten Championship we sprang into planning mode for a […]

Categories: Our Oregon Trail • Tags: california, games, Krasses, vacation

Turkey Time with Tillmans

December 3, 2013 by kristikrass

Jeff and I have strung together an interesting run of Thanksgivings since we’ve lived on the West Coast. 2011: Cabo San Lucas. 2012: Fountain Hills, Ariz. This year, we headed south again, this time for Auburn, Calif., to visit our friends, the Tillmans. Surprisingly, the nine-hour drive down I-5 flew by. Jeff, Cooper and I left Portland at sunrise last Wednesday, and watched as the terrain morphed from woodsy to mountainous to farmland to high desert. We paid a quick (and […]

Categories: Our Oregon Trail • Tags: california, Cooper, holidays, mountains, vacation

From the Golden to the Garden State

August 19, 2012 by kristikrass

July and August have been crammed with loads of travel and loads of work, which means a long drought in blog posts. And now the fall is shaping up similarly, with probable trips to Vancouver, Arizona, Hawaii and Michigan on the horizon – I think Jeff and I wouldn’t know how to operate without trips to look forward to! In mid-July, Jeff jetted off to San Diego for a men’s soccer tournament with his high school and college buddies. Jeff’s […]

Categories: Our Oregon Trail • Tags: california, concerts, festivals, michigan, new jersey, Redicks, vacation, wedding

California Dreamin’

April 28, 2012 by kristikrass

After 1 year and 3 months of promising our friends in Southern California a visit, we finally made it! It took a “free all-access tickets to Zac Brown Band concert” nudge from Jeff’s co-worker Peter, but it accomplished our goal: getting to see some of our best buds in a locale with 1,000x more sunlight than Portland. After work a few Fridays ago we jetted into Orange Country, where Jeff’s friend-since-kindergarten Joey (who just rocked the Cartathlon with us in […]

Categories: Our Oregon Trail • Tags: beach, california, concerts, hikes, restaurants, vacation

Our Oregon Trail

Portland through the eyes of a festival-loving, dessert-feasting, travel-addicted Midwesterner.

Tag: california

Rose Bowl Champions

Turkey Time with Tillmans

From the Golden to the Garden State

California Dreamin’