vacation | Our Oregon Trail

PDX in the Rearview

November 6, 2014 by kristikrass

I can’t believe it’s been five months since Jeff, Cooper and I pulled away from our empty Portland apartment and drove across the country to our new home in Grand Rapids, Mich. What?! Five months! That’s almost half of a year! Time flies by achingly fast. It’s so strange to flip from one life — apartment living in a big(ish) city, hanging out with the loveliest mix of friends, both working at Nike, super liberal environment — to another life entirely, with […]

Categories: Our Oregon Trail • Tags: Cooper, michigan, mountains, vacation

Goodbye for Now, Oregon Coast

May 26, 2014 by kristikrass

Jeff and I are moving. Let’s just throw it out there, otherwise it’d be the big white elephant in this post. We made the (super hard) decision to leave our beloved Portland, leave our rad Nike jobs, leave our amazing West Coast friends, and embark on a new adventure in Grand Rapids, Mich., starting next month. I’m in a state of mild shock, I believe, despite the mountain of moving boxes that have accumulated in our apartment, and despite the fact […]

Categories: Our Oregon Trail • Tags: coast, Cooper, vacation

Bend with My Bro

January 27, 2014 by kristikrass

My little brother. He is the rare bird who deliberately chooses February to visit us in Portland. The reason: the snow-capped mountains beckoning for snowboarders. Dave last visited exactly two years ago, and we covered a LOT of ground in a few days. This time we had a whole Tuesday-to-Tuesday to explore new places. Dave is our kind of guy: He loves his breweries and food. We kicked off his trip with a night at beer haven Apex, a pizza dinner at […]

Categories: Our Oregon Trail • Tags: bend, breweries, falls, mountains, parks, Redicks, restaurants, vacation, visitors

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

Wedding in the Woods

November 3, 2013 by kristikrass

We all know couples who just make sense together. Somehow, something brings together two people whose interests, quirks and personalities just fit, and you can’t imagine a better match in the world for either of them. That totally applies to Jerry and Chrissie, recent transplants to Dallas and long-time friends of ours. Jerry and Jeff met in grade school, and I got to know Jerry when we all lived in Chicago. Jerry first spotted Chrissie across the room at a […]

Categories: Our Oregon Trail • Tags: indiana, vacation, wedding

Miss You, Mich.

September 7, 2013 by kristikrass

It’s been waaaay too long since Jeff and I visited Michigan. We had an eight-month gap, last visiting at Christmas. I don’t know where the time went this year, but here we are, facing fall and coming off our first visit to our home state in 2013. We had one week in Michigan, and we quickly got down to business. We took the latest (or earliest?) red-eye I’ve ever taken – 12:55 a.m. – to Detroit to kick things off with […]

Categories: Our Oregon Trail • Tags: Krasses, michigan, Redicks, vacation

Seattle’s Best

May 26, 2013 by kristikrass

Last weekend, the Krass family converged in Seattle – Jeff and me from Portland, Rob and Amy from Chicago, and Bob and Chris from Fountain Hills, Ariz. The visit marked the first time we were all together since Christmas, plus it spurred a milestone for Jeff and me: It was the first time we traveled via the Amtrak Cascades train along the coast. The train ride rocked. Unlike the slower-than-driving, constantly-delayed Amtrak routes that zigzag across Michigan and surrounding states, […]

Categories: Our Oregon Trail • Tags: coast, Krasses, market, restaurants, seattle, vacation, washington

Concert at The Cosmo

May 11, 2013 by kristikrass

I love Las Vegas. My obsession began more than a decade ago when a crew of barely-21, small-town Michigan girls hopped a plane (which felt like a party itself) and lived it up on the Strip like we couldn’t have imagined. Now, my goal is to make it a yearly trip: a quick, weekend dose of gambling, glitzy shows, overindulging in fancy meals and cocktails, and soaking up the sun. Our excuse this time was an intimate Zac Brown Band […]

Categories: Our Oregon Trail • Tags: concerts, restaurants, vacation, vegas

Our Oregon Trail

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

Tag: vacation