Portland and Olympic National Park part 3

 After getting back to Portland and having a relaxing evening in the hotel, we had to get up early on Sunday to head out to Hood River for our whitewater rafting excursion.  It was a little over an hour drive and we crossed back into Washington for it over a fun bridge.  Our whitewater rafting trip had us changing into wet suits since the river was 40 degrees.  We also had helmets, shoes, and life jackets provided.  We went on a bus to the location to start.  Thankfully, since we were a group of  6 (my parents sat out of it), we had the raft to ourselves with the guide.  It was so much fun!

We rafted in the White Salmon River over class III and IV rapids.  The big ones were right at the beginning and we all did really well.  The raft stopped at one point for us to get out and cliff dive off a cliff that was 18 feet high.  It was really scary for me - I was one of the last people to jump out of the whole group.  At the end we helped carry the raft back to the place and waited a bit for my parents to return from wine tasting to pick us up and bring our dry clothes and shoes.  We were ready for lunch so we headed to a brewery in Hood River that had some tasty lunch options and beer.  And then we went to the water since it was a hot afternoon and enjoyed splashing in the water.  

We stopped at Multnomah Falls on the way back to Portland to see a very cool waterfall.  We snapped some pictures and ate some huge ice cream cones and made our way back to the hotel.  I exercised in the gym and the kids swam in the pool and hot tub with Scott.  We were all pretty tired from an exciting day.

Monday we slept in, enjoyed breakfast at the hotel, and decided to venture out to downtown Portland to shop and go to some breweries.  My brother and sister-in-law had to work and my parents went out before us, but we met up for lunch at Deschutes.  The four of us went to another brewery after that and had a pretty full day exploring.  That evening we met up with Eric and Ana for dinner at another brewery that served Detroit-style pizza, like Buddy's.  My parents took the boys back to the hotel and Scott and I went out for drinks with Eric and Ana at some of their favorite spots.  One was a tiki bar that was so much fun!

Tuesday was our last full day before flying home on Wednesday.  I went out to breakfast with my parents while the boys and Scott slept in and ate at the hotel.  Breakfast was very good and I chose a tostada that had eggs and chicken on it.  We picked up Scott and the boys and went out to the suburbs to go to the Columbia Employee store where we got a big discount on Columbia and other sportswear.  I got quite a few items that we somehow squeezed into our luggage.  We decided to grab Chick-Fil-A for lunch and went over to Top Golf.  It was a lot of fun and the kids did well!  We met up with Eric and Ana for our last big dinner together at a nice seafood restaurant in downtown Portland and went to the S'mores dessert shop.  We said goodbye and gave big hugs to Eric and Ana hoping that it won't be another 3 years before we see each other again!