Welcome to the Zoo!

Spencer had some vacation use 'em or lose 'em 

so we added a few days to our New Years Weekend.
Thursday we spent the day in Portland, and I loved it!

Even though it rained almost the ENTIRE time!
Thank goodness for a cute bright orange umbrella.
Most of the day we just walked around, ate out of trucks, went to IKEA, etc.

My favorite part was going to the Portland Zoo for "Zoo lights"

Downside - some animals apparently hibernate, so there weren't tons of animals.

They also shut down parts of the zoo at night, so we got there earlier so that we 

could see more of the zoo.

 I love Christmas lights! The zoo had so many it was Awesome!
I especially loved the train ride.  The train took us around the zoo 

and we saw so many lights and animals!

My favorite (and Spencer's) exhibit were the elephants.
Two of them were inside (yes, that is the rear end of one in our picture, he

got camera shy and turned around).

There were also two outside.  One of them DID NOT like the rain.
He was hiding in an alcove and ever 30 seconds would take a few steps out,

swing his trunk around and feel for the rain, and then step back. 

It was hilarious!
Spencer also had to get a picture with the Cougars.... 

So I love cities, but hate parking with a passion!
This time we parked out by the airport and paid for 

the tram.  Best idea ever! It cost about the same as finding parking

inside Portland, but less stressful and we didn't have to walk as much!

Don't worry, we walked a lot still.

After the zoo, we went to a Sports Bar "Spirit of 77", Spencer

had heard about it.  Apparently they cater to cyclists and had great reviews.

The TV screen was pretty sweet, but that's about it.
The food was not the best bar food ever and kinda disgusting.

We ended our night going to Sheri's for Pie Shakes and 

apparently on Thursdays, it's buy one get one free!! Holler!

Not that we needed two...but why not?