Day Fifteen

Because Erin and I had spent the past couple of days doing some pretty challenging hikes I wasn't disappointed when we learned about the air quality warnings from the smoke that has left the Portland area in a haze.
Erin had a ton of messages to answer and I was using MS Word to compose my blogger posts until I had access to wifi again.
Erin had offered to show me how to insert videos into my blog so I went over to her B&B, which also has good wifi, around 12:30 and spent the next couple of hours working on my travel blog.
 It's my birthday tomorrow and because Erin flies to New York in the morning we decided to have a celebratory dinner that evening.
By mid-afternoon, we were both feeling a bit hungry but didn't want a big lunch that would spoil our dinner so we walked over to a nearby smoothie bar for a light snack.
A few days earlier Erin had asked me for some birthday gift ideas and all I could think of were a few items I needed for my RV: a 25-foot coax cable, a pair of water filter cartridges and a pair of really good scissors. I know. Not too exciting but I needed all three to make life a bit easier on my travels.
It was a hot and muggy day so I think we were both glad that we weren't out on some trail sweating our butts off.
The girls had coordinated a dinner at a very nice local Italian restaurant. Cavan and Angie live in this incredible area of the city where they have a couple of streets that are lined with interesting shops and restaurants all within an easy walking distance from their apartment so we met them there at 6:30.
I ordered the Rigatoni with spicy Italian sausage and it was amazing. When it came to the gift giving, it was quite funny opening these rather utilitarian items all nicely wrapped in a fine dining setting.
At one point Erin got up and had a private chat with our server and the next thing I know they brought me a miniature birthday cake consisting of a yummy warm brownie with a scoop of vanilla ice cream and a lone little candle on top. It was so wonderful to actually share my birthday with my family which has not always been possible in the past. Here are my two b-day cards.





It was a special evening. After dinner I drove everyone home and headed back to my little home away from home. I had offered to drive Erin to the airport in the morning so I turned in early.

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