My Mom was Here! // Living Stephen

Hello everybody!

Since moving up to Portland, I have gone into this state of dismission. I have tried my best to not really think about how far I am from the comfort of Southern California and how unreal it still feels to think that I live in another state now. Luckily for me, I have had plenty of my friends and family come up and visit in the past couple weeks.

To my surprise, it helps so much more having a little taste of California every couple of weeks. Having someone who I love come up and stay with us for a week makes me miss it, but still feel alright about it. I haven't been forgotten since leaving and the ones I love the most have continued to reach out. My biggest fear about leaving was having to make "all new friends," like all of a sudden my friends from home weren't there anymore. Fortunately, that's not the case! I've been able to keep a balance of friends in Portland and friends in California.

This is all beside the point.. (haha.) Basically, my Mom came up and visited with my little brother, Christopher, for a couple of days. It was obviously really exciting and fun to be able to spend some time with my Mom. She is so supportive and amazing at giving advice. I was able to really delve into some of the emotions that only a Mom can bring out.

We did a couple of super exciting (tourist) things! I only snapped a couple of pictures because of the rain and the cold, but hopefully this gives you a little taste of what Portland is like!

One of the mornings, we went out to breakfast as a whole family. Tyler was able to take a couple of days off, and so was my brother, Robert. We went to Cafe Du Berry, which is a little French restaurant. Although the food wasn't what you would expect, it was still super delicious. (It definitely was not American, super food.)

We then headed up to the Vista House, which is just one of the first stopping points on your way to Multnomah Falls (if you're going the right way.) As you can see, it was clearly a pretty cold day.. So ignore the suffering all Tyler's face.

I had to add a couple of pictures from the falls. It was rainy and cold, so it was pretty difficult, but hopefully these two will suffice!

We went down to Saturday Market on the Waterfront of Portland. It is seriously one of the most fun things to do in Oregon, and I highly recommend stopping by some of the shops there. Unfortunately, I was a bad blogger and didn't take any pictures of the actual market, but did get a couple of my family by the water.

It really was such a fun little stay-cation. There's something so calming and unnerving about having your Mom around. All of a sudden the stress from day to day life disappears.

Anyways, I hope you guys are having a good week! I'll be posting a video on my Youtube channel sometime within the next couple of days. If you haven't already, go over and give it look! I'm so happy I started filming and hope you guys are enjoying it!

See you soon!

Stephen

Dealing with the Portland Rain // Living Stephen

I also posted my second video! Go check it out!

Stephen

Pumpkin Patch Fun // Living Stephen

What a whirlwind week it has been for us in the Haus of Gays (yes, that's what we call our humble abode.) I recently got a new job working part-time at Urban Outfitters for the season, while still working full-time at Starbucks. As much stress that I know I will be in, I'm really excited to start a new job that interests me a lot more than making coffee all day for grouchy old people.

Luckily, Tyler and I found a day that we were able to go out to Sauvie Island in Portland. If you tell any Portlandian that you're going out to this island, a lot of people will give you a weird look and ask you why.. Mostly because part of the island is a nude beach, and when you say how pretty you thought it was, you seem to get worried glances. (Not talking from experiences, clearly..) What you should start with is that you're going out to the island to go to "The Pumpkin Patch."

This rural product market/pumpkin patch is one of the most beautiful places I have been to since moving to Portland. As you drive onto the island, you don't see much around you except for plains, trees and a couple cows. You soon roll up to a seemingly random array of homes and farms. Before you know it, you hit "The Pumpkin Patch." It's a small little patch off the road, but it holds some amazing things.. There was a hayride, farm animals, a market, and a corn maze.

Unfortunately for us, we had a late start and it had been pouring rain all day.. so we didn't do much but pick a few pumpkins. What excited me the most was the fact that you could actually go out into the pumpkin patch, and cut off the pumpkin you wanted from the actual vine. I had never seen something so beautiful before.

It was extremely muddy, so excuse Tyler's shoes.. He usually wears a lot cuter footwear. We trekked out closer to where the actual pumpkins were, walked through the pumpkins, and looked around a little bit. It really felt like fall, and I couldn't have loved it any more. Unfortunately, my camera isn't amazing, so I was only able to get a couple of snaps of the pumpkins around us, but the mountain view from across the river was jaw dropping. With the clouds floating over the hilltops, I was completely taken away (just like I am, every time I leave my living room.)

We finally picked our pumpkin (from the "already picked" section), and went our merry way. It was absolutely beautiful, and definitely got me that much more excited for Fall! I'm going to carve the shit out of my pumpkin!

Oh, and here's a little OOTD.

See you next week!

Stephen

Walking the Waterfront // Living Stephen

Hello guys!

As you probably already figured, I've been trying my best to spend a lot of time outside, enjoying nature and all of the amazing places in this city. I recently started exploring a little bit closer to where I live, and have found some of the most beautiful scenery I could have imaged. I only have to walk about for about five minutes before I walk onto the waterfront of the Willamette River. The river runs through Portland, which means it splits the East from the West and is home to diverse wildlife and plant life.

I walked down a few days ago, not really expecting to spend too much time looking at the water, but I ended up spending about two hours walking and exploring some of what this area holds. I usually only walk about as far as I know, and try to stay close to where I'm familiar, but for some reason, I felt the desire to explore a little bit more that day, and ended up going through trees upon trees. I stumbled across a couple of benches, where I stopped and sat for a little while, drinking a bit of coffee from down the street.

I continued walking and explored closer to the actual waterfront (which I'll post about in a few days, I took a lot of damn pictures). I don't think I really expected to get as excited and emotional as I actually did while I continued on the trail. I was so overwhelmed with how beautiful everything was, and how in awe I was that this was my home. I've always driven past this area, and never even stopped to see what it was.

As I made my way back home, I ran into some insane little sights (Again, I'll be posting about those later). I walked down old train tracks, that I always seem to have just past over and walked back through the fall stricken trees, back home. 

When I got back home, I really had to take a minute to realize what I just went through. I had basically fallen in love with Portland all over again, and had one of the most breathtaking days I have ever had. (I'm still not a 100% sure if I loved it, or just loved the fact that it felt like Fall, finally) Like I said before, I'll be posting a few more blog posts from this day, mostly because I took a ton of pictures, that really deserve their chance to be looked at! 

I hope all of you are enjoying Autumn so far! I'll be back to post some more later this week!

Stephen