New Life, New Coast.

Too much to take in.

There's a line from American Beauty I think of often, and fits the day we had today: "Sometimes there's so much beauty in the world I feel like I can't take it, like my heart's going to cave in." Here's a few of the ways our day was filled with beauty...

- We heard it was going to rain around lunchtime, so took an early morning walk along the Willamette River. It never did rain though -- the sun shone all day and the sky was clear. It felt like summer! I even bought a great new skirt at Target to celebrate.

- We visited Portland's International Rose Test Garden, this time of year sans roses, but boasts the most impressive views of the city we've seen yet. Here's what the Rose Garden looks like when it's in full bloom, and yes, those are mountains in the background:



- We met Kobie, our Minneapolis friend, at Fruition, a coffee shop located in the hip NW 23rd area. We had never met before, but had a great conversation about life and church and community. And as we're sitting there, in walk this couple and ask if we're Ben and Nikki. Turns out Brian and Tricia, the couple we're getting together with tomorrow evening saw us as they were passing by the coffee shop randomly and stopped in to say hello! So tomorrow, Brian, Tricia, Kobie, Ben and I are getting together for crepes and the First Thursday gallery openings.

What a great day.

You may remember that we visited Cannon Beach last weekend -- here it is:

posted by Nikki @ 10:17 PM