april in portland

Last Thursday, Daniel and I caught a flight up to Portland to visit our friends Evan and Marissa. And their dog Lola.

This is the third year in a row we've made a trip up north to visit these guys. Six months ago, they moved from Seattle to Portland, so that's where we headed.

Their place was just lovely and they welcomed us with some amazing cheeses and cured meats. And wine. Portland does not mess around when it comes to food. We went to dinner at the Woodsman Tavern, which was great. Daniel ordered cioppino but when our food arrived, they mistakenly gave him a pork chop- which looked so good he insisted on keeping it. It was a smart move. The next day, Marissa took us around town. We started with a very good, very large breakfast at Broder and then headed to the Crystal Springs Rhododendron Garden.

Last year, when my mother and I were in Portland, we read about a garden dedicated to Beverly Cleary over in Grant Park. Ramona Quimby, Age 8 was the first chapter book I ever read- I love Beverly Cleary. So I thought it would be sort of special to check out the garden.

It wasn't. 

There was no garden to speak of- just three rather creepy bronze sculptures of some of the characters from Cleary's books. Daniel thought it was hilarious. Oh well.

Then we went window shopping along Mississippi street. Daniel tried on a sweater at a vintage store. 

It was $175. He did not purchase it. 

Then we went to lunch at Pok Pok. The Vietnamese Fish Sauce Wings were insane. 

If I had any sense, I would have stopped there, but I couldn't resist a cookie from Tabor Bread.

It was a buckwheat chocolate chip cookie- quite good. Tabor Bread sells all kinds of different flours, including fife. I'm not sure what fife is.

The next day, Marissa had to work but Evan took us out to see the waterfalls.

Multnomah Falls are the big attraction, but really, all of the waterfalls were all stunning. We hiked a bit and got some incredible views out over the water. The weather changed from one minute to the next- everything from bright sunshine to hail, all in the span of thirty minutes.

And then we went back home and prepared our 3rd Annual Seafood Feast. 

This year, it included oysters, scallops with chorizo, pasta with clams and mussels, and grilled steelhead. A great tradition. Afterwards we all piled on to the couch to watch Louis C.K. 

The next morning, we decided we had time to fit in one more meal before our flight and walked to The Country Cat for brunch. We found out our flight was delayed, which gave us just enough time to swing downtown for coffee at Stumptown and a visit to Powell's Books. 

We had the best time- Portland is so awesome. 

happy friday

Last week, Daniel and I went up to Portland for a few days. The trip was my birthday present to him and we stayed with some friends who recently moved there from Seattle. I took a zillion pictures (mostly of their dog Lola) and I'll post them when I have a bit more time. For now, I'm enjoying the Stumptown coffee Daniel brought back from the trip.

Apart from Portland, nothing terribly exciting to report here. I've mostly been catching up with school work. Daniel came down spur of the moment yesterday and we took a walk around campus at night, which is one of my favorite things to do when he's here. We'll walk over to the CoHo and each get a bottle of beer and then stroll around the grounds. It's pretty nice.

This weekend, I'm hoping to check out one of the many Palo Alto happy hour spots with some friends tonight- but apart from that I'll mostly be working on a final paper that's due next week. Hope everyone has something nice they're looking forward to. 

my birthday

Yesterday was my birthday. I spent the whole day in class- this is what happens when you have a Wednesday birthday in law school- but then Daniel came down and took me out to dinner at the Lobster Shack in Portola Valley.

I'll pick a lobster roll over birthday cake any day.

Another year older! Here's to 27.

healthy spirits

To preface this, I know basically nothing about beer.

A promising start, no? But we were in the city a few weeks back to see the Girl with the Pearl Earring at the de Young and afterwards ended up walking over to Clement to check out Healthy Spirits on Clement.

The signage on the store promises "Beer, whiskey, hummus" which I thought was rather an odd combination- hummus? But apparently it's very good. And the beer selection was impressive, even (perhaps especially) to an uninformed rube such as myself. 

I chose my beer based on its label- and the advice of the very nice man working behind the counter. Foret is a saison style beer which the salesman informed me meant that it would be reasonably light, but not sweet, with a slightly barnyard-y aftertaste. This actually made me more inclined to try the beer since I like that type of strong flavor when it comes to cheese. 

When we got back to Daniel's house, we sat out on the deck and sipped our beer. The Foret was perfect for a mid-afternoon drink on a Sunday in the sunshine. 

Healthy Spirits

1042 Clement St.

SF CA 

olema

A few photos.

 

Last week, Daniel and I spent a few days in Olema, courtesy of my parents- a birthday gift from last year. I've been to Olema and Point Reyes several times but I'd never stayed out there, so this was a real treat (thank you parents!!). We stayed at Olema Druids Hall, which was wonderful- like staying at a country estate- and used it as our base for little excursions. We puttered around Point Reyes Station, eating oysters and fabulous pizza at Cafe Reyes. We bought cheese and wine and cornichons at Cowgirl Creamery. We read (me, this; Daniel, this). We drank champagne. We went hiking up along the Sky ridge trail. We went to Hog Island Oyster Co. and at raw and barbecued oysters. We sat in front of the fireplace, which Daniel fussed over while I stretched out on the couch with my feet up. We never wanted to leave. Of all of the spots on earth, Olema may be one of the very nicest.

So it was a wonderful trip. Another enormous 'thank you' and lots of air kisses to my parents for spoiling me rotten.