We had a most excellent time.
Traditionally, I am alternately stressed out and bored out of my mind on vacations. This was entirely different. I don't think I've actually relaxed on vacation in years. It was spectacular.
I took almost zero pictures. Go team!
Food highlights:
- Eating an entire double carton of raspberries while watching fireworks over the Willamette.
- Evil Prince curry with tofu at E-San Thai.
- Coffee: Stumptown, Public Domain, Barista. Like you do.
- Rye (beer, not liquor) at Tugboat Brewing Co, where we would totally have pints and play anagrabble every week if we actually lived in Portland. There are Zero bars like this anywhere near our house and that is a travesty.
- BBQ brussels bowl at the Bye & Bye.
- Salt & Straw ice cream; I wanted John's salt ice cream with caramel (although my coffee-bourbon was very good too).
- Massive Lebanese feast at Karam, including perfect cauliflower fritters with tahini and eggplant stew with lamb kibbeh.
Non-food highlights:
- Long conversations with friends; yay!
- Wandering around by myself in the early mornings.
- Alberta Park: full of old-growth cedar trees and PUPPIES. Actually, all the parks were pretty great.
- High-stakes mini-golf tournament!!
- Soaking our feet at Ashiyu foot spa after walking around all morning. Bonus: it was hot enough out that nobody else was there.
- Portland is so much friendlier than SV. The amount of random people I talked to went up really dramatically.
- Near-complete shutdown of all my CA-based allergies. This seems weird since I have heard many tales of Portland instead inducing allergies, but no! I am evidently only allergic to CA plants!
- Actual public trans that works.
- Cool air, less direct sun, and northern trees. I miss them so.
- Oh yeah! POWELLS.
In conclusion, yay Portland!
9 comments:
I have dreams of one day having enough vacation weeks to make it to Portland--brussels & rye & parks & relaxation sounds amazing! (I also realize I have an email to get back to you on...whoops).
Hi from New York! We're really sad we missed you in Portland. Come back again soon!
Jes, you should absolutely go when you can swing it--you'd love Portland! Danny, we will certainly be back, so no worries there. :)
Powells and BBQ Brussels, sold. (As if I wasn't already on Portland)
How fun! Sounds like you had a great time. I know exactly what you mean about being too bored. I like to be on the go a bit myself. I'm not one of those people that could go on vacation and lay on a beach for a week!
I'm dying to know what anagrabble is!
Portland is the best. You can go there over and over and never have the same trip (except for all the coffees).
Sounds like fun, I've never been to Portland but am dying to go. Thanks for the rundown, can't wait to visit!
I SOOO want to go to Portland, especially after reading this!
(How am I just seeing this?!)
Did you have to wait in the massive line at Salt & Straw? We used to eat there way too much for our own good. Like 3x a week. It was getting scary.
So many good breweries in the city. You cannot go wrong with most of them.
Lebanese feast! Next time you're in town, totally hit up Dar Salam on Alberta. It's an Iraqi spot, which is basically Lebanese with slightly different spices. So. Freakin'. Good.
I always come back from CA to a massive, raging sinus infection. I can't tell if it's CA's heat (I'm usually in SD) burning out all my allergies in nose so I come back to PDX and am ravaged or the other way around. It's an odd phenomenon.
So glad you had a great time!!
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