pssst....Mercoledi!!

[divergrrl]

How was your trip to Portland? I''m dying to hear details!

 

[mercoledi]

Awww, thanks!

Briefly, we loved it.

We had fun, felt very comfortable 95% of the time. Ate too much. Drank too much. DH got some shopping in. We had blue sunny skies every day and cool breezy nights. I think we were both hoping that it wouldn''t be so great so we would have cut down our potenital moving desintation list from 2 to 1, but no such luck.

Can I tell you may favorite thing, though this might not make sense to you if you''ve lived in Portland most of your life? Women walk about without handbags. Certianly some have them, and definitely most of the people we saw were very intentionally dressed, but in Boston everyone kinda dresses the same and NO woman would be caught out without a bag. It''s wierd, I know, but it was really refreshing to see people comfortable enough to dress the way they want to dress.

Aside from that the scale took some getting used to. Y''all have really short blocks! And tiny little houses! And two lane roads with rotaries instead of stop signs! It''s really cute.

Favorites?
Simpatica dining hall. Not the best meal we had, but the experience was a lot of fun.

The Noble Rot. Best meal. Seriously, probably in my top 15 for life and I love how acessible they make buying/trying wine. A friend of a friend is friends with Courteny the owner, and her husband Leather (of Rocket, which got a nod in the Times style mag Sunday) and had insited we go. It ws just great.

The Whole Bowl. They serve one thing. It comes in $4 or $5. Awesome. You could never make enough money on something like that to survive up here. Loved it.

Coffee coffee everywhere, and not a bad cup in the 13 or so cafes we sampled.

Hmm, I gotta run, but yeah, it was good. DH reallllyyyy didn''t wanna get on that plane!

 

[mercoledi]

Oh, and I was on the look out for either a woman with a huge cushion-cut e-ring or a verrrryyyy preggers lady with an adorable son to no avail!


PS, contrats on Delaney, she''s a beauty! And so long!!

 

[divergrrl]

I''m so glad you enjoyed your trip here. Its funny to hear your take on the town. Short blocks...that cracks me up! As to the handbag thing, well, I''m a handbag carrier...I''m obsessed...I''m probably one of the "intentionally dressed" folks you saw...I used to lament the fact that no one in this town bothers dressing up for dinner, the theater (ballet, concerts, I saw birkenstocks at the opera once and gagged), but now I just figure "ah what the hell", but it still bugs me. I was happy to find a guy who didn''t dress like all the silicon forest geeks up here (wrinkled corduroys even in the summer, Cisco Systems or Intel polo shirts--wrinkled, and Timberlands....YUK) and actually bothered to groom his facial, head, and nose hair. I may be a native Oregonian, but I pride myself on not dressing like one.

But yeah, its a casual town & people here are free to be as they wish, which in the big picture is a good thing.


I have never eaten at Noble Rot. It is on our "must do" list, but we always forget about it when we go out. Dang! I need to write it down. Like I said, you can go to a different place everytime here and still never chip away at the iceberg for good restaurants. But I''ve heard nothing but great things about Noble Rot. What did you order?

I''m sure we seemed tiny compared to Boston, our city is quite small, but I''m so glad you liked it. It''s raining now....

Oh, that''s one thing I DONT carry....an umbrella. I prefer hats.

What did you think of Kennedy School?

 

[mercoledi]

To clarify the handbag thing, I''m all for people who really ''dress'' and love it, but I''ve been in situations where I can''t get service because I don''t look nice enough (I''m a grad student, cut me a break!), and once in Bloomies had a bit of an altercation in the handbag section where I was accused of intending to shoplift because A. I did look pretty crappy that day, and B. I wasn''t already carrying a bag. Boston''s a little stuffy in general, but that was a smidge too far. It looked like there was a range of styles being explored, and that''s refreshing.

Anyhoo, the Kennedy School. It was really perfect for our needs. The staff was uber-friendly and helpful, there was plenty of parking etc etc. It was great our first night because we got in at about 7 PST which was 10 EST and really wanted some food and a beer, needs met on the lovely outdoor patio with the fireplace. After that we decided that we were probably too fatigued to wander around a strange town in the dark, so we got another beer, took a nice long soak and just relaxed. If I lived in Portland I probably wouldn''t go without intending to make a night of it (dinner, movie, pool) but it was just perfect for us. I think the only part we didn''t visit was the movie theater, it seemed like a shame to spend so much time indoor with so much city to see!

As far as size, Portland is actually much larger than Boston, it''s all spread out. It just seems that the streets are wider and buildings smaller. The little neighborhoods are great and have a nice feel to them. We loved Powells, VooDoo doughnout (found by accident, not the nicest part of the city) and the Japanese Garden. We skipped the rose garden because I forgot my EpiPen

.

Outside of Portland I have to say that the coast is just amazing! I think Hug Point was our favorite beach, but the whole thing was just stunning. We started in Newport and drove north all the way to Puget sound. It was completely worth it.

In Puget sound we stayed at this incerdible B&B right on the sound. If you want a getaway, this place feels ''out there'' but is 20 mins from Astoria. It''s litterally on a point in the sound and the innkeepers are extreeemly friendly and accomodating if a tad formal (might be a better getaway than trip with the kiddos). They own several acres and have hiking, kayaking, fishing, or just plain out sit-out-and-watch-the-sound-ing. It was really beautiful. The place is called Mallard Cove, and I''d highly recommend it.

And please do try the Noble Rot! We each had something new on the menu that night and it was just stellar!

Other favorites:

Amnesia brewing was the coolest "brew pub". They bring no-frills to new heights. Loved it.

Laurelwood Brewery had the best beer (though it was a tight race) and a place that I think was on Hollywood had all cask taps which was also very cool.


I did not make it to gilt; we spent only a little time in the Pearl, but I wish I had! We did to Henry''s where I spent the whole time trying to figure out the ice strip on the bar. Neato. My only other sadness is that we didn''t make sushi a priority and didn''t get to it, but I''m sure we''ll be back someday.