A Portland Holiday

Cliff and I last week had the opportunity to pet sit for Kathy and Jill's animals for a few days.  Since we were still very much in transition we were able to help the out when they needed pet sitters last minute.  We decided that while we were in Portland that we were going to take a holiday.  When we lived in Oregon before we never really went up to Portland.  This was mostly because we were too broke to do anything exciting but we also just got wrapped up a whole lot in school and work.  Jill put together a really nice "to-do" list for us so that we could get the insiders perspective on where to go and what to do.  As always, Cliff and I pretty much just ate our way across the city.

Kathy and Jill have two cats (Lily and Cleveland) and an older dog (Toby).  Rudy was so excited to play with them...it was intense and it overwhelmed all of the animals.  We took several days to get them all use to one another and by the end of our trip they were all able to be in the same room without killing each other or driving Cliff and I crazy.  We considered it a victory.

While in Portland we went to Pine State Biscuits and ate yummy, fancy biscuits.  Mine had fried chicken, bacon, and apple butter and Cliff's had Carolina BBQ with red cabbage coleslaw on top.  He figured the BBQ would be good since the owners are from Carolina.  It was a very hip and happening place.  The music was loud and of the dance variety, the customers were all dressed in trendy fashion, and there was a line outside. The food was great.

We got a chance to explore SE Portland and relax.  While in SE we also ate at Fire on the Mountain (and yes there were lots of paintings of The Grateful Dead) and had some of their amazing buffalo wings.  Jill recommended them and I was a bit skeptical as I thought "how good could a buffalo wing place really be?"  Well let me tell you...their sauces were fantastic.  You could see the peppers and other spices in the sauce.  Really tasty.  Apparently they are going to start selling the sauces in stores so keep your eyes peeled folks.

SE Portland is also home to Distillery Row.  My dad stopped at a distillery in Kentucky as he was coming across country a few years ago and said it was really interesting.  We had never been to one so we figured why not?  After all....we were on holiday.  Portland is apparently fostering a craft distillery movement.  It was a Monday and there were not a whole lot of tasting rooms open but we did luck out as Stone Barn Brandyworks was open.  When we got there we actually surprised the guy as they apparently never have people come by on Mondays.  He was in the middle of making mash for their oat whiskey.   The whole operation was in a small warehouse unit so just by taking one step inside we could see the whole operation as they place was probably 25 square feet.   Cliff did the tasting and really liked their ouzo (it had spearmint in it!) and oat whiskey.  The guy who was working that day was really nice and told us a lot about the operations and gave us a few more suggestions on what to do in Portland.

 

As you all may know pumpkin is my favorite food.  Hands down.  So you can imagine how excited I was when we found out that a local bar (the Green Dragon) was having their killer pumpkin fest while we were in town.  They had 17 mostly regional pumpkin beers, a pumpkin food menu, pumpkin bowling, etc.  I love pumpkin beer but it is really hit or miss in my opinion with finding a good one.  I was excited because they were serving little tasters of everything on tap so Cliff and I got to taste quite a few of them.  Luckily there were more good pumpkin beers in their batch than bad.  We ate buffalo burgers (sadly a lot of their pumpkin main dishes had hazelnuts in them) and some amazing pumpkin pie.  We sat at the same table as a really nice couple and we ended up talking with them for almost four hours.  They had never been to the east coast so we told them about a few places they need to visit if they ever make it that way.  It was a lot of fun.

We got to see Brie while we were there.  We were originally going to go to a bouldering gym (yikes..i know!) but we changed plans when Brie had a meeting at work that was going to go really late.  Cliff and I were both pumped to go bouldering but we realized that we were probably going to be really bad at it as neither one of us are known for our upper body strength.  Oh well...maybe next time.  Instead we got to spend a morning leisurely eating breakfast and talking about running, apartments, family, and making future plans.  We might all run in a few races together.  Both Cliff and Brie have caught the running bug and I am hoping to as well.  It is really nice to have family relatively (ha) close.  I hope we get to hang out more.

Once we were back in Eugene we went to the REI scratch and dent sale.  Oh man did we play that wrong.  We got there right as the sale was starting only to see a line stretch along side of the whole building.  We stood in line for about an hour as we were hopeful that we would find the backpacking tent that we wanted and maybe a rain jacket for Cliff to wear as he bikes around town.  While in line we were reminded that we do live in Eugene.  Besides the guy on a bike who kept riding by yelling about local public transportation legislation and "go ducks!" we also got to witness someone doing yoga waiting in line.  That is right.  He is doing handstands while waiting in line.  See his feet?!?!  <-----  He kept doing it.  Every time it made me laugh a little bit.  Sadly we didn't find our exact tent or a jacket that fit Cliff but I did get a pair of Merrell's hiking shoes for $2.80.  Now I will be able to keep up with Cliff (at least I hope so) as he easily maneuvers over slippery ground when we go on trails.

I am happy to say that we finally got the keys to our new apartment!  We are totally smitten with our new place.  It currently looks like a bomb exploded as we have boxes everywhere but I will post photos once we are officially moved in.

Also, I want to give a late birthday shout out to my mom.  I love you!