Mornings and Evening

I just found this great blog titled: 3191. It is two friends that live 3191 miles apart: one in Portland, OR the other Portland, ME. In 2007 they embarked on a year of mornings and for 2008 it will be a year of evenings. Take a look at their cool pictures and discover how others live out their mornings and evenings.

Photography and Tea

I am trying to get the cow to be a tourist in his own city. Today I talked him into going to a Photography exhibit and Tao of Tea. I had read about Newspace Center for Photography opening in the SE of Portland. I wanted to go because there was an exhibit by Hiroshi Watanabe named Ideology in Paradise with photographs from North Korea.

After the exhibit we went to Tao of Tea on SE Belmont (near HoY). Had a spot of tea and an Indian crumpet, relaxed and listened to the soothing waterfall. Make sure you click on the Tao of Tea link - there are some beautiful photos of lotus blossoms being harvested.

Burdigala- What a gala?

Burdigala is a wine store about 5 blocks from our house. It is owned by a French guy named Dideret (spelling?). On Friday nights it is the place to be and gets super packed between 6 and 9 because the guy offers about 10 wines to taste.

We stumbled in last night and found Bon Vivants distributors tasting organic and biodynamic wines from France. We tried Domaine d la Bregeonnette: Muscadet, Chateau La Grolet: Bourg, Clos de l'Anhel: Corbieres and a Domaine Pierre Andre: Chateauneuf-du-Pape.

We marched down to Gino's for dinner and felt all warm and French inside.

Everything is better at the BOTTOM!

Sunday afternoon outing to Oaks Bottom Pub- hence the motto, "everything is better at the bottom!"

We decided that bloody Mary's, Beer and Totchos sounded good. Walking down to the pub for a Sunday afternoon stroll made me feel less guilty about the indulgence ahead. Too bad my stomach did not think so afterwards.

New Year's Eve 2007

The gang headed to lovely Northern California for a little R&R this year. We met in Oakland and zoomed off to Sonoma for a couple of days of wine tasting. We stopped at Roche and Cline before heading off to the city of Sonoma where we stayed just off the plaza at The Cottage Inn.

After laying low for a couple of days the sun came out and we moved ourselves to the city by the bay. It was beautiful-check out those blue skies. We ended up at Rogue brewery for lunch right next door to North Beach and every Italian fantasy you could have with food. Our days were spent walking or as everyone likes to call it "marching."

New Year's Eve we got dressed up and went to Cow Hollow/Union Street for dinner at Terzo. The evening actually ended rather quietly as we all headed back around 2:00am.

White Christmas

As we were having lunch the cow looked up and said, "It's snowing!" It was really coming down for quite some time. Actually, it is still coming down as I look out the window and type.

Presents!

December 25th - 6:30am! I was so excited to give the cow his presents that I was awake! WIDE AWAKE. I tried as hard as I could to stay quiet but I couldn't contain myself.

I placed all his presents under the tree (see above) and waited for him to get up.

He had many surprises; an immersion blender, a cool felt hat from a haberdasher and a pizza stone. Okay, I know the pizza stone and blender are for me also. The rewards of having a husband that can cook!

I received a beautiful Tiffany Bracelet. Many of you know the story of my love for this mesh bracelet - when are HoY was robbed the bracelet went with the bad guys. The cow replaced the bracelet and I will wear it always!

I also go a RUMBA! I am obsessed with floors so this is his way of saying relax!

Festivities in Portland

There was so much going on in Portland that we roamed the plaza and listened to Tuba Christmas and watched the crazy Star Wars people in front of Macy's. I think they were the bell ringers for the Salvation Army!

Crab Three Ways

Dinner was heavenly! After the cow worked his fingers to the bone cracken crab we had a delicious meal of crab bisque, crab cakes and crab panini's. It was absolutely exquite! When do I get to have this again?

Blue skies and buildings

What a spectacular skyline? The cow and I made our way through the city of Vancouver over the Thanksgiving holiday. We were thankful for being able to travel to such an incredible city. We stayed two blocks from Yaletown and found Rodney's for Mussels and Oysters at the bar the first hour after we arrived. Yaletown is a happening place but we then made our way down to the Gas lamp district - old town area being kicked into high gear with development.
The days were sunny and cold but it allowed for great vistas of buildings and the mountains that are super close. We love the denseness of this city. It is packed with international people, great food and gorgeous architecture.
There are only two negatives to this town.....the Canadian dollar is valued higher than the US dollar and the taxes on alcohol will bankrupt an honest drunk.

Public Art Interpretation

What do you think?

Library or Colosseum?

The Vancouver Public library is awe inspiring. Bright and bold on the inside and ageless perfection on the outside. The is a building not to miss when you are in the city. The library is eight floors and the remainder of the building is retail space, offices and a pub. You find yourself lingering on the outside waiting for the perfect picture when you realize every picture of this building is amazing.

Keeping the local economy going...

Wow! I never knew a walk through the neighborhood could result in so much economic growth. It is beautiful in Portland this fine November weekend. The cow and I rode our bikes to Trader Joes and loaded up on staples. We then walked down to the local grocer and picked up a couple of items that TJ's does not carry. We hit the hardware store so we can finish the cool panels our neighbor gave us. We then strolled into the liquor store for scotch and tequilla as well as purchasing a great piece of art at Tilde. We rounded out our afternoon stroll at BOTH of the wine stores - we got a bit sauced and purchased several bottles. We then had to figure out how to get everything home without hurting ourselves or falling down. Great Day in the ole NorthWest. Right now I can smell garlic roasting for the pizza the cow will be making in less than an hour. I am so hungry right now I could it my arm.

Walk, Wine, Eat

The great outdoors. The cow and I got a late start but headed to Silver Falls for a walk in the woods on a beautiful afternoon. The hike through 10 lush waterfalls is about 7 miles and traverses up and down but really anyone with a good pair of tennis shoes could complete this beautiful walk. We stopped off in Silverton and had a glass of wines, flew home showered and changed and ended up in the NW at Basta for dinner. Great day and evening.

Oregon's Bounty

Everything we ate on Saturday night was from the Farmer's Market. It was a gorgeous autumn day so we rode our Bike's down to PSU and filled our bags with various local goodies. As you can see there was quite the variety: pears, potatoes, tomatoes (like candy), corn, tomatillos, fresh pasella chiles and a fire roasted "hot mix" of chiles.

The cow created what I think are the two best pizza's he has ever made: an oregon pear with blue cheese and a fresh corn, roasted peppers, goat cheese beauty.

The entire time he was creating these masterpieces he was slurping on a super hoppy beer that is only available when the hops are fresh from the vine- Whatever that beer had in it, I will be buying six pack after six pack to keep him making glorious tasting food.