Relaxing Last Day...

We had a very productive day today.  Started with lunch at Lardo - HELLO!  Amazing sandwiches!  I only regret not having thought of taking a picture.  Chris had the porchetta and I had the Korean Port Shoulder.  Nummy.  OH!  And I had a Diet Coke.  It may have been the best Diet Coke I've ever had.

We then headed to The Commons for our final goodbye, since they are closing at the end of the year.  We have had so many great memories here - drinking, playing cards, just hanging out and living the PDX life.  We are sad that they will be gone...and that we can't bring L&B here next June when we are here again for NHC.

Speaking of NHC, after The Commons, we drove around and looked at a few VRBOs - two in the Pearl and one in Nob Hill for next June.  I can't believe it's only 8 months away!  

Finished the day at Breakside - solid beers, and a good place to wind down.

We then came home, laid around, boxed up all the wine and beer, and started packing and getting ready to head home tomorrow (bleh!).

Had dinner and a few final beers at Great Notion.  They had a blueberry sour that tasted exactly like a blueberry muffin.  It was so odd, and then that is all I could taste for the rest of the night.  Bleh.  

It was a good relaxing day for our last day in Portland...just being here doing nothing makes us happy.

Last Day...What to Do?

Yesterday at lunch we both wondered, "When does our flight leave on Sunday?"  I thought around noon, or no, wait, late afternoon.  Turns out we leave at 9:50am.  Huh.  Well, I guess we are going to have to jam a bunch more into today!

Rose Garden, Japanese Garden, Pittock Mansion, breweries, shops? 

I'd better go get in the shower or it will be a day of laying on the couch.

Wine Day! Stop #7: Argyle

Beautiful tasting room, excellent service, additional wines beyond the tasting - they really know how to treat their wine club members right!!

We had pinots and bubbly, and then asked for some Riesling and their dessert wine.  Yum-my!

Chris loves the Riesling, and we both love the dessert wine - we are going to have to start finding a reason to have it more often!!

This was a wonderful end to our wine day and as we headed back to Portland, I promptly fell asleep in the car, full of wine and bliss.   Favorite day of the year.

Wine Day! Stop #6: Evening Land

Stopped at Evening Land at the recommendation of the nephew.

I think we got the wrong tasting.  The wines were good, not outstanding, and the only wine we bought was a Burgundy from Beaune, France.

Cute little tasting room, but I think since we weren't actually at the winery, it sort of loses something.

Wine Day! Stop #5: Bergstrom

After a few years of stopping by Bergstrom in a rushed manner, we made an appointment this year!

It was really nice.  The weather was stunning - low 70s, bright blue sky, slight breeze.  Sitting on the patio at the winery for 90 minutes just relaxing and drinking wine...what could be better?  Not much, I can tell you that.

Wine Day! Stop #4: Red Hills Market

No wine day in the Willamette is complete without lunch at Red Hills Market.  We get pretty much the same thing every time across three things:  ham & gruyere sandwich, roast beef & bleu sandwich, pizza with coppa.

We mixed it up today, a little...ham & gruyere and salami & arugula sandwiches.

There is something about that ham...clovey, sweet, and with the butter and gruyere - WHOA.  Amazing.  The salami sandwich was pretty awesome too.  I need to figure out that ham sandwich when I get home...

Wine Day! Stop #3: Lemelson

New winery for us this year.  The folks at Bergstrom recommended them.

They had really solid wines, and had a beautiful winery.  I liked it.

Wine Day! Stop #2: Beaux Freres

Beaux Freres has consistently been one of the best pinot noirs we have ever had.  We had an extended tasting today, and did a little tour of the winery.

Earl, the big old chocolate lab, greeted us when we got out of the car.  I don't really like dogs, but I liked Earl.  He just sort of walked next to me as a patted his head and took us over to the winery.  Super cute.  Like a butler.

We had a quick winery tour, which we hadn't done before, and then had our tasting.  SUPER delish wines.  This was a fabulous 1-2 punch of fantastic after Brick House.

Wine Day! Stop #1: Brick House

Started our wine day at 9:30 am with an appointment at Brick House.

If you have never had their wines - do it now.  Find them.  And drink them.  They make exquisite pinot noir, and are the most gracious hosts.   Steve, who does our tastings, is a wealth of information, and very fun.  He was so nice to accommodate us - it's crazy busy right now with harvest, but he took an hour for us.

He also gave us a bottle of rose made by a winemaker friend that happened to stop by.  Great guy.

This started our day right, and the case and a half we bought will age nicely!

Favorite Day of the Year

My "Friday at Wineries in the Willamette Valley" is my favorite day of the year.  Hands down.

And it is today, and it is going to be in the high 60s and sunny.  Beautiful day in the beautiful valley drinking beautiful wine.

Life is very good.

Happy Anniversary!!

Fitting, huh?

Thursday Anniversary: Lunch/Commons/La Moule

Happy Anniversary to us!  21 years.  Can you stand it?  21 years.  And I think spending it in Portland feels just right.

We had lunch at Wayfinder with our friend O and his two daughters.  Super good smoky Cobb salad - and Chis had a Prime Rib sammy that was out of this world!

After that we walked over to our favorite brewery - The Commons.  You may remember The Commons from...every single trip we have had here since they opened.  Truly a favorite.  And they are closing at the end of the year!!  BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO.   We had a few samplers and beers, had an amaze-balls cheese and meat plate, and played cards for a few hours.  Trust me, you'll see another post from there before we leave.  We have to buy beer to bring home!!

And then for anniversary dinner:  La Moule.  ALWAYS amazing, ALWAYS a favorite, ALWAYS wondering why we don't have places like this in Minneapolis.  Super wonderful.

Wednesday: Culmination Brewing & Apizza Scholl

Stop 1 - Culmination Brewing.  Had a couple of great samplers, and some tasty food.  Except for the 3 pounds of cilantro in the middle of our tacos.  Flicked it away...all good.

Then we got settled into our VRBO - SO CUTE.  It's called "THAT Blue Cottage" and it is a one bedroom, one bath, with a nice living room and big kitchen.  Great location, and has all the amenities.  Will recommend this one.

After settling in we headed to Apizza Scholl for dinner.  Super tasty pizza and (flash forward to Friday morning) we at the leftovers for breakfast on Friday morning before wineries.

Good first day!

Ditched in the Malibu!!

It was a Malibu or a mini-van.  However, this is actually a nice car and has that normal European "turns off when you are stopped at a light to lower emissions a huge amount and in America we are FINALLY figuring this shit out" feature.

On our way!

On the plane, enjoying a Furious, waiting to take off. 

Then we watched "Wonder Woman" during the flight!  Or should I say...Chris did.  I promptly passed out after about 25 minutes.  He said it was really good. 

We were on the right side of the plane this time - last year we were on the left and had amazing views of Mt. Hood when we were landing.  This time, we got beautiful views of the mountains in Washington on our descent.  I believe the first picture is Mt. Rainier in the back and Mt. Adams up front, and the second picture is Mt. Saint Helens.

What a lovely welcome as we landed! 

PDX 2017

On our way!  Another anniversary trip to Portland. filled with beer, wine, food, and oh, being away from work!

Hopefully my blog skills will be better than they were in Colorado.

Colorado, belated...

Well here's a rundown of what we did in Colorado

Got in Thursday night... drank.

Friday we went to the Vail Oktoberfest and walked around and drank and it was super fun and a super beautiful day.

Went out for dinner Friday night and had an awesome time, and awesome drinks.

Saturday was all about being on the mountain and seeing Elvis Costello perform.   It was 52 degrees with a 30 mile an hour wind on the mountain so we were freezing until of course I stood up on a picnic table and danced for the last hour of the concert. And drank.

Out to dinner again Saturday night.  Drank.

Sunday was lucky enough to have brunch with Sam. And then we headed to the airport.

The End.

Colorado here we come!!

Waiting for our flight out to Colorado to see Nan and Jon and fam. 

Much needed trip, we haven't flown anywhere in 11 weeks!!

Yeah yeah.  First world problems.

Oh, and showing a little Insight pride.  You would see the picture if the janky bullshit Blogger app actually worked.

So long Rhode Island...

It's 11:36 PM, and we need to get up at 2:30 AM so that we can get packed, head out and drive to Boston to the airport, return the rental car, and somehow not fall asleep along the way to catch our early flight home.

This trip has been so fun - oysters, lobstah, beer, friends and their lovely family, and a great little getaway.  And we added Rhode Island and Connecticut to our list of states!

Such a fun weekend - one more day...then back to reality.

Much love to everyone!

P&C

Fireworks in East Greenwich!

These Rhode Islanders know how to do fireworks right.  Right on the beach.  40 feet away.  It was frightening.  And wicked awesome.

Jon photo bombed.  I lit a sparkler and tried not to burn the kids' faces off (or my own), we had a bottle of Sutter Home (I'm not sure how that happened), and we spent an amazing 4th of July weekend with some pretty amazing and kind folks.

Fantastic.