OK, Backing Up and Catching Up...

Yesterday's drive to Bend was beautiful.  Chris took these out the car window as we went through Mt. Hood National Forest.  It was such a great big blue sky behind that gorgeous mountain.

Wowsa.

Crux has a limited series Barrel Aged Imperial Stout.   Now, many of you know, I'm not a giant stout fan.

This one tastes like a DQ sundae woth hot fudge amd marshmallows.  I'm not even kidding.

We are coming home with bottles of this.

Bend! Round 1

Stopped by Boneyard for a sampler.  Eh.  The one I kind of liked was a collaboration with Three Floyds Brewing which starting in none other than Hammond, Indiana, the place of my upbringing.  

Then we came to Crux.  Oh MAN.  This place rules.  Worth the three and a half hour drive.  The two IPAs are stellar, and the Crux Farmhouse Saison is awesome.  I wonder if we can buy bottles here...

Lunch is on the way, and should be fab.

Headed to Bend

We are a few minutes for hitting the road and driving down to Bend for the day.  It's supposed to be a beautiful drive, and when we get there we'll be hitting a few breweries:  Crux Fermentation Project, Bend Brewing, Boneyard Brewing to name a few.

The weather here today is MORE gorgeous than it was yesterday.  Yesterday it was a bright blue sky and almost 90 (a little warm but I'm not complaining), and today it is going to be about 80 in both Portland and Bend, with that same bright blue sky.

PS - one thing that I'm not sure we always get in Minnesota is the smell of spring.  It goes by so fast you don't really get any.  Walking around Portland, you can smell all the flowers blooming - and everyone has them in their yard in the neighborhood we are in.  It's just a lovely smell and it's everywhere.  One more reason to love PDX!   (To be fair, it was also compost and garbage pickup day - those smells were...less than wonderful.)

Pulling mussels...

La Moule?  L'amour!

After picking up some groceries from Safeway for the week, headed to a wonderful little Belgian restaurant called La Moule  (which means mussels).

And wow it was good!  The chicken liver pate was delightful, and the frites were perfect.  Amd the mussels were awesome!!  Definitely on the "must return" list.

Now we are exhausted and will likely pass out.  Bend tomorrow! !

Stop 1: Hopworks!

After a very sweaty 30 minute walk, these were sooooooooo good. 

And we are right next to Queen Bee.  Guess who might be coming home with a new bag!!

And we're off!

On the plane, fairly comfortable, one horrific Rock Bottom IPA in, and we are ready for Portland!  Hope to shed the work stress before we get there...maybe another beer will help?