Catching up! Friday...And Yahtzee

Friday was another perfect day.   We started our day at The Beermongers for beers and cards.  And Yahtzee.

Beers were really good, The Replacements were on the stereo, and then we decided to play Yahtzee.  Chris went first...and on his first turn, ended up with this:

I then called him a dick, picked up the cup and dice, shook the cup, and mightily slammed it down upside down on the table.  When I removed the cup...this showed up.

I mean.  Someone who has the energy to do the math can tell me what the odds of that are.

Friday...

• Beer Tour
• Lardo
• Beer Tour
• Pick up Charlie
• Kachka
• Vodka

It's the simple plans that are the best ones.

All the Whiskey in Portland!!

Well.  It turns out August 8th is National Drink Whiskey Day.  At least for us it is.

Started the evening at Wilder, this absolutely wonderful little bar near our VRBO.  Amazing cocktails, amazing vibe.  It was lovely.  Played cards and had whiskey drinks.  Will definitely add to our list.

I started with a whiskey sour and never looked back for the rest of the evening.

Then, as it turns out, it's important to continue to drink whiskey sours to compare and contrast fully.  So we headed to Multnomah Whiskey Library, and found our second round was, although not superior to the first, was certainly delightful.  The snacks were tasty too.  I successfully then got the whole team on the whiskey sour bandwagon, much to their ceaseless delight.

Finished our night at Bistro Agnes.  The food is amazing, but come on - I made 8:15 reservations, we showed up at 8:00, and they basically said, "You don't have to go home but you can't stay here."  The restaurant is little, but she basically said, "No, you can't stay here, we have large parties coming in."  So we went outside to wait.  It was fine, but then...I asked if they had WiFi and the answer was, "No...it's just for credit cards."  WTF does that mean?

Anyway, the food more than made up for it.  There were these fries, more whiskey sours, onion soup gratin, Salade Lyonnaise, Steak and Frites, and Coq au Vin.   And...we made good choices all day by not having dessert.  😉

Thursday, A Day for Eating...

So!  We started out our day with a late mini-breakfast at this great little joint called Just Bob.  It was like 2 blocks from our VRBO.  Good coffee, good breakfast.  We'll hit that shit tomorrow too.

Then we had an impromptu lunch with Steve, our friend from Brick House.  Serratto was a new place for us, and wow, it was spectacular.  Not ostentatious, but simply good.  AND!  Steve brought two bottles:  a 2010 Brick House Boulder Block, and a magnum of El Fille pinot.  So incredibly tasty and generous of him to bring for us!  No pictures of lunch.  Silly. 

Then we went grocery shopping and it was FANTASTIC!  No, I'm kidding, it was just groceries.

We are heading out now for cocktails and then a later dinner at Bistro Agnes.  ❤️

Happy Birthday Chuck!

At Imperial Bottle Shop, after Lynette's disaster deck of cards, we played dominoes.

I learned to play dominoes way back when from Chuck Williams - my step-sister Laura's fiance.  Chuck was one of the best people in the world.  I say "was," because 10 years ago he died at the age of 42 from a heart attack on the beach in Hawaii.  There will never be another.

Coincidentally, as I was thinking of Chuck while playing dominoes and posted something on Facebook, Laura let me know it was his birthday yesterday - August 7th.

So...this was for you Chuck.  We miss you and love you.

It begins.....

Got to our VRBO, it's brand new and really nice but "air conditioning" means some weird moveable unit on the main floor.  We are all upstairs so it was hotter than hell.  Or maybe it was the fact that I went to bed (passed out) without having any water after our beer day.  Whose to say?

In any case, it's a great place, except for that.

First stop - Great Notion for apps and beers.  They were good.  It's a good thing I like IPAs because of the 19 beers they had on the menu...14 were IPAs.  Fourteen.  FOURTEEN.  So I got a sampler and told her to surprise me with IPAs.  They were pretty good.  As were the wings and brussels sprouts and loaded waffle fries.

Lots of beer sampled, only Brett just went for it.  It was an awesome way to start!!

Next stop:  Imperial Bottle Shop and Tap Room.  They had mini cornhole, and guess what!!??  They had The Commons on tap!  Flemish Kiss.  One of my faves.  Happy that they are still brewing somewhere...

We tried to play cards with Lynette's deck - our first play of Crazy 8s was me putting the Ace of Clubs on top of Lynette's...Ace of Clubs.  ???   Abandon.   Then we played dominoes - different post on that in a minute.

Afterwards we hit one of our favorite pizza places:  Apizza Scholls.  DELISH.  Great beers, great pizza, great music!   And I forgot to take pictures of any of it.  Oy.

Finished up at Belmont Station - at which point Lynette and I were basically asleep at the table. 

Good first day.  Good.  First.  Day.

PDX - 10 Year Anniversary!!

We first came to Portland in 2009 and, as you are sick of hearing, it's our favorite place on earth.

This trip is going to be a "10 Year Anniversary Best Of" tour, with all of our favorite restaurants (a few new ones too), breweries, and 4 best wineries on Saturday.

We get to share it with Brett and Lynette, and Charlie flies in on Friday night for winery day.   It's going to be EPIC.

The plane ride was a little confusing...we always sit in the last row on the right side of the plan so just naturally went there.  What I forgot was...I chose the left side so we could see Mount Hood as we flew over.  I was in the bathroom and came out and saw Chris talking in a confused manner to the couple whose seats we were in.  From row 1, I tried to explain, YES, they are right, we are in their seats!  I messed up!  We should move over!   I guess that was too subtle, Chris didn't get any of it...  When I got to our row, I mentioned to the people that I was sorry, but now they had the best side of the plane to see Mount Hood...and the people seemed annoyed and put out.  WTF?  Stop being dicks.  I didn't take the wrong kidney in a surgery.  I accidentally sat in your seats.  I hate people.

So on the right side we sat.  Which was exactly fine, and there were two older ladies who were delightful, and asked Chris to help them push their seats back to the upright position a couple times.  They were lovely, and I loved them. 

Our flight crew was also amazing.  Funny, engaged, superior service.  Good job Delta.

Oh, that's Brett and Lynette there.  They didn't sit together and I could only get these pictures.  And Chris thought another lady was Lynette from behind.  When I looked up, he was talking to her and laughing...only later I found out he not only randomly talked to a stranger, but he touched her shoulder.  I'm sure the woman wasn't freaked out.