Washington D.C. Day 2

Day 2 in Washington D.C. was spent at the National Mall with all the monuments and memorials. I started at the White House and made my way around to the Washington Monument, World War II Memorial, Reflecting Pool, Lincoln Memorial, Korean War Memorial, Vietnam Memorial, FDR Memorial and Jefferson Memorial. It was quite a bit of walking but worth it.

There was a rain shower midway through but I found shelter under a tree by the Reflecting Pool for a while - quite relaxing.

Washington D.C. Day 1

I am in Washington D.C. for the first time. And it's quite inspiring - seeing all the monuments, memorials and buildings in the city in person.

Monday I spent my afternoon visiting the Postal Museum (which is part of the Smithsonian) and the Library of Congress. I saw the Capitol Building and Supreme Court on my wanderings as well.

The Postal Museum

My Niece Makes Me Smile REAL Big

My 3yo niece emailed me today (translation given by my mom):

bbgftjj (Hi)

dfgggggggggggggggghappyaaaaaa (That is Happy Birthday to you.)

(Except it's not my birthday; it's my aunt's.)

sdfgggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggg (thank you for the stickers)

(That she used to decorate my aunt's birthday gift.)

bbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbb (Bye)

*****

My sister-in-law also told me that my niece is looking forward to my visit in June.

"Elizabeth is looking forward to doing 'chick-flips' with you because you LOVE doing them. She plans to do 'chick-flips' with you at the cabin. Oh and to jump waves with you because you love that too."

What are "chick-flips," you ask?

I had to ask as well....

"A chick flip (which she says you taught her) is a little jump and a spin at the same time. She tells me that this is what she did with you while we were at the hospital when Ava was born. Just get ready-- she has some TALL tales these days."

Oh, so apparently I'm supposed to know what a "chick-flip" is...I better re-learn real quickly.

Creating a solar still

My brother just gave me instructions via Gmail chat on how to create a solar still to make clean water while on water restriction in Nashville.

Jason: if I remember correctly

you dig a hole

cover with plastic

put a vessel (empty) in the middle and put a small rock on top of the plastic and center over the vessel to catch the water that condenses on the plastic film

follow?

I suppose you could put river water in the hole to up the moisture content in the still and thus produce more water

full sun

i think

Portland Adventures Continued

Excuse me for my lapse in finishing this recap o' Portland.

Let's see. We pick up the action Thursday.... Shelby and I went back to Roots for an event sponsored by Heifer International. The Portland chapter held an informational night and showed their "12 Stones" movie. If nothing else, check out this story about Zach Meskell and his Cards for Cows story.

BRIDGE PORT BREWERY:
www.bridgeportbrew.com

Shelby then took me to Bridge Port downtown. We went upstairs to the bar area and found a table. The TVs in the bar were tuned to the Lakers-Nuggets game on TNT. The very game that Shelby's Russ was working. So, we ordered some food and drink and cheered for Russ.


















POTATO CHAMPION:
www.foodcartsportland.com

There is a fascinating world of food in Portland found in the food carts. We stopped by one on our progressive meal for my final night in the city. We went to the Potato Champion. A whole of french fries!

THE WAFFLE WINDOW:
wafflewindow.com

After the food carts we hit this little hole in the wall, or rather window in a wall, The Waffle Window for waffles. This place is amazing. Sweet waffles and savory waffles and all kinds of delicious. Shelby and I order the Nutella and Banana. Russ had some kind of lovely spinach and feta waffle. Amazing.


















ROGUE ALES:
www.rogue.com

We continued our progressive meal/drinking at Rogue Ales. I joined the Rogue Nation, complete with card. The picture on my card has me smiling and Russ poking his head in the background. Which is absolutely perfect. I had the Hazelnut Brown Nectar. It was good. Shelby had the Mocha Porter which I tried. It was also good. Russ left us at this point for another job down in Bend, OR. Good bye, Russ!

DESCHUTES BREWERY:
www.deschutesbrewery.com

Shelby and I continued on our tour of pubs in Portland after Russ left. We stopped by Deschutes Brewery for another pint with some great conversation and a waiter at the bar that probably wished we ordered more.

BIJOU CAFE:

My final day in Portland was one busy morning. We started with breakfast at Bijou Cafe, and boy, am I fan! I had an omelette with goat cheese feta and potatoes. Yes, it was amazing. I saved my rhubarb muffin for later in the day.

STUMPTOWN COFFEE ROASTERS:

I had to stop into Stumptown, and it was next door to Bijou anyway. I picked a few pounds of coffee for the friends that I would be staying with in L.A. And one for myself, too. We were too full from breakfast to enjoy any more coffee ourselves. Next time for sure.

SATURDAY MARKET:

Saturday Market in Portland was fun. We wandered through all the booths and man, did I see some cute stuff that I now need to look up on Etsy.com. It'd be nice to have a Saturday Market every weekend, just in case I need to pick up a gift. I got a couple cards - will you get one in the mail?

NICHOLAS RESTAURANT:

I'm not even sure why we felt the need to stop and get lunch but we did. I think it was the SE Grand location. I was still satisfied from my omelette. But we decided some Greek sounded good. Shelby and I split the vegetarian sampler.

COMMON GROUND COFFEEHOUSE:

Last stop before the airport. Coffee. And delicious.

Adventures in Portland

Since I was heading to the West Coast for my final campus course at Fuller anyway, I thought I would swing through Portland the week before to visit my friend Shelby who moved there from Nashville last summer. What a delightful week we shared together in between my work and homework and her home remodeling....

Places we went....mostly centered around food and/or drink:

ROOTS ORGANIC BREWING COMPANY: www.rootsorganicbrewing.com

Shelby, Russ and I shared a pitcher of beer and chips & salsa after I arrived in town.

WILD ABANDON: www.wildabandonrestaurant.com

I had the most dreamy meal here: Tofu Heaven. It was heavenly. A moment that I loved being vegetarian.

GENIES CAFE: www.geniescafepdx.com

By the time we ventured out for food on Monday, I was so hungry I could have eaten my fist. Fortunately, I didn't have to. The Florentine omelette at Genies Cafe was delicious. And the potatoes on the side were the best potatoes that I've had in some time.

HIPPO HARDWARE: www.hippohardware.com

Shelby and Russ are in the middle of remodeling their home. We made a couple trips to the local and slightly eccentric Hippo Hardware. Shelby and I sorted through drawers of silver drawer pulls to find the best 16. They also talked to the "lighting" lady about possible light fixtures for the house. We returned the next day to get two more matching drawer pulls....just can't get enough.

Shelby said that Hippo Hardware was featured in Jackass the Movie. How she knows that is a story for another day....

VIA DELIZIA: www.viadelizia.com

Anyone who knows Shelby knows that she loves ice cream, and even that might be an understatement. I think she would marry it if she could.

Well, she and Russ took me to Via Delizia for gelato. And it lived up to their hype. This was our afternoon treat and I had a scoop of Coffee Cake gelato and Turkish Coffee gelato. I was wishing I could have a repeat for breakfast the next day because that might have been one of the best ways to enjoy the morning treat of coffee cake and coffee. Delicious!

LAUREL HURST THEATER AND PUB: www.laurelhursttheater.com

From gelato we ventured to Laurel Hurst Theater for "The Fantastic Mr. Fox" for $3. The beauty of Laurel Hurst is that it's a theater and a pub. So, we got a pitcher of Lucky Lab Porter to enjoy with our movie. The movie was brilliant (Love Wes Anderson!) and the drinks were delicious as well.

Shelby connected some dots for me. The Lucky Lab Porter that we had is from the Lucky Labrador Brewing Company, which has a porch (with heaters for the cold days) for beer lovers to bring their dogs. Cool.

BAMBOO SUSHI: www.bamboosushipdx.com

After the movie, we went to Bamboo Sushi for dinner. This place was absolutely fantastic! I had the Green Machine veggie sushi roll. Russ has the 180 veggie sushi roll and Shelby had spicy scallop roll. It was all amazing - some of the best sushi I've ever had, and vegetarian!

Not only does Bamboo do the sushi right, but it is a certified, sustainable sushi restaurant - and it is the first one in the world. You really need to read more about it on the website here.

BRODER: broderpdx.com

WARNING: They close at 3 p.m. We tried to go the day before at 3:15. No good. But we ended up at Genies and that was a win!

Back to Broder. It was like being at a classy IKEA.

What a treat for brunch. I actually had a latte. I'm normally just a black coffee drinker but I felt something special happening here so I went with the latte. And it was good.

The food was beautifully plated. And it was delicious. The potato pancake was less than crisp than other potato pancakes I've had - but it was perfect. And the egg scramble was HOT, right out of the oven. To top it off, the walnut toast was delicious with the Danish berry jelly.

Broder is a must visit.

BOON'S TREASURY: www.mcmenamins.com

On Wednesday we drove down to Salem to meet Russ' mom for dinner. We went to Boon's Treasury which is part of the McMenamins family of pubs. I finally got my craving for tater tots satisfied. And can I recommend you try their tater tots cajunized? Goodness, delicious.

VOODOO DOUGHNUT: voodoodoughnut.com

Russ left for a job in Denver in Thursday so Shelby and I were left to our devious devices. Which included a visit to the famous Voodoo Doughnut. Now typically on the pass on the doughnut in favor of cookies, brownies, cake, ice cream, candy bar, just about any other sweet.

I had the Vegan Portland Cream. Shelby had the regular Portland Cream. It was a pretty dang delicious doughnut.

POWELLS BOOKSTORE: www.powells.com

And then to Powells! Prowling for a couple hours through books sounds grand to me.






WHISKEY SODA LOUNGE: www.whiskeysodalounge.com

We didn't mean to visit Whiskey Soda Lounge. We started across the street at its mother restaurant Pok Pok, a Thai restaurant. But part of their service is, when you are waiting for a table (our wait was 30 minutes), they send you across the street to Whiskey Soda Lounge for drinks and/appetizers.

You check in with the host at Whiskey Soda and they let you know when your table is ready at Pok Pok. Genius! We tried the papaya fritters and I enjoyed a minty drink called Southside.

POK POK: www.pokpokpdx.com

Once the host let us know that our table was ready across the street, we settled up at Whiskey Soda and walked across the street to Pok Pok. Shelby heard that this place had been featured on the Travel Channel. They had a nice selection of Thai food but I dare say these are not the standard Thai dishes you'll find in most Thai places.

I tried the Yam Samun Phrai (made vegetarian), which is a special Northern Thai herbal salad with ginger, carrot, parsnip, betel leaf, basil, lime leaf, sawtooth, fried shallots, cashews, peanuts, sesame seeds, and Thai chilies in a coconut milk dressing. Delicious! Light and just the right amount of food.

***Insights on my final three days forthcoming....

ETSY!

I have become a big fan of etsy.com and all things handmade in the last several months. I guess because I wish I could be so crafty but I don't have the time right now with work and school. So, I'm happy to support those who do have the creativity and the time to make it happen.

That said, I have a few favorite sellers on etsy:

Architette: www.etsy.com/shop/architette
Factorygirlashli: www.etsy.com/shop/factorygirlashli
Lunarbelle: www.etsy.com/shop/lunarbelle
Littleclouds: www.etsy.com/shop/littleclouds
Evielala: www.etsy.com/shop/evielala

So fun!

And because I want to win (who doesn't like winning?), I'm going to promote a springtime giveaway on Factorygirlashli's blog. It's a giveaway with another new fave seller on Etsy, Twisteddelight (www.etsy.com/shop/twisteddelight).

Check them all out!