Travel

Travel: Portland

If there is one thing that I absolutely love to do, it is travel. This is the one area that I feel is most lacking in my life. Oh I go places. Utah, Seattle, Idaho, Montana and I love going *places* but I yearn to travel longer, farther, and to more exotic locales. But this season in my life clearly isn't the season of exotic travel and that's okay. This is the season of parenting and that is flying by much too quickly as is...but whenever the opportunity presents itself to go somewhere, anywhere... I jump at the chance. When I travel I am a do-er not necessarily a relaxer. I always have a big list of places to go, people to see, things to eat, and sites to visit. I like to be busy. I can relax at home. I love exploring new places and it gives me a thrill to head out of town. Luckily Tyler is the same style of traveler. I was presented with the chance to go on a little jaunt to Portland with my Mom and it was fabulous. The perfect cure for the January blahs. My mom is a great travel companion. We have been traveling together for years and I love it. She is also a do-er...not a relaxer.

The premise for our visit was to travel to Portland to check out a vintage show over there (Junk Salvation) to see if we would like to be vendors at it next year. The answer is, yes, we would. We have been vendors at a Junk Salvation show before...one that was held in Coeur d' Alene...but not their Portland show.

The weather and roads were horrible here. In fact, my mom was an hour and a half late meeting me due to horrible road conditions. But once we got to Portland, the sun was shining, and it was a balmy 49. Oh yes, forty-nine degrees can be balmy if your current weather temps have been 10 degrees.

I love Portland!! It is so beautiful and green...even in January. I could totally live there if it weren't for all that damnable rain...that makes everything so beautiful and green. Haha. It is also a really fun city with so much to see and do. My list of things to do and see were a mile long and my mom had her own list to incorporate into our short trip. We were constantly busy and jammed packed full of fun.

The first item of business was to visit family. My cousin, Paul, and his wife, Whitney, and their adorable little girl, Zoey, live in the Portland area and we were excited to see them. Paul is a professionally trained chef at the most fabulous restaurant. Paul graciously offered to make reservations for us at his restaurant and we met them there. I absolutely loved it. It had a fun, sophisticated, and hipster vibe, great company, and the food was out of this world. We gave Paul carte blanche about what food to order, as both my Mom and I are adventurous eaters, and he, in return, gave us the culinary feast of a lifetime.

Here's some of what we dined upon:

Appetizers:

-Charcuterie: deletable meats, spreads, bread, jam, mustard, and the best pickles I have had in my lifetime.
-Steak Tartare (I had never had it before...delish)
-Pork Belly (divine)

Entrees: (we all shared everything family style)

-Gnocci with a wild boar ragu
-The most succulent and enormous pork chop.
-A heavenly steak dish (both the pork and steak had the most amazing sides like braised brussel sprouts and potato gratins and all kinds of other things.)
-A seafood fettuccine with jalapenos and olives that was to die for.

Dessert:

Ricotta fritters dipped in creme anglaise and dark chocolate sauce, and a chocolate hazelnut torte served with...buttered popcorn ice cream!! (That buttered popcorn ice cream was crazy good.)

All of it was sheer heaven, as was our company. It was so fun to spend time together with Paul and his family. Things are always so wild at the lake when we are all together, so it was really nice to be able to leisurely eat, visit, and catch up on life. Paul and Whitney are talented, fun, and interesting and I loved hanging out with them. Afterwards we went back to their house and visited some more. I had a fantastic time and look forward to a return trip with Tyler in the near future. Thanks Paul and Whitney!! We loved every minute we spent with you guys...food or no food.
 

The adorable Zoey, Whitney, Paul and my Mom

  The next morning we headed out bright and early. We had a wonderful breakfast and headed to the show. It was fun to see Dixie and her sister (the show promoters), my friends, Rebecca and Tiffany, who were vendors at the show, and our other friend, Sharon, who had traveled all the way from Pennsylvania to be in the show.

 

We had a great day of visiting and shopping. We also visited many of the wonderful and funky districts in Portland and found some great items for Sisters Creed. We had a wonderful dinner at a great Hawaiian restaurant and continued on until late that night finding great merchandise for our business and getting some new ideas and inspiration.

The next day we again headed out early. I made sure I had surprises and gifts for all my family and we were the first in line at Ikea. We are redesigning our booth for Farm Chicks and we found some great things for our booth design, structure, and lighting.  Then we stopped at the infamous Voodoo Donuts.

It wasn't just hype. It was super good. I got the maple bacon bar and the Captn Crunch. My Mom also got the maple bacon and the Portland cream. Yum. We hit a few more stops and places we wanted to go. We grabbed lunch at my favorite Cafe Yumm. I got a big bottle of Yumm sauce to go. My mom wasn't so sure she would like a vegetarian place and a vegan style bowl and sauce but she did and now is hooked on the Yumm sauce!! So good...and a such a good detox from all the rich meat I ate all weekend. I know all you ravenous carnivores hate to hear stuff like this but you REALLY feel SO MUCH better when you eat a vegetarian diet!! I promise. You will have ten times the energy. Even my mom was totally surprised and kept saying that she didn't even miss the meat.  There's a testimonial for you!! Ha ha. She also tried tempeh (my personal fav) for the first time and liked it.

On our way home we stopped at the beautiful Multnomah Falls. I had never been there before and boy was I missing out. Gorgeous! Breathtaking!

The sunshine, the greenery, the complete and utter lack of snow, the travel, and the great company ended January on a high note for me...and it just might get me to March when my next trip is scheduled. We headed home to a complete blizzard and subzero temps. Boo. But...this happened too and it was AWESOME!!

It was pretty thrilling and still the talk of the town even today!! There were some SERIOUSLY EXCITED and HYPER Johnsons at our house!! It's not everyday you get to experience something like that in your state. Very cool!!

Next up Tyler's birthday and all kinds of fun!! Good-bye January. Hello February.