Parents Weekend!

Um, I just realized that I uploaded these photos and typed this post out exactly 25 days ago, and then never actually posted it. Duh. Have I mentioned before that I'm a slacker?

The Christians survived their third trip to Portland! They visited us for a few days at the end of April. During their first trip back in August, they endured record-setting scorching temperatures of 104+ degrees. Their second trip at Christmastime was complete with the snow storm of the century, dumping feet of snow on the city and bringing virtually all life in the city to a halt. This time... finally... somewhat normal weather! There was a little rain, but hey, it's spring in Portland.

After a little brunch at the VQ on day one, we took a little walk through downtown to head back to our apartment and say hello to Buckley.

Getting reacquainted with the Buckface

He was even nice enough to pose for a picture with mommy

Since Portland loves its happy hour, we decided to hit a couple spots for the oh-so-reasonably-priced food and drink. We headed to The Nines hotel to check out the Library, a sort of hidden little room in their lobby, full of books on loan from Powell's and all the free pool you can handle. And one truly bitchin' antler chandelier.

For the record, the girls won. Okay fine. It was the boys.

We then headed up to Departure, a pan-Asian restaurant on the top floor of the Nines.

Um, I was led to believe I'd be boarding Space Mountain at the end of this hallway?

Ultra-hip Departure

The rooftop patio at Departure

We called it an early night, since the 'rents were on east coast time and pretty spent from traveling. The next morning, I made one of the only things I know how to make - waffles. Yum!

What trip would be complete without showing off Buckley's latest tricks?


We headed off to Oregon's wine country for the afternoon. First stop, Archery Summit. Since Paul and I are members of their wine club, we get tastings for free. Woo! And to celebrate Paul's recent accomplishment, Dad bought a bottle of a fabulous 2001 Arcus Estate Pinot Noir. Uh, YUM?

In the caves at Archery Summit

On a recommendations from Archery Summit, we then headed over to DePonte Cellars. In addition to delicious wines, they also have stunning views and gorgeous grounds. Photo ops!

We then headed into Carlton, a little town nestled into wine country. The city is small - population less than 2,000 - but they know what's up. Their downtown consists of one main drag running about 2 blocks through town, and in that space they have wedged in tasting rooms for 18 wineries. That is a lot of wine tasting folks. Also, I have no idea why this paragraph is underlined, and I can't figure out how to turn it off. :/

Tasting room of Seven of Hearts in downtown Carlton. The husband runs the winemaking
business, while his wife runs a chocolate business, crafting chocolates specifically to go
with his wines. How cute!

The next day we were headed out to the Oregon coast, since my parents hadn't been there yet. What better way to start the day off then at Pine State Biscuits? Home of the best. breakfast sandwich. ever. I have blogged about this sandwich before. The Reggie Deluxe. Fried chicken, cheddar cheese, bacon, sausage gravy, and a fried egg, all piled up on a delicious, fresh-baked biscuit.

Jenny hungry! Nom nom nom!

To wake up from our food coma, we popped over to the Stumptown Annex, which is right down Belmont from Pine State. We were just in time for their 11:00am cupping, a daily coffee tasting that they invite the public to for free. Paul and I have done this before... a couple times... but it was a first for my parents. It's a very involved process, with smelling, and then smelling again, and then smelling again, and then tasting, but in a very particular manner that involves spoons and slurping. A good time was had by all.

Taking in the aromas

Then we were off to the coast! We stopped in Astoria, which turned out to be a drag (couldn't even find the Goonies house!), and then headed to Cannon Beach. This was Buckley's first time here too, and he loved it!!

A little beach frisbee

Mom was cold, so she turned her vest into a straight jacket. A good look eh?

Mom and Dad by Haystack Rock

By the end of the day we were so ready for dinner, we headed to our old standby, Rogue. We each ordered a couple beers, food, the works. When we were ready to pay our bill, we were told we were chosen for the Rogue Bailout 2009!! YES!! Every day at lunch and dinner, one table is picked to be bailed out, and the whole tab is taken care of. They took a Polaroid of us and asked us to sign the wall. It was pretty sweet.

Paul told me to write this. Seriously.

Our pretty picture now hanging on the wall.

Mom and I spent much of the next day shopping, but when happy hour rolled around we all met up at Portland City Grille, on the 30th floor of the US Bancorp tower (the "big pink" as the locals all it). It offers amazing views of the city... cooler on a clear day, but still pretty fun.

Downtown from the Grille

View of downtown and the West Hills

To end their mini-vacay, we all had dinner at Noble Rot over on the east side. This place is focused on wine (hence the name), so we knew it would be a good place to take our precious 2001 Arcus Estate to enjoy it.

And that's that! I think we wore them out... not sure when they'll want to come back now. :)

The Oregon Bar Exam

He came, he saw, he kicked its ass.

Paul passed the Oregon Bar!! He took the exam back in February after months and months of preparing, and the results came in yesterday after months of waiting. Congratulations Paul! Of course it comes as no big surprise to most of us that he passed. :)

To celebrate I took Paul out for dinner at Departure, a new restaurant and bar on the top floor of The Nines hotel, situated in the heart of downtown. It has a very cool retro nautical/1960s jet liner/world traveler theme... which sounds hokey, but it really isn't. I think the Willamette Week sums it up nicely: "Depending on where you stand, it looks like a near-death experience, an airliner from Dubai, a catamaran designed by Star Fleet, a Barcelona penthouse, the inside of an engine block, the Winchester Mystery House and a particularly nice bank office on the Death Star. And it is amazing."

Not to mention, they have two incredible rooftop patios overlooking almost the entire city. We had some cocktails out there before dinner, and man... this is the life. Our friends Kelly and Eric met up with us to celebrate as well (Eric is an accountant, who was also ready to celebrate tax season being over!), and after enjoying round after round of dim sum plates, we topped the night off with dessert at Pix Patisserie. Amazing.

Here are some shots of the rooftop patio:

Pioneer Square down below, "Portland's Living Room"

A very fun evening indeed. We have a wave of warm weather coming up, so we're headed out to enjoy it!

Love,
Jenny (and Paul Mayo, Esquire)

Early Spring and a Multimodal Commute Home

The Hollywood Theater

Hi everyone, it's Paul posting for once. Yesterday Jenny and I took the MAX from downtown out to the Hollywood District located near where NE Sandy, NE Broadway, NE 42nd, and I-84 all meet - if for some reason you were to look at a map to see what I'm talking about, you'd see that this makes for a lot of interesting intersections with some odd angles. Anyway, the neighborhood is named for the Hollywood Theater pictured above and is home to some new mixed use buildings, a couple of which are still under construction, and old single family homes. The commercial part of the district is pretty typical of Portland, with Fleur de Lis Bakery, the Laurelwood Brewing Co. pizza place, a vintage MCM furniture store, Trader Joe's, a comic book shop, a tropical fish store, coffee shops, wine bars, and restaurants.

On the way home we stopped to take some pictures of the cherry blossoms along the waterfront. Spring is definitely here in Portland:

Waterfront Park from the Steel Bridge

The Steel Bridge

There are cherry blossoms all over the city right now.

Since we haven't been up to much other than our daily routines lately, and there have been a lot of complaints about a lack of posts, I thought it might be about time to do a post about my daily routine. Well, not all of it - this is just about my commute home from work today.

The WES arriving at Tigard Transit Center

Portland is famous for being bike friendly and for having excellent public transit, and I depend on both to get to work. My route to and from work varies, and may involve anywhere between 6 and 25 miles on my bike (round-trip) in addition to trains and buses. Today I rode my bike 1.5 miles from work down to catch the WES commuter train north to Beaverton. The WES line just began operating in February and uses diesel powered cars and freight lines rather than electric and a closed system like MAX. WES operates from Wilsonville to Beaverton with three stops along the way. The line may eventually extend to Salem.

The WES cars are comfy.

My bike safely secured in full compliance with federal regulations.

Here's the WES train at Beaverton Transit Center

At Beaverton Transit Center I transfered to a MAX train, which I took two stops east to the Washington Park/Oregon Zoo MAX Station.

The Washington Park/Oregon Zoo MAX Station is 260 feet below Portland's West Hills, and is the deepest train station in North America (second in the world after one in Moscow).

There's a core sample of the 260 feet of rock above the station mounted along the station wall on the left.

To get to the park you take a high speed elevator 260 feet up to the surface, high above downtown Portland:



Once you get to the top of the elevator, you can pretty much let gravity do the rest of the work all the way into downtown Portland. Every Sunday night a group of Portlanders meet up to ride the MAX from downtown to the Washington Park station to "Zoobomb" their way down the hill (usually on little kids bikes) to another station and repeat. The 4 miles from the station to our apartment building are downhill and mostly through a heavily forested park:

It's a lot more work going uphill.

Bombing down an empty road on your bike while surrounded by trees makes for an enjoyable commute.

Washington Park is also home to Portland's Japanese Garden and International Rose Test Garden, which are on the way home. The roses aren't blooming yet, but these were:

Once I got home, Jenny and I took Buckley up to the dog park a few blocks north of our building to play Frisbee - his new favorite toy. We took these along the way:

Watching Buckley run around at the dog park