Portland is for lovers

Our journey....

Friday (2.12.10)

Tucson International Airport-Nice and quiet in the morning but Zac didn't like his coffee and muffin and the bastards burned my bagel!

Salt Lake City International Airport-Sucks big time! It felt so crowded there. And I could tell all the Mormon's were judging me. We had a gate change about half an hour before our flight boarded and when we finally got to the right gate this guy walked right in front of me. This guy was once Danielle's coworker who eventually became my friend too. He travels a lot and was going home to Portland. We were on the same flight and we exchanged numbers to hang out later that weekend.

PDX airport-Such a calm airport

The Nines-This place is a bitch to find but well worth it! It was so fancy we didn't know what to do with ourselves. Immediately I felt underdressed but I got over it because you know what....I'm staying at the hotel too! Once inside your hotel room you forget about the crazy city surrounding you.

Rite Aid- Great for incidentals and looking at bums.

Bartini-Original plan was to eat at Urban Fondue but apparently you need to make reservations for every damn meal in this city especially when it's Valentine's weekend! When Tina and Ross met up with us I told them we couldn't get into Urban Fondue and so we went next door to Bartini! They share kitchens but not the same decor. We had two rounds of martinis and we all shared. We had a good time over martinis, cheese fondue and hummus! Just what we needed after a long day of traveling!

Tiger Bar-Very cool rock bar. It reminded me of a new-ish dive bar. The decor was dive bar-ish but not disgusting to the point where you are afraid to touch anything. We got there in time for Strip Bingo. I saw some man chest and man ass. I took a picture of man ass. We ordered ourselves some Stella Artois and Tina and Ross shared a plate of sweet potato fries with us. Yum!

Saturday (2.13.10)

Voodoo Doughnuts-This voodoo was tiny and the girl that helped us acted like a snot. Like we were wasting her time of picking donuts when that is her job! Zac didn't have the balls to order the cock and balls donut in front of his mom. I had the capn crunch with crunk berries donut. It was delish! Later on Sunday night we saw a huge line of people just waiting to get donuts.

Starbucks-Of all places to get coffee we went to Starbucks. It's OK though, I had a gift card.

Mariott Hotel-This is where Bonnie and Phil stayed. Their hotel not as cool as ours. We ate donuts and drank coffee in their room.

Powell's Books- Awesome and amazing. One of the rooms is supposedly haunted. The place is huge and I found the next two books in the Sookie saga.

Pambiche-"What does Pambiche mean?" Phil-"Cubans couldn't say Palm Beach". Me (in my head)-racist! Waitress when we asked her-"Cubans couldn't say Palm Beach so they called it Pambiche."

The restaurant was this brightly colored tiny little thing. We managed to snag a table inside and ordered te helado and a pina drink and we also ordered the sanwich cubano and something else that I can't remember right now. We were lucky to come on their anniversary weekend so we also got free dessert! I'll have to give Cuban food another try...we'll just have to go to Palm Beach or Cuba to get the real deal.

Multnomah Falls-Waterfalls galore! We stopped at a visitors center that was super windy and then we visited the falls. Bridal Veil kicked our ass because it was a seemingly harmless hike but the way back up was a beast! Especially after you've eaten Cuban food. I think I was just racist there. Whatever...

Macy's-the first 5 or 6 floors of our hotel was a freakin Macy's! For some "me" time I browsed and shopped. When I was finished I walked back outside to the sidewalk turned left walked 10 steps and went back into the reception area to our hotel.

Doug Fir Lounge-Concert venue, bar, and restaurant. Similar concept toHotel Congress. Was once a Denny's and a Howard Johnson but is now way cool, way hipster, and has good food but it took forever to get a table! The band area was awesome! And the beasties were amazing. I think I'd leave Zac for one of those guys. All they'd have to do is talk a lot and change the lyrics from hooting and howling to bluetooth and howling.

Sunday (2.14.10)

Portland Coffee Company or Roasters-I don't remember the name anymore. We met up with my friend Andy and his girlfriend and caught up over coffee. I ordered a Mexican Mocha and when I told Andy what I got he said "You didn't? Did you?" I said "Yeah I want to know if they are being racist". It was pretty good and it didn't taste like Mexicans at all.

Pioneer Square-We took a group picture by umbrella man. The square is an area that holds outdoor concerts and movies and just a big gathering place for events.

Andina-I think this was the best find! A facebook friend suggested this restaurant and I think it popped up on a few searches of places to eat while in PDX. While texting with Alison on places to meet for lunch I told her that Zac and I still wanted to eat at Old Town Pizza and we heard that Andina's was good. Alison looked it up and they decided Andina's would be the better choice! Alison's fiance and mom joined us and great times were had! Zac and I arrived early and so we were seated which gave us a chance to look over the menu. I ordered the Inca Cola and Zac ordered the mojito and the sacsayhuaman. We shared tapas of conchas a la parilla and chicharron de langostinos. For an entree we shared the lomo saltado. Everything was delicious!

Chinese Gardens-From Andina's we walked to the Chinese Gardens. While walking we saw a huge SUV back into a spot hitting the car behind it. The SUV pulled out and drove away. We turned the corner only to see the SUV try to park again and it looked like it was going to take out the lamp pole. We ran into Bonnie and Phil at the gardens. The gardens were packed because Sunday was Chinese New Year. We were given red envelopes with coins in them for good luck and we stayed to watch the dragon show. Not much to the gardens...I would only go again if it were free. I left my lucky envelope to the cleaning ladies at our hotel....I left them a nice tip.

Old Town Pizza-It's supposed to be haunted yo! Zac and I shared a small pepperoni and green pepper pizza. Bonnie and Phil had the Dragon Lady pizza. After eating we looked around and went to where the old elevator shaft used to be and the people eating there showed us where Nina's name was scratched into the brick. I didn't have a ghostly experience but it was still cool.

Tube- Tina and Ross had told us about Tube in their many recommendations of bars. We were intrigued when they told us the bar was in an old subway car. The place was pretty cool and the reviews promised us hipsters and so as we were sitting at the bar chatting up the bartender and barfly I made the mistake of asking them if they were hipsters. Apparently, hipsters don't like to be called hipsters! I found out that Hamm's is the equivalent of PBR and it was good like PBR but then I had to have a Tecate!

Powell's Books-Nothing like going to a bookstore when you are drunk to use their bathroom. Zac is still perplexed that there was a condom machine in the man's bathroom. Perhaps Powell's is a mecca for gay bathroom sex? You gotta be safe right?

Jake's-Andy told us his brother worked at this place and that happy hours are amazing here. So after a night of hitting up happy hours we decided to give Jake's a try. We were seated at the back bar which so happened to NOT have happy hour! Instead we shared a plate of lobster tail, steak, and mashed potatoes.

Monday (2.15.10)

Urban Farmer-This restaurant was located in our hotel lobby. We kept spying on the people eating while in our room and even analyzed a couple eating dinner on Valentine's night. We had breakfast and I had eggs benedict while Zac had a regular egg, taters, ham and toast meal. The coffee was strong, the portions were huge and the iced tea was great!

Willamette River-a nice park ran along the river and you could see the bridges up close. While on our way to cross the bridge we were fortunate enough to see the bridges go up to let a barge go through.

Fred Meyer's-clean bathrooms

Bagdad Theater-awesome! Eat pizza and drink beer while watching a movie!

My Thai Bistro on Hawthorne Blvd. We shared crab pillows, spring wraps with peanut sauce, chicken pad thai and green curry with chicken. I also ordered a Thai iced tea and everything was delicious.

Mount Tabor has lovely views of the city and we were able to see Mount Hood in the distance. The park was just awesome.

PDX airport-nice, calm and relaxing.

Gustav's in PDX airport for swiss cheese fondue with bier sausage and cubed bread and rosemary garlic cheese bread.

Starbuck's for a caramel frappucino and coffee crumb cake in LAX.

Tucson Airport-finally home again!