My sister humors me. I'm actually kind of spoiled because when I visit her in the Portland area, she asks me what I want to do and, for the most part, we do it. That doesn't happen all of the time when I visit other people and I pout.
My desires for my trip there in April: eat, art musuem, eat, finding art to hang on my wall, and...I don't think there was anything else but food and art. What else is there, really? The highlights:
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First thing off of the plane was to get a French-inspired lunch. The food was fantastic, but all I have are pictures of the sweets I didn't have. Next time!
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| I love art museums, and for all of the times I've been to Portland, I had never seen it's museum. So out we headed on a rainy day to add a little culture to our lives. Even Henry had moments of liking the art (though only for moments). It was a really fun museum in a great part of downtown Portland that is fun to walk around. |
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| Art made us hungry. Blue Star Donuts answered our calls, and it was a new stop for us. There were only five donuts on the menu that day, including a lemon curd, a passion fruit, and a chocolate ganache. The lemon curd was the best. The passion fruit stirred no passionate feelings in our souls. |
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| Claudia lets me chance my photographic fantasies. She drove all over town trying to find a place for me to take a picture of the Portland skyline. I know she loves me because she will honor the most ridiculous requests so I can take pictures in the rain. |
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| Downtown day! I love downtown day! But this time, instead of doing some light shopping in the boutiques along 23rd street, it was all about the food today. Ken's Artisan Bakery, Little Big Burger, and later on the food carts on 9th. We were STUFFED. It was the funnest of all the days. |
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| I like doing things I've never done before. Besides eating, out walk back to the car allowed us to explore a park and the grounds of this beautiful synagogue. |
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| To go with the bread Claudia bought at Ken's, we also had to stop at the cheese shop to sample and then buy a few varieties (for another day, of course!). It was just one more food adventure for this trip. |
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| For my wall-o-art at home, I wanted a piece that was typically Portland, ad the Saturday Market seemed like the right place to look for something relatively inexpensive. There wasn't anything that piqued my interest for the price, but it was fun to have a half hour with Claudia, running through stalls looking for just the right piece. The stop wasn't a total bust - the cinnamon pecans were to die for. |
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| Oh, these kids. I love them so much. And they like me, thought sometimes I think it is just because I look like their mother. I mean, I get bossy (a carry-over from my other nieces and nephew who I used to tend a lot), I don't play with them a whole ton, and I don't spoil them rotten with toys and such. I'll just enjoy their love for as long as I can until they realize how uncool I really am. But they sure are fun to smootch and snuggle. And I'll keep going back to visit as much as their parents will let me. |
