Travel

Trip to Portland with Three under Three

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I miss traveling. The kind that involves large aircraft crossing multiple time zones. But let’s not fall down that depressing hole right now. I may have three tiny people in my charge, but travel doesn’t need to completely vanish from our lives. Expectations just need to be reframed a little. Driving to Portland, Oregon in our minivan totally counts as travel! Right?

Portland is pretty fantastic. My husband grew up there, and my mother in law still resides in Northeast Portland, near the Alberta district. The spouse and I, pre children, would enjoy truly epic weekends traipsing about the City of Roses. Typical Portland weekend schedule: dinner out at delicious restaurant with in laws. Bar hop until all hours of the night, sans in laws. Bed. Scrumptious hungover brunch with in laws. Shopping and/or day drinking at breweries. Repeat. Drive home to Seattle in hellish traffic, complaining about impending gout.

Shockingly, this schedule has evolved somewhat. But only somewhat…beer and food, I can’t quit you. Especially in Portland. Things are generally more delicious and cheaper in Portland than in Seattle. And, I still experience symptoms of pre gout after every Portland trip. Which maybe means the trip was successful? Or I’m just a disgusting glutton.

Happy Hour Tacos at Cruz Room

Fatty liver notwithstanding, Portland with kids in tow was great (despite the usual challenges of road trips with small children. See: screaming; diaper explosions). Here are some highlights:

Lechon
Everything in Seattle has a parallel/twin in Portland. Lechon is in downtown Portland, which I would describe as the neighborhood twin of Seattle’s Pioneer Square. I picked Lechon for dinner because it was available via OpenTable, and the menu looked amazing. Everything we ordered was delicious, although I apparently don’t have photographic evidence of this. You’ll have to take my word on it. Solid choice for a dinner out.

Level Beer
This brewery is bit far from the center of the city, but perfect if you want your kids to take car naps. It features a large open air, but covered, space, and a sizable kid pit that kept our toddler entertained. The beer was tasty, and there was a food truck on hand, although we didn’t partake. Great family friendly option!

Liam peed all over himself, but Level sells onesies!

Great Notion Brewing
We, embarrassingly, visited Great Notion three times during the course of the weekend. This brewery is in Alberta, which meant we could walk there, and is kid friendly. The kid pit situation leaves a bit to be desired as it is tucked in the back of the space adjacent to the bathrooms. Lots of hipsters pityingly stared at us while waiting to pee. However the beer here is amazing. Lots of delightful hazy IPAs, which I am very into lately, and great sours.

Just grabbing a relaxing beer in PDX with our 27 children

Oysters @ Nostrana

Nostrana and Enoteca Nostrana
Parents night out went down here, and we grabbed a drink at Enoteca Nostrana prior to our dinner reservation at Nostrana. Holy shit, everything here was delicious. But the crab pizza was the clear winner. There is also a parking lot, rare for Portland but handy if you travel by minivan.

Cool Shit on the Internet

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Hey there. Still pregnant! I’m feeling pretty good and fairly comfortable, but a little antsy. Time is crawling a little bit.

Hammer

Just doing shit around the house and taking faux artsy selfies to pass the time. Here are some entertaining internet links for your enjoyment:

1. Celebrities Looking Sad at Disney Parks (New York Magazine) – LOLZ.

2. The More I Learn About Breast Milk, The More Amazed I Am (The Stranger) – Breast milk truly is effing amazing.

3. How To Book The Best Airbnbs, Anywhere (Into the Gloss) – Helpful tips when booking an Airbnb, which is a great way to go when traveling to cities where hotels are ridiculously expensive.

4. 20 Surprising Things About Parenting in Cuba (Cup of Jo) – I’m addicted to this series on Cup of Jo and this post is particularly fascinating.

5. The Sunniest Climate-Change Story You’ve Ever Read (New York Magazine) – Maybe we aren’t totally fucked!

6. 14 Psychological Tricks Everyone Should Know (Esquire UK) – These are helpful, especially at work. Total manipulation but legit because they called it “psychology”!

7. How To Not Get Sick (The New Potato) – Cold and flu season is imminent, yay. Here are some hippie ish tonics of questionable efficacy to help keep that shit away.

Biscuit Party

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Portland (the one in Oregon. Sorry Maine, I’m sure your Portland is great, too) is a magical land. Delicious food abounds, which is notably cheaper than Seattle options, with less random mediocrity: even the nondescript unknown eateries are usually pretty solid. Portland’s hipsters seem friendlier than Seattle’s. And gas station attendants pump your gas for you, for free, by law. Amazing!

Will and I ventured south on I5 a couple weeks ago to visit his parents and gorge ourselves, as is our usual plan of attack vis a vis Portland. We finally made it to Pine State Biscuits and it did not disappoint. The line at the Alberta location was heinous, even at 10:30am on a Monday, but the biscuity goodness was on point.

Chicken Club

Chicken Club

We shared The Chatfield, The Chicken Club and, since neither of those featured gravy and we are kind of disgusting, the Biscuits and Gravy. The salt induced preggo bloat, which left me with cankles for a good 48 hours, was well worth it.

The Chatfield, Biscuits and Gravy

The Chatfield, Biscuits and Gravy

Also worth the wait in Portland, IMO? Salt and Straw. Their ice cream kicks Seattle ice cream’s ass. The seasonal berry pie flavor was particularly amazing. Ugh, I just looked at their website and a couple of the August flavors look just ridiculous…Chocolate Caramel Potato Chip Cupcake anyone (yes that is one flavor)?

Cool Shit on the Internet

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Sup. I’m kinda tired, bloated and pregnant-feeling. Good times!

Definitely making this for my kid someday. I think she'll be impressed.

Definitely making this for my kid someday. I think she’ll be impressed.


But hey, it’s almost Friday. Here is a little roundup of some things that recently caught my eye online:

1. Monochromatic fruit salad (Cup of Jo)
Doesn’t that look pretty? Totally stealing this for a brunch gathering. Maybe I should throw a brunch gathering…

2. Where Seattle chefs go for cheap eats (Eater)
Great, mostly under the radar spots.

3. City guides (Roll with Jen)
Delightful guides to San Francisco, Portland, Victoria B.C. and more.

4. Dresses to wear to summer weddings (The New Potato)
I still have a couple more weddings to go to this summer, you?

5. Tips for hosting overnight guests (Cupcakes and Cashmere)
How to not be a shitty hostess. I definitely need to follow the part about leaving remote control instructions so I don’t have to explain mine to my dad every time he stays with us.

Kauai Babymoon

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kauai sunrise

Kauai sunrise. Best appreciated while wearing a bathrobe.

Will and I recently returned from a delightful babymoon week in Kauai. It was a pretty great time and I even developed a slight tan, aka my skin could now be described as manila envelope in color rather than computer paper white. This will fade within the week though. Some highlights from the trip below!

Necessary.

Necessary.

FOOD: As a preggo, I am even more food obsessed than usual, so I’ll just be transparent and list this section first. I have found that the food in Hawaii, as with most islandy/beachy tourist destinations, can be hit or miss, but we stuffed ourselves with some pretty delicious meals while in Kauai. Standouts were Bar Acuda (tapas and great wine list in a gorgeous but low key setting), Verde (casual Mexican, fish tacos get in my gullet) and Chicken in a Barrel (BBQ which we ripped into like Neanderthals post 5 hour kayak trip/hike). On a related note I’m fairly certain I am going through shaved ice withdrawals. Hey, I couldn’t drink so I needed to make up for those calories somewhere! If you happen to travel to Kauai, definitely check out Hee Fat General Store and spring for the all natural syrups and macadamia nut ice cream, like a boss. I also personally consumed a good five pounds or so of macadamia nuts in various forms while on this trip and I don’t regret a thing.

PLACES: We stayed in Kapa’a, which was great due to its central location and many dining options. But my favorite town was probably Hanalei: beautiful scenery, lots of places to eat/shops, close to my favorite swimmable beaches on the island, Hanalei Bay and Ke’e Beach. Koloa is another town worth a stop: grab a delicious plate lunch or poke at Koloa Fish Market. I was expecting to like Poipu more, but it was sort of resort-y and spread out and the beaches were all super windy when we were there, so not very swimmable. However the Grand Hyatt in Poipu is super nice if you can afford to stay there. Will and I creepily walked around oggling the grounds for a while.

Passionfruit Fauxjito for the preggo.

Passionfruit Fauxjito for the preggo.

SHIT WE DID: Other than eating, swimming, and my daily AM ritual of reading assorted trashy materials on our room’s balcony whilst garbed in a bathrobe, I have a few activity-related highlights to share. We hiked the first 2-ish miles (4 round trip) of the Kalalau Trail, which is super epic, completely stunning, and thoroughly kicked my ass. Another highlight would be our helicopter tour of the island, which I highly recommend, as in addition to being breathtakingly picturesque, a good amount of Kauai is inaccessible by road, so this is the only way to really see it. We flew with Safari Helicopters and they were pretty great.

All in all it was a successful trip and because it’s gorgeous, has a bohemian beach bum vibe that appeals to me, is not full of touristy trap type crap, and is small enough to easily traverse, Kauai is now one of my favorite Hawaiian islands. I have officially become one of those people that go to Hawaii all the effing time I guess, but given each of the Hawaiian Islands are a pretty painless direct flight from Seattle, Hawaii makes for a logical escape.

What To Do in Vegas When You Can’t Drink

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I have some news: I’m 14 weeks and a few days pregnant. Exciting shit! I’ve been feeling pretty good. I was lucky and never experienced morning sickness, so that was awesome. Instead, I’ve been eating enough for about three people so I’ll probably be one of the preggos who gains like 70 lbs.

Aria Is Nice

Aria Is Nice

In tangentially related news, the husband had to go to Vegas for a work thing and I decided to tag along, reasoning that impromptu trips will soon be a relic of the past. And he was staying at the Aria. If it had been Treasure Island or something I would have passed.

Tried Shake Shack. Overrated.

Tried Shake Shack. Overrated.

So what does one do alone in Vegas? When you can’t booze it up? I guess I could have gone to a show (and if Britney wasn’t dark that week I would have seriously considered that one), but I basically walked around, ate, shopped, and sat by the pool. It was pretty delightful. Granted it would have been more delightful with a cocktail in hand, and by the trip’s end I was feeling slightly resentful towards the endless hordes of drunkards dotting the strip, the pool and the casinos, but overall I had a grand time. However I am already plotting a post baby Vegas trip of debauchery that will involve a lot of day drinking. As soon as I lose the 70 lbs….

This (booze free!) concoction cost 15$.

This (booze free!) concoction cost 15$.