day 36

Portland to Coos Bay

Woke up a lil early and drove to George Rogers Park in the Lake Oswego area for a nice morning walk and chilly plunge in the water.

We then headed over to Cornell Farm Cafe for brunch. We had to wait a while for a table, it being Labor Day and all, but the wait was well worth it. Plus the restaurant was in the middle of a large nursery full of beautiful trees, plants, and a chicken coop so plenty to walk around and look at. I got the blackberry grilled cheese (holy wow) : sourdough, a blend of Fontina, Gouda, and Gruyère, blackberry basil Jam and arugula.

Jared and I got the car packed up, said our “see you soons” to Val, Anthony, and Rocco, and headed south to our Airstream in Bay Point Landing. We got a late start so we kept it simple eating some dehydrated dinner and bag salad while watching some freakin’ Family Feud.

day 35

A whole heckin’ day in Portland

Woke up and had morning coffee talk with Val and Anthony. Once everyone was up and ready to go, we headed over to the Hawthorne area. First stop: Fried Egg I’m in Love for some yummy music punny breakfast sandwiches. We then did some good ‘ol Portland shopping! Portland is chock-full of great shopping and void of sales tax so it’s one of my favorite places to shop. I snagged some things, most notably three statement rings. I was hoping to find a great silver ring in New Mexico but it just wasn’t in the cards for me. No matter - Portland fucking delivered. Made a stop at Seven Virtues Coffee for a pick me up, did a little more shopping, and headed home for a nap.

Woke up from our naps and got ready for dinner at my favorite restaurant in Portland - LUCE. I love love love this restaurant because A everything is delicious, and B you can get half orders of almost everything so you can try 14 things. We went a bit early expecting to wait as Luce is a small restaurant that doesn’t take reservations and it was Sunday. The restaurant gods were shining upon us, we got parking right away and got seated outside after waiting only 5 minutes or so. I always mark down what to order and keep the menu so (no surprise here) I know exactly what we got…

ANTIPASTI
marinated carrots
sweet & sour peppers
radicchio & gorgonzola suppli
farro & parmesan pie (x2 cuz i’m not an idiot)
fried stuffed olives
salt focaccia

SALAD
mixed greens with herbs,
arugula with lemon & parmesan

PASTA
tagliatelle with beef & pork ragu
fusili with pistachio pesto
rigatoni with red pepper & cream
spaghetti with garlic & chili (the star of the pastas)

DESSERT
buttermilk panna cotta with pine bud syrup (the star of the whole show)
flourless chocolate cake
plum custard crostata
ricotta cheesecake

This restaurant is special. The food was amazing, the weather perfect, the company unparalleled. A 10/10 night.

day 34

Seattle to Portland

Woke up, got Bubbs around the block, and went to Lost Lake for brunch. Jared got a country biscuit benedict and I got a breakfast quesadilla with avocado - yum. On the way to the car we happened upon a vintage sportswear store called Throwbacks Northwest. We didn’t get anything but certainly liked a lot of what we saw and had some good conversation with the crew that worked there.

We headed back to the house, and caught up a bit with our hosting friends before driving to Portland. We definitely left later than we had anticipated so we met Val and Anthony at Hat Yai in Portland. We snagged a table where we could have both our dogs and put an order in, but were promptly booted out by a surly server on behalf of a bunch of ding dongs so we took it back to the house. We spent dinner catching up and gossiping before heading to bed.