Tag Archives: Portland

You are still sick from all of the Food Truck Food, aren’t you? I was too, and then we had to go to dinner at The Kennedy School. Nothing worse that being full and being forced to dine! But we made the best of it and bellied up to the bar and enjoyed a Negroni for Him and a Sazerac for Her.

The Kennedy School is a blast. It’s a restaurant/hotel/theater/bar/all in one house of entertainment that is basically a remodeled old elementary school. The rooms are themed (“detention” is the cigar bar…sweet!) and despite the fact that we were still full from lunch, we did enjoy a nice meal. There were a number of parties related to SCAA going on, but most of us opted for a reasonable night in (HA!) because we had to get up early the next day.

Saturday was GORGEOUS right from the start and the ladies headed off to the Women In Coffee Breakfast and then of course afterward we had to make a pit stop at VooDoo Doughnuts — I mean, we couldn’t let the boys at home starve right?

If you think I look dorkily excited about donuts, you should have seen my aunt:

HA! I love that picture.
I have to admit though, VooDoo was…only ok. I do enjoy a good donut, they are my personal kryponite actually, but the donuts there were just average. I’m sure I would probably get fired from the Food Network for saying that, but I’ve had better. SLO Donut Company, you still own the #1 spot in my heart!

After DonutGate 2012 — the afternoon ended up being pretty mellow. We got to enjoy some porch time at the house and to rest up for the mess of parties we were going to attend that night.

A good amount of relaxation (ok and epic napping!) later, the entire crew ended up back at the house to fuel up before the parties:

The first was hosted by Torani, (which is where my cousin’s fiance Gina works…Hi Gina!) and it was downtown at a hotel called The Nines. They have a gorgeous rooftop bar and we enjoyed the scenery, the cocktails and of course, the company!

The party was a success, and so we moved on to the next one hosted by Monin.

Another success full of tasty beverages and delicious looking food!

Our last stop — an Irish bar. You know what happens when your last stop of a cocktail filled evening is at an Irish bar, right? I’m pretty sure this photo says it all:

It was at this Irish Bar that I learned a very valuable lesson though. Let me pass it on to you in case you ever need to know it: If you want to learn to Riverdance like a professional, you can either spend your entire life training with professionals, or you can pound a couple of pints of Guinness and request that the live band plays Shipping Up to Boston. The latter seemed to work swimmingly for our party. Valuable time saved.

You should have seen that dance floor! I’m sad I don’t have photos.

This was a fun stop, but at about 1:30 in the morning I turn into a pumpkin! So we headed home…um, I mean to the food trucks across the street and enjoyed a roast beef sandwich with FRENCH FRIES INSIDE OF IT. I just don’t know who thinks up these things, but at 1:30 am it felt like brilliance.

We survived the night, headed to bed, and the next morning it was time to pack up and head home. We were sad to get on the plane, but it was time to get back to real life.

This vacation, as fun as it was, really underscored how much I love the routine of my life. It’s fun to eat junk food, drink too much champagne and have good times with friends and family, but that will be the last time for a while that I really go crazy on my body. We’ve officially been home for a week and I am ALMOST feeling recovered. The Monday after we got home I immediately hit Coscto and threw everything green in that store into my cart.

Whole foods, I’ve missed you!

It’s back to our scheduled programming around here starting tomorrow. It’s a new month (almost) and I have a whole new feeling of dedication towards making healthy choices and pushing my body to the limits in the gym, rather than at a food cart.

I’m looking forward to it!

As we flew back to Sacramento from Portland on Sunday night, Garrett looked over at me sleepy eyed and said “Man, it feels like we left our house months ago.” Even though we were only gone 4 days, so much happened while we were in Portland that it felt like a much longer vacation. If I’m going to tell you all about it, I think I should probably start from the beginning.

Why We Were There

So our trip up wasn’t solely for pleasure, there was actually a little bit of business mixed in. You see my aunts, Amy + Elizabeth, own a super awesome company that distributes specialty coffee & tea and related products. (Sidebar: It was actually my aunt Amy that got me first job in coffee when I was 16. More than that though, I stayed in the industry for over 10 years because she really taught me how to turn my love of coffee into an actual career. And then to top it all off, it’s where I met Garrett so you know: I owe her.)

They were taking their company (half of whom are my family members) up to Portland for the Specialty Coffee Association of America’s annual event. Since both Garrett and I have a long shared appreciation for Specialty Coffee (and since he still works in the industry) she invited us to go. And how could we say no! Family vacation, for the win!

The Trip

We headed to the airport with smiles on our faces and our bags packed!

I was so excited to throw a mess of magazines I had been wanting to read in my bag and just chill out for an hour with a cocktail and lounge on the plane. Unfortunately that’s not exactly how it went down.

We had gotten to the airport about 90 minutes before our plane departed. I was kind of anxious about that because I’m the type of person who likes to be there with a couple of hours to spare. Judge away, I’m an annoying traveler!

So since “we had time” and A-Boarding Passes at the ready for our Southwest Cattle Call, we decided to stop and get some lunch. The indulgent eating began with a little snack from a local favorite Burgers & Brew:

They have an airport lounge and we grabbed our plates of yumminess and about 45 minutes before our scheduled departure (and only halfway into my burger) Garrett looked up and said “Uh…it says our plane is boarding right now.”

45 minutes before departure? WTF, Southwest?

We dumped our burgers in kind of a panic and headed over there and sure enough, our gate was totally empty. The entire plane had boarded. We were the last two people on the plane basically and had to squeeze in to crappy middle seats nowhere near each other and then SIT IN A SWELTERING PLANE FOR 45 MINUTES until we took off.

It was not a happy way to start a trip.

Luckily my seat neighbor took pity on me and handed over a drink coupon, which I promptly redeemed for a gin and tonic.

The Arrival

90 minutes later though, we were in Portland and there was no sign of sweltering heat!

So we hopped in a rain soaked cab and headed to our house in the Irvington District.

When we arrived, we were floored to see our digs:

It was a 5500 square foot historic mansion with three stories. There were 10 of us staying there and by the time we arrived it was stocked full of cocktails and good conversation and we were ready to get the weekend started. If this house was to be any indicator, we’d be living large and indulging over the next four days.

And spoiler alert: We Were Correct.

I’ll be back tomorrow to tell you about the SCAA Event, the food we ate, and the craziness that ensued over the weekend!