to good friends & good food

sure our little spring break trip to portland included great friends. 

can you believe that we have never traveled with the smiths before? and can you believe that it has been a year and a half since i have seen my monique?

and sure it included spectacular views of waterfalls and lush green mountainsides that speak to my scottish roots.

i am moved deep in my being when i see the earth covered in green.  don't get me wrong, i love our little desert, but i part of me knows it is home when i see the hillsides darned in moss and lichens. 

and sure it included legos, what vaca is complete without legos and the lego store?

lego houses are favored only second to the buckets of legos that you get to fill from the wall o' legos.  i love that wall.  and legos are perfect for down time when you stay in a posh artsy hotel.  hotel lucia to be exact.  while it was laden with fancy and heavy on schmancy it was very light on space, which is why you see only a picture of the door and the rest are in the lobby.

 

and you know we had our fair share of walks and talks and stories and laughing until we had wet ourselves.

and of course i mean wet our faces with tears of laughter, don't get the wrong idea, although i am pretty sure nico wet his pants a time or two.

and you know my fingers itched with inspiration at the saturday market and at the salvage yards stuffed to the brim we visited.

the leaded glass made me weak in the knees and the reclaimed vintage pea coats with the nipped waist, bird detail, angora hoodie and little ruffled cuffs seriously made me swoon. 

and you can be sure that i soaked up every second of my little lovies that i could, including my nicolicious.

nadia was a roller coaster of emotion and i felt like she was growing right before my eyes.  aidan is having his own share of struggles with finding his place but in a rare moment of demonstrative behavior said that he loved having tony and i around this week and wished it could always be this way...whoa.  as for nico, he and i bonded over jumping on the bed, hide and seek behind tony and long walks down broadway through a group of varied protesters. 

but when you ask me how my spring break was, i won't recant any of this because i will answer instead with my belly...

food food food food food food food food food food food food food food food food food food food 

sara and i plotted to eat good food on this trip.  food that we can't get here in our neck of the woods.  food with culture and depth and words that can't be pronounced.  

  there was pastaria for dinner...  ehhh.  chicken alfredo is good just about anywhere but it wasn't the experience we were looking for.

 then mother's for breakfast...  the best service ever.  hands down. 

since we were stuffed from breakfast we skipped lunch.

 

then there was makareesh for dinner... it may have been eating with your hands off a communal plate or dining while sitting on pillows in a dark morracan themed room, but the food was fantastic.  i can't stop thinking about the hummus salad. mmmmmmm.  i am sure it helped that i had the lovely company of monique too. curse my lack of camera skills, not one good picture, but mo did promise to come see us soon.

then there was voodoo donuts... after a 30 minute wait in the chilly portland air these donuts were perfection.  donuts are my sin of choice.  the donut i had that morning-whose name is not appropriate for my blog but it's yeast risen fluffiness, topped with chocolate and crumbly oreoness and peanut buttery drizzly goodness- can melt in my mouth any day of the week and twice on sunday.

 

sushi was on the menu for lunch for the very patient aidan... there were fish eggs and tuna and rice rolls but for the finicky there was raman noodles.  and all were happy in the end.

 

ikea for dinner... not just dinner but cafeteria style dinner and not just cafeteria style dinner but free cafeteria style dinner.  and there was chocolate cake.  sweet. 

and now after journaling all of that deliciousness i am going to retire to my bed with a box of overpriced tagalongs.