P-Town Weekend

We had our third wedding anniversary a few weeks back and Chris arranged a fabulous trip down to Portland for the weekend, complete with activities and delicious meals. Since it was a trip in celebration of a marital mile marker, we decided to be a bit anti-social and purposely neglected to contact acquaintances within the area...forgive us dear Portland friends. We love you and promise to visit again soon.

So, without further ado, here are a few photos from our P-Town adventure:

First up: A trip to the Oregon Zoo. Ugh. What a nightmare. I typically love zoos. I admire zoos that have creative educational displays and extensive, innovative exhibits. I'm not going to get in a big debate here regarding the ethicality of keeping animals in cages for the purpose of viewing by us human animals, but I will say that the Oregon Zoo was pretty lousy. Small, outdated cages, lots of pacing animals. On the bright side (for them), the place was packed with people. So packed with screaming kids that it was almost enough for me to drive directly to the doctor and get my tubes tied. We'll just leave it at that, shall we?

Next up, the Pittock Mansion. Not sure how I could have lived in Oregon for four long years and not found out about the Pittock Mansion and the giant park that surrounds the old house. After that chaos of the zoo, it was a welcome and quiet relief. We took a nice tour, exclaiming over the lovely view and admiring the old fashioned features. Interestingly enough, this casa grande was built around the same time as our home and it was fun to compare building elements. For example, they had the same type of tile in their bathrooms. We're gradually becoming more interested in preserving the historical feel of our house and it's fun to see similar period features.

Is it wrong that my favorite parts of the house were the bathrooms?

Later we headed off to our overnight accommodations, the newly opened Nines Hotel in Downtown Portland. It was a great choice, despite the decorator's love of all things Tiffany Blue.

Again, I was most enthusiastic about the bathrooms. Hmm, I see a theme here. But seriously, how often do you encounter a bathroom with nifty half flush toilets?

Despite my initial enthusiasm, I was fairly disappointed by the toilets. The half flush option did not dispense a sufficient quality of water to flush down a square or two of toilet paper. Clearly, if a person of the female persuasion was going to use this toilet, it would require the full flush option, regardless of her output choice. Bummer. We were pondering these for our house but we're going to have to do a bit more research.

After a quick nap, it was off to dinner at Jake's Famous Crawfish Restaurant. I cannot believe that I neglected to photograph the mountain of crawfish that arrived at our table. Chris tackled the crawfish, while I munched on clams, mussels and squid. It was a feast. Did I mention that Chris had to roll me down the street afterwards? Yes, I ate that much.

Fortunately, Powell's Books was right around the corner (and downhill) so I didn't have far to roll. I think that I'd like to live permanently at Powell's. I'm amazed that we escaped with only one purchase:

The next morning we awoke late and trotted (trying to work off dinner the night before) to a tasty breakfast at Mothers Bistro and then off to a leisurely stroll around the Chinese Garden.

Afterwards, a nice mosey through Portland's Saturday Market

(despite the fact that it was Sunday)

And then a short jaunt down to the Oreg

on Brewer's Festival.

Oh my, what a lot of alcohol. We focused on the Washington brews but also sampled some lovely beers with hints of raspberry, ginger, coconut, and chocolate (eh, not all in the same drink, of course).