17 posts tagged “portland”

Yesterday we enjoyed hanging out with our new cool Franco-phile friends Moon and Ellyn at their apartment in the city.  They summed up Portland well and made me feel like we're definitely in the right place:  "On the East Coast, people like to share about where they went to school, in California people are proud about their jobs, but in Portland the coolest thing is to have as much free time as possible."

Tonight I genuinely enjoyed going again to the Dinner and a Movie homeless ministry for youth and helped serve up some food.  Very memorable image:  a girl in her early twenties literally fell asleep as she was eating and rested her head on a roll on top of her broccoli chicken and rice.

Kalen and Melissa F took us out to a delightful dinner at Il Piatto Restaurant on the east side of Portland last Sunday.  It's known as "the most romantic restaurant" in Portland and it delivered with a soothingly colorful interior and genuine Italiano cuisine.  Excellent conversation roamed from raising kids with extreme structure (the "babywise" approach) to life on other planets, God, career goals and great books.  A wonderful evening.  http://www.ilpiattopdx.com/

- Agi and I feel like we've been having a solid social life up here in Portland.  On Friday night we watched "Thank You for Smoking" with my sister and Mark.  On Sat morning we had brunch with Jeff and Anne S and Kalen and Melissa F on 23rd Ave then later that day went with Kalen and Melissa to the cool and dog-friendly Lucky Labrador pub in Multnomah Village for a pint of "Scottish Holiday."

- Sunday evening we accompanied our neighbors Justin and Kim to dinner at a cool restaurant they recommended:  Toro Bravo.  It was superb Spanish tapas plates--including calamari and polenta--an awesome culinary experience all around.  The ambience was funky and I ordered a martini and Agi ordered a lavender drink.  We normally don't eat out that often but if some friends want to do it we're there.

- Monday night I helped brother in law Mark pick up a free piano someone donated off of craigslist.  Their kids should be playing Mozart in no time.

Portland has been covered in snow this past week.  Overall it's been a lot of fun and Agi and I have enjoyed walking around outside and going to the store for food to avoid driving.  I've got chains on the Jetta though and the car has done well when we've needed to use it (still looking forward to getting an AWD Audi however).   Though a couple days ago we got stuck twice briefly in the snow driving over to babysit our nephews.

We took the Max train into downtown on Saturday and braved a big snowstorm but were comfortable and warm because our gore-tex jackets and fleece hats do the job beautifully.  Downtown was gorgeous and there was a festive atmosphere and people were very friendly, talking about how cold it is.

Also, Melissa snow-shoed over to our condo yesterday, amazingly enough--it was pretty funny but we saw others doing the same thing.  We've been running our fireplace a lot and enjoying the cozy feel.  We had our neighbors over last night--a nice couple who we get along with well.

I'll take some more pictures and get these up--we want to remember this beautiful Christmas

Agi and I have been keeping busy and a few times recently I thought about ditching this blog.  However, I've kept it up for about two years now and so I think I'll try to keep it going mainly as a record to remember what we've been up to.  I am, however, going to try to shorten down my entries.

- Over Thanksgiving, enjoyed meeting Sadie, the new Newfoundland puppy my parents bought;

- Had an exciting time shopping with younger brother Matthew, & Laurel & Agi.  Matthew's favorite color is definitely black currently.

- Saw new Bond movie--was good but not as good as the first "blond Bond" movie.

- Drove up to Portland on Sunday from Sacramento with Mombo & Agi.  Long but scenic.

- Saw Over the Rhine in concert on Monday in Portland with buddies Kalen & Melissa.  Tuesday night we went with sister Melissa and Mark at a funky cool "Living Room Theater" club/movie theater and watched a documentary about the French guy who walked across the WTC towers on a wire; enjoyed a great beer while watching the show, Portland style.

- Last night enjoyed "Arts Night" at our new church and heard several bands, amateur--but quite good--poets, and admired various artists' paintings too.  We love our new church and the friendly, genuine people there.

On Tuesday, Lovely Agi had the day off (banking holiday) so we tried taking the very efficient clean tram/trolly/train called Max into downtown.  We got on at a stop just five minutes from our house and then in fifteen minutes we were downtown amidst all the action and we didn't have to worry about parking.  We walked around for several hours, got some coffee at the world-class "Stumptown" coffee roasters at the Ace hotel and also checked out a beautiful copper-hammered statue on a prominent building downtown, called "Portlandia."  The Statue of Liberty was made using the same technique, which makes sense because "Portlandia" also looks like a statue that a disaster movie would feature being knocked down by some kind of Godzilla creature.

Agi and I love walking in the woods but we also love walking through cities and we've been able to visit a number of great cities in the world.  This also allows us to appreciate how good we have it in our new adopted city.  As we walked around the classy but non-pretentious buildings and enjoyed the friendly people we interacted with, we decided that Portland is one of the greatest places in the world.  Agi and I have a list of our favorite places and here is how we rank our favorite cities: 1. Edinburgh, 2. Paris, 3. Portland (yes, really) 4. Prague  5. Salzburg. 6. New York  7. San Francisco.   What I've found is that Portland reminds me very much of Copenhagen in climate, friendly, artsy people and level of activity among its residents (high).

On Tuesday we wandered into the huge and beautiful Multnomah County library (it's just like a mammoth museum) and I checked out a google adwords book.  We walked by the huge statue of Teddy Roosevelt and Lincoln again and this inspired me to read biographies of these great guys.  A good day.

My good buddy Calvin came up to visit for three days. We took him all over the city and he and I indulged in lots of good conversation as we stopped by various cool pubs and coffee houses.  Portland doesn't disappoint--it's a fabulous city.  Not too big, very walkable, clean, friendly, sophisticated and beautiful. Agi and I have only really lived here about four months total so we're still exploring a lot.

Some highlights with Calvin (and he needs to send over some pictures he took with his phone):  Pittock Mansion, Voodoo donuts (and the amazingly tasty bacon maple donut).  Showing him our new church on Sunday, getting a parking ticket (the only low moment), walking around the Japanese Garden, hitting Hawthorne street (but missing out on visiting the intriguing "Rimsky Korsacoffee" cafe). 

Ivy and I have been loving Portland.  The last two weekends have been astonishingly beautiful and we've spent lots of time walking around Washington Park, visiting Pittock Mansion and just today doing the amazing "Eagle Creek" hike.  This is perhaps the most beautiful hike we've ever done anywhere in the world and it even surpasses Yosemite in many ways.  I'll post some pictures soon.  And yesterday we went with my sister, her husband and kids to an apple farm owned by a Japanese family (which helps to produce an excellent Fuji variety) and we all picked apples and they filled up a wagon to bring home.  Idyllic.

We love the crisp, fresh air and green trees everywhere.  Today a breeze caused a huge shower of red and yellow leaves to fall on us as we left church.  Fall is spectacular here.

A few days ago Lovely Ivy and I enjoyed a beautiful afternoon hiking around Portland's Washington Park and rose garden.  We love how we live in a relatively affordable part of the outskirts of the city and in just ten minutes we can be downtown.  And Washington Park is situated in the foothills with a great view of Mount Hood.  We're always happy walking through big green trees with a pleasant cool breeze.  The Pacific NW suits us well.

I've been pleased with a new smartphone we recently invested in: AT&T's "tilt".  I'm able to keep tabs on the business and get notified whenever new email comes in.  I was tempted to go with an iphone and also with the new Gphone by google.  But I can't use an iphone in Europe ,while I can unlock the "tilt."  It has gps and I can read MS Word documents on it too (it has a windows operating system) which is good for my line of work.  The monthly price was the best too.

Ivy had a very successful minor operation performed yesterday and the hospital we were at (OHSU) perched on a hill overlooking the city felt more like a retreat center or hotel (mostly) than a hospital.  She is doing great and recovering quickly and will probably be back at Pilate's tomorrow ;)

- I've probably been spending too much time absorbing all kinds of info and commentary on the US presidential race.  It's a very historical, exciting time though.  I am only more impressed with Obama, his message and ideas and the way he has conducted his campaign.  McCain, however, initially disappointed me with his lame attack ads featuring Britney and Paris.  And now Agi and I both are in shock and awe over his selection of the very nice and intelligent Sarah Palin--a person completely unqualified to take over in the event of McCain's death.  Putin or Ahmadinijad vs Palin?...

- I'm two-thirds of the way through Rob Roy and I'm liking it.  I hit some rough patches with it though when Scott introduced characters that speak a distinct Scottish vernacular which--although probably funny to English people 200 years ago--I don't understand at all.

- We've made very satisfying progress with our websites and the future is bright.

- We're heading to Transylvania this Thursday morning for four days with the bus tour that was postponed earlier.

- We return to Portland this September 17 and are looking forward to celebrating our 7th wedding anniversary probably in the Oregon wine country.