Portland and Seattle
In August 2014 we went to the Pacific Northwest for 10 days. We started in Portland to visit my sister and brother-in-law.
Portland
We got in early on a Thursday and decided to go to the Japanese Garden and the Rose Garden until my family was done with work.
The Japanese Garden was beautifully done. It was serene, with little ponds, waterfalls and statues around the gardens.
Right down the path is the International Rose Garden.
We spent most of our time here smelling the roses. I was surprised at how different each species scent was and how intoxicating the scents could be. I wish I had a nose ‘palate’ cleanser (like coffee beans) to clear my nose and get a better appreciation of the different nuances of each flower.
Mister Lincoln Hybrid Tea rose – smelled like an overpowering perfume that old ladies wear
White Licorice rose – this won the people’s choice award for best scent. It was nothing I have ever experienced before – sweet like candy with a bitter undertone. It was amazing.
We built up quite an appetite after the flight and walking around the gardens, so we stopped at TILT for a burger. Luckily we only ordered 1 because the Big Tilt burger is literally larger than my head. It comes with 2 patties, double cut honey smoked bacon, fried egg, American cheese, pickles, tomatoes, onions, lettuce, tilt sauce on a 3-layer bun. It was delicious!
Afterwards we went back to my sister’s house and took a nap!
That night we met up with my family and some of their friends at Pok Pok.
We sat on the porch of their side building. It was like we had a private little room, and strangely felt like we were in Thailand – the table was covered in a plastic tablecloth and the water tasted funny (turns out they ‘flavor’ their water with rice, it wasn’t bad, but not ‘good’ either).
We had a great meal – Vietnamese Fish sauce Wings (YUM!), Papaya Pok Pok (papaya salad), Yam Wun Sen (glass noodle salad with pork and dry shrimp), Phak buung Fai Daeng (Oh Choy with pork – one of the best dishes we had), Cha Ca La Vong (catfish with noodles), Khao Soi (chicken curry) and their daily special – Wing Beans.
We also had their Tamarind Whiskey Soda – it was wonderful!
This place has been on my eating list for quite some time and I’m so glad I was able to go there. I highly recommend it!
The following day, we decided to get a taste of Portland’s breweries.
Getting around Portland is super easy on the buses, and there was a bus stop about 100 feet from my sister’s front door.
We started at Hair of the Dog
They have a great tasting list and were the best brewery we went to. We tried Ruth (american pale ale), Lila (maibock), Fred (golden strong ale), Adam (porter), Rooie Dop (strong ale – my favorite), Doggie Claws 2013 (barelywine) and From the Wood (Adam that is barrel aged – too smoky for me; felt like I was drinking a campfire).
We continued on to Base Camp Brewery
Here we tried: Lost meridian Wit, Northwest Fest, Stephan’s Dark Wit, Ripstop Rye Pilsner, Celestial Meridian CDL, Saison de Chetco, In Tents IPL, Bohemian Rip City IP, S’more Stout, Incredible Baltor
I liked these less than the previous brewery, but I’m not a huge IPA fan. However, their S’mores Stout was wonderful. Here is a close up of the taster – yes, that’s a mini roasted marshmallow!!!
The brewery had 2 food trucks in the parking lot and you can order from the ‘brew-tender’. We got some tasty tacos.
The third (and last) brewery we visited specialized in sour beers only – Cascade Brewing Barrel House. We actually ran into a guy that we met at the first brewery and had some beers with him!
We had Saison de Garde, Apricot, Blueberry and Sang Noir (beer aged in Bourbon and Pinot Noir barrels). The Apricot is a must try, as is the Honey Ginger (that our ‘new friend’ let us try).
After drinking the afternoon away, we met up with my family at Evoe (which has since closed). It was a really great little spot, with fantastic food!
We started with some oysters from Netarts Bay, served with lemon, fresh horseradish
We moved on to pickles, bread, and fennel-artichoke salad, along with a lovely summer rose wine.
We also had an amazing Bob the Butcher sandwich – which had salami, cheese and hot peppers.
It was a perfect afternoon.
That night we went to Ned Ludd – the quintessential Porland/Pacific NW place.
We started with some cocktails that came in mini bottles. I got the Ned Flanders (white, orange shrub, aperol, bitters, bottled and fizzy) and my sister got the Petite Somme (gin, aperol, pampelmousse, cucumber, bitters, bottled and fizzy ). The boys got beers.
For appetizers we had (1) Bay shrimp salad with zucchini, string beans & lemon vinegarette; (2) cucumber and feta salad with wheat berries; (3) chef’s charcuterie & cheese board, accompaniments; (4) Fried green tomatoes with reduced balsamic
Our entrees consisted of: (1) Oregon albacore with corn-tomato salad and grilled cipollini – this was flawlessly cooked, rare, with crispy skin and sweet cipollini onions; (2) Pork with zucchini, squash and okra – I couldn’t get over how perfectly roasted the vegetables were (I wanted to ask for more!)
And for dessert: (1) chocolate chip cookie in cast iron skillet with a side milk (holy crap was this good! We poured the milk over the still warm cookie, which became an ooey gooey dish of amazingness); (2) berry tart with anise cream – the tart berries paired beautifully with the anise cream
The decor of Ned Ludd is of an old cabin in the woods with little knick-knacks everywhere. It is all wooden and feels very warm and welcoming.
It was a great night!
The following day we went for a great hike on Mount Hood – Tilly Jane Hike
There was a forest fire about 10 years ago, so you can see a ton of charred trees, but also some new growth coming in.
It wasn’t easy. The air was thin due to the high elevation and it was uphill for all of it, but it was totally worth it. The views were amazing!
They brought some cheese, salami and bread; I brought some sour patch kids; and we had picked up some peaches from a farmers stand on the road so we had a great lunch with spectacular view!
We were almost at the edge of the glacier!
The way down was much easier. We even found a porcini mushroom!
We ended our day at a BBQ at friends place. It was great to meet my sister and brother-in-law’s friends. Everyone was really interested and very friendly.
The next day was our last in Portland. We went to Dim Sum at HK Cafe for breakfast.
We came back to the house, lounged in the chair hammock and picked tomatoes from their amazing garden!
These yellow cherry tomatoes were Kevin’s favorites.
These were my favorites. They are Risentraube tomatoes – see the little point on the end? They are super fruity and sweet!
They also grew a crazy amount of swiss chard, but we didn’t take any with us.
Then we were on our way to Seattle!
Seattle
We took the Amtrak Train to Seattle. It was super easy and took about 3.5 hours. There was a ‘viewing’ car with park rangers giving commentary on the scenery as we passed it by. Just make sure to sit on the left side – you get the best views!
The viewing car was mostly windows, which was wonderful!
We sat next to a couple who offered to take our picture!! (always a plus when traveling alone)
Once we got into Seattle, we checked into our AMAZING airbnb apartment. If you haven’t heard of airbnb, you should check it out. It’s apartments that people put for for very short-term rent (like a hotel).
This place was ridiculous. It was between the Space Needle and Pikes Place market, on the 19th floor with a spectacular view!
Since we got in late (and brought along snacks on the train) we weren’t really hungry for dinner, so we decided to check out some local bars.
Our first stop was Shorty’s – a true dive bar. I had a great Dark-n-Stormy and we played some Buck Hunter (Kevin was way better than me)
Our next stop was Bathtub Gin – a real speak-easy (it was super difficult to find! Down a urine-scented alley).
But it was worth the hunt! The place was tiny, but meticulously designed, with perfectly concocted cocktails, a beautiful wooden bar, super dim lighting highlighted by a chandelier
I asked for the dealer’s choice with whiskey – he created a not-too-sweet whiskey and peach cocktail that was delicious!
We had fun taking photos of our shadow profiles
After the bar, we walked out to find a hot dog cart on the street corner (and you could see the stand from the apartment). Of course, we had to have one! Apparently, the Seattle-style hot dog is one with cream cheese, but I opted for one with just mustard.
The thought of hot dogs and cream cheese does not appeal to me. (I’ve had it in Portland and it tasted exactly as you imagine – the flavors don’t mix, you just end up with a few bites that taste like hot dog and a few bites that taste like cream cheese)
We woke up early the next day and walked around town. We came across a “walk through fountain’ or an ‘urban waterfall’ in Westlake Park on 4th and Pine. Kevin walked through with no issues.
However, the following day I walked through and got completely soaking wet!
After the fountain we made our way down to Seattle Center where the Space Needle, EMP museum and Chihuly gardens are located
Our first stop was the EMP museum – a museum dedicated to music, sci-fi and pop culture. The building is designed to represent a broken guitar.
The museum has a very nice permanent Jimi Hendrix exhibit. One of the exhibitions they had when we were there was a LEGO exhibit – artists had built famous skyscrapers from legos. You may not know this about me, but I LOVE legos, so this was super exciting for me!
They also have sound-proof studios with drums, a guitar and a bass that you can play with
The building reflects the Space Needle, which is across the park.
We decided not to go up since our apartment had similar views. So we moved on to the Chihuly Gardens.
Dale Chihuly is a glass artist with crazy ideas. The image below was made by dropping molten glass to the floor from various heights.
Chihuly was inspired by Native American blankets
This is his Under the Sea piece
And his garden
He was also inspired by Venice
Outside of the main building is the Chihuly garden where he mixed plants and glass
Just outside the main entrance to Chihuly is a Sonic Blood piece:
Each flower has a little sensor speaker next to it, so I had a great time running from flower to flower to make them sing!
It was lunch time so we walked down to Pikes Place and got some snacks.
We started with Piroshky, Piroshky – an Eastern European bakery that sells hand-held pies. We got the Smoked Salmon Pate pie – it was warm, buttery, creamy and delicious.
Then we walked around, grabbed a beer at a little cafe in the market, and stopped at Beecher’s Handmade Cheese to watch them make their cheese.
On the waterfront is Elliot’s Oyster House, which has an oyster happy hour from 3-6. Oysters start a $1/each and go up by $0.50 each hour. They are served with a slushy mignonette. YUM!
We went back to the apartment to watch the sunset before going to dinner at Shiro’s.
The following morning, we went back to Pike’s Place Market for roll call and some coffee
Our tour book had a walking tour of downtown Seattle, so we followed it around.
At the top of the Columbia Tower there is a viewing center, the Sky View Observatory, which has amazing views of Seattle.
It’s not terribly crowded (definitely quieter than the Space Needle). However, there was a group of little old ladies who were very loud and one even elbowed me in the ribs for standing in the exact spot she wanted to stand! (even though there was PLENTY of room)
Apparently the top spike on the building is 1 apartment!
It even showed us how far we were from home:
The next place was the Seattle Public Library
We were hungry after all that walking, so we went to Salumi - a sandwich shop owned by Mario Batali’s family. They make their own cured meats and they are only open Tues-Fri 11am-3pm and there is ALWAYS a line! But it’s worth it!
I got the beef tongue with onions and peppers – it was great! Kevin got the hot soppressata.
In the afternoon we went up to the Ballard area of Seattle to see the Ballard Locks – a set of 2 dams between fresh water and salt water. There is the Salmon ladder, built to allow salmon to pass between fresh and salt water, and to navigate the locks. Glass panels below the water line make it possible to watch the fish as they swim through the ladder.
We even saw a seal in the water!
We then went to a few bars in the Ballard area, including Noble Fir and met up with Tamira.
For dinner we went to Chippy’s Fish and Drink – which had some of the best, lightest and freshest fish and chips I have ever had! We also go the crab-avocado dip and the salmon chowder (more of a bisque, a bit smoky but overall pretty good).
That was our last night in Seattle. The following day we went to the train station for our trip to Vancouver!
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