Portland, portLAND, PORtland

Back from a whirlwind long weekend with my pal A in guess where? Man, I really do love Portland. We stayed with friends of A's just outside the city - convenient, and they were great hosts. And the weather was insanely beautiful. Walking around in early October with bare legs and no coat? Unless you're homeless or crazy, that's just not usual. So what did we get up to?

• Coffee. And lots of it.
• Enjoying the food options in a truly Gluten Free mecca - whole cafes dedicated to GF baking - it is enough to make you cry.
• Powell's Books. Powell's Books. Powell's Books. If I say it three times, does that mean one will appear in Vancouver? Gads I LOVE that store. Between us we bought about 20lbs of books I believe (we actually weighed them) - next time, we will drive down so we can pack the whole trunk full.
• A night at the theatre. A bit campy, but boy the sets and art direction were amazing.  More amazing? The couple sitting a few rows ahead that were Portlandia incarnate.  
• An afternoon at the Japanese Garden. Calm sigh.
• The farmer's market at Portland State University. LOVED IT. Such a gorgeous setting and amazing produce, cheeses, meats, GF baking, and peppers you could watch being barrel roasted right before your eyes.
• Trader Joe's. I know, I know, not that exciting for you American types, but it is a magical land of inexpensive surprises for us poor Canadians.
• A whole lot of walking and exploring and appreciating. Portland just feels so very livable.

If I was 24, I would be going to school there, no doubt.  There is a vibrancy and artsy quirkiness that is just so darned appealing - and unlike Vancouver, the city somehow manages to pull it off without pretension.

I've skipped over a lot of stuff, but I'm running out of steam. My one regret? Missing the Grizzly Bear concert, but my valiant sibling pretty much video'd the whole thing so I can get a sense of the wonder that I missed (check it out here)

Stumptown Coffee.  So good.

An example of what has become the all pervasive trend in signage in Portland - multi-font, slightly folksy. It is EVERYWHERE

OMFG EXCELLENT GLUTEN FREE BEER IS POSSIBLE!!!!! 

PSU Farmer's Market

PSU Farmer's Market

Beautiful cherry toms

Japanese Garden - so lovely, such great patterns.

Yep.

Look down....

Ya, I didn't do much clothes shopping, but this little number came home with me.  Figured I could scare Mags with the fox mask.  OK, ok, maybe not.

And a few more

I'm tired. But I'll be back.

Portland is awesome.

Some photos to prove it.  Well, they aren't awesome, but Portland is.  Hopefully I will have energy to say more soon - and hopefully will have some nice photos from the Boy's collection to share :)

Tui's complaining....

...that I'm not blogging.  So here is something brief.

Here are some photos from my weekend with Tui in London.  If you are having troubles identifying which of these photos is of her - she is the one with the wide-set eyes and expensive handbag.

We had a great weekend, despite the Shining Hotel Experience (the problems continued but I'm not going to go into it here - serenity now!)  The weather was awesome, we did a ton of walking and poking around, meandering up through Regents Park and Marylebone.  I fell in love with a cheese shop - not unusual for me really.  And with Cath Kidston bags - this one came home with me and I love it.  For those that are interested, a more detailed account of the weekend can be found on Tui's blog if you poke around and look for it.

It was great to see Tui and to know that things are going well for her in Edinburgh.  Time goes so quickly, she will be back before we know it.  Hoping I have one more work trip to go bug her before her time there is done.

Things at the zoo

 A quick lazy post - I've been meaning to for days, but the truth is I'm completely shattered when I get home from work these days.  So - tonight, just to get back at it, a quick post focused on pictures of animals.  All but one are in the Edinburgh Zoo - which remarkably is a really interesting, non-depressing, vast, clean place - one of the leading conservation zoos out there apparently.  The Amur Leopard took my heart, that's for sure.

I wish I had a bit more energy as I have a lot to say about the trip.  I will start with the fact I want to go back there, I want to see the rest of Scotland.  And I love the fact that when I look at Tui's blog, I can picture where she is and what is around her.   I've been thinking about what this experience might mean to her later in life - it is pointless to say old people things to her like pay attention to every second, as this is going to be one of the best times of your life.  Those are things you realize only when your life gets cluttered with all the things that it does as you get older.  But I do know she will have an amazing time, and part of me wants to bonk her on the head and take her place.  And the other part of me just wants to bonk her on the head.

 Maybe I'm feeling a bit wistful as I watch friends go through what we all go through as we and those around us get older.   I am so grateful I get to go on trips like this with members of my crazy family.   We joke about our family dysfunctions,  but I know deep down how very lucky I am.

And I also know how very very much I will enjoy bonking Tui on the head when I see her again in October :)

Last day, just about...AKA goodbye Hammerhead Junior

Didn't bother blogging yesterday as I didn't take photos. It was a shopping day, with all the thrills and chills that shopping days involve. Somehow all the womenfolk ended up with new purses; Pete couldn't find one that would work with his new Camper shoes so he passed. We stopped at Henderson's Salad Table for lunch (gluten free items marked on the menu!) -very good Lots of walking, as usual.

Today we moved Tui into her new student apartment. It is new to her, but it's not a new building - so what that means is no elevator, and Pete having to drag Tui's suitcase - which must have weighed 40 kg at least - up the100 steps to her 5th floor room. His enjoyment was obvious.

Tui has lucked out with her room - it's large, with a gorgeous view over the old town and Calton Hill. Her roommates hadn't arrived yet (there will be two), but there are lots of activities scheduled for the coming week, and classes don't start until the 19th. I'm sure her social circle will be fully developed by then.

We went for lunch atPink Olive, pictured below. Lunch was really nice - and all the tables seemed to be filled with university students and their parents. Pete and I have been observing the local hammerheads ( wide eyes, overbite ) - Mum and Tui practiced their hammerhead faces at lunch, though Tui has a natural head start on the local look.



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We've said goodbye to Tui now, and it is strange not to have her sitting on the other end of the couch. Something tells me that she will have a far easier time without us than we will have without her.

Tonight's events? A very brief sleep, cab to airport at 4am...good times!

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Location:W Approach Rd,Edinburgh,United Kingdom

Not quite the Parthenon, but close enough

And if I'd taken a photo of it with my iPad you would be looking at it now.

Today started out grey and rainy but turned into another lovely sunny day. We walked from the condo through the Grassmarket, along the Royal Mile, and up to Calton Hill - Scotland's answer to the Acropolis, topped by a truly Scottish version of the Parthenon, the Scottish National Monument (it all started out well, until they ran out of money after 12 columns...)



These photos are from Grassmarket and the Royal Mile.








The last one is where I start to snap. The full hysterical breakdown didn't happen til after pack-horsing groceries and other sundries along the busiest street in town, catching a cab home where my brother and I started bartering over what photos of each other we would delete. Removed from the history books my "Eggman" photo of Pete, and his Jaba the Hutt "Look, she's feeding" photo of me, which I might add made me laugh so hard I was weeping and close to losing control of other bodily functions. Oh, traveling with family.


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Location:W Approach Rd,Edinburgh,United Kingdom

An addendum to yesterday's post....

We went to First Coast for dinner - really great food, lovely cozy place and nice service (foodie pals at home take note!). Pete and Mum had a wild mushroom and barley dish, Tui had lamb, and I had sea bass, with starters of roast eggplant with goat cheese and other lovely stuff. It helped Pete deal with his Scottish food concerns. Methinks the best place for Pete to stay if he comes to visit Tui is the Zoo, with the chimps, as their diet is closer to that found in his natural habitat (95% fruit veg and grains - including porridge - 5% animal protein). He would also be the oldest male in the group by 2 years, which I think would give him first dibs on the porridge, which is really the most important thing.


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Edinburgh - where Tui isn't the only monkey

Zoo day for the special traveling family today. We caught the bus (I was sitting behind Pete as you can tell) to the Edinburgh Zoo, which is apparently a significant conservation zoo, and it really was pretty impressive - more impressive than these photos show, because all my good photos are on my real camera. I have included some highlights below, including the bathroom that won the "Best Loo in Scotland" award in 2005 - it is a 'family' washroom with side by side toilets. I tried to get Pete to go in with Mum but he refused.


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What you aren't seeing photos of are the various apes - they have 21 chimpanzees and a variety of others as well. Tui was disturbed by the chimps. I have theories as to why that might be that I think it best not to share. I also have photos of them that might disturb the squeamish. I will be kind and not post those - yet.

They have some amazing large cats, including the critically endangered Amur Leopard (there are 35 left in the wild) - so very beautiful. Zebras, warty pigs (not wart hogs - warty pigs), rhinos, and an amazing array of penguins and lots of other amazing things. I can't remember the last time I went to a zoo, and this one was really pretty impressive. And hilly. And windy as hell.

Too tired to post anything clever, so I will stop for now!


Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Location:Gilmore Park,Edinburgh,United Kingdom

Art and wind

...and not just Pete's. Though there was that too.

The weather today was supposed to be terrible - but it really wasn't all that bad. There has been plenty of sun, mixed with a lot of wind and the occasional rain shower. We walked to a local art/craft gallery first thing, then continued our walk and went through the Grassmarket (seen in the snaps) to poke into more stores and stop for gluten free pizza for lunch. Pete has been paying for the pizza cheese for the rest of the day, but he seems to be recovering.







































We continued to the National Gallery of Scotland, wandered around admiring the Bouchers and Rubens and Rembrandts (oh my!) before wandering back into the crazy wind and hitting M&S and Topshop before catching a cab home. Another busy fun day.

The elder abuse continued as you might have spotted, as did the Jan abuse, but that was really caused by my overly heavy purse (I can't figure out why the thing is so f-ing heavy but my shoulders are ready to fall off at this point). The only other annoyance today was that my camera battery died as soon as we left - so my photo taking was limited to the iPad, which is better than nothing...which was good as Pete forgot his camera today as well.

There are some great local artists here, and the attendants at all the stores and galleries have been really lovely. Even the guy at Tesco Express that laughed at us yesterday was nice - and I couldn't blame him. We are pretty amusing.