Day 3 in Portland

Our last day in Portland was rainy, which was too bad, but we still made the most of it! Since we couldn't exercise outside with a nature walk (I originally had planned for us to walk in , the largest urban park in the US), I took an Orangetheory class instead. Then it was back to trying new drinks!

Is this not the prettiest flight of beer you've ever seen?

Because of the morning start to our day drinking, we went to Great Notion Brewing first, which was on my list and also came recommended by our bartender during our first night in the city. They have lots of fruity beers ("tart ales"), and since I don't like beer, I thought I'd try a flight of their unique flavors. They were so cool! Some were quite sour, but I especially liked the Smoothies and the Tiger's Blood. Maybe I can find a beer out there that I like!

Then we were to Aviation Gin. We had actually stopped there the day before, but we didn't know they would be closed for Juneteenth. This time they were open, but they unfortunately have one of those weird rules that only lets them serve up to two ounces of alcohol per day per person (i.e. that is enough for one cocktail). And I didn't realize they only have one product: they have no flavors of the Aviation Gin, just the OG, so the only flights available are mini-cocktail flights.

The one on the far left, the "Uncle Gari," was the best, probably because it's made with orange soda!

They had a special one for Father's Day (including one they called "the vasectomy"), so we tried that. They were okay, but since such little gin was in each one, they almost tasted like mocktails, to be honest. Maybe if we had taken the tour we would have had a better experience, but at $35 a person for the tour, I'm kind of glad we didn't drop $70 for a tour and some "meh" cocktails. 

The vegan peanut butter brittle flavor was so good!

After all the drinking, we needed to find some lunch! We went back into the Nob Hill area where we had been previously, and we had a fish and chips special at the Nob Hill Bar & Grill. It's a very casual place, but for $15, this meal (which came with clam chowder, too!) was a deal. For dessert, we checked out Salt & Straw for more ice cream. This one was already on my radar as a good place to try in Portland, but it just so happened that one this one day they were serving double scoops for the price of singletons. Winning! But normally I order a kid's cup at ice cream shops, so needless to say, I was so full after that big lunch plus the sweet treat at the end. 

They took photos as you got on the boat, but why would we pay for that when we can take our own for free?

Then we raced toward the river for a happy hour boat tour on the Portland Spirit, which I had pre-booked before we knew what the weather was going to be like (at the recommendation of one of Steve's friends who used to live in Portland). If we hadn't already paid for it, we wouldn't have gone, but since it was a sunk cost, we figured we'd still try to have fun. There was plenty of indoor seating, so we didn't have to worry about being out in the rain; while you could barely hear the audio recording, there was an online brochure to read along, so we still learned a few things (mainly that there are so many bridges across the Willamette River that "Bridgetown" is one of Portland's nicknames!). The ride was only about 90 minutes, but with our full bellies, it was nice to get off our feet for a little bit. 

Before dinner, we took a moment to stop into Powell's Books, another place that is included in all the "must-see" lists for Portland. The place is HUGE! And because it's so big, each book section is enormous. I had no idea so many cookbooks even existed! And there were so many self-help books, a big poetry section... They have everything. I probably could have spent all night there, so it's a good thing we had dinner reservations. 

Complete with a tiny crawfish on top!

Originally we were going to have dinner at Il Terrazzo, a nice Italian restaurant. But since we had such a big lunch, and the weather was still wet, we thought we'd stay closer to the hotel and try a different Jake's restaurant (the crawfish location is much older, which was founded in the late 1800's). The hotel had given us a coupon for a free appetizer, and even though we were already pretty full, we still took advantage of that and enjoyed some calamari before splitting the étouffée (we had to have the crawfish while there!). We also split the bottle of wine we had purchased at Carlo & Julian Winery earlier in the week, and the restaurant gave us a tiny sliver of flourless chocolate cake, which was perfect after having so much food all day. 

Even with the rain, this was a great last day of our anniversary vacation. I can't wait for our second anniversary trip!

Day 2 in Portland

You can see not one but two reservoirs from Mt. Tabor.

Another beautiful day in the Pacifici Northwest! After working out at the gym and eating our free breakfast at the Hampton Inn, we took a short drive to Mount Tabor, an extinct volcano just outside of the downtown area. Now that we live in Florida, we never see any elevation changes, so it was fun to get some real hiking in!

Can you spy the Great Horned Owl?

After our walk, several of the distilleries I wanted to visit weren't open yet, so we went over to Misssissippi Avenue, which I heard was a cool part of town. There are a lot of restaurants and cute shops, and of course I had to try Kate's ice cream!

Then we drove back across the river to the Slabtown neighborhood, where we had drinks and lunch at Brujos, a local brewery that came recommended. From there were could walk to several distilleries, but two of the three were closed for Juneteenth. So we ended up at Freeland Spirits. Their gin was very good!

"Brujos" means "witches," so there was a spooky theme with cocktail "spells."

Inside the brewery is a taco place, and we were not disappointed.

Freeland was really leaning into Pride, and they have all different colored bottles/spirits!

After all that, we took a little break in the room before heading out again for the evening. We had heard that Portland has a big food cart scene, so we went to the Hawthorne Asylum food carts pod for dinner. There is one main bar, but there are lots of carts to choose from of many different cuisines. I ended up getting a chicken platter from Oh Yum; the photo made it look Mexican with half an avocado, roasted corn, and black beans, but it wasn't like that at all. It was more like a Greek shawarma platter. Still yummy, but I wouldn't have paid $17 had I known it didn't actually come with half an avocado! Steve waited in the longest line for jambalaya, but he was happy with his choice.

There was a large fire pit (not lit that day) where you could sit among all the food trucks.

Right around the corner was the Helium Comedy Club, and I had bought tickets to see Ted Alexandro there before we even left for the trip. We had seen him open for Jim Gaffigan in Savannah, so we already were familiar with his material. It was a fun show, even with some rocky jokes in the beginning, and the venue is so small that there are no bad seats in the house. It was a fun way to spend the evening before going back to the hotel for the night. 

Day 1 in Portland

Well, we weren't in the city proper for our first day in Portland. Since we were coming up from McMinnville, we had about an hour's drive back north. We started off with some exercise: another long nature walk, this time at Tualatin River National Wildlife Refuge. One of the paths is open year-round, but the longer route is open in the summer, so we went with that choice. The first part of the walk is near a wetland, and we immediately saw great blue heron, Canada geese, ducks, and nutria! Steve had never heard of nutria before, so that was extra-cool for him. But after that part of the walk, we didn't see many animals (we did see a small snake cross our path), but we did hear more birds. If only we had binoculars with us!

This is a nutria. He was so calm, just munching away.

After our good long walk, we got back in the car to continue our trip north, this time to the Oregon Zoo. I mainly wanted to go to the zoo because I have been following their new baby elephant, Tula Tu, on Instagram. She is just so cute, and I had to see her in person! (Much like I had to see baby hippo Fritz at the Cincinatti Zoo a few years ago. Check out that blog post here.)

We saw so many cool animals, and not just those in owned by the zoo! We heard pileated woodpeckers, and we saw an Anna's hummingbird flitting from flower to flower for lunch. So cool! Here are some fun animal pics:

This monkey had a toy mirror, and he certainly enjoyed his reflection!

This young puma had to work for her lunch!

Once we were done at the zoo, we still had about an hour on the meter left (you have to pay for parking at the zoo, boo!). Since the Hoyt Arboretum is right across from the zoo, we thought we'd take a short walk there. We mainly checked out the Oregon Vietnam Veterans Memorial, which was special. 57,000 people from Oregon went to Vietnam during the conflict. That's a lot of people from just one state. 

We finally headed to our hotel after that, quickly cleaned up, and headed out for happy hour. Several places didn't offer happy hour, or it had already ended by the time we got there (one place has happy hour from 2-4pm. How does anyone with a job make it there?). We ended up trying a couple things at Beer O'Clock (Tommy the bartender was very helpful with recommendations for the rest of our trip) before going to Jake's Grill for dinner. Jake's was recommended to us previously, and with the coupon for a free appetizer that the hotel gave us, it was a no-brainer. And because we had already made the reservation noting our one-year anniversary, we got a free dessert, too! Not a bad way to close out a busy day.

Jake's personalized our menus!

Steve had seen this chocolate cake pass by earlier, and we had to try it! Best part of the meal!

Day 3 in Willamette Valley

Our last day in the Willamette Valley was our anniversary! The whole trip is to celebrate the milestone, but June 17 is the actual date. We were excited to try a few more wineries before heading back to Portland for some city exploring. 

Since most of the wineries do not open until later in the morning, we took a LONG walk inside the Baskett Slough National Wildlife Refuge. Well, longer than expected because we ended up walking the smaller, inner loop at well as half of the main loop, so we were out there for nearly two hours. But the landscape was beautiful! I knew to expect large, old growth forests in Oregon, but I didn't think about the prairie-like areas in the valleys between the mountains (even though that's where the vineyards are, so you'd think I would have known that!). We found a wild cherry tree (which held us over for the second half of our walk), and we heard so many birds. I am noticing the Oregon is a great place for birders!

I found this skull while we were walking! With those huge front teeth, it must be some sort of gopher or ground squirrel.

Steve kept commenting on how the land at Bethel Heights reminded him of Napa.

Since our walk went much longer than I expected, we skipped Van Duzer Vineyards and headed directly to Bethel Heights Vineyard. They are truly an "estate" winery, meaning all of their grapes are grown within their own vineyard and the entire wine-making process takes place on their property. The view was fantastic, and we ended up buying a bottle of their rosé, which is amazing, since Steve doesn't usually like pink wine!

Bryn Mawr Vineyards might have had the most picturesque views of all the wineries we visited.

Just down the road is Bryn Mawr Vineyards, which also had an amazing view. I think the landscape was better than the wine, although their tempranillo definitely had a peppery nose that I liked! 

Our last winery was father down a long gravel road at Björnson Vineyard. They have a tasting room in downtown McMinnville, but we wanted to have the full experience at the winery itself, and we're so glad we stopped in! The building itself has a French chateau feel about it, but the name is historically Icelandic. We tasted several nice wines, and because it was our anniversary, they gave us (and the whole patio!) tastes of their sparkling wine on the house! We also enjoyed our wine with mini Snickers and Almond Joy bars, so of course I was happy as a camper. As we were leaving, we saw a group of women from one of the wineries earlier, but they were stepping out of a limousine! One of them was turning 80 years old. What a fun way to celebrate a birthday!

Björnson had the prettiest label, and the rosé made the red in the label really stand out. 

French restaurants are always the cutest, aren't they?

After cleaning up and relaxing at the AirBNB for a little bit, we walked into McMinnville for the last time for dinner. Steve had made reservations at Bistro Maison weeks ago; French restaurants are always fitting for special occasions! We brought the bottle of rosé with us so we could continue our wine journey over dinner. And the food was delicious! I started with French onion soup, which I usually can't eat because it's made with beef stock, but this restaurant uses vegetable stock instead. And the duck was excellent; so tender and flavorful. And for dessert, Steve had profiteroles with vanilla ice cream (served in a mug like hot chocolate), and I had a strawberry pavlova. Of course I have the photos so you can "taste" them vicariously:

They served not one but TWO duck thighs. I gave one to Steve; that's just so much!

The pavlova was layered with raspberry and strawberry ice creams, and the bits of basil brought out all the other flavors. 

So decadent! It was the perfect end to a lovely first anniversary. 

Day 2 in Willamette Valley

For our second full day in Oregon, we headed up to the Dundee/Newberg area to check out some more wineries. We started off with a very short nature walk at Crabtree Park before starting our day drinking bright and early at 10:00 AM!

I am so glad I reached out to Hyland Estates Winery, because they gave us such a great experience! I told them we were visiting for our anniversary, and they helped us celebrate so nicely!

Twyla made this cute little sign and spread for us (with mini macarons!)

These young vines were labeled by type of grape for each row.

It never occurred to me that wine barrels needed to be washed, and I had never heard of lees, which are the dead yeast cells left over after the whole aging process. So here they are washing the lees out of the barrels (although sometimes the lees are saved).

Brian, their winemaker, showed us ALL the barrels they have, and we even had tastes straight from the barrels!

They had these very large barrels, and because of the wood-to-wine ratio, the oak has less of an impact on the taste of the wine.

So not only did we have a wine tasting, but we got our own private tour of the facilities, too! We learned a lot, and their pinot noirs were exceptional. Such a great way to start the day!

Originally I had thought about visiting Furioso Vineyards next, but because our first tasting lasted nearly three hours (!), I pushed our schedule so we went to Knudsen Vineyards, where they allow picnic lunches. Unfortunately their wines were not good, and the pours were so small! We joked that we paid $35 for less than the equivalent of one glass of mediocre wine. 

At least the scenery was pretty at Knudsen!

But the day was not over! We finished our tastings with some Ransom spirits at Duck Pond Cellars, where we tried their Old Tom gin, some bourbon and brandy, and discovered génépi, an herbal liqueur, which is quite delicious!

The landscaping at Duck Pond was so pretty. The flowers were amazing! Here are a few:

After our tastings, we went back into McMinnville for the evening. We started off with ice cream from Serendipity, drinks on the rooftop of 1882 Grille, and dinner at Taste of India #1.

Just one more full day in wine country before we head up to Portland. But we're loving the cooler weather and countrysides out here in Willamette for now!