Enjoy the Sun

The weather has been SPECTACULAR. We flirted with 100 for a few days but thankfully we seem to have returned to normal, here meaning 70-80 during the day and mid-50s at night. Dan and I inflated the air mattress and camped out in the living room over the weekend to take full advantage of the beautiful evenings.


Dan took Saturday day off and we were out and about. Hard to believe he's lived here all this time and never been to the PSU Farmers Market with me. But Saturday was his first time. As per usual  it was a pretty amazing place. We bought elk and black pepper sausage and beef and thyme sausage. Dan is trying them out as possible options for wine pairings. After the Farmers Market we hit up some of Portland's food cards on SW 9th and Alder. I had a gyro from a greek cart and Dan had a monster burrito from a Mexican one. We were both shocked how big the burrito was- it was huge.

Bellies full and curiosity satisfied we decided to take advantage and enjoy the sun and clear skies and head up to Pittock Mansion. It is this amazing old mansion on the top of one of the tallest hills in Portland. On a clear day, like the one we were enjoying, you can see both Mt. Hood in Oregon and Mt. Adams in Washington. It was pretty amazing. We dropped down on to the trails behind Pittock mansion and lost ourselves for a while among all the trees.

After hiking our way back up, not for the faint of heart by the way, we headed for the most sacred of places, the mall! Just kidding. We did hit up a few stores and decided to see a movie to cool off from our day in the sun.

We decided to celebrate the day with a truly classic fine dining experience at Morton's steakhouse. True, Morton's is a chain but the steaks were exceptional and we happily toasted our fantastic day with a bottle of 2007 J.  Scott Cabernet Savignon from the Rouge Valley.

Sunday brought another day of sun in the fun. After a few lazy hours  I went to the gym and then headed for a picnic in Laurelhurst park with some  friends. As I sat there drinking my beer, eating my pasta salad, and soaking up the sun I was immensely thankful for the wonder that is PDX. All of the amazing things that I have been able to do and see and taste and I know that it's only going to get better from here.