Beaverton, OR (August 2025)

As we continue in our search for a place to settle, we took a trip back up to the Portland, OR region at the end of August into September. They were experiencing their own heat wave, which actually at least may give us an idea of what it is going to be like moving forward as the whole planet heats up. Their “heat wave” was in the mid to high 80s. While the temperatures were similar to soCal, it didn’t feel as warm, possibly with all the trees and greenery. We also decided to stay in an AirBnB this time instead of a hotel to get a better idea of what “living” there would be like.

Our flight brought us in just before/around dinner time so after getting our rental car, we stopped at Lovely’s Fifty-Fifty to pick up some pizzas. Lovely’s has been a James Beard finalist and they also use the locally milled flours (we picked up some flour from the mill on our last visit). They were already very busy with wait times of like 1.5 hours (this was a Tuesday at around 5 pm) so we elected to get some to go orders and eat at the AirBnB. We chose two different pizzas along with a salad (semi-healthy)? We had the Fresh Mozz with Basil pizza and the House made fennel sausage with lacinto kale, sleeping beauty, and rosemary.

Overall both very good pizzas. After dinner we swung by one of the local specialty grocer chains (New Season’s market – think similar to Whole foods, sprout’s) to pick up some items for breakfast and some fruit as well.

Our AirBnB location was off of Scholls Ferry Road just south of the 26 and east of the West Slope neighborhood. It reminded me of Palos Verdes estates some – very hilly, big nice houses, lots of trees. Honestly aside from the steep hills with no sidewalks/narrow streets, it would be a good place to live, though probably not the best place to be able to walk out of the house and go for a run.

The following morning we decided to do something touristy because we were going to be there for 9 days and figured maybe it wouldn’t be as busy during a weekday (with Labor Day weekend upcoming). Both D and I love our cheese and even in southern CA we busy Tillamook. We hopped on the 26 heading towards the coast and then switched over to the 6 making our way through Tillamook State Forest and popping out at Tillamook right near the Pacific Ocean. Turns out that the school year hadn’t started yet and many people were doing one last trip before the start of the school year so it was fairly crowded at the Tillamook Creamery. You can do a self guided tour on the 2nd floor that overlooks the factory area and packaging. The first floor has a large gift shop area and also a counter order place to get food, ice cream.

We decided not to get food here and drove down the road to the Blue Heron French Cheese Company. This was a much smaller operation and had more of a local market feel, with just a few blue cheese samples. D ordered a sandwich from here but I saw across from Tillamook was the Old Oregon Smokehouse and I wanted to get some smoked fish, seeing as we were so close to the ocean. I purchased some clam chowder and some smoked salmon and then went back to Blue Heron to eat with D.

Previously (many many moons ago) I had driven up the Pacific coast with my family and do remember the Oregon coast being quite beautiful especially the beaches with large rock formations just off the beach in the water. D hadn’t seen them before so we headed north up the 101 past Bay City, Rockaway Beach and over to Cannon Beach. Unfortunately it was a very overcast foggy day so difficult to see the rock formations. We did walk around the downtown shops and drove back to see Haystack rock some. As I was making a turn onto a street, suddenly we were confronted by 3 large elk hanging on the side of the road. And then down a smaller street there were maybe a herd of 15-20 just laying down by people’s houses. D looked it up and I guess the Roosevelt elk like to hang out in this area.

Chicago (April 2025)

For spring break (well not ours but the nieces/nephews), my sister had mentioned taking her kids to Chicago (to check out colleges for the oldest). We decided to sorta tag along (they were flying to the East coast and then driving to Chicago whereas we would just fly into the city). D had never been so I thought it’d be fun to show her around the city, and also I wanted to visit my alum, Northwestern University.

I found a decent deal for flights on Southwest but that also meant flying into Midway (at least the flight there was direct). From Midway, we grabbed a taxi into the city to our hotel, Intercontinental Chicago Magnificent Mile. We had previously stayed at the Intercontinental in NYC and figured we’d stick with them – cost was comparable to other places. The location was fairly ideal in that we were in the River North neighborhood right on Michigan Ave, which is also known as the Magnificent Mile.

Chicago is definitely an eater’s town and we had planned much of our meals prior to arriving. We didn’t plan far enough ahead to get reservations at a steakhouse that we wanted to try, Bavette’s. Given Chicago’s history as the center of the country’s meatpacking industry we knew we had to get steaks at least once. D had read that you could possibly get a walk-in table at Bavette’s, especially on a Tuesday night. After dropping off our luggage we walked over to Bavette’s. We put our names on the wait list but eventually found a spot at their downstairs bar (which also serves a full dinner menu). I started with a couple of fresh oysters and we shared the mixed greens and apple salad. They’re also known for their hand-made sourdough bread so we got some of that. I will say that the bread and butter was a highlight of the meal. For our main, we shared the Dry-Aged Bone-in ribeye (20 oz 42 day dry aged) along with a side of broiled asparagus. For drinks I had a Rittenhouse Rye Old Fashioned and a Cognac Sazerac. Both very good.

On the walk back we stopped at CVS to pick up some things and happened upon the Wings of Mexico, a permanent art installation by artist Jorge Marin in the Plaza of the Americas. We grabbed some pictures here. I had seen people posting pictures of this but didn’t know the backstory.

Vancouver (2024)

We recently took a somewhat last minute trip to Vancouver, BC earlier this month. Part of the trip was for D’s birthday but we actually had ulterior motives to make a trip to our neighbors of the north. Due in part to recent current events, we had discussed the possibility of moving out of the country. I had some contacts for potential work in Canada, where you need to have a job offer in hand to obtain a work visa to move there.

On early Sunday morning we made our way to the airport (with our flight times both leaving and arriving, we elected to leave our car at economy parking) with great time and then eventually had an early lunch prior to boarding. There was actually quite a bit of choice in the terminal (CPK, Wahoo’s fish tacos, Wolfgang Puck (pizza and regular food), a Mexican place, Habit burger, along with Peet’s and Starbucks). We settled on Point the Way Cafe (which is run by Golden Road brewing).

Our flight was slightly delayed but we still landed in the afternoon and once our rental car was obtained (my first time driving a Volkswagen Tiguan) we got on the road and headed east of Vancouver. Being further north, it got dark real quick and felt like night-time when it was only like 4:30 pm. There was some light drizzle during the drive but overall the 1 hour 40 minute drive was smooth. I also had to get used to driving in km/hr vs mph – and didn’t know what the average speeds were (how much over the speed limit can you drive without getting pulled over).

New York City (October 2024)

The whole idea that started this trip was a simple conversation from a year ago with my cousin on joining her for a dinner. She mentioned that she’s in NYC every year for her husband’s work function and always thought of skipping out on a boring work-related dinner where all the people did was talk shop and enjoy a delectable meal. As this year’s work event got closer, D and I checked in with the cousin and she said that dinner was a go if we wanted. So we booked our flights and hotel stay for NYC for October. We actually went in October of last year for my friend’s business grand opening.

This time we flew out of LAX and took a direct JetBlue flight to Newark. We landed around 7:30 pm and caught a cab into the city, which took about an hour. After dropping our bags at our hotel in Midtown East at the Intercontinental New York Barclay, we walked over to PJ Clarke’s for a much deserved drink and late dinner. This bar/restaurant opened in 1884 and is particularly known for having a good burger. D had the burger and fries while I had classic fish and chips. To drink I had a Smoky Old Fashioned while D had the 1930 (Elijah craig small batch bourbon, lime juice, st. elizabeth allspice dram, simple syrup, angostura bitters, orange peel).

We stopped for a night cap at the hotel bar (we had a $30 credit for each day of our stay).

The following morning I woke up and headed to get bagels for us while D got ready for the day. I went to our normal spot, Ess-a-Bagel, (that we went to the last 2 times) as it was just up the street. By the time I got there (around 10am?) the line was out the door. Luckily it moved relatively smoothly and I got our bagels and a coffee for D (I had a coffee with the hotel room’s Keurig).

This time it was a bit of a disappointment. The bagels themselves and their crumb didn’t seem as chewy as normal (maybe a little dense). I kind of wonder if they’ve grown too much that quality control isn’t as good because they’re so busy.

We wanted to check out Harlem and Sylvia’s (one of the oldest classic southern fare food in the area). To get there, we walked down to Grand Central Station and hopped on a subway to head up to 125th street. I’ve found that every neighborhood in NY has their own feel, from midtown to LES to Chelsea to Brooklyn.

Harlem was very musical – lots of music just everywhere. The two places we had looked up were Sylvia’s but also Red Rooster (Marcus Samuellson’s place that he opened up in 2010). They were actually just down the street from one another. We settled on Sylvia’s and had some yummy food. I had the lunch special which was a fried chicken leg with some collard greens and D had the chicken and waffles. Both were very good.

We also walked over to the Apollo Theater, a classic institution for music, comedy, and other performances.

Carmel/Monterey (Big Sur Marathon)

Since my marathon recap post was kind of long, I decided to separate out the actual weekend part of marathon weekend. We decided to stay in Carmel because of the locations of the bus pickups to take us to the marathon start. Right in the heart of downtown Carmel was one of the pickup spots. Luckily there are a ton of small hotels, inns, and B&Bs in Carmel. Rather than leaving the dog in a boarding place in Sac, I found a place that allows pets (Carmel is historically and well-known as an extremely dog friendly place).

We made a pit stop in Fairfield to get some lunch on our way down on Friday. The wife found a sandwich spot called Joe’s Buffet . They made a tasty sandwich – I had a combo of pastrami and corned beef.

IMG_20170428_114441 — *Pastrami/Corned Beef*

Once we reached Monterey and stopped to do my packet pickup, we swung by PeterB’s brewpub (right behind the expo area at Portola Hotel). I had the Belly Up Blonde since I wanted to keep it light.

Prior to our trip, I had done some research on dog-friendly restaurants in Carmel. A ton of places have outdoor sitting and allow dogs in their patio areas since so many people have dogs (either visiting or living there). The Inn that we stayed at also provided us with a list of some of the nearby dog friendly restaurants. Our living quarters for the weekend was the Svendsgaard’s Inn. This place ended up being only about 4-5 blocks from the bus pickup. The accomodations were nice and it was a small quaint little place. They had a small grassy area in a courtyard with poop bags available.

That first night in Carmel (I still don’t understand how the official city name is Carmel-By-The-Sea…such a mouthful), we walked over to Bistro Beaujolais for dinner.

Billed as a French restaurant, we ordered with this in mind. I had the French Onion soup, escargots, and sand dabs. My wife had a lemon chicken soup and the Steak Frites. The last time I was in the Monterey area is when I learned about Sand Dabs. I guess they’re a local fish that is wildly popular and served at pretty much every restaurant (doesn’t even matter if it is American, European, Mediterranean, etc). I was surprised and pleased to see that they had a Michigan beer and ordered the Founders Porter.

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StewsCat

Running, baking, cooking, drinking

Tag: cocktails

Beaverton, OR (August 2025)

New York City (October 2024)

Carmel/Monterey (Big Sur Marathon)