gluttony in portland: day 6

My last day in Portland was spent at a leisurely brunch with Lisa, Tim, Anita, Barry, Stosh + Francesca.
Staying near Gresham, we attempted to go to Edgefield (closed), The Black Rabbit (closed for private party) and when that failed, we went to Riverview in Troutdale.
A lovely finale for a fantastic trip!

Lisa stealth shot this. I had no idea!
me, Anita, Francesca, Stosh, Barry, Tim

gluttony in portland: day 5

Saturday. We got to LUCE early! Yay!

getting ready for more creative business work

At lunchtime, we were forced outside for some air and pizza was ordered. Lisa and I wandered the neighborhood, window shopped and returned to ransacked pizza boxes with not much remaining. Oh well.
More work ensued,
1:1s with Erin,
and killing time at Matador...

3 tomatoes: ketchup, salsa, juice
2 starches: fries, chips

"I EAT VEGANS"
Lisa: "What do vegans taste like?"
Anne: "Chicken"

until we reconvened at Navarre for wine...

eating, drinking, making merry

appetizers...

pickle plate, ken's bread, radishes

radishes w/french butter

fava shoots (I would have liked them better braised), pear, cheese

and dinner

menu like a questionaire

"bird" haha

thus concluded our ACE Camp experience.
But wait! The gluttony is not over!

gluttony in portland: day 4

the binder

Friday was our first full day of "Camp"

coffee from Heart

We convened at LUCE and got down to some serious creative business work!

my new mission statement: "do it with gusto"

For lunch, we split up into small groups and foraged.
Lisa, Caroline, Carina, Kristina and I chose La Buca

fumoso panini + pesto-topped mash potatoes
sandwich = meh
spuds = OMG!

We returned to Camp for a couple hours of more work, then Lisa and I went home for an AWESOME Tim dinner: grilled tuna and veggies

have you ever grilled rapini?
give it a try! SO DELICIOUS!

fire!

gluttony in portland: day 3

Thursday in Portland started out slowly - Lisa needed to sleep in! Fine by me.
When we finally got moving, we started with a late breakfast at Tasty n Sons

coffee!

chocolate donut hole!

egg on grilled + parmaseaned asparagus + bacon

Next, we shopped the neighborhood. Some cool shops!
[Shopping report will be on SpyGirl eventually.]

On to downtown Portland.
Lisa had to submit some paperwork at work. I waited in the lobby and amused myself.

Next we worked our way over to the Ace Hotel to meet our fellow ACE Campers (no affiliation). Of course we were late (this became a running gag for a while) so we missed our goodie bags. Drat! We all walked over to the Nines Hotel, to have cocktails in the atrium.

the gals

We grazed on appetizers and got to know one another.

warmed olive with lemon zest. mmmmmm

After a thwarted attempt at having dinner at the food trucks (they were closed), Lisa and I went home to a Tim dinner.
Thus concludes day 3.

gluttony in portland: day 2

Day 2 in Portland was a frenzy of eating, lurking and shopping. Plus a Vietnamese dinner.

We started the day with a power breakfast of hearty oatmeal and Lisa's Vitamix blended fruit drink (mmmmmm) (No pix, sorry). I think I have to get one of those mixers. An easy and delicious way to get the five fruits/veggies servings into my diet.

Lisa walked me from her office to Powell's so I'd get my bearings. En route, she got some coffee at Pearl Bakery

and I got a macaroon

I forgot I had this and carried it around all day.
Happily discovered it around 4:30pm while sitting in Lisa's office.
YUM!

I planted myself in the Powell's cafe with cafe au lait and a scone, hoping to use the free wi-fi.

No luck. So I sketched instead.
I thought it was amusing that they shelved the romance novels in the cafe. Even more titillating were the SPORTS THEMED novels I discovered while drawing.

that Kate Angell - what a concept!

By then, it was lunch time. Yay!
We went to Fong Chong in Chinatown for dim sum. It was OK, but we've both had better.

I spent the afternoon wandering between Lisa's office and Powell's. I explored some of the art galleries and saw a fantastic weaving exhibition at at the Museum of Contemporary Craft. I wrote all about it here. My obsession with felt began at the museum as well. More on that later elsewhere.
I started hyperventilating in the fiction stacks at Powell's. It was like being in my fantasy library full of books that I WANTED TO READ vs the sad assortment I usually find in the Venice or Mar Vista branches of the LA Library. Sigh. They had funny displays throughout of pulp fiction. I took lots of photos and purchased this one:

"An Eye-Opening Novel of Violence in Texas"

So much stimulation made me tired. I considered laying down on a park bench and napping like a bum but decorum prevailed. I returned to Lisa's office and hung out while she went to meetings and did other work stuff.
This got us to... DINNERTIME!

My last visit to Portland (in 2005), we'd eaten at Pho Van. I wanted a return visit to have the whole roasted Catfish (Ca Nuong) again.

So we did.

the embellishments

the fish

A perfect way to end the day.
(more pix here)

gluttony in portland: day 1

I arrived in Portland on Tuesday evening, June 21. My 'business write-off" reason was to attend the PDX ACE camp with Erin Loechner. My "real" reason was to visit Lisa and escape LA!
I maintained restraint on day 1 (it's called being too cheap to spring for airport food) but happily ate the TWO bags of honey peanuts provided on each leg of the journey.

Yep. Livin' large on Southwest.


Many more pix can be seen on my Flickr here