to York we go!

how they spent the train rides

We took the train with Omi up to York. It was miserably rainy when we arrived, and since our hotel wasn't yet ready we stopped off at the National Railway Museum. They have a super-fast Japanese train, model trains, Queen Victoria's train, science shows, steam trains, and probably most importantly - the train to Hogwarts. 

all aboard the Hogwarts' Express!

 The next morning we took a free tour of the city.  It was a long tour, despite the fact that our tour guide kept mentioning he was ill and was going to make it a short one due to the weather.  Ah well.  It was a good, and thorough, introduction to the city.

the best (and only) seat during the tour

The following day we went to the York Castle Museum and the adjacent Clifford's tower. Conveniently for Zoe there was also a merry-go-round, and Omi was more than happy to join her.

a happy Bird with her sugar mouse

Bird the Victorious Knight, her day job

returns to the lap of princess luxury

dethroned - the Bird and Kyle stuck in the Clink

looking down from the top of Clifford's Tower

On the last day we took a morning walk along the city walls, enjoying our last day in York and the beautiful sunshine.  This city is definitely one we wouldn't mind visiting again (though once was probably enough on the Jorvik Viking Centre).

resting during our wall walk

how the Bird spent a good portion of her time

how Kyle spent a good portion of his time

York Minster, where we enjoyed an Evensong

taking a snack break on the wall walk

goodbye sunny York!

back home after a long journey

Kent weekend for the big kids

in front of Leeds Castle

 Since Omi's here, Kyle and I took the opportunity to go to Kent by ourselves for a long weekend.  We stayed at a small B&B in the middle of nowhere, which had amazing meals.  Our first stop was the Shepherd Neame brewery in Faversham - they claim to be Britain's oldest brewery.

taking a business call at the brewery

a delivery motorcycle!

 The following day we were off to Canterbury.  We visited the cathedral, a ruined abbey (thank you, Henry VIII), and in general enjoyed wandering a town without a stroller.  On our drive back home we stopped at Leeds Castle in Maidstone.  It would actually make an excellent family trip - they had excellent picnic areas, a big maze and small maze, and two different playgrounds for different age groups.

in front of the cathedral on a gorgeous day

taking our time to listen to the audio guide at our own pace

black swans at Leeds Castle

Beervana, Part II

Day Three - Indoctrination
Day three promised to be a beautiful, sunny day in Portland. The entire trip we were fairly lucky with the weather - just a little bit of rain one day, during which we were inside drinking anyways.
Today we had a couple non-beer events. After breakfast kolaches and tea at Happy Sparrow, we were off to the International Rose Test Gardens, on a hill in a park overlooking downtown. There were a few rose buds, but I think most don't begin blooming for another month. It was still a gorgeous park.

Roses will one day grow there, young Marcus

Afterward we dropped off the car downtown and walked over to Powell's City of Books. If physical bookstores have any hope of surviving, Powell's provides a great model. It is such an amazing treasure trove of rooms and books (used and new right next to each other) and knowledgeable people working there. I visited a decade ago (yipes!) when I was living in Seattle, and was so happy we were able to stop in again. We only spent a short hour there, but boy was it worth it.
On to lunch enjoying Portland's great food trailer scene; there are reportedly over 400 in the city. I enjoyed a rice bowl of sorts from Whole Bowl, Kyle sampled some Thai, and Marcus and Tracie enjoyed some Greek food. Full stomachs all the way around.

samples at Upright

And now, on to beer. After lunch we took a train over to Widmer Brewing for a tour of their new facility. They've recently joined forces with Redhook, so are a bit of a bigger brewer by Portland standards (and Anheuser-Busch has a minority stake in their company). They sometimes get flak from other Portland breweries for this, but I thought it was a great tour. This was primarily because the guide turned out to be a well-known brew guy who really knew his stuff.
We then headed over to Upright Brewing's tasting room, which is open on Friday, Saturday and Sunday. This place has only been open for a year, but has received a fair amount of good reviews from Portland locals.

sampling at Upright

Then a bus ride up to Old Lompoc's Sidebar, again only open on Friday and Saturday afternoons. The place was packed, as they were releasing a bourbon barrel-aged beer that night. After samples and a few pints, we headed next door to Old Lompoc's Fifth Quadrant for another pint paired with dinner (we weren't going to make the same mistake as the previous day).

Tracie and Kyle enjoying Sidebar

We then walked on over to Amnesia Brewing to wrap up our third brew tour day. Good beers, but I think we were all a little tired out.

last stop of the day
and no, we don't remember that much

Day Four - In'grain'ed
Our last morning we drove to the downtown Saturday Farmers' Market for breakfast and to pick up items for dinner. It reminded me quite a bit of the Madison farmer's market. Perhaps not as big, but a similar vibe and just as crowded. We even saw some fiddlehead fern, though didn't purchase any for dinner. It started raining around noon, so we piled back in the car and headed to a brewery, which seemed like the sensible thing to do on a rainy afternoon in Portland!
Bridgeport Brewing was our first stop, and the site of today's brew tour. We met up with Harriet and Chuck again for lunch and the tour, and had a great time there.

Kyle: One day, I will have my own collection of 10 barrel tanks...

Mo: Kyle's been smoking the hops instead of brewing with them...

After a fair amount of beer, we walked over to Cacao for a brew-break. This was definitely my kind of stop. They serve excellent drinking chocolate. I took my time with a 4oz spicy chocolate.

Marcus, Tracie, Harriet, Chuck and Mo

Seeing the bottom of this mug is so depressing.
Guess I'll have to have more beer...

After that, a short walk over to a Deschutes Brewery Pub (their brewery is located in Bend, OR, outside of the scope of this visit). They had quite a few brews on tap, so we ordered two samplers before deciding on a few pints.

And, for our last brewpub stop, Rogue Ale's Pub. Again, too many to chose from, but we had a very friendly waitress from San Antonio who helped to guide us on our way.
On our way home we stopped at Belmont Station to purchase some bottled beers for sampling with our dinner. They have over 1000 types of bottled beers from which to choose! It was a very hard, and lengthy, decision making process.
We finished the trip with a great home-cooked meal from our farmers' market finds: fresh pasta, asparagus-pesto, salad and fixings, and our own version of a beer sampler. Harriet and Chuck joined us after dinner for a game at the apartment, rounding out a very memorable few days. What a tasty trip.

on the way home, a view of Mt. Hood from the airplane

Perhaps later I can convince Kyle to give you guys some beer highlights in another post....

P.S. Big thanks to the blog The Daily Pull. The writer was quite a bit of help to me in the planning of this trip. If you're intending on visiting Portland for a beer tour anytime soon, I highly recommend checking out his blog.

Beervana aka Stumptown aka PDX, part I

Marcus, Kyle, Tracie, and Mo at the top of Angel's Rest
Kyle and I, thanks in part to Omie and Auntie Em, were able to enjoy an extended weekend in Portland in celebration of Kyle's birthday (I won't say which one). Marcus and Tracie joined us for the trip. Our mission: to enjoy as many breweries and brewpubs as we could fit in, which is hard to do in a town with more breweries than any other city in the world. In order to last the entire trip, every day we tried to mix in some non-beer event and enjoy whatever else Portland has to offer. Which is a lot - it's an amazingly livable city, with great public transportation, a million bike riders (it seemed like it), and within reach of so many other areas and activities.

And now, a run-down of our trip:

View Portland in a larger map

Day One - Introduction
As we arrived mid-day, our non-beer event consisted of getting lunch at a great little coffee shop called Random Order Coffeehouse. For lunch I had the rhubarb pie with ginger oat topping. Yes, pie for lunch. And so delicious. I would've gone back for seconds if we didn't have a schedule to keep.
On to our apartment in the Belmont neighborhood. We decided to rent a two-bedroom condo off of VRBO and are so happy we chose to do this. It ended up much cheaper than a hotel, we were in a great neighborhood to help us get to know Portland, and we were able to eat in for most breakfasts and one dinner, further saving us money (which was probably going to be spent on beer anyways). After dropping off everything, including the rental car, we walked to The Lucky Lab,

then Roots (an organic brewery),
and finally The Green Dragon (which we learned at the end of our trip is owned by Rogue).
We had samplers at most places, occasionally sticking to half-pints instead of full pints so that we could allow ourselves enough tasting room in our bellies. The Green Dragon just opened, so is testing out various brews by having guest brewers do a few batches. We happened in on a release day, with the brewer in attendance giving a short little speech about the particular beer just coming out; a happy coincidence.
For dinner we met up with Marcus's Portland friends Harriet and Chuck at Pok Pok, upon their recommendation. Excellent Thai food. We even had a fiddlehead fern dish. Go ahead, click the link. Relatives, note the photo is taken in Tennessee - perhaps you can cook yourselves up some for dinner tonite. By the end of our meal it was past 10pm Pacific time, so while we were behind on our itinerary, we were quite tired and headed back to the apartment to sleep off dinner.

Day Two - Influence

beautiful view

whoa, it's cold up here

Breakfast was purchased at the grocery store next door. Piled into the car to head out for a scenic drive along the Columbia Gorge scenic highway. One of our stops was at Angels' Rest for our slightly-under 2.5 mile hike up to some amazingly gorgeous views. The way down was much faster.

a forest fire consumed part of the area a little bit ago

Drove on to Multnomah Falls, the second-tallest year-round falls in the US. Many more people and tourists to go with the amazing sight.
We continued our drive to the town of Hood River, home to Full Sail Brewing.

our first sampler of the day

Enjoyed lunch (I had this yummy mac'n'cheese), a beer sampler, and a brewery tour. We four were the only ones on the tour, so lots of questions and answers just to our liking. We were even able to see the bottling line in action (cue memories of Laverne and Shirley intro....), which the nerdy manufacturing males in our group thoroughly enjoyed. And us ladies did as well, honestly.
And then back to Portland for a visit to Hopworks for beer with snacks. This place had a great kids' section; Kyle, Zoe, and I would probably be there every weekend if we lived locally.

home of the old Weinhard Brewing Co.

Our beer adventure this day concluded at Henry's (a bit of a yuppie hangout in the Pearl District with over 100 types of beer on tap). Another late night, but this time no dinner (?! how did we miss that?!) to soak up the brew. Some people may have been a bit hungover the next day (and it wasn't me)...

the beer selection at the local grocery store
you have to look hard to find a non-local brew