What's for breakfast?

Zoe has oranges first thing every morning

dinner goodness

off of the kitchn website - ours didn't quite look this pretty

So, we tried this for dinner tonite, and I loved it. Zoe even got to mix up the mushrooms/salt/pepper/oil on the cookie sheet before I stuck them in the oven. We didn't use chives on top, just whatever herbs were in the garden, which tonite happened to be parsley and dill. Zoe ate some of the polenta and mushrooms, but refused the egg, as per usual. I'd love her to eat eggs, to get some additional protein in her diet, but no luck so far. We'll keep trying....

So many choices

Happy 20-month birthday!
It's hard to believe that 2 is quickly approaching.

In the trees

Guess who got a swing?

Kyle!

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.