halloweening about it

Last Saturday me and Pat surprised my friends from college in Portland for Colleen's Halloween Party. We drank, we danced, we ended up at Grilled Cheese Grill at the end of the night... it was like old times. Here are some pics!

[[ party at colleens place: the dude, abiding. getting ready. our costumes! group shot: tony (batman), alex (troll), pat (the dude), me (maude lebowski). guenther (the man in the yellow hat). dion (curious george). me, sam (mrs. doubtfire), and tiff (wendy peffercorn). me and alex. pat and colleen. pat and tiff. tiff, pat, me, jason (squints). laaaadies bathroom selfies. porch selfies with sam and ricky. dance party ridiculousness. the end of the night. ]]

black butte hike

On Saturday me, Pat, and our friends decided to tackle the hike up Black Butte, which is something we had wanted to do last year, but ran out of time. The whole "deal" with this hike is that you want to drink a Deschutes Black Butte Porter on the top of Black Butte :) So, packs on, filled with water and bottles of beer, and camera in tow we set off.

Admittedly, I was expecting the hike to be a bit easier... To make a comparison, take the Misery Ridge Trail at Smith Rock for example: super steep but with variation between up hill cut backs, stairs, and straight aways, and a fairly short trek up overall VS. Black Butte, which was long and pretty much just up, up, up the entire time. I suppose it didn't help that I had pulled my hamstring earlier in the week, but this did feel a bit harder. However, the view (and beer) at the top were plenty rewarding, not to mention all of the cute little chipmunks running around.

Here are some of the pictures that I shot with my big cam from the peak.

[[ mountains from the peak of black butte. views & fire towers. vibrant colors. chipmunk friends! back down. ]]

memorial day weekend staycation part II obsidian flow

As if our legs didn't get enough torture the day before, we decided to go to the Big Obsidian Flow near Paulina Lake on Sunday. Everyone but Nick had been here before, but once we arrived we were all surprised by a ton of snow still on the ground. Since it was a sunny and warm day down below we were all wearing shorts and tank tops naturally, so the climate change was pretty entertaining. Why not have a snow ball fight in shorts? Of course a little snow wasn't going to stop us from getting to the top (regardless of the fact that we couldn't find the actual trail), so we made our way forward and eventually made it. As usual, about an hours worth of picture taking ensued before we made our way back down.

Here are the pics from my phone (no big camera yet again).

[[ in the woods. the first viewpoint. unexpected snow. shorts, tanks, and snowball fights. rocks for days. poses on the rocks. the beautiful view from the top. my babe. siiistor. pops. little climbers. exploring. building rock statues. natural textures. on the way down. blending in. sunbeam. ]]

memorial day weekend staycation part I smith rock

Over the long weekend my family decided to come in to town last minute, so me and Pat shifted our day trip plans from the Painted Hills to the much closer Smith Rock since none of my fam had ever been there. On Saturday we set out for the park and while my parents and littlest sister explored the River Trail, us older sibs went for Misery Ridge. From past experience Misery Ridge can be a huge pain in the ass, but this time I was actually able to totally keep up with my super in shape little sisters and surprised myself with my best time ever. I guess those Blogilates regiments are actually working...

The weather was beautiful the day we went and we had a super clear view of the mountains and valley below, which certainly made the trek up rewarding. As usual, we posed for a ton of pictures at the top, on the way down and around the rock.

Although I did much better than usual, there is just no getting around how much having to climb up the extremely steep grade to get back to the parking lot sucks once you are ready to go. That part still pretty much kicked my ass, though I was able to run up a small portion of it (which I am sure looked absolutely ridiculous since I had no power in my legs left).

Here are the pics I snapped on my phone along the way (no real camera this time).

[[ before poses. the view from the top. my pineapple hair situation. victory poses. group shot! hanging out on the edge. cracks in the pavement. kissing monkey face. the river and cliffs at the bottom. yo. ]] 

new orleans :: part 3

sunday (2/19) :: night 3
Me and Pat had spent the day riding the street car, walking down Magazine Street, exploring the Garden District homes, a public library, and Audubon Park, so by the time night was approaching we were definitely hungry and ready to get off our feet for a while. We jumped back on the car and road it to the end of St. Charles to check out a wine bar I had read about called Oak. We ended up getting there right as they were opening, so we hit Happy Hour at the perfect time, half off bottles of wine! We picked out a white called Lola's Revenge, relaxed, and enjoyed it while the sun set.

[[ coffee shop. king cake. shops on magazine. oak. wine. brick sidewalks. ]]

While researching I came across a restaurant called Jaques Imo's several times. It was highly recommended and looked extremely unique, so I knew we had to go for dinner one night. Once we got there I was instantly charmed by the eclectic decor and twists on Southern dishes which reminded me of one of my favorite restaurants in Portland, Montage! It is definitely an awesomely odd place.

I had read about the mojitos there, so when we sat down me and Pat promptly ordered the watermelon, which turned out to be made with fresh watermelon and mint, go figure. It was amazing. I am seriously going to try to recreate it this summer. My sisters boyfriend had also mentioned that we had to order the Shrimp & Alligator Cheesecake, which I thought sounded absolutely disgusting, but he assured me that it was savory not sweet, and delicious. Though one of the oddest things I have ever eaten, he was not wrong. I can't really describe it any other way than rich, so if you are ever in NOLA, go check it out for yourself. Along with the cheesecake we ordered some of the best corn bread I have ever had (which I scarfed as soon as they brought it to our table), the seafood stew (which was so big I couldn't even finish it), and delicious grouper for Pat. We even got a complimentary dessert from our server because him and Pat started talking about All Star and it turns out he worked a little at the event as well. Needless to say that when we left I was EXTREMELY full.

After dinner we walked to the dingy little dive bar next door because it was supposed to have live music, but it didn't start until pretty late so we only stuck around for a drink, watched a little olympics, and then decided to head back toward our hotel. Thankfully the 24 hour street car is no joke, so we got on and rode it all the way back, which was a lot faster at night since there were hardly any stops along the way. The driver working the night shift was hilarious and interacting with everyone. As we drove by certain buildings, he would sing at the security guards who would dance back at him. Clearly they had some sort of system worked out. There was also a man on board who was taking request for Ray Charles songs, which he would snap and sing back to us, and another man with a super epic curly mustache.

[[ eclectic decor at jacques imo's. corn bread. cheesecake. grouper. watermelon mojito. seafood stew. the scene. dessert. maple leaf. local zine. street car entertainment. ]]

We got off the car at our hotel, changed in to warmer clothes, and then walked down to Frenchmen Street to hear some live music. We first went to The Spotted Cat, which was recommended by our server (and my sister). The music was really good, and seriously reminded me of the Aristocats which was cracking me up, but it was way too crowded, so we left and walked up the street until we heard something else we wanted to listen to. I can't remember the name of the bar we ended up in, but the band playing was awesome. They are called The Business and had someone on saxophone, bass, guitar, and a singer with some seriously awesome pipes. We listened to their full set before deciding to call it a night.

For some reason at this point I decided that on our way back to the hotel we really needed to stop at Cafe Du Monde again for some beignets... Because, you know, I wasn't full enough from dinner or anything... Maybe it was the heavy fog rolling in that inspired me, or maybe it was the drinks kicking in, but Pat thought it was a good idea too, so we set off for Jackson's Square. We grabbed three beignets and a coffee and enjoyed them while we walked the rest of the way.

[[ lobby selfie. live music & jazz on frenchmen street. ]]

monday (2/20) :: day 3
For our last full day I wanted to go back to The Quarter to experience some of the places we had previously missed. We started out at Stanley's in Jackson's Square for some brunch. I tried my first Muffalata there, which is apparently a New Orleans staple. They basically take a big loaf of bread, hollow part of it out, fill it up with Italian meats and cheeses, and a mixture of pickled carrots, green olives, and a few other veggies. I thought it sounded pretty weird, but it was definitely something I had never had before so I figured I would see what it was all about. It was pretty good, but it was salty as hell so I couldn't really finish it, or the pickle that came on the side. I don't understand how the people who live there eat deep fried and salted everything! I felt like I needed some fruit afterward. Pat got eggs benny with big pieces of pastrami. His was really good. In the future I would skip the sandwich.

[[ brunch at stanley's. eggs benny. muffalata. the dirty mississippi river. ]]

After we ate, we walked down to the river so that I could get my first glimpse of the Mississippi. She was a dirty bird, and it was getting a little stormy at that point, so we didn't walk down the river as I had originally intended. However, there was a pretty sweet steam boat I got a few shots of. To escape the wind we took refuge in a little shop called Wish I had noticed earlier. Pat is such a trooper... he totally lets me do my shopping thing and never even complains! He is seriously the best. There was a ton of cute stuff in there, but I wasn't really feeling anything, so I just talked to one of the girls working for a while, snapped some pictures, and then we headed back out. 

[[ me. wish. a storm rolling in. ]]

On my last night before coming to New Orleans I had gone through some of Anthony Bordain's articles from his travels there and written down a few cocktail joints. One of which, called Kingfish, is in The Quarter and according to him has the best mint julep. Since we were in the South, I thought that we had to go see for ourselves (regardless of the fast that I hate whiskey). Pat did indeed get the julep and he said that it was damn good. I don't really remember what either of my drinks were, but they were both delicious. One was a fizz and it tasted like ice cream. One of the most entertaining parts about this particular place was that if you ordered anything with ice they grabbed a block and literally smashed it with a wooden mallet. 

[[ drinks at kingfish. ]]

After our drinks we walked around a little bit more and then wandered back toward our hotel to grab happy hour at a restaurant named Luke that my sister had told me about. Their happy hour turned out to be pretty amazing. Half off all beer and wine, and oysters for only 50 cents each! I mentioned before that the oysters in New Orleans are really fresh, so this was a great deal, especially considering how expensive everything else there is. Luke's full menu sounded really good as well, but we had been told that we had to check out a restaurant called Redfish Grill in The Quarter by both of Pat's parents, so we went back to the hotel, changed, and walked to dinner. Redfish was by far the worst meal/service/experience we had on our trip, which was a real bummer since it was our last dinner and there were so many other places I had wanted to try, but you can't win them all. If you ever go, I would not recommend that place. At all.

[[ details of the quarter. napoleon house. happy hour at luke. dinner at redfish. ]]

monday (2/20) :: night 4

We didn't want to end our last night on that poor dinner experience, so we walked back over to Frenchmen Street to check out their Art Walk and see if there was any more live music worth watching. On our way we walked through Bourbon which had gotten considerably more crowded in anticipation of Mardi Gras which was starting in a few days.

The Art Walk was pretty cool... they had a lot of interesting decorations there, like a light up couch and what looked to be some old carnival decorations, but in terms of the actual art there really wasn't much. I guess I was sort of picturing the Portland Saturday Market, but at night, with drinks. I'm still glad we checked it out, though it was a little underwhelming. I'm sure it is a fun hangout for locals.

[[ craziness on bourbon. the artwalk on frenchmen street. ]]

At this point I was starting to feel really crummy... I had been fighting a sore throat sensation all day, and after leaving the restaurant I just kept feeling worse and worse, so we decided to call it an early night and made our way back to the hotel. It was good that we did because pretty much right when we got back it started dumping rain! The second we got in bed Pat was out. I on the other hand could NOT fall asleep. Between my terrible sore throat (which felt like strep at this point), the thunder and lightening, and the crazy wind that picked up, it was just not happening. At one point I thought I would check the weather on my phone to see if there was an advisory saying when the thunder and lightening would end and saw none other than a freaking TORNADO WARNING!!! Tornados are one of those things that have an irrational fear of... irrational because we never ever ever get them in Oregon, but seriously, just heavy winds scare me. So obviously I just gave up on trying to sleep after that!

[[ the only alligator i saw in the window of a real estate office. tor-freaking-nado warning people. ]]

tuesday (2/21) :: day 4
We didn't have to get to the airport until around three, so in the morning we took our time packing up, checked out, and walked down the street to visit Cochon Butcher again. We had gone there for our first meal and eaten in the formal restaurant Cochon, but what I really wanted to try was the adjacent butcher/sandwich shop, aptly named Butcher. It did NOT disappoint. I got a simple turkey sandwich, but there were so many extra flavors that it was anything but ordinary. We also shared the macaroni and Pat got a Cuban (I think), which was amazing as well. If I was local I would find myself eating here all the time. There were so many other things I wanted to try.

[[ lunch at butcher. ]]

After our last meal in NOLA it was time to gather our things and head for the airport. We stopped in a fancy themed Starbucks to grab a coffee and then away we went, glad to be heading home after an exciting and exhausting trip.

[[ slap ya mama street sign! fancy starbucks. louisiana from our plane. ]]

I am happy that I got the chance to experience New Orleans in person, try some new unique dishes and some of the best corn bread I have ever had, take a ride on the oldest and endlessly charming street car, eat several beignets, discover coffee with chicory, and visit some truly historic areas including an amazing cemetery, an incredible antique shop, and numerous old Southern neighborhoods. Overall it was a great experience and I am glad to be able to check it off of my list as another place I have traveled.