Pacific Northwest Extravaganza: Portland

The last leg of our trip of the beautiful Pacific Northwest! It was raining the entire time we were in Portland plus the combination of New Year's Day holiday meant that we were limited as to what to do in our short but sweet trip in the land of beards and bicycles.

And here we go:
1. Portland Union Station. I did end up booking the right train from Seattle to Portland (whew!) and arriving at the Portland train station felt like I was in another decade.


2. Ace Hotel! There are just so many things I loved about this hotel. The huge cat mural in our hotel room, the claw foot tub, the photobooth in the lobby, the Pendleton wool blankets (which I ended up buying for myself!), Kenny & Zuke's and Stumptown coffee! I'm excited to stay at the new Ace Hotel in Palm Springs come Coachella!


3. Strong cocktails at Clyde Commons and getting shitfaced while ringing in the New Year. It's a good thing our room was just three floors above us because we downed four drinks in less than 45 minutes and just in time for the clock to strike twelve. We then proceeded to be happy drunks from then on.


4. Powell's Bookstore. I could've spent hours in this store, especially since it was raining cats and dogs outside. And the books bike rack is genius!

5. Watching JCVD at the Living Room Theaters across from our hotel. I ended up really liking JCVD even though I didn't want to watch it in the first place. It was probably one of the best films I've seen in 2008 and the muscles from Brussels was certainly endearing.

The Pacific Northwest Winter Extravaganza: Seattle

After taking a painstaking 4-hour bus ride to Seattle from Vancouver (with an hour stopover at customs), we finally arrived in the Emerald City. Sadly, our time at Seattle was cut short because we planned on arriving in Seattle by noon but ended up getting there no later than 4:30PM. Also, it was quite possibly the coldest and windiest part of our trip. Tim & I were kind of at a loss as to what to eat & do in Seattle (besides the typical tourist traps) so we ended up watching a YouTube video of Anthony Bourdain's episode in Seattle. That man can do no wrong.

Some highlights:


1. Cheese onion garlic roll from Piroshky, Piroshky, the famous Russian bakery in Pike Place!


2. "World's Best" Mac & Cheese and Flagship Tomato soup from Beecher's -it really was the world's best! Tim & I are constantly craving for their Mac & Cheese and one of these days, we're just going to have to cave in and have it delivered to us overnight.


3. Metsker's map store. We both have a fascination with vintage globes and maps so we were pretty much in awe at the entire store. I bought an amazing globe mobile which I have still yet to hang.

4. White Horse Trading Co. A really nice English pub tucked in one of the alleys at Pike Place with books everywhere! Though it was dimly-lit, the ambiance was really relaxing as it felt like a home-y living room where you're surrounded with stacks of books and interesting chotckies.


5. Science fiction museum/Experience Music Project. I was bummed I couldn't take any photos (I had to be in stealth-mode with my iPhone) since there were just way too many awesomeness in the science fiction museum that could make a sci-fi enthusiast's heart pitter-patter! They even had a robots exhibit!

6. Pumpkin canoli from Serious Pie. We had pizza at this fancy pizza place while on our way back to our hotel from the museum and though we were too full to eat dessert, it was a good call to have it to go. It was scrumptious!