i left my heart in portland.

i had high expectations for portland, as i have been daydreaming of visiting there since this book came out (almost ten years ago) and have been told time and time again how much i'd love it. and, amazingly enough, it exceeded my expectations. i have never been to a city quite like it.. it is so relaxed and laid back (which suits the hubs and i quite nicely). i wasn't expecting people there to be so friendly! it didn't have the pretentious air of other cities i've enjoyed. loved that. i even made a friend on the light rail; actually, joel did too (each on separate occasions). the light rail system made it so convenient to get around, and enabled us to check out quite a few neighborhoods.. loved how each had its own thing going on. so many unique restaurants, bars and coffee shops!

thank you to everyone who offered up suggestions -- they were all delightful // i spent pretty much an entire day at Powell's (one of the largest independently-owned bookstores in the country). and we had really freaking fantastic food. there seemed to be an endless amount of amazing choices, most of which sourced from local farms :D (favorites included :: por que no, mother's, pok pok, clyde common & bunk sandwiches... thank you Bon Bon!! i have particularly craved the tacos from por que no & the roasted brussels sprouts sandwich from bunk since). man, i would love to live somewhere with such amazing (and sustainable) food offerings!!

oh and i would also love living near Olivia of For Me. we met up one afternoon, and let me tell you, she is a gem of a human being, beautiful inside and out. i am oh so sad that we forgot to get a picture together, but glad it's because we had engaging conversation :)

on our last day there (and hubby's only free day), we decided to rent a car (cost us a whole $12) and check out some more of your guys' recommendations. SO glad we did. i was not expecting Oregon to be so breathtakingly beautiful!! Mulnomah Falls was one of the most awe-inspiring sights i have ever beholden. it seriously looked like something out of Lord of the Rings; it felt so other-worldly to me. the brightest green i can ever remember seeing (except for maybe Ireland), and the moss!! it was so magical. i actually cried a little during our drive there, it was so majestic.

after the Falls, we headed West to the Pacific. again, i was absolutely blown away by the beauty, the whole drive there. particularly through the Tillamook Forest.. was not expecting to drive through more mountains (being a flatlander, i am in love with mountains). the heavy mist that enveloped them made for an enchanting (sometimes eery) and magnificent drive. by the time we got to the Pacific, the misty rain had become a violent downpour, so we basically ran out of our car to get a photo and then ran right back in. but i'm still so glad we got to experience the Oregon coast. oh and the Tillamook Cheese Factory.. free cheese samples, yum!

so, in conclusion, portland is my new favorite place. joel and i both completely fell in love. we left agreeing that we would be back.. i'm hoping it's sooner rather than later! it was strange how at-home i felt there... i've never bonded with a city like that before. oh portland, i can't wait until we meet again!

A road trip to Kansas City

Back from yet another road trip! This one for the purpose of Joel presenting at/attending a counseling conference (which went really well for him - so proud of my man). Let me tell you, the drive from Detroit to Kansas City is long and dreadfully boring. There weren't even pretty fall colors, except for a few small patches here and there. Good thing I had an awesome travel companion. Near the end of our drive home, I read him a long list of random geographical facts I had found online, just to keep the two of us awake (plus we are both kind of obsessed with geography). Haha. Did you know that Michigan has the longest coastline of any state (besides Alaska)? Yea, our state is pretty darn awesome. I could spew off lots more useless facts about U.S. geography but I'll spare you.

Kansas City itself was really cool. I enjoyed the laid-back Midwest feel. And the artsy vibe! You may not guess it, but there is a thriving artist community in Kansas City. Joel and I really enjoyed the Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art. We also really enjoyed THE FOOD (thanks to Yelp and Sandy), most of it locally sourced (love that). I never did have BBQ, which kind of bums me out considering how much I love it, but the delicious food I did have made up for it. We went here, here, here and here. At that last place (Glacé), I had fluer de sel caramel ice cream along with butternut squash ice cream and it was some of the best ice cream I've ever tasted! I also dined solo one day while Joel was at his conference and went to my first vegan restaurant. It was out of this world, especially the raw chocolate hazelnut pie. Oh mah gah. Wow, I am really obsessed with food. Not that that's news.

 

The highlight of the trip was meeting a blogger in person for the first time! I got to have lunch (and crepes!) with the lovely Sandy of Sandy a la Mode. It was quite exciting. And as I expected, she is super sweet and fun to talk to. (Not to mention a pretty lady!) Makes me want to attend a blogger conference so I can potentially meet more of you lovelies :)

please excuse the extreme fuzziness. bad lighting!

Oh yea, another awesome part of our trip -- discovering a three-story antiques market! wow, it was so hard not to come home with a bag full, including that blanket below. I hope that there is a market like that wherever we move -- would be perfect for furnishing our future home {since we probably won't take a lot of our stuff with us}. can't wait to decorate a new place :)

Man I just love exploring new cities.. I've been so blessed to be able to join Joel on all of his conference trips. I think traveling/exploring is my favorite thing to do with him. I look forward to exploring a brand new city with him once we move, wherever that may be (the list of posititons Joel is applying to has grown to 20! More on that soon).

made a pit stop in St. Louis for a scrumptious brunch in the magnificent sunshine.

Maine - "The Way Life Should Be"

Portland Head Light in Portland, Maine

I've been off the blog/social media radar the last week, partly due to being exhausted from our family road trip to Maine (8 very packed but fun-filled days) and partly due to attempting to catch up on laundry, cleaning, work, emails, SLEEP. Finally feeling back to normal, though I'm already looking forward to my next trip (the U.P. - this weekend!) I've got wanderlust, for sure.

Acadia National Park! (that's my brother :))

Have any of you been to Maine? I was there once before 7 years ago and liked it then, but this time I fell in love. It's definitely someplace I could picture myself living (Portland in particular). It is so full of beauty, between the rocky shoreline, historic lighthouses, hills and mountains galore, Acadia National Park, oh and the pretty wildflowers! And the food selections were right up my alley. People there seem to care about what they eat. The flatbread restaurant we ate at in Portland had all organic ingredients and they even milled their own wheat. And the salad was so fresh (with Maine blueberries, yum!) The farmers' market we went to in the little town of Union (where my grandpa grew up) was small but had so much variety, including a selection of flavored goat cheeses, yum! It was so charming, with live folk musicians and such a warm, invigorating community feel. And, again, everything was organic (there is only one organic vendor at our farmers market). I felt at home.

My grandpa's 80th birthday celebration/family reunion was a relaxed but memorable day. I got to meet so many extended family members and had some really great conversations. I met my great aunt Carol for the first time (my mom's middle-namesake) and I could have talked to her for hours! She is a brilliant lady, with a PhD in Genetics(!) She relived with me the ten years her and her hubby lived in a teepee when she was around my age(!) We talked nutrition lots, and I found out that her mother (my great-grandmother) got her degree in Nutrition at Cornell way back in the day.. amazing! As I mentioned in an earlier post, I hope to pursue a Masters degree in Nutrition once hubby is a professor :) SO neat to find this out about my great-grandmother.. It's like the passion got passed down. I felt an instant connection to this lady I had never had the chance to meet. I already knew my love for cooking was passed down through my grandma (who instilled it into my mom who instilled it in me), but turns out the roots are even deeper and richer.

Anyway, I did not expect to ramble so much in this post about such things but it was just too meaningful not to gush about. If you've thought about traveling to Maine, you should definitely go! I hope to return with Joel in the not-so-distant future, since he wasn't able to join us because of his summer teaching schedule (so sad). I'm SO looking forward to his incredibly crazy summer schedule to end.. this Fall should be pretty wonderful :)