My college roommate was also the first person I ever traveled with as an adult. She'd moved to Amsterdam and London for a year and I went for a visit, my first trip abroad, when I was 29.
It was a great trip. I still have the awesome leather jacket I bought at one of the flea markets in Amsterdam because I'd packed too light.
That vacation was a long time ago, and while I was fairly certain we'd be good on this one, nine days with one person whom you haven't lived with, or spent more than a couple days with in a long time, is a long time.
I'm happy to say our trip went off without a hitch. We had good conversation and many periods where nothing was said and that was good too. We had a lot of laughs and we knew when it was time to say goodbye at the end of each day and go to our separate rooms.
My friend is a candy-maker by profession and also, an avid food lover. She has cooked and baked professionally, and I'm fairly certain she's also bartended. Or could have as she's also an experienced mixologist who can recreate just about anything, (and almost always better), that I've ever been served.
The first couple of days we weren't completely smart about feeding ourselves and that does not bode well for ladies like us. We'd think we could 'just eat breakfast somewhere...' and the Oregon coast is fairly remote and hitting the road early means it isn't always easy to find food or coffee.
I'm sure we didn't make up the word, but we decided 'changry', (lack of coffee, very hungry = angry), would be the end of our happy trip and we were more responsible afterwards.
As I wrote, we ate seafood all four days on the coast. Every last bit was fresh, and delicious, and prepared simply. We decided on the drive inland to Portland, that the surf portion of our vacation was complete and we were onto turf.
We had lunch here, with coffees before hand next door.
We ate dinner here, and had a drink afterwards across the street, in a pretty little bar where I managed to shatter a martini glass on the concrete bartop, in an accidental and slightly staggering exit. (They poured with a heavy hand, which is not necessarily a bad thing.)
Waiting for a cab after that, I was accosted by a homeless man carrying balloons when he told me he was giving the balloons to a nice kid and I drunkenly and stupidly replied, 'no thank you'.
As you might imagine, words were hurled in my direction, with this particularly choice insult for the finale:
'you'd better wise up and get a hair cut'
My friend swears she wet her pants, deciding in that moment that the similarily drunk dude thought I was a young boy. (You had to be there.)
The rest of the trip continued to be a food fest. We had an amazing lunch here, followed by an equally amazing dinner here, and then drinks at the hotel bar. My friend ordered a blackberry martini that was a lemon drop with blackberry puree, no simple syrup crap for this bevvie and it was amazing.
It was decided that a bit of her drink would be delicious in my moscow mule and it was. So much so, blackberries were pureed for her BBQ/brunch/lets have an impromptu party Sunday afternoon, and added to vodka, ginger beer and a bit of mint. It might just be my spring cocktail.
Portland is a fun city and I can't wait to visit again. Although our hotel was in a great location and super comfortable, the truth is, I'm too old for hipster hotels. Even better is that I'm happy about that fact.
