Portland Favs

Portland has been on our travel bucketlist as long as we've liked craft beer, so years. A few months ago my parents asked if they could come see Grayson for Memorial holiday day and instead we suggested a family vacation. Since my sister lives in Seattle and my brother's family is in Chicagoland, we agreed upon Portland.

To save cost on hotels we looked at Airbnbs. It was impossible to find a place with four bedrooms and at least three bathrooms; so we settled on renting two two bedroom , two bathroom condos in Pearl District at Block 17 (managed by Stay Aflred; found on Homeaway; they even had a pack and play for us). The location was unbeatable; we could walk to everything, and having two units across the hall from one another allowed us to hang out together but also have some breathing room (much needed with seven adults and two young kids).

Here's a few highlights from our trip:

Day 1

• Walked to breakfast at Isabel Pearl

• Coffee at Case Study

• We used public transit to get to Washington Park. This park is huge and houses the zoo, children's museum, rose garden (free) and Japanese Gardens.
• We started walking to the children's playground then we realized there was a free shuttle to get there! Portland's public transit system (trains and buses) is extensive and easy to use. Google maps navigates it for you and you can buy an all day pass for $5

• We walked the trail out of the park and hopped on a bus to get back downtown
• Lunch at Deschutes (the quinoa "burger" was awesome!)

• Walked to Italian dinner at Mama Mia Trattoria (yum! we were able to book reservations in advance. Our biggest fear was trying to find dinner for 9 people so we booked ahead where we could)
• After dinner beers at Bridgeport Brew

Day 2

• Walked to breakfast at Daily Cafe. It's an order at the counter type of place but all of our food was delicious!

• After there we walked down to Portland's Saturday market; which is a huge vendor type market-like an art fair. It was worth checking out but after a while everything looked the same and we left

• The majority of the day was an unofficial brewery tour. We went to Wayfinder Beer, Hair of the Dog, Cascade, Rouge and Modern Times. Cascade was the crowd favorite with their sours and desserts. We had lunch at Hair of the Dog and Modern Times hadn't been on our list but we walked by and are glad we stopped in. Their IPAs are awesome!

• For dinner we went to the Kennedy Schoolhouse. We took Lyft to get there. It's an old schoolhouse converted to hotel, theater and restaurant. It was an interesting place! The old classrooms were the hotel rooms! 

Day 3

• All of the lists raved about Mother's Bistro for breakfast/brunch. They open at 8am so we got there right when they opened and were seated right away. It did not disappoint! By the time we left there were crowds waiting, so if you go, go early or be prepared to wait.
• We were itching to get out into the pacific northwest woods, so we hopped in the car and went to the closest waterfall hike we could find which ended up being Latourell Falls, about 30 min from Portland. Again, another crowded spot but thankfully we were able to find parking. The hike was about 2 miles and pretty easy coming from Colorado elevation. The hike itself was beautiful!

• On the way back we stopped at hoping for lunch but they had a limited brunch menu. Instead we went to Ex Novo Brewing and had a great lunch with good beer.
• We regrouped and walked to Salt and Straw ice cream. The line, as anticipated, was insane! About two blocks long. Thankfully my girlfriend had given me a tip to skip the line and order pre-packaged pints to go; so that's just what we did and even bought a cone to scoop our own ice cream. It was fantastic! Rhubarb crumble! And salted caramel!

• From there we walked to Powell Book Store; which was huge and intimating!
• We had to follow our tradition of Sunday Night Pizza Night and our family joined so we went to nearby Oven and Shaker. We had no issues walking in and getting seated about 5:30p (but when we left it was packed). We all agreed this was our favorite dinner

Day 4:

• With just my family and my parents left this morning, we walked to Slabtown area and had brunch at Besaws. It was so good my parents went back there for dinner that night!

• We also wanted to check out Forest Park, the largest US park in a city, so we walked some of Lower Macleay Trail (which was wide enough to take the bob stroller on and we weren't the only ones. We saw three other families with bobs)

Flying with an 8 month old wasn't too bad. We checked luggage and the carseat and took the stroller with us through the airport. Coming back, we checked everything and wore him in the ergo through the airport. It was so nice to have just him and the diaper bag! The flight back was a little difficult for Grayson. It was naptime but he had issues staying asleep so he'd wait and be cranky. Even though I nursed at takeoff, it seemed like his body couldn't adjust to the pressure on his ears because as soon as we were off the plane, he was fine!

Fort Collins: Bike 'n' Beer

One thing we loved about our first Colorado winter (besides being a little over an hour's drive from mountains for snowboarding), was that surprisingly there was much less snow than expected (which wasn't hard to compare to Chicago who had their worst winter on record in 50+ years).

 

If you're followed me for any time now, you know what beer nerds we are (thanks Ben!).  A CO bucket list item was to do a tour at New Belgium Brewery, an hour from Fort Collins.  Easy enough, right? Not so fast...although the tours are free, they release tickets online typically 60-90 days in advance and they "sell out" like that. So when Ben booked us tickets in November for a tour in January, it wasn't surprising; what was, was that it turned out to be a sunny, 75-degree day!

 

One of our long time friends moved to Ft Collins a few months after we moved to Denver.  He's a biker and beer junky, so he guided us on a self-led brewery-bike tour around Fort Collins.

 

First up was Funkwerks. A chill little spot with some amazing potent beer. My fav is the Tropic King IPA.

 

From there, we scooted over to New Belgium for our tour time, passing Ft Collins Brewery and Odell on the way with our golden tickets.

All New Belgium Brewing (NBB) employees get a Fat Tire cruiser bike after their first anniversary (and after their 5th anniversary, they get a week-paid trip to Belgium; JEALOUS!)

 

The tour itself is comprehensive (giving some great background not only to the company but to brewing) as well as impressive. Their facility is monsterous!

I won't go all geeked out on you here, but our favorite beers are sours (yes, you read right); which typically age in barrels for a year minimum.  Therefore, this room was by far our fav!

Another great  stop on the tour was the packaging facility, where we were privy to a new canned beer, prior to it's release to the public; Snapshot, a wheat perfectly refreshing for summer.

But, the highlight of the NBB tour is the twirly-slide down into the taproom. We'd been given a heads up on this and were told but to scream, but yours truly couldn't help herself:)

From there we went back down the road to Odell; which has a beautiful facility and huge beer garden. I love their Mycenary IPA (when we can find it; the first time was Duluth!) and their Easy Street Wheat is a very drinkable summer beer.

Next on the bike de beer tour was Pateros Creek Brewery. I opted for a pumpkin beer (not on the menu) and was quite pleased; the boys were quiet pleased to find a game room; including fooseball.

We had a quick stop at Equinox Brewing before deciding we needed food; so where else to go than a craft beer bar, The Mayor of Old Town?

We night-capped with oyster-beer shots at Black Bottle Brewery.  As you can imagine, this was not a sober decision! ;) However, we had a blast throughout the day and can't wait to repeat it!

Cheers!

I apologize I have struggled to give you regular updates and posts. Between work and our house search, the month of January has flown by.

Remember how I said there was one house that might be it? Well we went back last weekend and I truly felt it was. I could picture us cozying up in the living room, entertaining in the dining and hearing the pitter-patter of future kiddos in the hall.  However, Ben didn't feel the same. Although heartbroken, I partially wondered if I'd convinced myself this was the house because it was the closest to meeting our criteria of any houses we'd seen.

Lucky for me (and Ben and our realtor) the house went under contract last week and the search blazed on. Our weekend plans didn't involve any house hunting, because there was nothing for us to see. Then Friday a house came on the market we liked so we set up to visit it Saturday morning.  At 9:30pm on Friday night another house came on the market and although late, we text our landlord to see if we could add that to Saturday's list.

The first house was an automatic no when there was no yard or outside space. The inside was even wonkier. The second house surprised us that they were having an open house. I think we'd been in the place about five minutes when we turned to one another and said "this place is awesome".  By the time we reached the backyard, we were asking if it was fairly priced and Ben was shocked to hear the asking price, much lower than he would have thought compared to others we've seen.

And then we got upstairs to the master suite and it was a done deal. We wanted to put an offer in.  Knowing the hot location, size, finishes and price, it had to be that day. We called our lenders we've been speaking with and ran some numbers before deciding on our offer.  That night we received a call that another offer had been put in (this was less than 24 hours of being on the market, people!!) and we'd need to increase about $5K have a chance at getting the place.

$5K relates to about $25/month...and we were so not going to lose the house over $25/mo! So we upped our offer and crossed our fingers.  After going back and forth today on contract dates, I am SO happy and excited to say we are under contract!! Cheers!

2014.

Here's what we're looking at.

Mainly exploring Colorado and all it has to offer. I've loved winter (or lack thereof compared to Chibera), with mild temps in Denver and snow galore in the mountains.  Although, I'd lie if I said I weren't most excited for summer. I can't wait to explore more of Denver on foot and bike and explore Colorado via hikes, camping, rafting and mountains.

 

Ben will continue to brew (although there's been a recent damper on that activity. Who knew that electric stove tops didn't get on hot as gas, this resulting in the purchase of a turkey fryer. We have yet to that out...) and I will continue to cook (I'm so excited for this cookbook I got at Christmas. The recipes have me salivating). Together, we will continue to drink craft beer :)

 

The last book on our 2014 shelf is the white one.  Part of the decision to move was the affordability of buying a single family home in Denver proper.  We've looked online for months (actually even prior to moving) and now with our lease ending mid-March, we've transitioned our search from online to in person.

 

So far we've toured eight homes and crossed 51 off our list (which doesn't include the homes we decided weren't even worth a second thought).  We have our list of wants and wishes and have not found the house just yet; although we do have one from last weekend lingering in our minds.

 

I am excited to keep you updated as we move forward in the process!



Quick Deal

I'm recovering from yesterday's adventures in snowboarding. If you follow me on instagram (@justcallmehaha), you had a chance to see what I was up to. There was practically no traffic due to the Bronco's game and there was fresh snow (in the mountain, not Denver) galore! 



Now I finally get why people get excited for fresh powder; it's SO much easier!



Of course, I'm still a beginner so my neck is a bit stiff from some falls, but I'm really improving. I even went down the bunny hill without any spills. Go me!



Between the mountains Sunday, and a run outside Saturday (only my second outdoor run since the move), I feel more like myself and more active...



...which is good considering Saturday night we went to Bull and Bush Brewery for dinner. When we came out in Summer 2011, our friends brought us here for dinner. It was my first brewery of Denver. It now seemed kind of surreal that two and a half years later, we're out to dinner that. Since I was starving, I succumbed to the burger of the month: bacon cheese burger with grilled cheese sandwiches for buns.

Here's a quadruple deal to shop: Banana Republic, Gap, and Old Navy have 35% off online purchase today with code NEWSTYLE and Piperlime is joining in the fun for 25% off purchases. Plus save an extra 30% on Piperlime sale items with code HAPPY. Don't forget ebates for another 7% back!

Don't understand ebates? Read here.

 

Week Recap

 Me oh my was this past week a doozie! Both the Bulls and Blackhawks were in town and we planned to take full advantage. After all, most Bulls tickets for standing room (at the tip top of the United Center) are typically around $100, so now that we've in Denver we felt like we could actually afford tickets! Then I was pleasantly surprised by a coworker with free 10th row tickets...free is even better!

 So instead, we spent a little more on Blackhawks vs. Avalanche tickets than we planned.  The game was terrible (for Hawks fans) but we did have some fun before the game!

 

 That was Tuesday night; Thursday night was the Bulls game. Darn, TBS scheduling meant we were the second game of the night, starting at 8:30 MT! Once again, the game was another dud as a Chicago fan.  The most exciting part of the game was 80's Night half time perfomance by Tiffany ("I think we're alone now..."

 The new screens at the Pepsi Center are insanely large!

With the late night Thursday, we had planned to lay low Friday and go snowboarding (for my first time!) on Saturday...however, we didn't realize how strict the rule of signing up for lessons 48 hours in advance was (you'd better believe I don't dare set foot on the mountain without lessons first!), so instead we checked out a few breweries.

Our Mutual Friend Brewing will be celebrating their year anniversary in two weeks.  This was the cutest and quaintest little brew pub. It was so cozy for a cold night!

 

 From there we headed over to Epic Brewing, which has a much more commercial (and bright) atmosphere, but some awesome berry! I had their stout mixed with a kriek (tart beer) for a chocolate cherry flavored beer combo. Yum! Epic's story is pretty interesting. They're from Utah and recently wanted to expand but were told they weren't allowed; instead, the set up camp in Denver and now brew three beers that are only available in CO

 And of course, leaving Osc alone for a few hours, he was rowdy and excited for us to get home.

Sunday morning we hopped over to Crema Coffee House, one of the supposed top coffee shops in Denver, and I'd believe it. Not only was the coffee good (although a little fruity for our liking), but their cinnamon roll (warmed) was amazing!

 

Later I met my first "friends" in Denver, some girls from a message board I frequent for an amazing brunch at Roija downtown, Denver's top restaurant according to Yelp. No pics, but trust me, you want to try their raspberry marscapone french toast. My mouth is salivating just thinking about it. The company was great too. It's so funny to meet people in person that you "know" from the internet.  I know it sounds weird, Ben thinks it is, but really there weren't any lulls in the conversation! It was refreshing!

The rest of the day was spend ordering our holiday cards (woohoo!), shopping for Thanksgiving (yep, we're staying here and having our first Thanksgiving on our own. Keep your fingers crossed that our beer-brined, of course, turkey turns out!) and relaxing with my boys.

Hope you had a great weekend!