Portland Day 4 + travel to a beach

Right now Jay is laying on the couch on the bottom level of our tugboat house. Today we enjoyed lots of laughs, good food, a gorgeous day on the beach and I’m enjoyed the sounds of the Columbia River with all of the windows open from the second floor of the tughouse.

We had a late brunch at Tasty n sons that was AMAZING! Tasty potatoes, sweet biscuts, French toast and a biscut bfast sandwich with fried chicken.!

Cannon beach – about 1.5 hours west of Portland

We drove through the wilderness – winding roads, about 1,600 ft elevation at the highest point and huge trees. Seriously I cannot believe how many and how enormous the trees are in and around Portland. We spent a good chunk of time taking Polaroids at the beach, watching dogs fetch driftwood in the waves and little kids frolic in the icy cold water. We walked up and down the streets near cannon beach enjoying touristy shops and some ice cream. Our ride back into Portland was not as nice we hit lots of traffic and were whiney that we had missed our designated nap hour!

We also had a late dinner at Beast which was amazing! They have family style seating and only two seatings per night. I’m to sleepy to explain all of the dishes but just know that Jay and I ranked this meal in the top few of all time.
Celery soup:

Charcuterie plate:

Quail:

Beet salad:

Cheese plate:

Rhubarb Rosé soup:

Portland Day 3

Today was another awesome day. Everyone keeps telling us that we picked the best week to come to Portland because this is the first sunshine they have had in a long time. Jay and I are constantly amazed by the enormous trees and how green it is here. Seriously the garden/farming season is miles ahead of where we are in Columbus. Trees and flowers are in full bloom. Ramps and rhubarb are on every menu right now. Everything is so fresh.

Today we slept in and enjoyed a slightly stale voodoo donut before heading out in the afternoon. We had lunch at Grüner and really enjoyed the sunshine and heat on our way there. We shared the cured meat & cheese plate — speck, spicy coppa, chop salami,
liverwurst canapé, country pâté,fourme d’ambert, pickles, house-made pretzel, beet-pickled egg . . . . . . . . . . .

Jay had half a grüner grinder — black forest ham, spicy coppa, rabbit mortadella, fontina, pickled green tomatoes, red onion, arugula on a toasted hoagie roll and half salad.

I enjoyed the grilled rainbow trout, broccoli raab, yukon gold potatoes, sautéed radishes, horseradish beurre blanc.

We walked around town and went into several unique shops and a cool downtown target. The sun was super hot and made us tired so we enjoyed a nap at our tug house with the windows open and a view of the river.

We ate dinner at Roe – a fancy smancy seafood restaurant in the back of Block & Tackle. We sat at the chefs table and enjoyed a multi-course seafood dinner with wine pairings. We didn’t take pictures of our food (shame, shame) but did steal the paper menu to reminisce about later. All in all a wonderful day and we are ready to move to Portland and own a house boat…