J, P, S, and I came to the House of Dosas for a catch up dinner on a random weekday, after maybe a year of not seeing each other together. We ordered an appetizer and we each got our own dosa. What is a dosa? My description would be a thick, crispy crepe-like wrap filled with potatoes and meat.

Paneer 65

Paper Masala with the meat filling

The brutal truth is I didn’t like it. Maybe it’s not my type of food, maybe it was because the food was cold, or maybe I just thought the curry soup/dip in the metal tin on the 2nd picture above was way too salty (kidneys are precious). Maybe my tongue just doesn’t have taste buds for the spices in the dosa filling, but I thought it was extremely bland. The service was average, there’s a really nice lady there but the rest of the guys weren’t too useful, it seemed.

I have had a lot of time alone to think about things this past week… What do I want to do next? What do I want to continue doing? What do I think should change? H is busy with work, and his high stress job is rubbing off on me a bit, and stressing me out too, so I am very sorry in advance for snapping at anyone. It was nice to escape for a bit to Rice Lake on Sunday morning though, during the lull in the storm:

It’s very easy to get to, just off the highway, and straight down Lillooet road until you hit the parking lot at the hut. The fishermen were out already and it was just a breath of peaceful.

More about Rice Lake here:
https://www.vancouvertrails.com/trails/rice-lake/
http://vancouverhiatus.com/hiking/rice-lake.html
https://www.outdoorvancouver.ca/featured-trail-rice-lake/


You cannot control the wind, but you can direct the sail.

Started reading this new gem at The Federal Store:

The café is a new one that was opened very recently (maybe 2 or 3 weeks ago). The owners apparently fixed up the place all on their lonesome, and it looks great. Super clean lighting with a nice selection of munchies that you’d find at a general store. Great coffee (beans from Bows & Arrows) that I would come back for, especially as it’s along a very popular bike route at 10th and Quebec.

This Changes Everything. It’s been a minute since I’ve read a book that has this type of information, so progress is slow and not very steady. I should really prioritize reading (ugly people need to read more, or so I’ve heard). A very friendly patron at the shop mentioned that Naomi Klein has another book about branding and logos… I’ll have to check it out after this.

The final day of this trip was intended for the drive home. We went straight from Hood River to Feast, which we’d heard about from P, who’d heard about it from V. 

This place is amazing. The photos don’t do it justice, and there was so much food, I couldn’t try everything.

The food wasn’t perfect, as you can tell from the rib that had all the extra gunk left on it. Still, I’d definitely come back for the sheer volume and variety. You can make your own soup noodle! There’s a stir fry station! There are delicious mussels, clams, crab, cray fish, LOTS Of cocktail shrimp… And we were only there for lunch ($14)! Dinner would be a whole new ball game!

H didn’t want to leave, but everything good or bad must come to an end. Back to good old Vancouver…

CLICK HERE TO GO BACK TO DAY 1

After a full day of shopping, we were pooped and did not want to go through downtown Portland, in case of protests, even though they were mostly peaceful in that area. We ended up driving back east to Hood River, and decided to grab a quick pizza to go from Pietro’s Pizza. There was a full arcade from the 80’s or 90’s with a claw game, racing games, ball toss games... H and I were a bit too exhausted from the stress of driving to really care, but it was definitely a good way to keep guests entertained while the food was in the oven.

The place was pretty empty, but what do you expect for a Monday night? Foot ball was on. There was a family with a toddler girl, who was screaming her head off, and another young couple who looked like they were also from out of town. With the help of one of the ladies there, we only took 5 minutes to order off their extensive menu. I apologize for not remembering what we had, but it was half of something with Canadian bacon, and half of something with Alfredo sauce. While the pizza was cooking and in our haze of fatigue, we ended up winning an adorable penguin stuffy from the claw game! It was extremely huggable.

We ended up giving it to the little girl, who immediately gave it a biiiiiig squeeze and stopped making that horrible sound. Adorable. Hope she has a bright future ahead of her.




The next day the rain cleared up a bit before we hit the road, so we had a chance to walk around Westcliff Lodge:



Nice little place to stay. People here are warm and friendly, everything is clean. I’d come back in a heartbeat, there’s so much to explore around here!

WAKE UP IN THE MORNING, FEELING LIKE… not shopping.

The day was ruined by rain. I had originally hoped to hike a bit more in the Mount Hood area, but we ended up driving down to the outlets instead (le sigh). And we ate, of course.

Before that, we had to find some food to fuel the hard work that is shopping. It was past 10AM by the time we reached Portland, and H was HANGRY. How could I tell? He stopped talking. He stopped smiling. He scared a random pedestrian while storming down the street, on the hunt for food. He’s pretty scary looking when he doesn’t smile (it’s the beard).

Comfort food for breakfast at Bijou (right next Stumptown Coffee, 1 street away from Voodoo Donuts).

Left: Biscuit with ham and sausage gravy. Egg in the middle of it all.

Right: Korean pork on rice. Egg on top. Kimchi somewhere.

There was a hair in the rice.

It was still good and we were hungry so we finished it. No shame. After wolfing this down, we hit the road and made it to Woodburn, where we shopped and shopped.

..and shopped. Dinner was interesting too. More on this tomorrow.

CLICK HERE TO GO BACK TO DAY 1

Breakfast at Milo City Cafe:

Top plate: Salmon hash with sourdough and scrambled eggs

Bottom plate: Sourdough, Italian sausage, scrambled eggs, hashbrowns

In the middle of it all: COFFEE

Extremely friendly service and loads of comfort food. Go if you’re staying at the Hilton.

We started early so we could go farther. We were out of Portland before 9AM. I had so many hopes for the outdoors scene in this hood, but wet weather and lack of vehicle hat can drive over everything dampened my hopes just a bit. I wanted to visit either Lost Lake or Mirror Lake, but we made it to neither lakes… We drove through part of Mount Hood National Park, made it to Government Camp, but we really didn’t go too far because of forest service roads that my poor baby wouldn’t be able to handle. We stopped here:

Parked close to this view, where there were a few trailheads. H and I stood around, trying to decide which path to take, until 2 girls came out of the bush. They were super friendly and helpful, so we ended up going along what I believe is Buck Peak Trail. We
saw this:



Not sure if that was supposed to be the end point with the “good views of the mountain” that the girls told us about (I don’t think it was), but it was also getting dark and we still had a ways to go to get to Mt Hood. Back to the car.



No lakes today. Instead, we found the waterfalls along the Columbia Gorge!

Multnomah

 Horse Tail

Would’ve been more breathtaking if we were not already exhausted from the day’s travels and if there weren’t busloads of tourists roaming around. It’s all about perspective.

CLICK HERE TO GO BACK TO DAY 1

Cannon Beach, one of my favourite places in the world. The first views of Haystack Rock from the road are simply breathtaking – H and I paused in mid sentence, then… “woah”. This is only my 2nd time here, and clearly it still had the same effect as the 1st.

 

So cold and windy I wore 4 layers... 

We still had coffee from Seaside, but Sleepy Monk, which is found here, is where the beans were roasted. Cute little coffee shop that I’m sure we’ll visit again some other time though. I still want to catch a sunrise on this beach, maybe explore the woods in the area, and visit the brewery there.

Fast forward to arriving in Portland, after visiting the Beaverton Trader Joe’s, H bought a few things from the local Scout shop and we were just in time to see the Portland Farmer’s Market close for the day at 2PM. We were starving by then. Good thing food carts were just a few streets away!

Lamb donair.

Meat lunch special with na’an, chicken curry, and zucchini (I think?) curry.

I’m a horrible blogger – I didn’t get the names of the carts. They were just OK, and hunger certainly helped us polish these off quickly.

The next day...

CLICK HERE TO GO BACK TO DAY 1

By the time we drove over the Astoria bridge, and arrived at Coast River Inn, it was already pretty late. They say there’s wifi, but it’s so slow that there’s basically no wifi. We ended up watching the news (protests and riots in Portland downtown) and then hit the sack.
THE NEXT DAY… we walked around Seaside, looking for coffee and donuts. We found Liberty Cafe (beans from the Sleeping Monk at Cannon Beach), within walking distance of where we were staying, then we found THIS:

I almost ate the whole thing and forgot to share with H. There were chunks of bacon over a very fresh and fluffy donut base, topped with a maple frosting. Make sure you go to Dundee’s Donuts if you’re in the area.

We walked around a bit more and enjoyed our sugar + caffeine high, and luckily, the weather held up so that we could discover the breathtaking, natural beauty of the coast:

Very windy, but people still out and about.

Tourist town.

It would be so nice here in the summer when it’s warmer and the wind doesn’t try to bite your face off.

CLICK HERE TO GO BACK TO DAY 1

Day 1 of the PNW USA trip also included a visit to Caffe Laddro along Union Street:

A plain latte in my mason jar.

Nice.

It was alright - it’s no Culprit Cafe, but it ain’t horrible either. Clean enough, with a couple of crumbs, and friendly service. I’d come back in a pinch… [SIDE NOTE: As I’m writing this, I am suffering from caffeine withdrawal – chills, intestinal discomfort, headaches… I tried to go a day without coffee at work and I swear I almost DIED.]

This was enough to carry me through the 2 hour drive in bumper to bumper traffic from Seattle to Seaside, where we were staying. The highways got super dark, and it started to pour. H took over the driving after, I was clearly going to be a hazard. How do people drive so fast in such low visibility?!

We also drove over the Astoria Bridge in the dark and there was no time to make a pit stop, so no pictures. It really felt like a never ending bridge… One of the longest, most awesome bridges I’ve seen in my short time in this world.

I'm so impressed by your brave drivers and America sized things.

First off… Here’s the rough schedule of what we did:

Nov. 11 – Seattle – Part 1, Part 2

Nov. 12 – Seaside & Cannon Beach & Portland - Part 1, Part 2

Nov. 13 – Mount Hood National Park + Columbia Gorge

Nov. 14 – Shopping and Eating around Portland - Part 1, Part 2

Nov. 15 – More Shopping and Eating around Seattle

Links will be added as they become available.

Day 1, we left H’s house around 8AM and grabbed McDonald’s this is apparently how road trips start. We got to Seattle pretty quickly, the drive was pretty smooth. H was afraid he’d get arrested for his speeding ticket from 2014, which he had paid off just barely 2 days ago for the purpose of this trip. Of course, we had to walk around the pier and explored the Public Market:

Then we had lunch at Crab Pot:

It’s a unique experience, where you get to go HAM on crab, shrimp, shellfish… We had the one with oyster, for $40 each, that also came with salmon and corn. They require you to order a minimum of 2 servings, which was a bit too much for the 2 of us. The food comes out in a metal bowl, steaming hot, and the server pours it into a piece of paper over the table. As the meal progressed though, the food got cold and it wasn’t as appetizing. If there was a way to keep it hot, I probably could’ve finished it.

Also, their table cloth REEKED. I probably wouldn’t go back regularly, but I might go with others who have never been just for the experience.

Anyways, back to the daily grind. Everybody should be back in the office today.

Visited Boiling Point with P. Rice is just normal rice, soup is not too much MSG as I have not had water for 5 hours since eating this, and still do not feel thirsty. I had the House Special, choice #1, full of smelly tofu and pig intestine. DELICIOUS. Will go back to try the other flavours.

Not much time to write… Hitting the road tomorrow morning to see what it’s like in the US of A, and will be back on Tuesday!

Dinner on Friday with one of the J’s, while H was stuck at work. We went to Anh and Chi for some modern Vietnamese food. I had heard of this place through the wonderful world of Instagram, where they did a great job of showcasing their food. Driving by sometimes, they always have a huge line up. Luckily we got there early enough and only waited 15 minutes versus who knows how long the rest of the people waited.

They still had the classic “comfort foods”, but it was plated more esthetically and modernized. There were some twists on some of the dishes, like the satays and a different style of spring roll. They offer vegetarian options, which is always popular in Vancouver. We also had a couple drinks, and the bill came to just under $70. Don’t know if I’d come back at night… Maybe for lunch one day.

Bun bo hue, meat on a stick satay, drinks.

Spring roll was sticky and sweet.

Old Asian Lady drink, and behind it, the Dragonball. Both were good. Better than the food.

Decided we weren’t ready to go home yet! More drinks after, at the Metropole, met up with the other J and her gal p als. Really enjoyed my first time there, I’m coming back for the cheap drinks ($3.50 shots) and pinball!

Sometimes, when you add in one little detail, the change will throw you off completely and you might freeze, forget everything you were able to do before. Go back to the basics of what you were doing, and get back to what you know to reset... - Yoga Instructor Jibber Jabber.