PDX Happenings

Unfortunately the day, and hence my birthday, is winding down, but I wish it would never end as it was the perfect day. I awoke this morning to the beautiful Portland sunshine, and an overly jolly Hadley sitting in her swing. There is nothing better than waking up and seeing her little face with a great big smile. Heather made me french toast w/ blueberry syrup with breakfast, which was so good. I LOVE blueberry syrup. Check out Hadley eyeing my french toast. You can also catch a glimpse of “white lightning” in the background. My pet name for my new bike.

After breakfast we took a stroll around the park with the dogs. Lots of people were out and about enjoying the morning. When we returned I went for a nice, long bike ride. I recently bought a road bike, and since the weather has been so rainy I’ve barely had the chance to ride, but today I wasn’t to be denied.

When I returned from my ride, we decided to head down to the Eastbank Esplanade downtown. It’s a walking/biking path along the Willamette River. We started in SE Portland and did a big loop that went across the river to the West side, and then back to the East side. The Cinco de Mayo fiesta was going on so we go to see some interesting folks, and ever heard a little Spanish music. The smells coming from inside the fenced in fiesta smelled divine. As we made our way back to the car, we had worked up a bit of an appetite, so we decided to go out for lunch.

We had heard of a new brewpub opening up in SE, so we decided to head there. It’s called Hopworks Urban Brewpub (HUB). It labels itself as Portland’s only eco brewpub. Everything was green. From capturing and reusing rain water to re-using the heat from the pizza oven to heat the brewing water to using only organic condiments; this place was as environmentally friendly as they come. Very cool. Heather and I started off with the beer sampler. Always a good idea to try a brewery’s sample tray so you can get an idea of what all of the beers taste like. I’m not a big IPA fan as it is generally too hoppy (bitter) for me, but HUBs was actually pretty good. The Stout even had espresso in it – wouldn’t be Portland without your beer and coffee. It was my favorite. We ended up buying a growler to take home of the Velvet ESB, which was Heather’s favorite. It was really good. The food was delicious too. We split the steak sandwich and black pepper & garlic sausage.

On our way home we decided to stop out at Sauvie Island to grab some veggies. This is generally where we get our veggies in the summer is it is cheaper than the stores and it’s always good to support our local growers.

To finish off the day, we’re enjoying everyone’s favorite ice cream cake from DQ. NoDak crew, do they have ice cream cakes at the Dairy Barn? Just curious. I think all ice cream shops should carry ice cream cakes. It’s the perfect blend of ice cream and that delicious crushed cookie in the middle. Mmmm.