Seattle, with pride

Christina and I ended up in Seattle.

We were staying at Gig Harbor, about a 45 minute drive away from Seattle and got directions from her aunt, with whom we were staying. It was seemingly simple, straightforward. So we drove, and drove, screaming our favorite country music songs in the car as we went along. As we approach our exit, we notice that traffic is really backed up. We were marveling at the Space Needle when Christina noticed a flag on top. It is World Cup time, and I thought it looked like a German flag. Had the German community of Seattle gotten ahold of Space Needle and put their flag on top? We got a closer...and saw that the flag was striped, like the German flag, but not 3 stripes, and not the right colors, it was...rainbow striped.

We had just stumbled upon Seattle's Gay Pride Weekend. So parking was difficult to find, of course we got lost, and any normal priced parking was jacked up to at least $10 for the day. Oh well!

We found parking and went to walk around. In my typical fashion, I had the names and addresses of chocolate shops of the city that we had to find. Among other various landmarks that were must sees. We parked by the Space Needle, the big plaza and fountain were filled with happy people, singing and dancing, running through the fountain, and just being merry. The atmosphere was great, everybody was so friendly.

We then went in search of Theo, a well known chocolate factory that supposedly gave great tours. We walked and walked and walked. We were on a mission, we had walked at least a mile when, we stumbled across a bakery. We smelled it before we saw it. From the smell, our eyes searched until we found Macrina's Bakery on First street between Battery and Wall Sts. We detoured from our search of Theo to going to this bakery. We were first impressed by the size of the kitchen. It was about half the size of the city block and a little below ground level, so we had a perfect view of the kitchen. There were huge racks for cookie sheets and a petite woman working away in the bakery. We watched in awe. Finally we shuffled on into the bakery. Everything looked delicious. The red velvet cupcakes were plump and inviting. The prepared sandwiches looked fresh and crisp. We found the day old basket which consisted of all of the day old cookies for half off. Being recently graduated travelers, we thought this would be the best bet for us. We asked if they would bring the basket closer so we could get a better look. The

basket was placed on the counter in front of us and we oohed and aahed. We ended up choosing 4 cookies, a peanut butter cookie, a molasses/ginger cookie, a chocolate chip/espresso cookie with dried apricot, and an oatmeal cookie. After sitting down outside and beginning to nibble at each one, Christina decided we needed a glass of milk. We assured each other that we would collectively eat half of each of the cookies, adding up to a total of one cookie each, and pack the other four half eaten cookies away in our bags to take home for the following day.

That didn't happen.

We ate all four cookies, which means we ate two cookies each. These were not your "fun-sized" cookies either. That's something I never understood, what is so fun about a cookie or a candy bar being an inch big? If you ask me that's no fun. Anyways.

This is the ginger/molasses cookie. (Above) It was chewy and wonderful. I highly recommend this bakery if you are ever in Seattle. And to the right is the oatmeal cookie which had all sorts of nuts and dried fruit in it. A beautiful woman also told us that brunch there was amazing and I always take the advice of beautiful women.

We figured since we had already walked over a mile in search of a chocolate shop, that we should continue the search. So along we walked, extremely full and content with our recent cookie gluttony. We walked some more stopping in little boutiques along the way. Seattle is full of quirky boutiques. We saw several shops that advertised and sold products made of recycled goods. I was confused by the extremely expensive price tags on purses made of recycled skirts and yoga-mat bags made of old pillow cases, I will assume that the money goes to support the local artist, in which case, it's a good cause!

Finally when we saw Pike's Place Market, one of the main attractions we'd been told we could not miss in Seattle, we decided to give up our search for chocolate and settle for the fish and produce market. This would probably be better for our health anyways.

Pike's Place was awesome!!! We walked through vibrantly colored alleys of vegetable and fruit and sampled

pickled asparagus, spiced honey and thai peanut dipping oils. I felt as if I were at the covered market in Morocco, although with a much more Western feel. I tried shea butter lotions and creams guaranteed to cure my eczema. I bought a little bushel of champagne grapes and walked through the market eating the smaller-than-pea-sized morsels. I even fed the guy cleaning the ice they keep the fish on. He gave me great advice. He told me if I had a few days (which I didn't) to drive north, I should drive up on some back road, called Chuckanut for the best oysters I'll ever have in my life. If you get the chance to do so, do it! And tell me about it! Otherwise it's on my lifelong to-do list. Here to the right we have a picture of Pike's Place Market.

Next we stumbled across a cheese shop. Beecher's Cheese Shop. We bought two cheeses. A goat cheese with orange zest and pecans and Flagship, a Beecher's classic. It's "a semi-hard cow's milk cheese with a uniquely robust, nutty flavor. It is carefully aged for one year under the watchful eye of the cheesemaker to fully develop its complex flavor and ever-so-slight crumble. See http://www.beechershandmadecheese.com/index.html for more info.

Portland - Chocolate and Roses

We slept in today. Until 8:30. Again breakfast from Mama B's bottomless sack of food and hit the trail.

The first intended stop was Sahagún, a chocolate shop in Portland recommended to me by a like-minded chocolate lover. It was very disappointingly closed. I had eaten a tiny breakfast in anticipation of good hot chocolate. Oh well. On to our next destination, Portland's Rose Gardens in Washington Park. I had looked it up on the map before leaving the loft and following the theme of Portland being small and easy to navigate by foot, we had decided to walk. It turned out to be quite the uphill trek. We never found the street on which we were supposed to turn, but asked for directions and discovered we were much closer than we thought. The gardens were beautiful and well worth any hike. After marveling at hundreds of varieties of roses, we found a park bench to read in the intoxicating smell of roses. A very relaxing way to spend the Friday.

Next we headed down the hill to downtown Portland. We stumbled upon Cacao (at 414 SW 13th Ave.) a chocolate shop we had read about. We went in and were mystified by all of the chocolate. Christina bought some caramels, with which she was very pleased. And we split "A Flight of Three," which was 3 demitasse cups of drinking chocolate. One milk chocolate infused with cinnamon, one dark chocolate with cayenne pepper and ginger and the third "Rivoli" which was just a dark, 72% cacao drink. All were thick, warm and delicious. The woman who helped us had a bit of an attitude. I asked a question and was rudely corrected by her. Reflecting on her manner outside, as we drank our chocolate, we decided that she had just had a bad day. That was a more pleasant conclusion than her being an unhappy woman, angry with her life. Maybe it was the chocolate.

We decided to go to Powell's again. We looked up books on Portland for more Happy Hours and Chocolate Shops to visit. Also, Chocolate Shops in Seattle, anticipating our weekend trip tomorrow.

Next we walked around, to be completely frank, we were just killing time until Happy Hour at 4:00 pm. We went into an adorable Vintage Store, Portland seems to be full of them. We also went into Pearl Bakery (at 102 NW 9th St.), which we had read about in a book about great Portland eateries. The service here was beyond exceptional. Brittany, the young lady behind the counter was extremely friendly and after we had made our selection of a ginger cookie and a multi-grain roll, told us to pick something for her to sample out. We chose the Almond Cake. It was perfect. Just the right consistency, dense yet light. It was not overbearingly almondy and had a light orange glaze. The ginger cookie was delicious. It had a crisp rim, the middle was wonderfully chewy and the entire thing was coated in crystalline sugar. I haven't had the roll yet, that is for breakfast tomorrow morning.

We then headed back to Kenny & Zuke's Delicatessen (at 1038 SW Stark St), another place recommended by a friend. I've found that that's a great way to travel. Ask all of your friends if they've been to or lived in your destination city and what they recommend. But don't limit yourself to just recommendations and be open-minded. Back to this deli. We had passed by it a couple times and it looked fabulous but also had read in a book that it had a great Happy Hour. Being broke, it was the perfect option. We each had a beer. Christina ordered a cream ale and me an IPA. Christina's was much better than mine, it tasted like a cream soda! Christina then ordered the Reuben Sliders. I had never had a Reuben before and was very impressed! Again, the service here was wonderful and when I went to the deli to ask the different between the 2 types of lox, the woman behind the counter gave me a sample of each. We spent a good 2 hours there and were very pleased with our experience.

After "dinner," realizing that I actually only had some of Christina's Reuben, and a beer, I decided I wanted chocolate. A conclusion I often come to after a mini meal, as I'd much rather eat chocolate than most savory food. So we headed back to Cacao and I had a full order of the Rivoli dark drinking chocolate.

We walked back to the Loft and I fell asleep. I woke up with enough time left in the evening to update this blog and plan our Seattle trip for the weekend.

Stay tuned!

Portland - Urban Camping

We are staying in the Pearl District of Portland, at a friend's loft. This couple is fabulous and the first thing I noticed about their loft is that there is no television!! Rather, there are books everywhere! And great artwork on the walls, Picassos, a Breakfast at Tiffany's poster but in Italian (Colazione da Tiffany) and hand woven rugs. My words can do this loft little justice. And photographs would just be cheesy. So you will have to take my word for it.

We woke up much refreshed after our 14 hour day on the road. We had breakfast from Mama B's (Christina's nickname for my mom) sack of food she had packed us and hit the road.

Since we had spent so much time in the car the first day, we decided today had to be on foot.

Our first stop was Powell's Books. The self-acclaimed "City of Books," truly is. We got lost, wondering from the Red Room to the Purple Room to the Rose Room. Any book lover, actually, anybody could find something that suits their taste. I spent over an hour perusing the recipe book section and the books on chocolate. I briefly stopped at the shelf on Careers and Soul-Searching, when I was feeling ambitious but quickly left when I remembered, I don't want a job. Not a job in the traditional sense at least, one that is constricting, or only gives me limited vacation time. I need a job that I set my own hours and am my own boss.

We were walking around when we saw a long line in a plaza downtown. Our curiosity got the best of us and we wondered over, only to discover a semi-truck with the two magical names "Ben & Jerry's" printed on the side, parked in the plaza. There were people wearing bright red t-shirts handing out free ice cream. Jack pot. We got in line. I spotted street vendors selling food. My friend, who lives in Portland had recommended them for great, affordable food. Christina stood in line while I went and got a burrito from a vendor advertising "Honkin' Huge Burritos." I ordered a vegetarian burrito (there was no other option) on a whole wheat tortilla with plain yogurt instead of sour cream and both pico de gallo and a more traditional hot sauce. When asked what kind of salsa I wanted, I asked for my options and the woman responded by pouring both salsas over a plate of tortilla chips. Smart woman, not only did she earn herself a tip, she also gained a loyal customer, who believes in word-of-mouth and word-of-blog, so if you are ever in Portland, look for Shelly's Honkin' Burritos, or Shelly's Burrito Garden. Although I had ordered a small burrito, it was huge, and enough for Christina and I to share, and follow with our (free!) scoop of Ben & Jerry's chocolate fudge brownie ice cream.

Photo worthy street sign(s)

With our bellies full, we headed for the Portland Public Library. A beautiful building with an adorable gift shop run by the Friend's of the Library. I had never seen a gift shop at a library! I love public libraries. All libraries for that matter. It was too cold in the library, and so we decided to go look for a park to read. In between napping and reading, we enjoyed the Southwest park of Portland.

We then decided to wonder around some more. We stumbled upon Benessere, an olive oil and vinegar shop at 907 SW 9th Ave. What a surprise! We sampled honey ginger balsamic vinegar, strawberry balsamic, truffle oils and many more. The shop keeper was very friendly and I highly recommend this shop for Portland visitors, food connoisseurs or anybody for that matter! All of the oils and vinegars were neatly arranged in metal barrels with spigots for pouring, on two aisles in the center of the store. We left the shop with our tongues tingling from drinking balsamic vinegar out of tiny plastic sample cups. Very worthwhile.

Next we stopped at Anthropologie, my favourite clothing store, and we bought matching shirts, again. Christina and I now have about 5 articles of matching clothing in our wardrobe, all from Anthro. :)

It was Happy Hour, so naturally, we had to find a restaurant for a drink. There are literally thousands of restaurants, pubs, bars and cafés in Portland. We stopped in a cute Latinesque restaurant called ¡Oba! Christina is acquiring a taste for beer and so she ordered a Widmer Hefeweizen, a local beer and I had a lemon drop. And then I had an Oregon Marionberry Margarita. We sat at a table on the side of the restaurant and enjoyed the afternoon sun. The service at this place was great and the drinks delicious.

We then walked to Trader Joe's to pick up dinner fixings and headed back to the Loft. Christina made sautéed chicken and vegetables with Dijon Mustard and basil dressing with wild brown rice. We spent the remainder of the evening reading and then decided to take a night stroll. Our stroll turned into circumnativating downtown Portland and picking out places to visit the following day.

We learned from our experiences today that Portland is much smaller than we expected and very easy and convenient to travel by foot.

Day 1 of Road Trip

I sit here in Myrtle Creek, Oregon, at an adorable coffee shop (Soco Coffee Co.) with great pastries and very tasteful decor. It's right off I-5 and well worth the stop. We stopped in as we needed a break and some caffeine. The original plan was to camp in Mt. Shasta. But we arrived in Mt. Shasta much before we expected to, and decided to soldier on, and make it to Portland in 1 day. Christina ordered a huge, crispy peanut butter cookie and I had a Not So New (day old) [but just as delicious!] pastry, an Orange Chocolate Explosion (if I recall correctly) which was a moist orange bundt cake with chocolate frosting.

Christina and I departed from Pacific Grove a few minutes after 6:00 am this morning. Our car was packed with camping gear, a duffle (each) of clothes, our backpacks which contained our precious computers, a cooler and sack of food packed by my Syrian mother, God forbid we get hungry. And, everybody knows that there are no places to get food from Pacific Grove, CA to Portland, OR. In her defense, she wanted to save us money, to spend on other things, like chocolate, well, she didn't say that, but I will. We drove, and drove, and drove through thick fog leaving PG, and then through hot sun in the central valley. We were in awe of Mt. Shasta, which we nicknamed Shasty baby or Shasta Bear.

Shasta Bear

We stopped in Shasta and had a little picnic. Smoked salmon and cream cheese sandwhiches along with carrots, overlooking the Lake and dam. We loaded ourselves back up in the car and were off, again, our next stop being Myrtle Creek. We listened to David Sedaris' "Me Talk Pretty One Day." If you have not already read it, I highly recommend you do so. I recommend even more that you listen to Mr. Sedaris on tape, or MP3, I guess this is the 21st century. We were listening to him as we drove into Portland, we were screaming of laughter and my eyes were so full of tears I thought I might wreck the car. Needless to say, we made it safely.

Me, taking photographs with my cell phone,

to send to our less fortunate friends,

who have things like work and responsibilities

and could not accompany us on our trip.

If one must pose for photos, and does not possess model capabilities for posing...

This is the life

"This is the life" sighed Inma, the director of the study abroad program in which I participated 2 falls ago in Cordoba, Spain. We lay on the warm sand in La Jolla, California. Although it was completely overcast, the weather was very pleasant and we were enjoying one another's company, along with another student with whom I had studied abroad with. We watched a surf competition and chatted. To her, this was a typical Sunday in Southern California, and maybe it is, although it was the first time I had ever seen a surf competition and I rarely go to the beach to lounge.

We hadn't seen each other since I left Spain in December 2008. According to all the students on the program, past and present, she is the program Mommy. She is fluent in both English and Spanish (not to mention Italian among others) and so when we were homesick or did not understand something about Spanish culture, our host families, or bureaucracy, she was there to explain it to us, in perfect, British accented English. She also knew all the best places to go in Cordoba, for tapas, wine bars, etc. She always was pleasant and helped us with contacts, or just plain giving advice. She never did anything FOR us, she just guided us, pointed us in the right direction, and let us find our own way. For her I am thankful. She is one of the most balanced people I know. She is so lively and natural. She can have a good time just about anywhere. She will get up and dance at a dinner party, or drink sangria with you in the back, she loves to make conversation and does so with everybody. She is a beautiful person and a wonderful soul, I hope you have an Inma in your life.

I also got to thinking, human interactions are really beautiful. I never understood why there was such a stigma about people spending time with people outside of their age group. I have always had friends who are much older and younger than myself. I love it. I feel like I learn so much from them and when I talk about things that I think are "normal" or "outrageous" I hear their perspective. It's a wonderful thing. My 12 year old problems were quite silly when I explained them to a friend going through a divorce, or another friend who had just lost a loved one cancer. I guess this was something I always yearned for as all of my family, aunts, uncles, cousins, grandparents, etc. lived halfway across the world from me. So I adopted my family. All of the neighbors growing up on my block became my aunts and uncles, I won't say grandparents, so as to not offend anybody, but I had a hefty lot of aunts and uncles. I spent my weekends traveling from one house to the next, enjoying a cup of tea with Sally from down the street and cookies at Chris and Jeff's. I would accompany Margaret to the post office and we'd stop at the cafe downtown for a brownie, and occasionally she'd slip a "bad word" when somebody cut her off. Tony next door had me help with the yard and Joel even employed me in his living room lab. All that I'm trying to get out of all of this is that we can learn so much from all of the people in our lives, even if we just have a conversation with them. We often times find ourselves so caught up in our to do lists, run this errand, and that errand, go to this store and call that person and forget where we are, that there are other humans around us from whom we can learn so much and brighten our days.

Only the Rich are Beautiful

I work at a high end Chocolate shop in an upscale "mall" in Del Mar. Del Mar is what my peers and I would refer to as bougie. What that word means, to me, is extravagant, excessive, and refers to the unnecessary displays of wealth of the upper class. My friend came to work with me the other day, she had some studying to do and would accompany me at work, not to mention enjoy the perks of my working at a chocolate shop, coffee, tea and chocolates, the perfect study aids.

We people watched the entire time. Although this is one of my favorite pass-times, it was different here. On this particular day, the sun was out, so laser-removed hairless legs were fully exposed by white Michael Kors sun-dresses. Sun glasses took up half the faces of the women, rested on the perfectly defined cheekbones, and reflected the shiny lip gloss. Everybody had beautifully glowing skin. They were all thin and radiant. Lounging at the Starbucks next door, or venturing into the Chocolate Shop for gelato. Nobody in a hurry or stressed. Clean hair shone in the sun. Clothes fit tightly, neatly, cleanly. Everything was pressed and went together. My friend commented, "Everybody in Del Mar is beautiful." I got to thinking about it and came to the conclusion that the wealthy are an attractive bunch. They probably have good genes as they been financially successful, they had to make some cognitive decisions in their lives, and did so well. With money, comes luxury, clean food, a good night's rest, the time to workout, shower regularly and groom oneself properly. They have the money to have regular doctor's visits, catch any health problems that may arise at an early stage, and practice preventative medicine, in their sleeping, eating and exercise habits. Furthermore, the wealthy hardly marry outside of their circles, so then we have good genes mating with more good genes, producing offspring with good genes who will be taught to take care of themselves, and be successful, in addition to inheriting the estates of their successful parents. Now the beauty of this country is this is achievable. One is able to get a loan and get an education, get a job, pay off the loan and if they are smart about it, make their own small fortune and live comfortably.

It's sad though that good clean food, and good health are, for the most part, limited to those with money.

I look at myself and I do not consider myself poor, I often times may find myself broke, but I am by no means poor. Currently I think I am in the worst health of my life. I have not been sleeping regularly, my eating habits have been poor, even though I know better, my exercise is sporadic, I am constantly stressed, and taking on much more than I can handle. In response, my body is angry with me. Despite the obvious weight-gain that accompanies poor eating and lack of exercise, my skin is completely broken out, not only in pimples on my face, but I have bags under my eyes, constantly, and my eczema is completely flaring on my hands and arms. This is just another lesson, or reiteration of what I already know, of the importance of taking care of myself. I don't need to have a lot of money to get a good night's sleep on a daily basis. To eat balanced meals, regularly. To get outside and just go for a walk, or use the swimming pool in my apartment complex. And also, to not commit to more than I can handle.

Although I think it's easier for the wealthy to take care of themselves, as more often than not they lack stressing over money, I think what is more important is education and common sense. There should be a push to educate young parents on how to raise their children, feeding them properly and making sure they are active. I have hope for our country. Although we are not in the best health of our history, I think we possess many potential leaders, not only political, I mean social. I believe we are currently in the midst of a food revolution. More and more people are becoming aware of the importance of eating quality over quantity. The amount of literature available about food and how to eat is reassuring and should be supported. One of the pioneers in this field, as far as I know is Michael Pollan, his book Omnivore's Dilemma was assigned for reading in a seminar class I took on nutrition and was fascinating and extremely educational. I suggest it to everyone.