Fabulous Food!

Okay, you want to know where to find amazing food in Portland for an AMAZING price? Answer:

Yep, The Oregon Culinary Institute. It might so strange but it was wonderful and an amazing atmosphere! Granted, the servers are nervous and will potentially spill your wine all over you, but it's worth it! I was so proud of the students and they were so friendly. Also, a four course meal for $18? You can't beat that.

Braised Beef... it fell apart just from looking at it. So delicious.

Pork Chop.. YUM

Wild Mushroom Pasta

Yeah, I ate it all.

Creme Brule

Amazing Wine from a vineyard in Oregon - Willamette Valley (pronounce Will-AM-ette - kind of like dammit) Trust me, people will correct you if you don't say it right. 

I definitely recommend this as a romantic date, girls night or even for a corporate dinner. It's amazing annnnd affordable.. win-win!

What a VIEW!

Before a wonderful dinner last week, my coworker took us to Pittock Mansion. With amazing views of Portland, fragrant flowers and one of the most breathtaking homes I've ever seen, this is a must see spot in Portland!

Lauren had to walk ahead of the crowd!

Beautiful flowers!

Yeah, I'd live there... if I had to ;)

If you look closely, you can see Mt. Hood. Definitely a must if you ever find yourself in beautiful Portland. 

Hot Lips Pizza!

I had been craving a good slice of pizza lately. So, I got me one. 

Hot Lips Pizza is amaaaahhhzing. HLP is right down the street from the property so I tried it out for lunch. They have daily specials by the slice and you can also make your own. 

Hot Lips has pizza, beer, wine and real fruit soda that they make themselves. 

This was the Spicy Tomato and Queso Fresco. Buuuueeenno. 

Yumm-o... it was hard to choose between blackberry, strawberry, pear, boysenberry, and the list goes on! I think my total was $6 even... can't complain about that!

What. A. Week.

If you've talked to me or looked at my facebook statuses in the past 72 hours, you know that I've had a whirlwind of a week.

Abridged version: Left my laptop bag [inside was my work computer, macbook, gps, etc] on Portland's Public Transportation, went into a frenzy, and then retrieved my bag within 48 hours using my amazing detective skills. Big thanks to the Portland Police Department, by the way :) I was offered a job for my dexterity!

Until my personal property was successfully tracked down and back in my arms [yes, I kissed my macbook and slept with it in my arms last night] I wasn't able to fully appreciate Portland. Every where I went, I would stare at strangers wondering, Do you have my laptops? Did you sell them? GIVE THEM BACK!

But now, it's official, I can share my LOVE for Portland. I feel like such a big time city girl. I wake up, grab a latte and walk to work... I absolute love the vibe here. Last night, I decided to celebrate at a cute little restaurant called The Original.

It's a cute and cozy breakfast joint by day...

with some interesting breakfast items...

And then at night, it's swanky with a comfy diner feel!

And look at this adorable postcard wall!

I order from the special menu last night and wow. It was amazing.

Take a looksy...

And that adult bev you see in the background is one of their specials they have daily. A different punch each day and I think that one was blackberry rum punch. YUM.

I went perusing on their website and found all of these amazing pictures of food. I'm salivating.  

Might have to make my way back there tonight :)

Two Tickets to Paradise! [Also, to Disney]

So I've been trying to blog about my vacation and there is just SO MUCH... I think there are 200 pictures! It's kind of obnoxious but I have just have to post everything. Enjoy!

It all started at Gregg's house with a beautiful afternoon on the porch with champagne and Harry Potter. 

Then we made our way to Tampa for the Tampa Bay Rays game!!! Once I got there, I realized that they play in a dome... I had no clue!

They have a LIVE sting rays that we were able to pet!

Gregg's name was on the board for a while so I captured it. I told him I paid for it to be there. Lies. 

Wings, nachos and....

Beer :)

After the game, we walked to an event in St. Pete called First Fridays (outdoor party on the first Friday of each month). 

It was like a tame night in New Orleans where people were asked to leave at 11pm.

We found a wine bar with a balcony so we made our way up there for some old fashioned people watchin'

Gregg is the ultimate wine aficionado 

Nice little art gallery inside

And some nice lounging areas (Gregg not included)

The next morning, we made our way to.....

DISNEY!

Grown up fun at Epcot! About to take a trip around the world...

First stop:

MEXICO!

Time for a marg and a cerveza!

Why, hello China!

Got ourselves some authentic Chinese food :)

Japan

Germany

Italy :)

This is "France" where we watched this crazy man stand on a huge stack of chairs.

After exploring the world, we made a video game featuring...

US! Ohhh I love technology!

Thennnn, we traveled over to MGM

The Hollywood Tower of Terror was amazing! I've always wanted to go!

Aerosmith Rock 'N' Roller Coaster.. such a clever name. SO FUN!

Here are some more pictures from the rest of our day at MGM

Xtreme Stunt Show

An American Idol show! Okay, not the reaaaal American Idol but they had 3 performers and we voted at the end! It was pretty cool!

On Sunday, the wait was over. It was finally time for HARRY POTTER WORLD!!! If you've read some of my previous posts, you know that Gregg got me to read Harry Potter in preparation for HP World. Ohhmyyygaaah....

Everything was so detailed and magical!

There were people everywhere so the only thing I didn't do that I wanted to was get butterbeer... I'm still thinking about butterbeer. 

The ride in the castle was my absolute favorite ride EVER!

Had to get a pose with the bag that my sister got for me.. it's a Gryffindor bag :)

Gregg wanted to pose, too

We made it to Jurassic Park! (The theme song gets stuck in my head every time I think about that movie)

The Simpsons ride was also amazing and so detailed! Gregg was in love with Krustyland.

That night, we had tickets to see Blue Man Group! 

We sat in the front row and had to wear ponchos so we didn't get slimed. Gregg wasn't too lucky. 

We woke up the next morning and drove to MIAMI!!! Our vacations are usually long weekends so I was already exhausted and felt like our vacation was coming to an end. But oooohhhh no, it was just getting started.....

Miaaaaami!

Someone's excited ;)

Someone snagged the camera...

Exploring the ship!

Tourist pose!

Heyyy, we've got putt putt on the ship! [of course, we never used it]

See ya Amuuurrica!

Dress up night

We had a glass of wine at the wine bar near our room before our fancy dinner!

We clean up nice, right?!

Our first port, Grand Turk!

We did some snorkeling at each location but I think Grand Turk was our favorite. We saw all kinds of cool fish and saw a canon and a huuuge anchor! We took lots of pictures with a waterproof camera so stay tuned for those pictures!

It didn't take us long to make it over to Margaritaville!

This was our view from lunch! Amazing!

This was another angle from where we were sitting. 

Swim up bar :)

Ready to explore the private island, Half Moon Cay! [pronounced Half Moon Key or ask we called it, Half Monkey]

We had to take a boat over to the island..

Finally here!!

Shipwrecked Bar!

Heyy der's Gregg

Before we left that hot. ass. island.

Ahhh sunset... what a jazzy shot.

Our boat ride to Rainbow Reef!

Someone's a morning person...

The Lost City of Atlantis! Spoiler Alert: Gregg and I rented a scooter and drove over there!

Tiger Wood's House!

Moped fun!!! Gregg just needs to remember to STAY ON THE LEFT SIDE OF THE ROAD, MON!!!

Now I'm just going to post the rest of our pictures without captions.. you get the idea :) we were at the Lost City of Atlantis!!

Of course the Disney cruise ship is the biggest.. but not the best!!

Had to take a break at Starbucks

This is the last shot before we got on the boat to go back to Amuurrica.

I have lots of pictures of the specific features and things they have on the boat and also.... lots of pictures of the food :) Fingers crossed I get my computers back so I can blog about those this week!