Ahh...vacation.

Last week I took a four day trip to Portland and the Pacific Northwest Coast with a couple of friends. It was terrific trip that was fabulously cliche - lots of laughs, food, wine, and DVDs in an impossibly chic hotel downtown. I'm sure some girls, err...spoons, have done this trip when they were in their younger years but I think at the age I am at, I really appreciated the trip on another level. Perhaps it was because we weren't painfully frugral - granted, we got the hotel at a fantastic rate, but it is ALWAYS a luxury to stay in a 5-star hotel, to eat at the hippest restaurants and be driven to the restaurant in town in a 1930s classic car. Oh yeah, it was one of those trip. And it was fabulous, and I am sure I won't have another until one of us spoons gets hitched to a fork and we get to relive it all as a part of the sending-off festivities. But I have over a hundred photos to remember it by, I thought I would share some of them here.

A glorious shot of the Pacific Northwest. It's not your typical picture, especially from the parts where I am from (more mountains), but I love the bright sky, giant looming clouds (rain always imminent), and tall trees.

(above left: my dinner at Clemente's in Astoria - local halibut and seasonal veggies, above right: my fantasy for the last few months - tacos from a food truck - this one is an asada (steak), below left: a Bacon Maple Bar from Voodoo Donuts - never has the marriage of salty and sweet been so satisfyingly dirty, below right: the 222 breakfast at Kenny & Zuke's)

If you're wondering where this spoon went - Astoria and Portland! If you're in the area, please take advantage of the wonderful food culture in Oregon. I think this part of the world takes particular care and investigation into where their food comes from and process between nature and your plate. It's an...ideology, I suppose, that I have been particularly interested in and it was wonderfully refreshing to hear, see, and experience people (in the restaurant industry or not) really take ownership of what goes on your plate. After all, you only get one body - take care of it!