48 hours in portland

We recently took a long weekend to Portland, OR.  We wanted to do our trip as affordably as possible, which isn't hard to do in Portland.  It all started with lodging.  I was interested in staying at the Ace Hotel, in the Pearl District.  Rooms at the Ace were anywhere from $160-$325/night, which was a bit more than we were willing to pay.  After looking into Airbnb, I found a great place in the trendy Alphabet District in Northwest Portland for $115/night.  

Our place was perfect.  Cute, clean, and cozy.  Portland is so small, and easy to get around, no matter where you are you feel close to where you want to be.  We also had the added benefit of close proximity to Forest Park, which was important to us.

Next on the list: bike rentals.  

Portland is such a bikeable city.  It's flat and they have ginormous bike lanes, and bike paths everywhere you go.  Cars are also aware of bikes on the road, which adds to the feeling of safety.    We rented bikes from Portland Bike Tours and Rentals.  This place was great.  They are located right downtown, and are so helpful and kind.  The bikes were vintage single speeds, so we didn't look like dorky tourists on generic rentals.  Plus, these bikes were cheap.  We only paid $60 to have both bikes for the whole weekend.  If you just want them for they afternoon, they are $5 per hour.  You can't beat that.  They also have free rain gear to borrow, which turned out to be a priceless addition to our rental package.

On our first night we hit up The Star Theatre to see Fruition and the Dead Winter Carpenters.  The Northwest has a great music scene.  I currently can't stop listening to Fruition, and was delighted to discover that they were playing during our visit.  The show and the venue were both great, and it was only $12 a ticket.  Seriously, Portland is cheap.

On Saturday, we went for a hike in Forest Park.  Portland is host to one of the largest urban parks in the country.  After a 10 minute bike ride, we were in the middle of a lush forest.  It's easy to get lost in the park.  Trails meander and merge.  We ended up doing 11 miles.  A bit further than I intended, but gorgeous and free.

That night we did the food cart scene for dinner.  There are an abundance for food carts in Portland, and they are grouped together in pods throughout the city.  We had Thai that night in some downtown carts, and then Mexican and Greek for lunch at the oddly named Saturday market on Sunday.  The carts are cheap, fast, and yummy.  I really wanted to try the double decker grilled cheese bus, but it just didn't happen.  Next time.

Last up on our to-do list: VooDoo Donuts.  

Portlanders seem to be big into funky and gourmet donuts.  There are tons of donut places, but VooDoo is the most iconic.  It has been featured on Man VS Food and Anthony Bourdain, and has favorites like the jelly filled voodoo doll and the bacon maple bar.  We stood in line for about an hour on Sunday morning.  Once we got to the front, we went all out and ordered a half dozen.  (There were four of us, this was not that unreasonable.)  

Post donuts?  Sugar crashes for all.

Portland definitely has a lot to offer.  We were really wishing for just one more day.  Now that we have it figured out, we will be a bit more efficient on our next trip.  

spare change date: $96

Like everyone else, I'm sure, Ryan and I have a jar to collect our spare change.  Since we don't need change for parking, or quarters for laundry, we tend to amass quite a few coins.  We decided to dub this  the "date night jar."  

Recently the date night jar was quite full, so I decided it was about time to cash in.  Since Coinstar takes a percentage of your money, we opted for the old-fashioned hand rolling technique.  

I brewed a pot of coffee, got out the necessary materials, put on my latest guilty pleasure, Felicity, and got to work.  

This task initially seemed daunting, but I got into my groove.  Rolling coins, as it turned out, was quite relaxing, plus I got to pretend like I was a big-shot banker.

When it was all said and done, I ended up with $96.00 on the nose.  I hauled my coins down to the bank to cash in.  

Then came the truly challenging part: finding a date that worked for both of us.  This, sadly, took about two months.  How did we get so busy?

We decided to go to Tacolicious on Valencia.  You could either go crazy at Tacolicious and have an expensive evening, or easily reign it in and still enjoy some delicious food.  Ryan and I shared three appetizers: the fried plantain, kale salad, and butternut squash soup.  The plantain and kale were awesome, but we could have done without the soup.  It was a bit spicy, not super delicious, and just unnecessary.  We also each ordered one taco.  It would have been the perfect amount of food without the soup.  Since we had $96 to burn, we also ordered two non-alcholic drinks and churros for desert.  The churros came with a chocolate dipping sauce.  We will definitely be going back to Tacolicious and making use of their small outdoor patio.

Lately, everyone has been raving about Trick Dog, the new bar in the neighborhood.  It comes up in almost every conversation I have.  Since it seems to be the new it-spot, we followed up dinner with one of their fancy cocktails.  

People seem to be going wild for their incredibly overwhelming drink menu.  Also, what is it with pantone and paint chips, and how did they become so ubiquitous with hipster culture?  I blame Pinterest.

I digress.  I went for the grandma's sweater, and Ryan had a paper moon.  The drinks were good, but not as amazing as I thought they were going to be.  With as much buzz as they were getting, I was expecting this cocktail to rock my world.  It was fine, but I don't feel like I need to go back.  

All-in-all we spent 93 of our $96.  The remaining three dollars went back into the coin jar to be used on the next spare change date.  

What do you do with your spare change?

put your phone away

There has been a recent upsurge in violent crimes in the Castro, our neighborhood.  So far, most of the victims were either on their phones at the time of attack, or had just put their phones away.  

The other day Ryan and I were walking down 20th Street in the Mission, discussing this upswing in crime.  Just moments later, we witnessed an attempted mugging.  The victim was standing on a corner, looking at his phone.  A car full of men pulled up, one man jumped out and attempted to pull a cell phone out of the victim's hand.  When they saw us approaching, the struggle ended and the car sped away.  

Afterwards, we became aware of how many people are on their phones and not paying attention to their surroundings.  You're looking at maps, you're checking email while waiting for a friend, texting an ETA, or just wasting time.  I know I'm guilty of this, god forbid I have just two minutes of staring into space while I wait for the bus or a friend.  Being witness to an attempted mugging was a good wake-up call.  If I'm alone, my phone will be away.

Stay safe out there, and put your phone away too.

(Photo via TechnoBuffalo)

farmer's market

Yet another one of my 2013 goals is to eat locally.  Because of this, I've anxiously been awaiting the return of the Castro Farmer's Market.  

Yesterday was opening day, so I stopped by on my way home from work.  This particular farmer's market is only a 10 minute walk from my house, which is convenient.  Unfortunately, it is also pretty dinky.  There are few booths, and not a lot of choices at each booth.  

I ended up with butternut squash ravioli, honey citrus almonds, cilantro, 2 avocados, 3 oranges, 3 carrots, and 3 small bunches of kale.  All this cost me $22.80.  The almonds and the ravioli, $6 each, were a splurge, but I really just can't say no to flavored almonds.

My next experiment will be the Mission produce markets.  I'm not sure which will end up being the bigger bargain, but one thing I know for sure, both will be cheaper than Mollie Stone's.

relay to russian river

Ryan and I headed up to the Russian River Valley this weekend to meet with our caterer to set our wedding menu.

Before we could embark on this very delicious chore, we first had to solve the no-car-problem.

This ended up being an easy fix.  I'm a member of Zipcar and Ryan is a member of City Car Share.  We priced out both of these options, and it was expensive.  To zip a car from Saturday morning until Sunday night was going to coast us about $200 on Zipcar.  We dragged our feet for so long, that all the cars ended up renting out.

We started looking into other options.  There are a plethora of car sharing options in San Francisco.  In addition to Zipcar and City Car Share, there is also Zim Ride, Relay Rides, and Get Around.

We ended up going with Relay Rides.  This company rents out private cars.  Since most people in San Francisco hardly use their cars, they end up just sitting there taking up parking spaces.  The solution: rent out your car while your not using it.  We ended up with a Prius from Bernal Heights.  Since gas is not included in the cost of the rental, like it is when you rent from Zipcar, we wanted to make sure we had an efficient ride.  We ended up only using three gallons of gas!

To rent from Saturday morning to Sunday afternoon was $50.  Our plan was to return around 2:00pm, however, like most carefully thought out plans, this did not happen.  We ended up having to extend our return time until 7:00pm.

Lesson learned, if we had rented for two full days, we would have paid $100 (way more affordable than Zipcar), but because we kept extending our return time by one hour increments and paying the hourly cost, as a result we ended up exceeding the daily rate.

If you are planning on using Relay Rides, just be realistic about your return time.

Once we had the car sorted out, we were on our way.  As it turns out, one of the best parts about getting married, other than making a lifetime commitment to your best friend, is going to a food tasting.  So much yummy food and so much good wine.  If only we had been able to sample some desserts.  I guess I have that to look forward to.

focus on fitness

I have oh, so many goals for the year 2013, and I feel like I'm off to a slow start.

One of my goals is focusing more on my fitness routine, as in, make fitness a more steadfast part of my week.  For me, this means running three times a week and going to yoga twice a week.

Last year I trained for the Oakland 1/2 marathon, which I ran with my dad and Ryan.  Training for this event was hard work and time consuming, but I was working towards a mutual goal.  Being able to trade stories about our training, and even being able to do some runs together, was great motivation.  

Oakland 1/2 finishers
Lech Naumovich Photography

While preparing for the half, I felt phenomenal.  But, post race, my body felt wrecked.  I was hobbling about with knee and foot pain for months after.  Even though I can remember the euphoria of those longer runs, and sometimes shorter runs, I'm having a difficult getting back out there.  I'm so used to not including running as part of my weekly routine, that it's difficult to make space for it once again.

I decided I needed to light a fire under me.  I started looking into various 10Ks in the Bay Area.  Let's face it, it will be a lot easier to get out there and run if I have a purpose.  I'm so needing a scary deadline at the moment.

I'm finding that there are surprisingly few 10Ks to choose from, especially for those of us that would like to/need to access the race by public transit.

My thought on how to fix this lack-of-organized-runs problem?  Invite friends to participate in our own 10k on a date set by us.  I'll still have that carrot dangling in front of me, but with no cost, no crowds, and no transportation issues.  Added bonus: a reason to spend time with those I care about.

If an unofficial 10k looming on the horizon isn't motivation enough, maybe this new armband will be.

After all, I'll need to carry my phone with me in order to use Strava.  The most amazing running app, that helps you track your routes and milage.  Just more motivation.  

Whatever I need to get me out there.

What motivates you?

surprise, surprise!

This weekend we double-downed on surprise dates.  

Friday night was Ryan's treat. 

We kicked off Ryan's impromptu surprise date night by biking to Ocean Beach to enjoy a couple of PBRs and a sunset.  Following some ocean viewing, we headed to SOMA StrEAT Food Park for dinner with some friends.  With such a huge selection, and so many places to cozy up, this is a great option for a cheap date.  It also helped that we sneaked in our own beers.  

Sunday brought the real deal, as in, my long awaited surprise date.  I took Ryan to Stable Cafe for brunch.  I have been dying to try this place since it opened in 2010.  It's close to home, but one of those places I just never remember until I'm biking by and it's closed.  

It had yummy, affordable brunch choices, tasty coffee, a cozy interior, and an abundance of outdoor seating.  We ate outside, until the fog rolled in, then headed upstairs to people watch and warm-up.  

Post brunch, we continued on our bikes to Fisherman's Wharf.  Now, this is my least favorite part of San Francisco.  It baffles me that tourists love this part of town.  It's crowded, dirty, and overpriced.  When I told Ryan it was time to lockup our bikes, he was clearly distressed, and needed consoling.  There was no reason to worry though, we would be skipping over the tourist trap.  

We were going to Musee Mecanique, a hidden gem.  Although the Wharf was bustling, the museum was not.  

Musee Mecanique is a collection of vintage arcade games.  Admittance to the museum is free, and the games are between $.25-$.50 a play.  Ryan went into full boy mode.  He was raring to play.  I changed in a five dollar bill, and we got started.  There are such an assortment of wonderments.  You can give a drink to the mechanized local drunk, or you can peep a burlesque show.  You can shoot bb guns, or you can challenge your friend to a miniature game of bowling.  Laughing Sal will surely haunt your dreams, and when you get tired you can get a massage from the vibrating magic chair.

Laughing Sal

This was confusing.  If you want to know what I saw, you'll have to pay $.10.

Just doing some car racing.  No big deal.

Ryan was in boy heaven

Bowling

The museum also has three photo booths.  We got a little crazy and went to two of them.  Who doesn't love a photo booth?

We capped the day off with a beer at Dear Mom, a newish bar in the Mission.  The best part of Dear Mom is that it serves food, something of a bar anomaly in San Francisco, although we did not partake.  Also, this bar may be the epicenter of hipsterness.

Stable: $29.78
Transportation: Free (bikes are awesome!)
Musee Mecanique: Free
Arcade games: $7 in quarters
Photo Booth: $8
Beers: $11

Total:  $55.78

Not too shabby for a full day of fun and games.