Category Archives: 3) DESTINATIONS — in the U.S.

July 14, 2010 · 11:08 pm

Now that we’ve been to Oregon…

Now that we’ve been to Oregon (during a trip last March), there seem to be a lot of stories about places we went to or near.  (Or maybe I’m just more aware of them now and my world view is less Saul Steinberg.)  Anyway, here’s a few examples:

– A recent Wall Street Journal review raved about the Hip Hop Hamlet we saw at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival in Ashland. (I raved first!)

– A recent NYTimes story mentioned several restaurants in Ashland, including the stylish Asian one we ate at called Sesame. (Although I was confused by the story because it says Sesame opened “last April” – we ate there “last March” or maybe that’s “March” in NYTimes style) Others mentioned: The Loft, Blue, Chateaulin.

–  We drove not far from the northern Portland suburb that has since become known as the hometown of a little boy who has gone missing in a strange, sad, highly publicized case.

– And this is the weirdest one: We almost stayed at the Hotel Lucia in Portland, opting instead for its sister hotel, the Hotel DeLuxe. Turns out that the Hotel Lucia is the hotel where a  massage therapist claims she was assaulted by Al Gore.

Leave a comment

Filed under DINING, Oregon, Portland

Tagged as ,

May 29, 2010 · 10:58 pm

Cool hotels in Texas

We went to San Antonio and Austin for the first time last June and I hope we’ll get to go back soon. In San Antonio we stayed at a fancy hotel, the Westin Riverwalk,  which was a treat (and needless to say, it was paid for by one of our employers. ) But if we return on our own dime, the Hotel Havana looks very cool. I read about it in the NYTimes – in a profile about Liz Lambert who became her inn-keeping career reviving the funky old Hotel San Jose – right across from The Continental, a great music club we did manage to visit during our 5 hours in Austin.  Another one of her hotels that sounds fun is the Hotel Saint Cecilia.

Leave a comment

Filed under LODGING, Texas

Tagged as

May 22, 2010 · 4:26 pm

Cave Creek Arizona?

We’re always looking for new places to visit in Arizona since we visit my dad in Tucson almost every year – and the NYTimes came up with one yesterday – Cave Creek, about an hour north of Phoenix (I was hoping it was south of Phoenix and closer to Tucson). Looks like it has held onto some of its original character – especially like the idea of shopping at the Town Dump, which apparently is the name of a store, not the town’s real dump. For more details see:  http://travel.nytimes.com/2010/05/21/travel/escapes/21cavecreek.html

Leave a comment

Filed under Arizona

Tagged as

April 15, 2010 · 10:50 pm

Healthy Deli?

Yes, it seems like a contradiction in terms – healthy deli – but apparently some Jewish delicatessens are making a stab at providing more healthful food – some even going so far as to ban salami. (Say it’s not so.) A story in the NYTimes about this featured several delis I’ve been at or near recently, including Kenny & Zuke’s, a deli we visited for breakfast last month in Portland. Apparently the thing to have there is the specially-made pastrami – we came close. We ordered a corned beef sandwich which we happily shared – it was huge – in the Denver airport during our trip home.

The story also mentioned Zingerman’s in Ann Arbor which we visited last summer – who knew they made their own cream cheese although I wasn’t surprised they made their own rye bread. (I think we were supposed to have pastrami there too – again, we had the corned beef. Noticing a trend here?)

And earlier this month, we were on the lower East Side of Manhattan, standing outside of Katz’ s deli debating whether to join a long, albeit fast-moving, line at Saturday  lunchtime. We decided not – and I guess this is good since the article seemed to single out old-school delis like Katz’s as, of course, serving stuff that’s not good for us (even if it tastes good.)

Leave a comment

Filed under DINING, Michigan, New York, Oregon, Portland

Tagged as , , ,

April 10, 2010 · 7:25 pm

Hawaii – things to remember

D.  may have a biz trip to Hawaii in two years and I hope to tag along.    From a recent NYT article comes these suggestions (the more economical, interesting ones) when visiting the Big Island:

– Kaawa Loa Plantation guest house – kaawaloaplantation.com – doubles from $125.

– Shipman House B&B – with weekly hula lessons. (can’t miss that.)

Coffee trail stops: Bong Brothers Coffee; Hilo Coffee Mill, Kona Blue Sky Coffee, Mountain Thunder Kona Coffee

Beaches – Hapuna Beach (sunbathing); Kaunaoa Beach (hotel resort beach but all these are open to the public, surprisingly) Kealakekua Bay (snorkeling) Papkolea Beach (green sand? green sand.)

–

1 Comment

Filed under Hawaii

Tagged as

March 23, 2010 · 3:29 pm

Lucky in Memphis

Word from my stepdaughter E that she visited Rev. Al Green’s church, the Full Gospel Tabernacle in Memphis, last Sunday morning – and the Reverend (the famous soul-singer/pastor) was in!  Which means that the music his church congregants perform each Sunday was all the more fantastic. My son and I visited the church almost two years ago and had a great time, listening to one terrific gospel singer and musician after another, but Rev. Al  was away on tour, promoting his latest album.  In addition to the sunday morning service, there’s a Thursday night choir rehearsal open to the public – from what I can gather from the church’s website. Good to know.

Leave a comment

Filed under Memphis

Tagged as ,

March 22, 2010 · 8:36 pm

Goodbye Oregon

We arrived in the rain and left in the rain – but in between, we had a surprisingly amount of sunshine and warm temps during our 10-day visit to Oregon. Yesterday morning in Portland, we walked over to Kenny and Zuke’s Delicatessen  – in the trendy Ace Hotel – for breakfast that could tide us over into dinner while we flew back to Iowa. That it did – I had a large plate of scrambled eggs with carmelized onions and large chunks of lox, served with a  flavorful chewy onion bagel. D was happy with his eggs, very crispy bacon, well-seasoned hash browns, and authentic rye toast. And just to make sure we didn’t starve, we got one of the deli’s “big as your head” corned beef sandwiches to go – which we shared about six hours later in the Denver airport during our long trip home.

As always after a trip, there are places I wish I’d gotten a chance to visit so here they are: Astoria, Bend, Mt. Hood, Hood River, the southern coast, and specifically in Portland – the rose garden in Washington Park (when in bloom); the Japanese Garden in Washington Park; the Chinese Garden (we forgot to visit it on the waterfront); the Mississippi neighborhood. Next time.

Leave a comment

Filed under DINING, Oregon, Portland, Uncategorized

Tagged as ,

March 21, 2010 · 4:17 pm

Portland: exploring on foot and tram

We walked until our ankles – or at least my ankles – were swollen yesterday but how could we not on such a gorgeous day, sunny with temps in the 60s, light breeze. First stop the Portland Farmer’s Market – the first of the season – in the SW part of town on the campus of Portland State University. Not much produce yet but what there seemed very local – which is good and not always the case at Farmers Markets. Also pretty upmarket products – pate, smoked salmon, chocolate-covered cherries et. al. I had a Montreal-style bagel with cream cheese and locally made lox for breakfast. heaven.

From there we went by tram (free tram!) to the Portland Saturday Market – near the Burnside Bridge on the waterfront. Jam packed with shoppers and vendors selling crafts and tschotches, high and low, lots of street performers too. And from there we took  the street car to the upscale Nob Hill neighborhood, wandering down NW 23 rd street, the main shopping area. This town sure has a lot of fancy shoe stores.

Last stop for the day was the Pearl, where we wandered into Powell’s again and to a design store called Canoe. Plopped down for awhile in a pocket park, watching kids play and D. watched the final agonizing minutes of his beloved Jayhawks unexpected loss to UNI. (Small consolation that they lost to an Iowa team.) Dinner was at Karam Lebanese Restaurant, popular unassuming place downtown. We fly home today. Been a great trip.

Leave a comment

Filed under Oregon, Portland

Tagged as

March 20, 2010 · 3:54 pm

Portland: exploring the other side of the river

Today’s view is of a brick wall so we shouldn’t have any trouble motivating ourselves to get out on the town. After one last walk on the beach in Manzanita on a gorgeous day – a near record high of 69 I think I heard – we drove to Cannon Beach, stopping for coffee at the highly touted Sleepy Monk coffee-house then drove 1.5 hours back to Portland on Highway 26, which turned out to be a very scenic road through the mountains and farmland along a river or stream.

After some confusion, we finally found the aerial tram entrance at the Oregon Health and Science Center (0r some such) and rode across the south part of town with stunning views of snow-capped mountains and the downtown waterfront.

Because we had a car, we explored some neighborhoods east of the river that aren’t reachable by light rail – Hawthorne Street, between 34th and 40th, was fun and funky, with lots of people hanging out in the sun. Also went up to nw 28th “restaurant row” which had a handful of interesting looking places. And stopped at the food cart pod at 12th and Hawthorne for a fine lunch of pomme frites with tarragon anchovy mayo (one of several options.)

Dinner was an adventure at Pok Pok, a very different Thai restaurant from those we’re accustomed to. No pad thai, no thai people actually. The chef is an american guy who spent time in Thailand and brought back authentic recipes. Very popular place so we got there early – at 6p.m. and were seated at 7 p.m., happily waiting across the street at the restaurant’s sister joint, The Whiskey soda Lounge. Our wait was supposed to be 25 minutes (not). people who arrived at 8 p.m. had a 1-1.5 hour wait. Despite this, well worth a visit. Had a wonderful soup with homemade coconut milk; mussells with fried egg and bean sprouts, protisserie hen, a fantastic dessert with Vietnamese coffee over ice cream with a homemade donut, and a “Hunny”- fresh grapefruit juice, a drinkable balsamic vinegar, tequila. When in Rome…

Leave a comment

Filed under DINING, Oregon, Portland

Tagged as ,

March 19, 2010 · 3:40 pm

Oregon coast: the downside of comfort

We are so cozy up here in our tree house near the beach in Manzanita that it’s tempting to just stay put.  The bed here is as snug as a nest — a wooden nook built into the rear wall of our room, with a low slanted wood ceiling that has a sky light and windows at eye level that look out onto the main street from top-of-the-tree level. I slept through the night for the first time during our trip.

Manzanita by night – at least last night, a Thursday in March just before the spring tourist season – was very quiet. At sunset, the few people around started migrating towards the beach and we joined the flow. Scattered up and down the beach, people stood quietly watching the fierce yellow sun sink slowly into the ocean, leaving behind bands of orange and pink. A couple of dogs leapt around near the water.

We found lots of people inside the San Dune Pub – most appeared to be locals. Good burger, local beer, fish and chips. Back to our tree house, where I tried out the whirlpool in our room and D caught up with some of his beloved basketball,sitting on a couch near the burning embers (not)  of our electric fireplace (the one goofy touch in this room.) Go Jayhawks!

Leave a comment

Filed under On the road, Oregon

Tagged as