Birthday Celebration 3: Portland Pearl Casa del Matador

Birthday celebrations continued a week later when my husband and I went up to visit my in-laws and we went out to dinner at a restaurant I've been wanting to go to for a while: The Casa Del Matador in the Pearl District of Portland.

I love interesting places with cool decor, and Mexican/Tex-Mex food is always good!

 

Me and my mother-in-law

  Details outside the door.

I have to say, I seriously failed at taking pictures for this post. The ambiance is way cooler in person than it looks in my pictures.

We ordered margaritas and items off the happy hour menu: Nachos and bacon wrapped, goat cheese stuffed jalepenos. The Nachos were HUGE and delicious, Joel and I shared them. I wish I had taken a picture of them because they were seriously, like, a mountain of nachos, and they were only $5. The bacon wrapped jalepenos were also delicious. They sneak up on you though! They are not spicy until the last bite!

The bar at Cas Del Matador is so cool! I love the eclectic decor, and there is a fireplace in the middle! I'd like to go back sometime and sit at the fireplace, I've heard, though, that its a pretty hard seat to get!

After dinner we went to the Bull Run Distillery across the street and we had a tasting flight of several different liquors that they make. Again, sorry I didn't take may pictures (I get self conscious about taking pics and sometimes Joel gets a little embarrassed/irritated.) I'm not a big drinker, so everything mostly just burned to me, haha, but it was interesting to learn about. The one I remember the most was the Aria Portland Dry Gin. It smelled so good, like juniper! It tasted a little of juniper too, but not too strong.  The bottling is beautiful!

We also went and walked around the Pearl District and looked at all the different businesses and restaurants (after I changed out of my heels!) There were a lot of interesting places: expensive stores, eclectic vintage stores, and shops like what you see in Portlandia (I'm talking feminist bookstore-esque places). There was event a little gourmet popcorn joint called "Poplandia". I wish I had snapped some pictures, but I'm dying to go back and explore more so maybe next time I will.

Happy Monday!

Mother's Day Weekend; Portland Riverfront

We started out our Mother's Day Weekend with a drive through the beautiful Oregon countryside to meet my family for breakfast with my mom. I snapped this picture out the window on our drive. I was trying to capture the rolling hills covered in trees in the distance, but you can barely see them! It was a beautiful day!

 Obviously we don't look anything alike... ;)

 Later, we drove on up the freeway to meet up with my mother-in-law for happy hour at a cute little wine bar on the Portland Riverfront called "Thirst".

 A trip "up north" calls for an outfit change and some bright lipstick :)

 We sat outside and this was the view from our seat!

 I have to say, the guy that seated us was overly uptight and border-line rude to us, but our waiter was great!

 If you look in the distance you can just make out Mt. Hood.

 I just had the happy hour white wine, nothing special, but I'm easy to please, I liked it!

 We ordered a bunch of happy hour appetizers. They were so delicious! We got prosciutto wrapped figs stuffed with Gorgonzola, a baked brie, and artichoke Gorgonzola bacon dip with bread.

 We had such a nice relaxing time visiting in the beautiful weather!

 

 After we finished at Thirst, we got some Umpqua ice cream and walked a ways down the river front. I got salted caramel peanut ice cream, and Joel got his favorite mint chocolate chip.

 Down on the waterfront.

 We love our moms! They have been our biggest supports! I hope someday I will be as great a mom as they have been to us :) 

I hope you had a delightful weekend!

Spring Break Stay-cation in Portlandia: Part 2

Our Portland one-day extravaganza continued...

I was dying to get away for at least one night of our spring break so we stayed in a Courtyard Marriott that was close enough to the Rose Quarters that we could walk to get there. So after we rested a for a little, we decided to walk down to the Memorial Colosseum to buy our tickets for the next thing on my Portland bucket list: See a Winterhawks game.

After we purchased our tickets, we decided just to grab a drink and something to eat at a restaurant in the Rose Quarters, Dr. Jacks, until the game started. I didn't take a picture, so I stole the one above from oregonlive.com. We sat over by the open doors you can see in the top right corner. It was really cool because we could see the fountains and people watch, and there was an AMAZING aroma of food cooking and fresh Oregon air.

We were watching the NCAA playoff game between Wisconsin and Arizona, so when I couldn't decide what to drink, my husband ordered me the "Honey Badger Blonde"--appropriate considering I picked my March Madness bracket based on which mascot I liked the best, and I took the Wisconsin Badgers all the way to the final two (If only I hadn't picked the Anteaters to win it all!) I'm not a big drinker so I never really know what to get, but I liked the Honey Badger Blonde! ;)

I've never been to a Hockey game before, so it was nice to get to go with my husband, because his favorite sport to play growing up was roller hockey. I learned a lot about how the game works. It's pretty fast paced! The players are constantly coming on and off the ice! One thing that I didn't get to cross off the my bucket list, is that I didn't get to see my dear childhood friend dance with the rosebuds on the ice. I had always wanted to go to game to see her dance, but she finished nursing school and got a job as a nurse before I could get up to see her! Pretty cool what they can do on the ice!

This picture was taken well before the end of the game. We lost. We have decided that I am unlucky for attending first time events. The first time I went to a blazer game, they lost in double over time to the clippers--before they had Blake Griffin and Chris Paul. Oh well, I still had fun!

Later in the evening we met up with some friends at the Red Star Tavern down town. Going out to cool bars and restaurants in down town Portland is one thing on my bucket list that never gets crossed off. I love exploring and going to fun places. I've only been able to go for this purpose a couple of times (I don't get out much!)

I ordered a Montego Bay with: Bank’s 5 island rum, grapefruit, lime, allspice dram, honey, absinthe. Again, I don't drink much so I really don't really ever know what to order, but I liked this drink. It kind of had a Mojito feel to it.

It was so nice to get out with friends! We don't get to see these two enough and I had an absolute blast visiting with them! They definitely made a good choice on the bar as well! I love the decor in the Red Star Tavern. I should have taken more pictures! It has a nice relaxed, elegant feel. It's classy, and we could actually hear each other talk. It's located under the Hotel Monaco--which I since looked up and I will have to do a post on it because I am dying to stay there now! Super fun/quirky decor.

We were there so late, I snapped this shot as we were leaving. Makes me think of the song "Closing Time".

Well there's all of the excitement I had for my spring break "stay-cation". It's always a fun time in Portland!

Happy Thursday!

Only one more day til Friday!

Spring Break Stay-cation in Portlandia: Part 1

Finally posting about spring break! Unfortunately, I was pretty sick for most of spring break so I spent most of my week sleeping & feeling miserable. I did manage, however, to heal enough to get out of the house a few times. Since we really only had one day left once I was well enough to to out, we didn't have time to go anywhere. So we stayed one night in Portland and Joel let me fulfill some of my Portland bucket list :)

Step 1 when visiting Portland: try to look like a hipster.

 

 

Portlandia Bucket List: Saturday Market

First time I have ever been and I very much enjoyed myself. People watching is excellent, and there are tons of cool artists booths and fun things to see. We were there for about 10 minutes when I found something I HAD to buy. I came across an artist's booth with tons of gorgeous colorful landscape paintings. I so wish I hadn't been too shy to take pictures of the artist and his booth, because he was quite the character. I asked if he was the artist and he said yes, and he had proof, he pulled out a note card that said "I am the artist". He also had little signs up over his booth that said things like "I have absolutely no idea what I am doing, but apparently I am good at it". I had a hard time choosing a painting because I loved so many, but Joel and I finally narrowed it down to the one below.

The artist told me he is there every weekend. I hope one day I will go back and purchase another painting.

 Step 2 when visting Portlandia: See something weird--like this woman juggling large knives (sorry you can't see them very well in the picture, but there are 2 knives in the air!)

Next on my Portlandia Bucket List: Visit Voodoo Doughnuts. Honestly, I was a bit surprised that Joel indulged me in this one. I've wanted to go FOREVER but Joel never wants to go because you have to wait in line forever. Well, we decided to go for it and luckily, we got in line just before a huge rush. We still had to wait in line a while but it was nice. There were some guys playing music nearby and we got to people watch.

When waiting in line, taking selfies helps to pass the time. Also, I am entertained by shiny things, so the glitterized brick building kept my attention for a bit as well.

Chandeliers, bright colors, and sprinkles, oh my!

I am glad my husband is a quick decision maker and stays calm under pressure. Once inside, they expect you to have your order ready and quick because they have to serve so many people. I definitely panicked and forgot the name of every doughnut I wanted to try (aside from the famous voodoo jelly man). Joel stayed calm and managed to order us something tasty.

One happy girl with a pink box full of treats. "Good things come in pink boxes."

The face of deliciousness.

After we finished up at the Saturday Market, we went and checked into our hotel and enjoyed a doughnut and relaxed for a bit before heading back out. 

Even though we only spent one full day in Portland, we crammed a lot into the day, it seemed like too much for one post, so more to come later!

Happy Humpday!

OBT presents Cinderella

Earlier in March, Joel and I had plans to go see Oregon Ballet Theatre present Cinderella with another couple. Unfortunately our friends ended up having to cancel at the last minute so...

We got to take our nieces! It was their first ballet, as well as Joel's first ballet ;)

My sister-in-law always dresses them so cute! They looked like little princesses, so of course I had to get them tiaras to match--you can't watch Cinderella without a tiara!

What I wore: dress: Kohls Jennifer Lopez (old) // Cardigan: Ross (old) // Shoes: Maurices (old) //
// necklace: white house black market //

I had a lot of fun getting dressed up. I haven't been to a ballet in years!

Cinderella

My nieces favorite characters were the "ugly stepsisters" played by men. They really stole the show!

I'll end with a little "Throwback Thursday". When I was 11 or 12, I got to go see the world famous Bolshoi Ballet perform at the Eugene Hult Center with a bunch of my dance friends. During intermission we were running around out the lobby, and an older gentleman start calling after us "young ladies!" We thought we were in trouble so we just kept going, but he didn't stop so we stopped to find out what he wanted. He told us that they needed flower girls to give the ballerinas their flowers at the end of the bows and wanted to know if we could do it. We were so shocked!! The picture above is me on the left handing one of the ballerinas her flowers. I was in heaven!

Happy Thursday!