Greetings from Vancouver! What a great city! Last Tuesday we were able to drive through the city (from Portland) right to our timeshare location without any screaming from the driver (that’s me). In fact I must say that the “bitch” (the GPS lady) and I have bonded on this journey and she and I have cooperated nicely in our travels recently.
Our apartment here is really nice! The brochure warned that it was very small but we think it’s the perfect size. We are on the 23rd floor with ceiling to floor windows overlooking Vancouver (and a lovely demolition site). It has a full kitchen and a washer and drier. With the windows open the traffic noise can be a little loud but H takes out his hearing aids and so far I don’t mind it—we are in a bustling, alive city so it’s OK. The location is perfect.
It’s been a little over 5 days on the road so let’s back-up to the beginning of this adventure. I slammed the door on work about 5pm on 06/24/10 and we focused on packing and kissing and hugging Lucien and Toby (they were sure that they were coming with us but they are in good hands with Wendy—she will make them forget their sorrow through sweet words and lots of treats). Our first stop was Sacramento to visit our long-time (not “old”) friends Jim and Denise MacDonald. On the way up long, boring Route 5 we stopped about lunch time at Harris Ranch. We have seen this place many times on our drives up to wine country. We thought it was just a little restaurant but it is a HUGE resort. We had a GREAT lunch and it was a nice half-way respite.
Denise and Jim moved to Sacramento about 3-4 years ago and beautifully renovated a lovely old house in a sweet neighborhood. What a nice visit! Great catch-up time and wonderful food. (Thanks, Jim, for a lovely meal.)
Then a 9-hour drive to Portland. What a beautiful city! I want to live there! But I hear it rains a bit. That much?????
The drive to our accommodation was incredibly frustrating. (Did you hear me screaming all the way to Southern California? You should have.) The “bitch” was at odds with nearly every cross street. Honestly the drive was “turn here” then “recalculating.” (Remember this—you will hear the end of the story later.) We checked into a very nice 1 bedroom cottage located behind a B&B only to find we were in the land of “no’s.” No shoes inside; no perfume; no cooking fish; no suitcases against the walls; no open exterior doors; no food on the counter; no listed skin-care products; and I’m sure there was more that I have repressed in my anger at this lady. The cottage was lovely and the location was superb but the owner was a nut. Unfortunately she messed up our reservation dates and for the 3rd night we had to move into the B&B and there were even more prohibitions!
For breakfast on 06/27 I was anxious to experience Voodoo Doughnuts, which was recommended by Anthony Bourdain on his Travel Channel program No Reservations. The claim to fame of Voodoo Doughnuts is the maple bars with bacon on them. But they also make lots of different doughnuts covered with such unusual things as sweet cereal morsels (Captain Crunch, Fruit Loops, Etc.); peanut butter smears; and even a doughnut with a cup of Nyquil imbedded in the top of the doughnut (the state of Oregon stopped the production of that doughnut). The shop was only a half mile away from us so we walked. On the way we realized that some dumb-fuck had changed several of the street signs so that the streets were the opposite of the way they should have been! No wonder the “bitch” was confused as we made our way to the B&B our first day!
The best part of our location was the superb near-by restaurants. Our first night we visited Tabla Mediterranean Bistro—just about 4 blocks away (easy crawling distance back home). It was a FANSASTIC evening. We started with cocktails: H had the Gambito Sour and I had the Bicycle Thief (yum on both counts). Howard’s 3 course dinner was the seared baby octopus appetizer; the Tabla ravioli; and the veal sweetbreads. I had the fish trio to start (which was smoked albacore, anchovies, and salt cod); papardelle pasta (I would love a HUGE bowl of this for a meal); and salmon in lobster broth. We had the wine pairings for each course and they were great. For dessert H had the Strawberry Napoleon and I had the chevre (goat cheese) and salted almond tart—both with the suggested wines. Our meal was PERFECT and the wait-staff was fantastic. We talked about coming back before we left.
On our first full day in the area we decided to explore the Columbia River gorge and visit a couple of wineries along the river. In retrospect it might have been better to book a tour—we might have seen more remote and interesting sites but it was still a good day. I also would recommend traveling the gorge on the Washington side of the river—on that side you have a lovely view of the Oregon coast without trees hampering the view (I never thought I’d wish that they had clear-cut the Oregon coast so that I could see the rugged river gorge). We visited two Washington wineries (Syncline and Domaine Poullon) that produce wines in the fashion of the French Cotes du Rhone wines (which we love). We enjoyed the wines at both wineries (and the people) and bought a total of a case. We had a nice lunch in White Salmon, WA at Everybody’s Brewing Restaurant. They had tasty home-produced brews. I had a Cuban pork sandwich with sweet potato fries and H had the steak and blue cheese sandwich with regular fries. I kept telling H that he made a mistake by not ordering sweet potato fries. I eventually looked at my plate to find that they had “salted” my sweet potato fries with brown sugar (and a little salt)! That made me mad! The sweet potato fries were even better when I knocked off the sugar. And we enjoyed half of the two sandwiches over the next couple of days.
I don’t know what made H explore the restrictions on getting into Canada but thank goodness he did! He discovered that we could only take 4 bottles of wine into Canada without paying duty. And the duty was about the same price as what we paid for the wine! So our $25 bottles of wine would in the end cost $50! That was not good. So do we pay the additional $150 on $150 of wine or do we risk lying? I think we were both of the mind that we needed to find an alternative way—we cannot lie about anything (it’s true our tax returns are 100% honest). H spent a bit of time on the internet and eventually found the nicest guy (we think) that would pick up our wine and ship them for about $30. It turns out he ships for many wineries and has several drop-off points for wine shipment. What a savior! So no laws were broken and (we think) our wine will arrive safely and cheaply at our place. We were happy to have that problem solved.
That night we ate at a nearby place called Dove Vivi. Their claim to fame is thick corn-meal crust pizzas. H had a kale salad and I had an ice-berg lettuce and blue cheese salad to start. Our corn-meal crust pizza was a traditional home-made sausage pizza. All very good but I think that I would have preferred the cracker-thin crusts that Portland is becoming known for. But we have enjoyed the left-overs these last couple of days.
On Monday (06/28) we had booked a culinary tour of Portland. We were to start at 10am at the Heathman Hotel in Portland. We were concerned about parking in the city. We pulled up to the hotel valet parking and a very nice young man dressed in a traditional beefeater costume opened my door (it was difficult to not laugh at his get-up). I told him about the tour; he knew all about it. I asked what he would recommend for parking. Their fees at the hotel were $8 for 4 hours but we were going to be there for about 6-7 hours because we were going to spend some time in the city. He was a sweet guy and said he would charge $8 for the whole day—I gave him $10 and an extra $2 when we came back to pick up the car. What luck!
We were an hour early so we enjoyed a walk through the Farmer’s Market. The selection of fresh berries looked particularly delicious but we had no way to keep them fresh for the day so we regretfully walked on. The cheeses and bread were also inviting but alas it was not to be.
The tour was about 3.5 hours. It was a great tour! There were about 10 of us and our tour guide, Alyssa, was very enthusiastic and knowledgeable of Portland history. We sampled: hot chocolate (NOT anything like Nestles) at Cacao; Hot-Lips pizza with home-made blackberry soda; Cool Moon hand-made marionberry ice cream and chocolate sorbet; Elephant Deli tomato and orange soup (yum—try pairing oranges with tomatoes); Pearl Bakery baguettes, sour-dough bread, croissants (the best out of France I’ve tasted), chocolate bread, and another sweet bread; several teas and cookies at a local tea house, The Teazone; Stumptown coffee ; Oregon wine and some succulent condiment munchies at a gourmet shop; and gourmet cupcakes at Cupcake Jones. It was a great tour and well-worth the time and cost. We also learned about Portland’s efforts to be a “green city” and a little about that journey to “greenness.” We were really impressed with everything about the city. The weather was sunny and lovely—but that was a lucky anomaly from what everyone told us.
That evening we decided to try a new restaurant since Tabla was closed on Monday. We walked out the door and mindlessly sauntered down the street. When we “came to” we realized that we were on Tabla’s street (not the street we intended to be). So I said “let’s see if Tabla if open.” The sign in front said “now open on Mondays”—decision made! So that evening H had is “usual” cocktail and I tried the Rollerskate Skinny—delicious! I must perfect that drink when we get home. H had the fish trio (it was a little bit different that night); the squid-ink pasta; and the culotte steak. I had the Spanish head lettuce salad; the macaroni pasts; and the duck confit—with the paired wines, of course. For dessert H had the chevre tart and I had the cheese plate with the paired wines. It was a perfect evening and we were grateful that Tabla opened for us on the last night of our Portland stay. It was every much the perfect evening as we had the first night we were here.
Since the drive from Portland to Vancouver was less than 6 hours, we decided to make a detour to Anacortes on Fidalgo Island north of Seattle. We had a great time there last October with Sheri and Gene Kohlmann. Our favorite restaurant when we were there was Adrift, a cute, old-timey place with great food and service. (The motto is: Swell Food.) It was the perfect stop. Howard had crab cakes with cole slaw and I had Yakisoba noodles with salmon. Were we happy that I e-mailed Sheri for the restaurant info—too bad she and Gene weren’t able to meet us there!
We got settled in our new “home” in Vancouver and we were ready to taste perfect oysters. The lady at the front desk here recommended “The Fish Kettle.” I dunno—that did not sound like the place to have the perfect oyster. But what do I know about Vancouver? So we try it. DO NOT trust your oyster hopes to a place called “The Fish Kettle”! Everything we had there was just average (at best) and it was NOT an inexpensive restaurant. And we still have our cravings for the perfect oyster. (The perfect oyster for me was had in Marseillan, France—it had the taste of the ocean.)
Wednesday was our first full day in Vancouver—so what did we do? We decided to enjoy a visit to Stanley Park: a 1,000 acre urban park that was about a 30 minute walk from our place. It was cloudy and was threatening rain but we were optimistic and left in shirt-sleeves without jackets and powered our way toward the park. We arrived at the Vancouver Aquarium 15 minutes before opening—it was a little cold so we were glad that we’d be going inside. The fountain at the gate is a Native American sculpture of a killer whale and it is beautiful! I can only summarize our aquarium visit as incredible. We saw just about every kind of sea life: every size, shape and color possible of fish (I thought one huge fish was a big rubber tire on the bottom of the aquarium until it moved); sea anemones in shapes of fancy feathers, ; urchins; sea cucumbers; snails; corals; incredible jellyfish in all sizes and shapes; dolphins; beluga whales; seals; eels including little tiny worm-sized eels sticking their heads out of the sand; sand dollars; rays; sharks; sea turtles;octopi; star fish with any number of arms and many other unbelievably beautiful sea life. There were other exhibits on rain forest frogs, snakes, birds and butterflies. One of the volunteers showed us a video on her iPod showing baby frogs being born and imerging from the skin on their mother’s back! I thought that was a great way to use technology to add interest to the experience. We enjoyed every minute of our time there.