Guess who's having her birthday in (basically) a tree fort...

me!

It's a long way off (July) but here in the Pacific Northwest if you want a cabin or beach rental in the summer you better arrange it in the winter.










It's owned by this adorable Southern woman who lives in Georgia and has an accent and on her outgoing voicemail at work she's says "God bless." Also her name is LuAnne and she told me this story I couldn't really understand about her niece but I pretty much loved all of it. I want to adopt this lady.

She and her best friend found this house while on vacation, it was about to be torn down, and they bought it and spent years restoring it. They did most of it themselves and learned how to use something like 30 different kinds of saws. There's a firepit, a TV and DVD player so we can be cozy and watch movies at night, a BBQ, it's on an island, wifi so none of us actually have to be disconnected from the real world, and a waffle maker.

It's also the peak of salmon season which means a couple things. First, this cabin is listed at a ridiculously low rate. I was expecting to pay about three times what it costs, but since I guess the fishing is really good at the time of year I wanted the cabin LuAnne said she knew she could rent it for a week and was hesitant to do the four days I wanted. So I bargained with a Southern woman today. Which was actually really easy. I offered her about the price of an extra day for the four I originally wanted and she said "Done."

But this salmon season thing also means maybe we could catch a fish! I mean, I don't have a fishing pole or know how to cut up a fish or really anything about fishing but I am still envisioning these summer days filled with grilling fresh caught salmon marinated in fresh ginger, brown sugar, teriyaki sauce, and beer. And it will come off the grill all perfect and glazed and sweet and it will pretty much be the best birthday ever.

Also I'm moving to the woods.

Just kidding.

Maybe.

Do you think Javi would get along with deer?

The Emerald City

Lana and I went to Seattle this past weekend. She also taught me that Seattle is called The Emerald City which I said makes no sense and asked for the reasoning behind the name and she said "I don't know, why is Portland called The City of Roses?" and I told her it was because Portland has a climate super conducive to growing roses. Which I think makes me the winner of that exchange. I did try to look up why Seattle is called The Emerald City before writing this but mostly a bunch of Wizard of Oz stuff came up and the Wikipedia article for Seattle is really long so I gave up.

We left Saturday morning and started our trip with a stop for coffee and me taking the longest route possible to a gas station. After that point Lana got to be in charge of directions for pretty much the whole rest of the weekend. When we got to Seattle she got us to our hotel very smoothly except we ended up on the wrong side of the street so I did this super badass U-turn in the middle of the very busy 1st avenue in downtown. It was pretty much action movie worthy. Also I didn't hit anyone.

This was our room. After we slept in it though. It didn't come like that.


After we checked in we left to shop. We started with a couple cute shops across the street from our hotel. One of them was actually cute but extremely over priced. Plus none of it was stuff we couldn't find elsewhere. There were a bunch of candles and soaps and stationary and some jewelry and Stonewall Kitchen things. Lana did get a metal dog tag that said "treat" on it.

The store next to that was deceiving. It looked like this cute little shop from the outside and then it was all penis shaped planters and ceramic bunnies with knives in them and a pile of packing peanuts made of plaster inside. We're not talking funny gothic naked people in a snow globe, we're talking art. Unfortunately it was also one of those places that is small and has one person working there who definitely has nothing better to do than watch you as you realize the second you walk in that this place isn't for you and then you have to do the awkward obligatory stroll through before bailing since walking in to immediately turn around seems rude.

Next we went to Free People and this other really neat shop I can't remember the name of but they had great clothes. It was also 500 degrees in there so we had to leave. We ended up going to the biggest Nordstrom ever, Urban Outfitters, Anthropologie, and probably my new favorite place ever. It's called All Saints. It's sort of like someone met Lana and me and smooshed our styles together. They had loose and baggy, masculine fabrics, flowy things, beading, sequins, and 99% of it was in the most gorgeous neutrals. The brand is based out of London but has seven US stores. It's a bit pricey but everything was like 70% off so I ended up getting this gorgeous dress for a fraction of it's original price.

I'm thinking belted with a harder wide brown leather belt it will be amazing. Actually I know it will because Lana tried it on later in our hotel room and looked super adorable.

They also have this amazing children's line. I might have to get knocked up just so I can buy my child a tweed funnel neck trench. Apologies for the blurriness. I think my camera hates Seattle.


After our shopping adventure we went back to our hotel to figure out dinner and change. When we got there we realized we had about five different lights in our room but the one main one wouldn't work so I called down and asked for someone to come up and look at it. The maintenance guy came in, turned it on, and looked at us like we were the stupidest girls ever. And adding insult to injury were all the shopping bags sitting around.

We aren't actually idiots I promise.

We then decided to check out a place called Emmer and Rye that had been recommended to me. When we showed up sans reservation the wait was a bajillion hours to they recommended a place called Who Cooked The Wolf or something. I'm not going to bother looking up the real name or posting a link because the menu was lame and there was a loud child so we left and found ourselves at a lovely little place called Portage dining next to Loudon Wainwright III. I knew his voice sounded familiar and after some sneaky Googling on Lana's part we figured out he was Steven's dad on Undeclared. As well as in a bunch of other stuff. Lana also took a sneaky picture over my shoulder that I'm pretty sure we totally got away with despite all our giggling.


Next up was dessert. We headed to a place called Simply Desserts, one of those ridiculously tiny places that's always packed and doesn't take credit cards but can get away with it because the food is just that amazing. I had Mexican chocolate cake and Lana had some fudge cake thing (mine was better). As delicious as it was though, we couldn't finish.




Then we went and saw No Strings Attached at the weirdest theatre ever. Apparently it's the year 2000 because they still had a giant cardboard cutout for Big Momma's House. As well as Big Fish, which, by the way, has Loudon Wainwright in it.


Then we crashed.

Sunday morning we met a friend of mine and Lana's brother for brunch at Portage Bay Cafe. And that was pretty delicious. As well as surprising laid back for Sunday brunch when we showed up and they didn't have my reservation. They got us in within five minutes.



After that we just did more shopping (I told you that's all this trip was for) and visited Madewell, J.Crew, and H&M. By about 4:30pm we were dragging and decided we might as well start our way home on the condition we could find somewhere to eat on the way home that didn't come with a drive through. Lana got on Yelp and found this place that seemed promising so we made plans to hit it up.

Then we got gas which I've never done myself. And I guess I still haven't since Lana did most of the work. And by most I mean all.


So we drove and drove some more which wasn't super eventful. Then we exited the freeway and drove into the middle of an industrial park and then just into the middle of nowhere to go to a restaurant I was pretty sure was going to end up being a version of the ladies with the tea in Texas Chainsaw Massacre.

In actuality it was possibly my favorite part of the trip. This restaurant is called Mary McCrank's and is in an old house. Our experience here started with me pulling into the gravel parking lot and Lana telling me to not park in "the paralyzed spots" which has continued to make me laugh to myself even through today.

When we walked in the place was entirely empty. We were the only ones in this place that was pretty much the epitome of going to Grandma's house. I'm not sure words can fully explain.


See?

The waitress was this super friendly middle aged woman who kept talking to us but it wasn't even annoying because she was just so charming. We did finally have to tell her we couldn't eat anymore bread which really made it feel like being at Grandma's house. We ended up sharing salmon, salad, carrots, mashed potatoes and fried mac and cheese.

Lana went to the bathroom at one point and kept insisting I go too before we leave so after dinner we went in and as soon as I opened the door I burst out laughing. I'm not sure this room could have been more pink and old lady gaudy if someone tried. There was also a super attractive wall of mirrors.


Then we were on our way home. And there was this gross super misty rain that made driving a pain but as soon as we crossed the state line the rain became pretty rain that didn't make it hard to see and that's when it was confirmed Portland is my favorite place.

Oh, also Lana brought the Girl Talk album All Day for our drive and I'm addicted. Go listen if you haven't.

An Amazing Discovery

Last year I went on a hunt for an iPod adapter for the car. I'm not even sure if that's the right name for it but I'm sure you understand what I'm talking about. I was actually looking for one for my boss and after trying bunches from the Apple store, online, and Best Buy as well as pricing an in car installation I finally came to her defeated and promised to burn all her Italian lessons and any music she wanted onto discs for her CD player. Which was met with "You can do that?!"

It's nice to be an everyday hero.

With my upcoming "drive to Seattle to shop" trip just around the corner I made plans to have a CD burning party with Lana because I figured after trying all those adapters before there likely wasn't one that was going to all of a sudden work now. And even less a chance that I would be able to find it. But I decided to give it one last shot since the thought of burning a bajillion CDs and then having to figure out where to put them in my car and try to figure out what I wanted while driving seemed a little silly.

There are three ways to listen to music from an iPod through your car stereo if you don't have something installed. You can do the whole faux tape in the tape player thing, use a cord that plugs into the headphone jack and your stereo, or use an FM transmitter. I don't have a tape deck in my car and I'm actually wondering when they will stop making those cassette tape things for your car. I remember my 7th grade crush connecting his Discman to his mom's car stereo with one of those tapes. I'm fairly certain it's not long before those are a thing of the past. Anyways, I also don't have a jack for whatever that cord is called on my stereo. So that leaves me with the most sucky option which is the FM transmitter.

I have an amazing talent for losing ever single iPod I come in contact with so even though I'm pretty sure there are about seven of them hidden somewhere in my things I can't find any. Since I needed to get one anyways I figured I'd do this thing backwards and pick the radio transmitter then an iPod that would work with it. So I walked into the Apple store and a lovely girl approached me and very cheerfully asked if I needed any help. I waved my hand in the general direction of the wall of car adapters and told her I needed one of those. One that works. Then she said "An iPad?" which was nowhere near what I was pointing at but she smiled a lot so I forgave her for pushing her useless product on me. She found someone to help me and he was actually not very helpful other than taking every option off the wall and reading the packages to me. I think the people who work in Apple stores must have to deal with some ridiculously stupid people because sometimes I feel like they're talking to me the way one might a pre-schooler.

Basically I just ended up picking something out myself as well as an iPod touch...iTouch...I don't know. Whatever they're calling it now. It seemed easiest to control while driving.

I was prepared for this to not at all work and for me to just have to return it but surprise of surprises it's actually more than decent. There have been a couple static spots but nothing that doesn't clear itself up in a few seconds. I mostly noticed it while passing a radio station and in a very forest-y area.

The one I got is called the TuneBase LIVE FM by Belkin. I'm using it only with an iPod so while it looks like a couple people had problems with using it with an iPhone and switching between hands free calling and their music, that's not an issue for me. I also love that it charges your device for you since I am the worst ever at doing that. Aaaaand it has this handy dandy little dock thing on a bendy arm so you can adjust things to your liking.

I've only used mine for a couple days but so far I'm very impressed.

A Month of Photos: Day 6, somewhere I've been

I have this habit of never taking pictures when I travel. I get so wrapped up in experiencing what I'm doing and where I am that I end up with a few last minute photos when I remembered to take some. Also I don't like to put pictures of people on my blog without making sure it's okay with them. So for that reason you get a very loose interpretation of a travel photo.



For awhile I was visiting Boston pretty regularly to see a friend. There was one trip where we met in Chicago then flew back to Boston together. In Chicago we wanted to find a toy store for something...a back of the door basketball hoop I'm pretty sure. At one place we found these amazing scooters that we really wanted but they were like $200 and also we had to go to Boston on a plane and scooters probably would have been an oversized or not allowed item.

When we got back to Boston we went to Providence, RI to see a concert and on our way saw a Toys 'R' Us so we decided to stop and see if we could make a last effort to find a basketball hoop since apparently Chicago doesn't carry them. Somehow we decided to also buy a bunch of musical instruments including a keyboard and that we would use these to busk except we don't really like that word so we just called it pan-handling. When we got back to Boston (again) and bought bongos and decided to do this thing.

There was a lot of thought that went into this. We decided typing a sign, using a guitar case but no guitar, and wearing designer jeans would be the ultimate in pan handling irony. We went to Newbury street, a high end shopping area in Boston, and camped out in front of Ralph Lauren. We stayed about two hours before being interrupted by a thunder storm and having to pack up and run.

It was by far one of the most fun things I've done while traveling or ever.