We were finally over the jet lag so Amber and I were ready for adventure Thursday morning. To kick off the day, we found a pretty great Ingress mission to tour University of Oregon. Throughout the campus, many trees have been planted to honor or memorialize people and events. The “Tree Fiddy” mission takes you to several of these trees and their plaques.
You can also see the mission on the Intel map itself if you’re Ingress player. Since we knew there’d be lots of prettiness and less hanging out inside, we made sure to take the camera with us.
Schnitzer Museum of Art
Business Complex
The Family Group
Look at the Ber, Look at the Tree. That’s a big tree.
After the museum (and lunch) we found ourselves close to Prince Puckler’s ice cream. More than one person had recommended it so we decided to treat ourselves.
Prince Puckler
Laura’s favorite: Pralines and Cream
Tiger Stripes going into my milkshake
I’m pretty sure Laura likes corgis and is not herself a corgi that often eats praline and cream ice cream. Though I like the imagery.
Fisherman’s Market was featured on Diners, Drive-Ins, and Dives for its delicious seafood. When you first walk in, it can be a little intimidating if you don’t know what to expect. After cautiously looking around and glancing at a menu, Ber and I walked up to the counter and asked what’s the best thing for a couple out-of-towners to get for lunch. What was the response?
Definitely the burger.
That Christopher is a kidder.
We got the Snapper Sandwich and a Philly Fish Sandwich both with waffles fries. Super cool place and I recommend it.
An old sailor greets you. Louisville, KY was already pinned on the map.
Gouda is one of my go-to cheeses. I told a group of Automatticians that Gouda was probably my ‘desert island’ cheese because it’s good in almost every context. I normally can’t get Edam back at home, but I knew it was similar to Gouda. When I saw some in the cheese counter at Kiva grocery in Eugene, I asked for a sample. So tasty! Very much the same texture of Gouda but with more culture to the taste, less butterfat to it.
We wanted cheese to go with eggs at breakfast and for snacking on too — so I bought 4 oz.
Ber’s hand is swooping in to take her piece.
This particular bit of Edam is from Uniekaas, a big cheese producer from the Netherlands best known for Parrano.
Normally Edam is coated in paraffin wax, but I didn’t see any thick, red wax when this was being cut for me. Perhaps they removed all the wax at one time earlier. But there was some sort of casing left which maybe was just the wax that was left. I only noticed the casing after I ate every last bit of the cheese first and almost ate the casing along with it in my excitement.
“Notice, the smoked pork poutine is not on the Happy Hour menu.”
We’ve arrived at our AirBNB in Portland, Oregon, and plan to eat an early dinner at Pints Brewing Company before promptly passing out. We’ve got a train to catch in the morning!
Amber and I are officially ‘on vacation’ – since I normally work Sundays, but today I am not.
We’ll be visiting Oregon for the next week and mostly living like locals. Lots of hanging out, walking around, and just basking in the joy of living are the highest priorities and we expect frequent changes of venue during the day. AirBNB rentals will be our home because I’ve had such good experiences with them on Automattic team meetups. We also plan to see the Portland “T2” USL soccer team play (scouting them out in case they meet Louisville City FC in the USL championship.)
Since we don’t really have too many specifics planned out beyond sleeping arrangements, we’re traveling light. Turns out for me that amounts to the following:
Book (Plan to start and finish The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho, on my 2015 Reading List)
I find that small list incredibly freeing. The numerous options of ‘stuff’ that I face every morning at home are shed down to just a few small things, with a lot more new options to choose from when we arrive at the destination. Really needed this vacation for that clearing of my mind.
Have you ever watched a cooking show and thought to yourself, “Sure! If someone would do all the shopping for me and put all the separate ingredients into little bowls like that, I could cook this dish too!” Amber found Blue Apron and I immediately thought of that situation. It’s a service that ships ingredients and recipes to you that are really easy to cook but use fresh ingredients and reasonable portions.
Part of me says a service like this is foolish. Any good that comes out of buying ‘farm direct produce’ in New York goes out the window when they ship that produce in a plane to Louisville, KY. But the reality is that Amber and I have been cooking less and less and that’s not a good thing for our health or our budget. We needed some kind of kickstart back into the cooking game and like it or not, Blue Apron really did that for us.
Neither of us really enjoys cooking, but Amber likes the social aspect of cooking with another person and I like having decisions about everyday events (like meals) just made for me so I can keep it off my mind. We both really get what we want out of a dinner with these meals.
Most surprising of all? We’re cooking better than ever. Most of these meals have ended with us being full but wishing more was available because it was so tasty. Our normal cooking rarely gets that reaction from either of us. At worst, we occasionally have a meal that one of us flat-out refuses to eat more than one bite while the other is so hungry they force it down anyway. Blue Apron hasn’t failed like that yet and I’d be surprised if they do.
Seriously! Our food looks like the professionally cooked food on their website. Last Sunday we made Lemon and Black Pepper Shrimp with kale, fava leaves, and linguine.
Ber doesn’t like the famous side of cooking
The fresh bits
Lemon and Black Pepper Shrimp in a skillet
Blue Apron said it would look like this:
Blue Apron’s example
And our’s looked good too:
Our plating
We both have not stopped talking about that meal. So tasty.
Also last week we had their Potato & Leek Chowder and Wednesday was the Brown Butter Spaetzle. Those were good too:
Potato & Leek Chowder with cheddar baguette
Brown Butter Spaetzle with Celeriac, Apple, and Fresh Horseradish
The Mustachian side of me still says that one day, this needs to progress back into biking to the grocery store with bags of fresh produce in the bike trailer. But we’re really happy with how this is working out right now. When dinner comes and goes without frustration, with good nutrition, and the price is still cheaper than dining out — we’re beating where we were. Steps in the right direction eventually get you to your goal.
Alex "Gus" Gustafson 