DAY TRIPPER

J has been hard at work on the job hunt. Recently he had a grouping of interviews that took him out of town. We thought it would be fun to go meet him when he was done and have a little adventure. So much to V's delight we took the train to Portland. We have taken little tourist trains before but not a real passenger train. To be honest I think I was just as excited as him. E was having a good time too.

It went well. I wouldn't go for a longer ride on my own, just as bathroom logistics with all three of us ina tiny space was a bit tricky. But we had fun. I have always told J I would like to take a long train ride for vacation, and this just reinforced that dream.

First stop was brunch. Breakfast is one of my favorite meals out b/c I don't make the effort for elaborate breakfasts at home, we are a cereal and toast kind of family. But I had heard about a place with delicious crunchy french toast and had to try it. Mother's Bistro lived up to my expectations. Everything was delicious and I already spied some things on the menu to try on our next visit. A unique aspect was when they brought our reciept instead of the usual mints or chocolates, they brought tiny cookies of different flavors. V tried all three, but was not to fond of the ginger snap!

Next we went to the Portland children's museum. One of the wonderful bonuses of our museum pass is that we get into other children's museums free! This place was probably 5 times the size of ours and had some very cool stuff. V loved the Dig Pit, I couldn't even get him to look at the camera. We kept coming back to this room.

I lapsed in picture taking for the rest of the day. But we also went to Powell's Book which is a favorite of ours being a huge new and used book store. It is an entire city block and so awesome. V was so excited to be able to pick out some new books. I am so glad he shares J and my love of reading. After that it was dinner time before heading home (sadly in J's car as he had driven, although it would have been fun to go by train again.) To give you an idea of how dinner went I quote J after his first bite, "I'm in heaven." Kenny and Zuke's really lived up to the hype as well. J is a huge pastrami fan, me not so much. But when I heard that this place started b/c two guys wanted to perfect a pastrami recipe I knew we had to go for J's sake. And it was delicious. Usually you couldn't get me to eat pastrami unless my life depended on it, which isn't a normal situation so I've been able to happily live pastrami free. Honestly even the smell usually offends me, but not here. I was intrigued so I took a bite of J's sandwich and it was melt in your mouth yumminess. I would have asked for another bite but I didn't want to deprive J of his bliss. On the other end, J is not a potato salad fan, I am. But he tried my potato salad and the proceeded to finished it off! It was ok though b/c I also had a tasty turkey sandwich and a salad that had awesome homemade rye croutons. Even V was happy b/c they had grilled cheese (whoohoo another new food added to the round lately!) And we didn't even have to ask for specific cheese b/c they make it with white cheddar, what a blessing! (V only eats white cheese, odd but true.) I know I just keep going on but really if you are in Portland you must go to Kenny and Zuke's it is amazing. I'm pretty sure they even make their own ketchup. These guys don't fool around and you can taste it. So anyway, we had an awesome time. We are hoping that we can do another trip again soon, maybe both ways on the train this time, or even some where further!