Happy heart, happy belly: My weekend in Portland

My 48 hours in Portland were not wasted. We largely left Franny's children at home with Dave as we shopped, walked and ate our way across the city, sharing food from restaurants, diners, food carts, hole in the wall doughnut shops and the Farmers' Market.

I ate...

Tomato soup, grilled cheese and a butterscotch milkshake at Blueplate

Everything bagel with scallion cream cheese from Kettleman's

Marionberry scone and cookies from the Farmers' Market

A glazed doughnut and Stumptown coffee from Voodoo Doughnut

Assorted Japanese bar snacks and udon noodle soup at Biwa

Spinach, sundried tomato and feta pizza from Oasis Cafe

Lettuce with green goddess dressing and a soft boiled egg followed by a very rare cheeseburger at The Country Cat

Egg, sausage patty and cheese biscuit sandwich from Pine State Biscuits

And a coconut and wicked chocolate ice cream cone from Cool Moon Ice Cream (and since we're not completely heartless, we took the kids there)

I bought...

Dansko sandals from Clogs N More, a pair of earrings and an earring organizer from vendors at the Saturday market, a miniature box of Alma Chocolates, 2 pounds of Stumptown coffee, a folk songs book from Powell's Books for Home & Garden and a half dozen secondhand cloth napkins from SCRAP, a shop that rescues potential landfill and resells it as crafting supplies.

And because we eventually did get shopped out, we also visited...

The Oregon History Museum and the Crystal Springs Rhododendron Garden, where we had fun taking pictures.

You can see more here.

Portland photos are up!

Check out even more on my Flickr page.

Dining out with 4 small children, what were we thinking?

Last night I was reminded for the 1023rd time why eating out with small children is no fun at all. We arrived at the Country Cat at 5:30 with reservations for 7: four adults, two 3-year olds, one 1-year old and a 3-month old baby.

The fight over crayons and water cups commenced immediately. The 3-year olds were separated. My kids, hungry and tired (it seems the time change caught up with them a day late) whined and cried and grabbed. Baby A stood up in her high chair, ripped off her bib and caught my wine glass, spilling half of Mommy's magic stay-calm juice over the table.

We were just about to flag down our server and get everything to go when our food arrived. I had the cast iron pan fried chicken and collard greens, which featured a tasty, fluffy honey biscuit that my kids stole from me. Baby A put away chicken, smoked pork, grits, carrots and green beans. Z had my biscuit and a few bites of chicken.

Everything was delicious, and while we ate a sort of peace prevailed. But then the kids got antsy again so we cleaned our plates, split the bill (all the kids meals were free!) and did a preliminary courtesy sweep of the area under Baby A's high chair.

I saw the ocean

We drove from Portland to Cannon Beach today, and the napping gods were watching over us. We left Franny's house at 8:20 and Baby A was asleep by 8:30. Z watched videos on her portable DVD player for an hour and a half. A woke up 3 minutes from the beach, where we met our hosts, who'd beaten us by 5 minutes. We had coffee and pastries as we waited for the fog to break and let the kids frolic in the sand and cold, cold water until lunch. Baby A squeal after and hugged 5 dogs, making her day.

We left the beach at 1:30 and both kids fell asleep shortly after we got on the road. They stayed asleep until we got back into Portland and we headed straight to the Portland Children's Museum.

Our perfect day was capped off with takeout Vietnamese food and Tillamook Marionberry Pie ice cream.

About to leave Portland

I've had a wonderful time visiting with Franny in one of my favorite cities, but I miss Josh and Z something terrible. I didn't realize how torturous it would be to see mothers and toddlers in every direction. And every place we visited I wished I could share with one of them.

We got pampered at Zanana Spa and went to the OMSI, sort of a small, more kid-oriented version of the Museum of Science and Industry, and I saw so much I knew Z would get a kick out of. Personally, I thought it was neat to see a thermal scan of my body and visual proof that my hands are hotter than Franny's (always have been). Z would have also loved romping through the Crystal Springs Rhododendron Garden, where I took 90 percent of my photos.

Restaurants and coffee shops made me wish I'd brought along my foodie husband. We had takeout from the Delta Cafe (including some raw BBQ chicken), coffeecake and muffins from Arleta Library Cafe, decent neuvo latino at OBA and an enormous breakfast of Grand Marnier french toast at Everett Street Bistro. One evening I cooked for Franny and Dave, demonstrating how ridiculously easy it is to roast a chicken and make your own vinaigrette.

I also got in more (tax free!) shopping than I've done in months, scoring gifts for my much-missed family and some goodies for myself, including a crocheted hat from the Saturday Market, robin's egg blue mary jane-style Crocs, two headbands and a new pair of sunglasses that Josh is going to hate (they're fashionably BIG). And I helped Franny shop for a pair of jeans to show off her new skinny self.

Anyway, big shout-outs to both of the husbands for letting us have four days of virtually uninterrupted girl time.

I've arrived

When I checked in at United.com, I wasn't able to get a seat assignment, and I wasn't too thrilled to be handed a B (read, center aisle) boarding pass at the gate. The good news, however, was that my center seat was the very first row of Economy. Economy Plus, to be exact. Which means that I wasn't climbing over anyone any of the five times I got up to pee.

Other bonuses, aside from the fact that none of the toddlers on board belonged to me, included an in-flight showing of The Pursuit of Happyness, which I hadn't seen yet, and the fact that the memoir I brought along is a real page-turner.

Franny picked me up at the lovely Portland Airport (did you know their parking garage tells you which aisles have spaces available?), and we spent the afternoon browsing at Powell's and some of the other boutiques in the area. I met my craving for good, chewy crust pizza at Pizza Shmizza, where I inhaled two NYC-sized cheese slices. Why oh why can't Chicago duplicate the pizza by the slice experience?

Portland here I come

Tomorrow morning I'm boarding a plane by myself. There will be no car seats. No sippy cups. No snacks. No portable DVD player showing potty movies.

Just me, a Luna bar, Kabul Beauty School and the most recent issue of The New Yorker. And as much as I'm looking forward to flying solo, what I'm really excited about is the destination. I'm headed to Portland, Oregon to visit my BFF and her family. We've got a fabulous girls' weekend planned. A spa visit, the Saturday Market, Powell's Books, the Pearl District, great restaurants and the Portland Art Museum are all on the agenda.

I feel a little guilty about leaving Josh alone with Z for four days--but, sweetheart that he is, he encouraged me to get in this last trip before we're both stuck at home with two small children.