Today was our last full day in the States. We awoke to a partly cloudy day with the sun trying to peek through the clouds. We packed up the car and headed to Pine State Biscuits for breakfast. They have been featured on Diner’s, Drive-Ins & Dives; Food Paradise; and Unique Eats. This was our fifth visit to PSB, but our first visit to their new location on SE Morrison. As with every visit, we lucked out with not only parking but also not having to wait in line. This year I decided to switch it up and got the Chatfield (fried chicken, bacon and cheese topped with apple butter) and Mum got a biscuit with whipped butter and local honey. We were not disappointed – it was scrumptious as always.
After breakfast we headed to an Italian supermarket, Pastaworks, to look for some dried pasta that Mum can’t find on the Island. We were able to find the shapes that she was looking for but didn’t think the $8-$12 cost per package was reasonable (they were all about 1lb each). The one other thing that Mum was looking for was a can of Brio to have for lunch, but for some unknown reason, they did not carry it. We then headed to Edelweiss Deli, which was featured on Triple D, to grab some lunch meat for our picnic lunch. It was also slightly overpriced, but the wine cured salami, landjager and jagdwurst were all quite good. We then headed north out of Portland.
We stopped at the Mount St. Helens Visitor Center in Woodland, WA (about 30 minutes north of Portland) to check on the cloud cover on the summit cam. As in prior years, I was denied the ability to see the summit and had to settle with just getting some small souvenirs from the centre. One of these days I will see my favourite mountain – just not sure when that time will come. Since we were denied the ability to have a picnic at MSH, we stopped at a park in Chehalis instead.
After lunch we headed to Michael’s Craft Store and a pet store in the same mall. Mum and I both were able to find things that we were looking for; including name tags for our pets – bone-shaped for Mum’s doggies and a heart for my cat. A few miles up the road we stopped at the Outlet Mall in Centralia where Mum found a of couple shirts in the Pendleton Outlet Store.
We arrived at the hotel in Olympia just before the skies opened up and the rain came down in torrents. While we waited for the rain to stop, we looked at our two options for dinner. We had originally planned on Darby’s Café but after talking to the very helpful front desk clerk, we found that there was a second Food Network stop in Olympia, Fish Tale Brew Pub. We took a look at the menus and reviews for both and decided to stick with Darby’s…until we tried to find parking. We ended up finding parking in a lot next to the Fish Tale Brew Pub. It was the weirdest lot that Mum and I had ever seen – you put the payment in a board with slots for each stall.
We headed into the pub and looked for a seat…this turned out to be harder than finding parking. Luckily a waitress noticed the lost look on our faces and took pity on us, finding us a table upstairs. I started with a Fish Tale Organic Blonde Ale and mum had an apple cider. For dinner I decided on the fish & chips and Mum had the bangers & mash. The fish was panko-breaded – which is not normally how I like my fish – but it was beautifully cooked and I even enjoyed the homemade tartar sauce (yet another outside my comfort zone event). The bangers came with grilled zucchini which is not one of my Mum’s (nor my) favourite veggies, but both of us totally enjoyed them. Yet again the fates were shining on us and we lucked out on choosing a restaurant.
On the way back to the hotel we passed by the Capitol Building but it was too dark for pictures – maybe we’ll get some in the morning. Thank you for reading, and I will talk to you soon.
L
