Food – Page 5 – Venturing Into The Great Unknown

Arrived in Portland

Aug 212016

Today we awoke early and made our way up through the Saanich Peninsula to Sidney. Neither of us was very hungry so we both had a small breakfast at 3rd Street Cafe. Although I didn’t eat much, I made sure that I grabbed some of their homemade mango habanero hot sauce for my eggs.

After breakfast we drove the short distance to the ferry terminal and before long were boarding the ferry. We had planned on staying in the car for the duration of the crossing but decided against it after a nearby truck’s alarm decided to continually sound. We had a fairly uneventful crossing – other than the truck alarm – and before we knew it, we were heading down the highway towards the border.

We spent about 20 to 30 minutes waiting to get up to the CBP officer – chatting about this and that while we waited. We told him that we were going on a two-week trip to visit different restaurants that have been featured on the Food Network – in previous years I have said we were on a Food Network Tour which usually required me explaining that we weren’t being “employed” by the Food Network but just going for fun. The CBP officer asked not only to see my hotel reservations (nicely stored in my Booking.com app), but also wanted some name of the restaurants that we had visited on prior trips. One such restaurant – Fire on the Mountain Wings – he had heard of and also asked if they had some kind of hot wings or something. I replied that they had El Jefe sauce which was 250,000 Scoville units. He then pulled out his mace to compare the Scoville units and I found out that they now carry spray that is almost as hot as pure capsaicin – 16,000,000 units. Good to know ;). He wished us a good day and sent us on our way.

This was the first year I have been able to get a good picture of the weird sculpture that is by the US side of the border – I have no idea what it is supposed to be, but Mum and I have always thought it looked neat.

We then headed south on I-5 and made it as far as Mount Vernon/Burlington area before we hit traffic. We had 375 km/235mi still to go by this point and neither of us was very impressed. After fighting a ridiculous amount of traffic through Skagit County, Lynnwood, all of I-405 around Seattle and along through Tacoma, we finally got to Portland. Five and a half hours later.

For the first time on any of our trips, getting into Portland and our hotel was the easiest part of the day. We then took a quick rest at the hotel before walking a couple of blocks to Red Robin. I started with pretzel bites and Mum had the artichoke and spinach dip – I tried some of her dip and can now say I’ve tried artichokes. For an entree I had the smoke and pepper burger and Mum had the Ensenada chicken platter. All in all a pretty good meal for a chain restaurant.

After dinner we walked back to the hotel, watched part of a Chopped episode and then did our Wikipedia and IMDB research of the day. Not long afterwards, Mum headed to bed and I sat down to write my blog.

It is now my turn to roll over and go to bed. Tomorrow we will be exploring Portland but our exact itinerary is up in the air still.

Thank you for reading and I will talk to you soon.

Arrived in Victoria

6th Annual Tour, Food Network Tours No Responses »

Aug 202016

Today was a slow start to our trip, but a nice one. Mum met me in Duncan and we left my car at hubby’s work after transferring over my luggage. We, unfortunately, didn’t get a “start” picture as we had no one to take our picture, but we plan on doing a selfie at the ferry terminal tomorrow.

We had a fairly uneventful drive over the Malahat to Victoria and parked downtown at my favourite parkade. We then explored the Bay Centre and Munro Books while we killed time before lunch. We had originally planned to go to Jam for breakfast but the lineup was too long for us to wait in the direct sun. Next on the list was Shine Cafe, which luckily, was not as busy.

I had the Peachy Pork Benny which is August’s Benny special. It was a housemade pork sausage patty, roasted peaches, and brie cheese on roasted garlic cracked black pepper artisan bread topped with two poached eggs and fresh thyme hollandaise. Mum had the Cascadian Cobb Salad. Both of enjoyed our meals immensely. This is my third visit to Shine as I am in Victoria quite often, but this was the first time for Mum.

After lunch, it was time to check into the hotel – which was luckily only a few blocks away. Mum decided to relax for a while in the coolness of the room while I did some last minute errands.

Before we knew it, it was time to go out for dinner. I had originally planned on going to La Belle Patate, but after such a large lunch there was definitely no room for poutine. We instead went to The White Spot for a small bite to eat. I was quite happy when I realized that they were broadcasting the last Hip concert from Kingston over the speakers. I saw their opening concert in Victoria last month, but the concert today was their last of this tour and the last concert they will ever put on. Hopefully CBC will rebroadcast it again, but luckily I remembered to set my PVR.

Tomorrow we will be waking around 6 and heading to John’s Place to grab breakfast just as they open so we can catch the 10AM ferry from Swartz Bay. (UPDATE: John’s Place doesn’t open until 8AM – the TVFoodMaps app that I used lied to me ugh). We will now be going to Third Street Cafe in Sidney. It also opens at 8, but is much closer to the Swartz Bay ferry terminal.

The majority of tomorrow will be driving. I hope to get some pictures of Mt. Baker and Mt. St. Helens on our way southbound, but other than that, it’s just a driving day. We will be arriving in Portland around dinner time – which we will be having at Red Robin. I know Red Robin sounds weird for a Food Network trip, but it is a Portland tradition.

Sorry I don’t have many pictures to share today, but thank you for reading and I’ll talk to you soon.

One more sleep

6th Annual Tour, Food Network Tours No Responses »

Aug 202016

I can’t believe there’s only one more night before Mum and I embark on our sixth Food Network tour. As always, we are planning to revisit some old haunts and try some new and unique places.

We are pretty much staying on I-5 with a few detours along the way and heading as far south as Arroyo Grande, California. We haven’t been to California since 2013, so we are both looking forward to going back. This is the farthest south we have gone – on our first trip we went as far as Carmel – and also one of our straightest as far as venturing off the beaten path. We have run into a few forest fires on our previous trips and I wanted to keep off the more remote roads. My one remote road that I did pick was CA SR-1 from Carmel to San Luis Obispo…which unfortunately may be closed due to an extremely large forest fire near Big Sur. We will be watching the updates and determining our route as we get closer to Carmel.

We are stopping in Portland on the way south this time – we normally stop on our way home – and also doing our Wine Country exploring later in the trip rather than earlier. Next Wednesday we will also be catching a play in Ashland at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival.

I hope this will end up being our best trip yet.

Thanks for reading and I will post again tomorrow about our day in Victoria, BC.

Arrived Home

5th Annual Tour, Food Network Tours No Responses »

Sep 132015

Today started with a quick breakfast at the hotel, then headed to get gas and a decent coffee. We stopped at the Chevron, which not only had good coffee (well mine was good…sorry about yours, Mum), but also a car wash. After gassing up, getting coffees and washing the car, we were heading north towards Canada.

Before we knew it, we were approaching the border. It was very quiet and there were only a couple of cars waiting. I pulled into the first lane – then watched as the agents in the other lanes moved the cars through a bit faster. Great, I thought…I picked the lane with the agent that asks a thousand questions. (Don’t get me wrong…I’m not trying to smuggle anything across the border, or bring across more than my allowance…I just hate trying to explain the “why” of our trip to a non-foodie; although I will admit, we’ve only gone to secondary once in five years, and we passed with flying colours.)

It was finally our turn, so I pulled our car up to the booth and handed over our passports. He asked how long we’d been stateside and the purpose of our trip. I responded by saying…15 days and we that had been on a Food Network trip. To which the agent responds…I’ve always wanted to do that. Are they as good as they look on tv? How many have you been to? Etc… I told him that in the fifty or so that we’ve gone to, we’ve only disliked one. I also told him about the Food Network and TVFood apps and also the flavortown website. He wished us well and said that he hopes to be able to do a tour himself soon. I thanked him and told him to go to Portland first. Now those are the crossing I love…

We continued on towards the ferry, then decided to veer off the highway and find a Tim Hortons, as we had plenty of time to kill. We found a Timmie’s in Surrey and I got our first Timme’s coffee in two weeks. After our coffees, we were off to the ferry.

We arrived with over an hour to kill before the ferry left Tsawwassen. We were parked behind a couple from Alberta, and the husband kept offering us wine from the box in his trunk. Mum and I decided to go into the terminal and get ourselves some lunch, and I got a ridiculously good Montreal Smoked Meat sandwich and Mum got yogurt and a slice of banana bread.

We went back to the car and waited to board the ferry. We were one of the first to board and were in the middle row, three back from the bow. It was great because we could stay in the car and not feel closed in. It looked to also be a cloudy, windy crossing so we weren’t too excited about going up on deck. Not long before we sailed, the husband from the Albertan vehicle, which was parked in front of us again, came up to my window and slurred out something to the effect that we should go up on deck because it’s a nice view. I politely declined and Mum and I went back to eating our lunch. After eating, I decided to go up on deck and report my concerns to a BC Ferries worker. I was told that my best recourse was to contact the RCMP in Nanaimo, as I was the one that witnessed the behaviour. I agreed, but had to wait until I got signal. I returned to the car, after brief visits to the gift shop and coffee shop. Mum informed me that a ferry employee had spoken to both the husband and wife, and she had heard him say something about drinking. By the time we were entering Nanaimo Harbour, the husband got into the passenger seat and the wife got behind the wheel. We docked and they let the first car off, waited for it to get off the ramp, let the Albertan off, waited for it to clear the ramp, then let the rest of the ferry disembark. I am not sure if they did that because of what we said, but I give them a big thumbs up for the way they handled the situation.

As we were approaching the wharf, I had used Find my iPhone to see where Francis was, and noticed that he was at the Tim Hortons already. Though, when we arrived at Tim Hortons, he was nowhere to be found. I, again, pulled up his location, just as he texted to tell me he was at the wrong Timmie’s. Mum and I went in for a pit stop and coffee and then waited for Francis to arrive. Before long, he was there – with flowers for both of us. We transferred my stuff over and took our end of trip pictures. We said our goodbyes, and went our separate ways.

We emailed each other in the evening, letting the other know that we’d made it safely home. Then I was ready for bed.

Thank you for reading and I leave you with a few picture from today.

Arrived in Bellingham

5th Annual Tour, Food Network Tours No Responses »

Sep 122015

We began our day with a small breakfast at the hotel and then we were on our way north. We made great time on the I-5 as we headed around Seattle – staying in the HOV lanes. We were making such great time that I almost got a speeding ticket…luckily, the person behind me got pulled over instead.

Just north of Seattle, we stopped at the Outlet Mall. Mum and I both did some shopping for last minute items that we had been unable to find previously. After filling our arms with bags, we decided it was time to get back on the road. Just as we were about to leave, I heard from a friend of mine and we made plans to meet for lunch in Burlington. Mum and I normally go Walmart shopping in Mount Vernon but, decided to go to lunch in Burlington and then backtrack to get groceries.

Mum and I met up with Rob and Matt for lunch at Pizza Factory, and spent the next hour and a half chatting and eating. I was also able to finally give them their wedding present (only 364 days late). When we parted ways, Mum and I decided to head north and do our shopping in Bellingham instead. After checking into the hotel, we headed to Walmart and, although we got quite a few things that we wanted, I was denied my cheese. After dropping Mum back off at the hotel, I headed to Winco. I was so happy to see my 2lb blocks of cheese and bought two of them.

We ate our dinner of leftovers at the hotel and relaxed in front of the television for the rest of the evening. With our trip winding down, it seemed like a perfect end to the day. Tomorrow we will be heading home, bringing an end to our trip.

Thank you for reading and I will talk to you soon.

Arrived in Olympia

5th Annual Tour, Food Network Tours No Responses »

Sep 112015

We started the day with coffee and juice at the hotel. Even at nine o’clock, the temperatures were in the mid-twenties – and threatening to climb. We jumped in the car and headed west on US-12. We followed the Naches River to its confluence with the Tieton River, then followed the Tieton until it met up with Rimrock Lake. It was a beautiful drive and I was able to pull over to take a couple of pictures of the lake.

Not long after, we rounded a corner and were dwarfed by Mount Rainier. When I had originally planned this route, I had hoped that we might be able to see, and possibly take some pictures of Rainier, but I had no idea how massive she would look.

We continued along US-12, hoping to catch a view of Mt. Adams, but alas, we were unable to find the overlook. Just after lunch, we arrived at the I-5 and turned north towards Centralia. We stopped in Centralia to grab some lunch and also do some shopping at the Outlet Mall. Mum had an egg salad sandwich from Safeway and I grabbed a taco and quesadilla from Taco Bell. After we ate, Mum stopped at a couple of stores to pick up some early Christmas gifts; then, we were off again to Olympia. We checked into the hotel and relaxed while watching Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives, until it was time for dinner.

Dinner was a repeat performance of last year, but less of a production. Last year we got lost on the way to the restaurant, had trouble finding parking (and when we did find it, had trouble figuring out how it worked), and also had trouble finding a table. This year, we drove the mile to the parking lot, paid the $3 in the parking box, and were able to find a table in Fish Tales Brew Pub as soon as we walked in the front door. Mum had fish and chips with an apple cider and I had fish tacos with a Vicious Circle Amber Ale.

We headed back to the hotel after dinner and watched some television before turning in for the night. Tomorrow, we head to Bellingham, and, after our annual Wal-Mart shop in Mount Vernon, will be visiting a couple of friends of mine.

Thank you for reading and I will talk to you soon.

Arrived in Yakima

5th Annual Tour, Food Network Tours No Responses »

Sep 102015

Today we left Portland – I’m always sad leaving the city as it is one of my favourite places to visit on our trip. After coffee and juice at the hotel, we headed to Pine State Biscuits. We decided to visit the NE Alberta location and were happy to locate a parking spot within a block of the restaurant – we were also glad that there were only a dozen or so people in line. Mum got her biscuit with honey butter and I switched it up a little by getting a Chicken Club (I normally have the Reggie). We were both quite happy with our selections.

When we left the restaurant, the lineup was around the corner – yet again, we lucked out with our timing. We then headed to Otto’s Sausages to grab our sandwiches for lunch. I grabbed the Kitchen Sink (for the fifth year in a row) and Mum had a Californian (minus the avocado). For the first time, we were able to see them BBQ’ing outside the deli.

We grabbed our sandwiches and headed east, out of the city. We followed I-84 to Hood River, where I lucked out and snapped my first picture of Mount St. Helens. Then, after grabbing gas, we crossed the Columbia River into Washington. The bridge we crossed was an open metal-grated bridge that tested my driving skills and also nerves – I have never felt so not in control of a car as I did on that bridge. If I never cross a bridge like that again, it will be too soon.

Once we were across the river, it was a much slower pace – and a much-welcomed highway to travel on. We also had a nicer view of the Columbia Gorge. We also had a great view of Mt. Hood.

We continued along the north side of the river and then headed up US-97 through a huge wind farm. Windmills, or wind turbines as they are properly called, are something I love seeing – I’m not sure why, but I do.

Not long after we passed through the wind farm, we crested a hill and I saw my mountain in all her glory. I had been excited to see her from Portland, ecstatic to see her from Hood River, but I was downright giggly to see her that close. Every other year I have planned a side trip to Mt. St. Helens on the day we left Portland, and every year I have been disappointed by rain and cloudy weather. This year, I had decided to forego a visit, and of course, Murphy decided to give me a beautiful sunny day. Although we were 70 miles away, she still looked majestic.

Ninety minutes later, we arrived in Yakima. After checking into the hotel, we had our sandwiches and watched the Food Network for a while. It was a short day of driving, but because of the heat, seemed much longer. Tomorrow we are heading back west towards Centralia (for some Outlet Mall shopping), and then north to Olympia.

Thank you for reading and I will talk to you soon.

Exploring Portland – Day Two

5th Annual Tour, Food Network Tours No Responses »

Sep 092015

Today was our public transit day. We started out with some leftovers at the hotel and then headed over to the MAX line, which was a quick walk from the hotel. The weather was cool and slightly overcast, but the forecast promised nicer weather as the day wore on. Our first stop was Starbucks for a coffee for Mum and a Chai Tea Latte for me, before heading to TJ Maxx for some shopping. Yet again, I did quite well, but this time, Mum also got a few things. Our next stop was Payless, followed by Macy’s – these stops were not as productive, unfortunately. By this time the library was open, so we headed over to take some pictures.

After exploring the library, we headed to lunch at Blueplate Lunch Counter. We had put this restaurant on our list of places to visit on our first trip; however, we had never been able to make it there on any of our prior trips. I had a homemade Eastern Connection soda – made with orange, ginger, lemongrass and lime leaf – to start, followed by Northwest Sliders. Mum had the grilled cheese sandwich with tomato soup. We both enjoyed our lunches, finishing them fully, and wished that we had come here sooner.

After lunch, it was time for our annual Powell’s Books visit. We normally allow for a couple of hours for browsing, but only spent about thirty minutes…partly due to our not wanting to walk around lugging our purchases for the rest of the day. Once we were done at Powell’s, it was time to head back to the hotel. One issue that I have with Powell’s is that it is several blocks from the MAX line. We stopped partway along for a pit stop at Target and also grabbed lemonades at Starbucks. Once we were refreshed, we continued the couple of blocks to the MAX stop. Luckily, there was a bench and Mum was able to rest while we waited. On the ride back the hotel, we had a great view of Mt. Hood as we crossed the river, and, as we were leaving the MAX station, I caught a glimpse of Mt. St. Helens…very cool.

Around seven o’clock, we headed back downtown for dinner. We decided to return to Frank’s Noodle House – a Food Network stop that we visited last year. We started with an order of spring rolls – a necessity at any Chinese restaurant. Mum followed with Kung Pao Chicken over noodles, and I had Cashew Chicken with rice. We both had our meals at spice level 4, although I think it was a tad bit hotter last year. After dinner, we headed back to the hotel and turned in for the night. After walking almost 10 kilometres, I’m surprised we lasted as long as we did.

Thank you for reading and I will talk to you soon.

Exploring Portland – Day One

5th Annual Tour, Food Network Tours No Responses »

Sep 082015

Today was our first day of exploring in Portland. At breakfast, we did some research on the attractions of Washington Park – there is a surprising number of them. We found out that the Japanese Garden was, unfortunately, closed until March 2016 and also that the park shuttle was only running on weekends. I guess that is to be expected after Labour Day. We decided to start at the Rose Garden and decide where we should go from there.

We made our way to the park, trying unsuccessfully to stay off the highways – it turns out that almost everywhere in Portland requires some highway travel. We found a parking spot right by the entrance to the Rose Garden and used Portland’s parking app to pay for an hour of parking. We walked around the 8,000 rose bushes, of which there are over 600 separate varieties, and I took a ton of pictures. The aroma given off by the roses was absolutely divine and I thoroughly enjoyed exploring.

After the Rose Garden, we decided to head to the zoo. I again used the app to pay for an hour of parking – I assumed that it would be enough time to explore. As it was the second Tuesday of the month, the admission was only $4 per person, which we both thought was an awesome deal. We wandered through the several of the areas – with me snapping pictures like a mad woman – and then I realized we were running out of time for parking, so I added another hour. As the second hour was running out, we made the decision to stop for the day – mainly due to the heat and being tired. Since we ended up missing quite a few of the exhibits, we decided to add it to our to-do list for next year’s trip.

Mountain Goat

Polar Bear

Visayan Warty Pig

Caracal

California Condor

Southern Gerenuk

Lion

Hippopotamus

Southern Ground Hornbill

Reticulated Giraffe

By this time, it was after two, and we were both quite hungry, so I programmed my GPS to find Industrial Café. According to my GPS, we were only two miles away…two miles that would take up over fifteen minutes to drive. Yet again, we were routed via the highway and even when I got off the stop-and-go traffic of the highway, the GPS tried to put us back on it. I really wish there was a city street only option sometimes. We eventually found the restaurant and I did an awesome parallel parking job, right around the corner – only to find out that I was illegally parked. We continued up the block and I found an even easier spot to park in…and it way legal – yay! We walked back to the restaurant and grabbed a seat by the window. The restaurant is decorated in, what I can only describe as, a steampunk motif. Mum had a Muffuletta sandwich with a salad and I had a pulled pork sandwich with fries. It was absolutely divine.

After lunch, we headed to Kohl’s to look for a couple of things that Mum was interested in. Yet again, I was able to find quite a few things, while Mum was left disappointed. After our shopping, we headed back to the hotel to rest before dinner. We decided to go to Fire on the Mountain Wings’ Fremont location as we have had better luck with parking there and it also has table service. In keeping with tradition, I ordered fried pickles to start…I much prefer the pickles when they are cold so I only had one. Mum also kept with tradition and had her wings with the spicy peanut sauce. I decided to step outside the box this year. This is partly due to their having new sauces that I haven’t tried, but mainly because I cried last time I ordered my wings with El Jefé. I ordered four boneless wings with Bourbon Chipotle, but I’m pretty sure that they gave me six or seven wings. The sauce was absolutely delightful and I grabbed a bottle of it to bring home with me. I also brought home a bottle of Raspberry Habanero sauce…no El Jefé this year.

After dinner, we headed back to the hotel and, before too long, were ready for bed. This would be the reason that I am a day late posting. Thank you for reading and I will talk to you all soon.

Arrived in Portland

5th Annual Tour, Food Network Tours No Responses »

Sep 072015

We woke up around eight and got ready to head out. Although there was a continental breakfast at our hotel, I grabbed us coffee from 7-Eleven and we headed west. We had originally planned to go bird watching at the Fern Ridge Reservoir before heading north, but as we approached the reservoir, the skies clouded up and it started to spit rain. It was definitely not weather that was conducive to bird watching or photos, so we added it to our “do on a future trip” list and continued on towards Portland. We decided to continue on the back roads as we made our way north – paralleling the Interstate. When we reached Albany, we were forced to jump onto the I-5 and fight with the Labour Day traffic.

We arrived at the Woodburn Outlet Mall just after noon. If we had been able to see how busy the parking lot was before we got off the highway, we would have continued on our way. It wasn’t until we were on the overpass, that we could see that the traffic wasn’t being delayed by construction – it was the insane number of cars heading to the mall. By this point, we were committed – or maybe we should have been committed – so we continued into the parking lot. We were just about to give up and find a quick escape route when I located a parking spot (near where we normally park). Deciding that this was the fates telling me that I was meant to shop today, I whipped the car into the spot.

Mum headed to Pendleton and I made a beeline to Columbia – with us planning to meet up somewhere in between. I lucked out and was able to not only get my winter jacket, but also a pair of rubber boots. Mum met me as I was finishing in Columbia and we headed to the kitchen store to grab a couple of things. Then, after sticking our heads in a few more stores, we headed back to the car. When we got to the car, we looked at the highway and saw that it was at a standstill due to traffic. One quick look at my GPS showed that I was able to go “out the back way” and totally avoid the Interstate. It still took us almost fifteen miutes to get out of the parking lot – it would have been longer without the patient flaggers that were helping control the flow of traffic. After we escaped the mall, we headed towards Portland on US-99E, stopping in Aurora at the city park for a picnic lunch of last night’s leftovers.

After lunch, we continued on US-99E until it met up with I-205, and then we were back in the Labour Day traffic. Luckily, it was a short drive and before we knew it, we were arriving at the hotel. We checked in and while chilling in front of the TV, searched for possible Food Network places that we could have dinner at. As it was Labour Day, our choices were limited. We decided tonight would be our annual Portland Red Robin visit. This was our third time to the airport location and the first time I didn’t get lost trying to get there – I was quite proud of myself.

There was a 10-15 minute wait for a booth, so we grabbed a table in the bar instead. Mum decided on the Bruschetta Chicken Burger with salad and I chose the Pig Out Tavern Burger with fries – with pretzel bites as an appy, of course. While we were waiting for our food, we played some trivia on the Ziosk at our table. I have to admit, we did quite well. After dinner we head back to the hotel and watched part one of the SYTYCD season finale before packing it in for the night.

Tomorrow we are planning on exploring Washington Park. Although this is our fifth stay in Portland, we have never explored the gardens and other attractions of the park. Hopefully I will be able to get some pictures to make up for my lack of any today.

Thanks for reading and I will talk to you tomorrow.

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