My Father's House

My father has been doing organic gardening since before there was a word for it. Clearly.

Big Jump, Big Winner!

The winner of the comment contest is my mother! Her comment about Adam on the post about our day in Freemont really made me laugh.

"Still trying to figure out how Adam defies the laws of gravity with his BIG jump."

She wins a big bright tube of Bath and Body's Works Tutti Dolci Mango Sorbetto Creme Body Wash! I promised it would be delicious, but I should have said that it smells delicious. It was purchased in an American outlet wasteland between Seattle and Portland. I am on my way to becoming a real American.

Home Again, Home Again

We're just checking out of our hotel in Albuquerque to head to the airport for our long flight home.

A huge thank-you to Amy and JP for hosting us with such fantastic style and generosity in Portland; to Liz and Ziad for ferrying me around Seattle last Tuesday (and for being the best friends in the world); to Ella for making our trip a whole lot cuter; and to Chris and Megan for the fun spin around the farmer's market.

An even bigger thank-you to my parents for taking care of our house and our kitties while we were gone. I rested easy, so easy, knowing that they were cuddling the little love bugs and taking such good care of everything around our condo. Their supporting cast (Ellen, Diane, Sarah, and Jeremiah) deserve props for making their stay in Ottawa a good one.


And to everyone who left comments on the blog, stay tuned for the results of the comment contest. The prize is a good one!

July 9, 2010

Adam 30

This morning, we went to Carol La Roche Gallery to purchase Adam's birthday present, a print of her iconic red wolves. We stopped for cold chocolate chai and iced green tea at The Tea House and then ate our picnic lunch at the casita where it was nice and cool.

Afterward, we walked to the plaza, where SOFA West was held and we walked around the show looking at sculpture, objects, and functional art (s-o-f-a) for a couple hours before taking another break. We spent the rest of the afternoon at SITE Santa Fe, looking at their biennial exhibit featuring animation from as early as the 1900s.

And then it was off to Kakawa chocolate for a hot spiced elixir and a mesquite and barley flour brownie. This was basically eating dessert before dinner because only an hour later, we were at Vinaigrette, a new Santa Fe restaurant that features hearty, dinner salads. This was seriously the perfect place to bring Adam and we toasted his birthday and our eleven years together over dry bubbly wine and deep purple sangria.

A very happy birthday indeed.

New Decade!

It's a new decade for Adam, starting today!

We started things off right this morning with the birthday song played on a horn (really just me pretending to be a horn). And then breakfast -- Fage greek yogurt with blueberries and vanilla-scented granola; pan-fried chorizo sausage; and cold coconut milk (good for hydration) -- at the casita.

Adam has just walked over to Sage Bakehouse to pick up the picnic lunch we ordered yesterday. Something tells me he'll get himself a little treat as well...

Many birthday activities have been planned for today!

Santa Fe

Road Trip

We found this guy living in the scrub above the Rio Grande Gorge. I think he liked me.


A green chili lager from Eske's Brewpub in Taos.


Use what you have. Sunlight is the most abundant form of energy in the desert.


St. Francisco de Assis Church is over 240 years old. It sits on the edge of Taos beside a strip of kitschy craft shops and touristy cafes.


The Rio Grande is the lifeblood of New Mexico. Without the river, most of this state would be nothing but desert.


He's such an amazing guy.

Canyon Road

I sat here last year and drank a tall iced tea. Same patio, same lights in the sky.

Summer Sun

Lady Whiptail!

Adam worked on Tuesday, so I took a stroll over to The Albuquerque Museum of Art and History. I ended up walking through the outdoor sculpture garden because the weather here is just too awesome to go inside.

On my way back to the hotel, I spotted what I thought was a quick little snake darting across the path, but I realized it was a gecko of some kind. I stopped and so did she! I found out later that she was a whiptail lizard, which are all females.

Later, I was hanging out at the swimming pool and a roadrunner walked through the pool area two times. It was too cool for school. Really.

Santa Fe

We are in Santa Fe. In our little Casita Bonita. Cute, compact, and dark (adobe structures don't have a lot of windows).

We're going to Taos for the day today.

Even though I'm homesick.

Albuquerque

Albuquerque has two things going on this week. Heat and low humidity. I love it. I would love to plant myself under this high white sun and turn into a raisin. Dry out completely, and blow away with the desert sand.

It's not always easy to be here. The heat drives you indoors or under shade much of the time and my lips are cracking from the extreme temperatures.

But I love my sandy skin that doesn't seem to produce oil here. And the best part is that the heat forces your mind to sow right now.

Plus, the food is really simple. I've been drinking gallons of unsweetened ice tea and snacking on and roasted tomato salsa with flour tortillas.

Yesterday, we went for a short hike at the Petroglyphs National Monument, where prehistoric symbols and drawings are carved into the black, volcanic rocks that cover the side of a small hill. The hike was hot under a typically cloudless blue sky and sunlight so bright that we could even see the moon.

Afterward, we cooled off in the hotel pool for a really long time before heading to Nob Hill, Albuquerque's university district near downtown. We plodded down the street, passing costume shops, a head shop, Hey Jhonny, a vintage furniture store, and several thrift stores. A cool area, but fairly hot, like the rest of the city with awnings bleached nearly white by the sun.

Eyes on the Prize!

Remember that there is a prize on the line for the person who leaves the best comment on any blog post about my entire holiday.

A hint is that I bought the prize in Portland and it's something good to eat.

Portland II

"Welcome to Portland. Prepare to be mildly depressed."

So begins the editor's letter at the beginning of the 2010-2011 issue of 'Finder,' the Williamette Week's Guide to Portland.

A mild malaise was exactly what I felt within the first little while of my arrival in the city. Aaron Mesh, Finder Editor, put his finger on my feeling exactly.

He continues by theorizing that "This dolor is an inevitable consequence of acclimating to a city that has spent the past decade indulging its interests, which also happen to be your interests. Even the Portland motto, 'The city that works,' carries an undercurrent of smugness and fulfillment. Everything is how we imagined it. You will find what you wanted here. Yet somehow this is speedily dispiriting. Simply put: It is hard to get out of bed in the morning if you don't want anything."

This smug lack of struggle is disconcertingly obvious throughout much of the city, and made me slightly bored. Too much of a good thing.

It was, undeniably, fantastic to connect with Amy and JP, friends who are friends of former friends and with whom Adam and I have much in common. We shared one of those amazing kinds of evenings that you can't plan. They just happen through some satisfying combination of being in a cozy space with good wine, convivial conversation, and food so good that simply sharing it creates a bond.

It was equally lovely to spend an afternoon with the rest of our Ottawa tribe, the Geageas, and to meet other great friends, Chris and Megan, for a brief and delicious foray through the farmer's market.

The food carting industry -- and the healthy cheap, really fresh foods it produces -- completely blew my mind. The pride in local talent and resources is endearing. And the proximity to hiking trails and dedicated city bike lanes are enviable.

So, perfect.

So perfect.

But I felt almost immediately that Portland didn't need me. It would be great without me. It is great without me.

So, I was a consumer. There to eat and read and drink and watch and walk. All enjoyable. But not sustainable.

Humans have, I believe, an inalienable need to produce, as well as consume. And I wondered, many times while I was there, what I could possibly add to Portland that it didn't already have. The answer, I realized dispiritedly, was very little.

I would definitely, definitely visit again (and perhaps base an entire weekend around a number of carefully-chosen food carts). But I wouldn't say I've joined the Portland love-in just yet. I find my spot in Ottawa immensely satisfying, redolent as the city is with simmering frustrations with weather and bureaucracy and identity. Visiting the bohemian holy land of Oregon has convinced me all the more that Ottawa's wild and entrenched array of imperfections are partly what keep me there.

Portland

Two days in Portland. Two nights at Amy and JP's cute apartment near the Pearl.

A big batch of delicious morning granola. An afternoon with the Geagea's at Powell City Books and Dechutes Brewery in the Pearl District, where Adam and Ziad availed themselves of the beer samplers.

Two amazing food carts off Mississippi Street. Food carting is a thriving culture in Portland with carters serving everything from quinoa pancakes to meatball sandwiches. Adam and I each got spicy hot blackened tofu rice bowls and iced peach roiboos from The Native Bowl. Not to mention the grilled tofu quesidillas Adam ate from a cart a few blocks over. Nearly everything is under $6 and there's no sales tax in Portland, so it was easy to eat on the cheap.

One fabulous dinner out with Amy and JP at Ned Ludd, a new restaurant where everything -- everything -- is cooked in a wood-fired oven. We shared several delicious dishes: a whole trout with soft, mild fennel and dill; a giant smoky pork chop with pork broth and kale; puffed up flat breads with peppery green olive oil; broccoli, anchovies, and melted onions; and nearly celestial s'mores.

A trip to the Portland Farmer's Market with Chris and Megan at the University of Portland. Adam and I bought the place out! Fresh-roasted Oregon hazelnuts; plum ginger fruit leather; creamy coconut dahl with yogurt and fresh cilantro; a marionberry empanada; fat organic cherries; strawberry creme shortbread sandwiches from Two Tarts; a spicy potato burrito; and a chewy salt and pepper bagel slathered with cream cheese, fresh pesto, and slices of cucumber.

Portland is close to perfect, or at least that's how the general wisdom goes. I actually have my own theory.

People's Republic of Fremont

Thursday morning, we still had the Geageas all to ourselves, so we checked out Seattle's funky neighborhood of Fremont, which used to be its own countercultural city in the 1800s. Now, it's gentrified a bit, but it still has the cheerful vibe of other 'annexed' hippy communities. A bit similar to Vancouver's Deep Cove.

The community's trademark (and controversial) statue of Lenin) is pretty impressive, as is the giant sculpture of a troll living under one of the neighborhood's bridges. We went to an appropriately-healthy yuppie sandwich shop, called Homegrown, for lunch.

Ella entertained us with her happy baby Buddha face and round belly. She reminds me of the flirty red radishes in Lorna Crozier's poems about vegetables.

Best, best friends. The best.

Seattle Food

Top: Cake and icing, blah, blah, blah. The important part is the fluffy ball of whipped yogurt beside it. I did not know you could whip yogurt, but it's delicious! Even better than whipped cream. It is my mission to figure out how to make it now.

Middle: Mount Rainier cherries. A very delicate hybrid cultivar that get mostly stolen by birds before they are ready to be picked.

Bottom: Big old fava beans in their pods. Ziad grew up eating these raw in Lebanon. I've had fava beans before, obviously, but I've never cracked them open and eaten them as hand food. They're pretty strong-tasting, but still quite good.

Three new foods in one day. How often does that happen?

Missing Members

"I'm in coffee heaven!" -- Ziad Geagea

Seattle's businesslike tenor is the perfect setting for a culture built around concrete skyscrapers, taxi cabs with ticking meters, and cafes serving up fresh doughnuts and plenty of hot, dark coffee. Even the hundreds of leafy trees that line the streets seem to be part of a culture of quiet production. Perhaps this is the influence of Microsoft, which is headquartered in Washington.

Liz and Ziad were nice enough to pick me up for lunch at Cafe Flora, a beautiful vegetarian restaurant with low-slung glass windows, stone columns, and old farm gates as partitions between tables. But for once, the food took a back seat for me. I was more fascinated, as I always am, by the charming Ella, with her deep black eyes, rosebud monkey mouth, and curly black Leborean hair.

We walked around Pike Place Market after lunch for long enough to get pretty tired and then sat at Starbucks for a couple hours.

And as the sun finally started to come out, Adam showed up, tired from work, and we helped him melt his cares away with stories from our afternoon. We all spent the rest of the day together, and had a laid-back dinner at Whole Foods with a short walk down 6th Avenue to our hotel before bed.

A long fun day with people who are seriously some of the greatest humans on the planet.

Seattle

Seattle is cold and grey.

So far.