Tall Boys, Sunshine and Cheese

Happy Easter! It’s a rainy, Portland-y day, but boy, did we ever have some gorgeous weather the past couple days: sunny and high 60’s/low 70’s. My sister Michelle (Shelly) is in town until Tuesday, and she started with a false impression of normal weather here. Today, it was back to reality, although the rain hasn’t stopped us from plowing through tons of fun activities.

Beautiful Portland day. (Hello, Mt. Hood!)

On Friday, we got a double dose of visitors, when my old high school buddy Stephanie Seigh and her adorable little guy Noah met us for lunch and some Nike tours.

Lunch at MiNGO with Stephanie and Noah (and Shelly and Jeff)

Later that night, we hit a couple of our regular spots (Henry’s and Rogue) with Shelly. We petered out a little early, but we knew we had a big day on Saturday.

Imitating the Rogue Dead Guy

Saturday was awesome. We had the nicest weather we’ve had since we’ve been in Portland – it felt like summer. We kicked off the day with breakfast at Pine State Biscuits, which is a sinfully delicious joint in the Northeast. After a quick tour of the Northeast (and a stop at the Nike Factory Store) we gathered our energy for the main event: Eat Mobile 2011. The nirvana of food carts. Forty carts, free drinks, giveaways, freaky performers – it was amazing. We and our fab neighbors Daniel and Lindsay were all lucky to have VIP passes, which upped the fun factor. The hipster-fave PBR tall boys were flowing – we even scored some free PBR koozies from an incognito PBR rep. We followed up the festival with a bar-hop home via Hair of the Dog Brewery, Bunk Bar, Portland City Grill, Little Big Burger (like we needed more food) and Low Brow Lounge.

The Pine State Biscuits experience

Eat Mobile 2011 VIP crew

One of the, uh, talented performers at Eat Mobile

Walking home over the Morrison Bridge

Now today, we caught Easter mass and headed right out to the coast in hopes of spotting some puffins. Puffins! I’m so excited they hang out in our state! Supposedly they nest at Haystack Rock at Cannon Beach. (Also known as the “Goonies” rock.) Hurricane-force rain didn’t discourage us from hiking out to the beach to check it out. Cooper had a ball jumping through puddles and pulling “sticks” (large driftwood, actually) around. Luckily the rain subsided and we got to climb the rocks and explore all the funny creatures out there. Alas, no puffins, although they might’ve been on the top of the rock since it’s so darn big.

We followed up the Cannon Beach visit with a drive down the coast to Tillamook, where we visited the famed cheese factory. Coming from the cheese capital of Michigan, we have a deep appreciation for good cheese! Now we’re back at home, Jeff’s cooking tacos, and we’re resting up for Shelly’s last full day in Portland. (Sad face here. I don’t want her to go back to Michigan!)