As PDX Beer Week came to a close this week, it’s a been a fun mix of beer and exercising to counterbalance the beer. This Week: Kettleball workout – I tried a kettleball workout for the first time this week (Lululemon had a free class at Skogg Kettleball gym at NW 10th/Everett). Intense! Fun though, I’ll definitely be trying it again. It was the kind of workout that you think, “I don’t think I can do this!” because it’s an 18 pound weight. But then you can, and you do, and it’s awesome! Evoe – finally stopped in to Evoe/Pastaworks Read more…

Spa day! One of my birthday gifts this year was a massage at McMenamins Edgefield Ruby Spa, so the soybean and I had an impromptu girls day. It helps that our birthdays just happen to fall on the same day, so this was our gifts to each other this year. We picked the $45 30-minute massages and then used the soaking pool for a few hours. It was the cheapest option — even though there was a little bit of cringing after paying a few dollars for massages in SE Asia. I’m used to paying around $30 for a half Read more…

I love the New York Times’ 36 Hours in [insert city name] articles, so here’s a NY Times inspired list in my neck of the woods — Bend, Oregon.  Although I spent longer than 36 hours in Bend (I used to live there after all), this list is an example of some of my favorite things in Bend.  (The NYT did a 36 Hours in Bend article in 2004, but since their population has almost doubled since then, Bend is a little different these days.) Central Oregon has always been a popular place for Portlanders to escape the drizzles of the Willamette Read more…