After taking two summers off from gardening, I’m back to discovering how green my thumbs can be. I had considered doing a CSA at the beginning of summer and then decided to DIY with gardening and farmers market. I started out this spring with some container gardening — think super small planters, not a container box on the ground. The arugula, strawberries, butter lettuce, and basil did really well until June or…
Most visitors to Portland think they want to stay downtown. While Portland has a lot of unique and cool neighborhoods, from Mississippi to Hawthorne and Belmont in SE Portland — most of these neighborhoods do not have hotels. So unless you plan to Airbnb your stay in Portland, most tourists likely find themselves on the west side of the river in downtown. But you don’t have to! There are cheap,…
Do two halves make a whole?! Haha, SeaWheeze Half this year was the best ever! The stars aligned and I had such a great weekend. I PRed my time, weather was great, had a great concert post-party and didn’t injure myself like last year! My first half marathon was really fun, but also hard because I over-trained in the weeks leading up to the race and my IT…
This is a quick race recap post about my running adventures. Check out my Running page for more info on races and how I started running. If you haven’t been to Central Oregon, add it to your list! 300 days of sunshine, epic views of the Cascade mountains range, and a booming beer scene. Plus, one of the funniest things about Bend, is as a pretty outdoorsy person, being there makes me…
My next installment of Portland Neighborhood Maps hits close to [my first] home – South Waterfront. I moved to South Waterfront in the summer of 2010. South Waterfront was one of those areas that was created out of “nothing” in the mid-2000s. Most of the high-rises were just being finished as the economy tanked in 2008 and all development and business expansion came grinding to a halt. By 2010,…
Tours. There’s a word that gets sneers from backpackers around the world. I never considered going on a “tour” vacation until I started planning for my around the world trip last year. Traveling as a group always conjured up images of bus loads of senior citizens. Or having to follow someone waving a flag or wearing matching yellow hats. However, there are a few companies out there that…
Exiting the metro on our first night in Valencia, we navigated through the tiny streets of the Mercat and El Carmen neighborhood. We seemed to be the only ones on the street. It felt a little post-apocalyptic, walking past abandoned lots, half crumbling buildings that didn’t even look to be under construction, and shuttered business with roll-down doors. This will all look different tomorrow I thought. And then…
With 3 days in Madrid, our goal was to do a lot of wandering, eating, with a bit of museums and sights thrown in. This easygoing itinerary for Madrid, Spain goes at a slower pace with actually enjoying your time instead of just checking all the sights off your bucket list. Not all trips need to be so easygoing, but that’s what you’ll find in this itinerary for…
There’s something about first arriving in a new country and falling in love with the first city you visit. Rookie mistake? It still happens to me. Some of my lifetime favorites though are Busan (Korea), Marseille (France), and Osaka (Japan). Something else they all have in common? Port cities! Which brings us to Porto, Portugal. Our first stop on our Portugal itinerary! With one week to travel, and…
When I signed up for this race in January, I registered for the 8k. Friends ended up registering for the 15k and since it was free to change distances later – and peer pressure of training with friends is more fun – I opted for the 15k version! Unlike my first half marathon, in the weeks leading up to the race I was a lot more nervous about…
Florida’s Tampa Bay area is having their own microbrewery explosion. It’s Portland, circa 2011. I made my first visit to Tampa in 2011. With a free Sunday afternoon, I suggested we go visit a local brewery. We found two options within Tampa city limits – Cigar City Brewing and Tampa Bay Brewing (looking back now, Cold Storage Brewing had quietly opened a year earlier as well). Three year later,…
What defines a neighborhood? What makes a place feel “lived in”? I love maps, data, Portland, research, design, real estate, and numbers. A month or so ago, I fell down a rabbit hole of research. I was thinking about Portland neighborhoods and what makes a neighborhood feel lived in, what defines a neighborhood both from a just a “feel” and from a more tangible perspective. Turns out there are…