B and B hopping

Well we spent our Anniversary weekend in Portland having our first trip away sans baby. We dropped Margot off at my in-laws in Hillsboro and then drove into the city. When I planned this weekend back in March I thought I'd booked us two nights at the Portland White House Bed and Breakfast. However our reservation was messed up somehow and they only had us for one night and were booked all weekend. At first I was so disappointed but in the end we loved our second B and B and had a fabulous weekend all around.

Friday after a grueling hour of rush our into the city we checked in and wandered the neighborhood looking for someplace relaxing to eat. We settled on a old house converted into a Thai restaurant where we were able to eat up on the upper level front porch enjoy our wine/beer and people watch on the street below.

After dinner we wandered through the historic Irvington neighborhood looking at old houses, check out this one which looks like it belongs in a fairy tale.

After our gourmet breakfast, vegetable frittata, potatoes, chicken apple sausage and homemade blueberry muffins we headed to SE Hawthorne to peruse the vintage shops and get ideas for our new house. We walked 35 blocks down Hawthorne then took the bus back up to 47th to this taqueria which was featured in the most recent Oregonian restaurant guide.

It totally lived up to it's review and we feasted on margaritas, chips and salsa and a variety of yummy tacos. See how happy we are among delicious Mexican food, margaritas and mid century modern shopping! After lunch we hit a few more shops and found our major score of the day, a dresser for Margot's new room for a great price!

Later that afternoon we checked into B and B number two the Mayors Mansion. We loved both the  the Portland White house and the Mayor's Mansion. The white house was a beautiful old historic home and our room had an amazing over sized antique claw foot tub. We were disappointed to have to change hotels but the Mayors Mansion was a wonderful hotel. The inn keeper Dick was delightful, kind, gracious and completely welcoming. His house was gorgeous it was the perfect mix of historic and traditional and contemporary comfort. And it was filled with beautiful art, most notably his Asian art collection which I loved seeing. He and I had a great time chatting about mid century design and Asian art and he had lots of great ideas for our house. He upgraded us to the suite and upon hearing it was our anniversary he gave us a great bottle of wine. So we spent the evening sitting in the solarium drinking our delicious wine and looking through his collection of decorating books from the 50's and 60's before heading out to our 8pm dinner reservation. On Dick's recommendation we went to the Laurelhurst Market for dinner. We were lucky to get a last minute reservation and it was wonderful. Below is a picture of our charcuterie platter complete with house made beef heart pate, smoked duck breast and homemade pickles. Then we had steak frites and sockeye salmon. All in all it was a wonderful weekend. We did miss Margot and I was so ready to go back and see her by Sunday Morning. As for Margot she did really well with her grandparents and we were all super proud of her. And Chris' parent's were so great keeping Margot and making her feel really at home and special. They took her to the hot air balloon festival, bought her a pretty dress and some toys and played with her at the park. And they are excited to have her again next time we need a weekend away.