Foster Burger

Heyyy now..."Striparaoke" and "Firestrippers"?

Even though Bert was "curious" about this place, the Devils Point Strip Club was NOT our destination...

No, this lovely establishment happened to be right next to a burger joint highly recommended by KDB...

Mum's Restaurant and Bakery

Just down the street from Foodland was a bakery that is a favorite with locals...

I was looking for one of Canada's iconic desserts...

Dessert @ Surati Farsan Mart

Continuing on with the bday lunch adventures of the Educator GF's.

Luckily, they are all willing and open minded enough to trust me with today's choices. First, E & Drink, and then here at Surati Farsan Mart, a very non-Western dessert place...

Acme Donuts

[Update - Closed as of Summer 2014. :( ]

When I think of Acme, I am reminded of Wile E. Coyote ("Super Genius"):

Ha, I liked how "Family Guy" did that mashup.

This Acme bat costume was also amusing:

I don't really remember that episode. I normally think of Acme Dynamite but couldn' find any videos of the Coyote using it..

Anyways, we're not here to talk about Warner Bros. cartoons, fascinating though they may be.

After our time spent at the bowling lanes over at AMF, we drove the negligible distance over to this place...

Streak o' purple...

After my first (and second) foray into hair dying....

my hair stylist got a different brand of purple dye to put in my hair.

One dozen down...

We'd been eyeing the different cakes at Hans and Harry's since last week...

TC decided on this shaved white chocolate "bombe" for her birthday cake...

E & Drink for D's birthday

Last weekend, the Educator GF's (TORC, KD and D) went out to belatedly celebrate D's bday...

We made sure we were here fairly early. You know, Ranch 99 on weekend can get pretty crazy...

Return to Foodland

You know, I feel like mixing things up today.

Portland, Canada, San Diego, anything goes...

This time we are back in Canada. Manitoulin Island to be exact. We had our hearty breakfast of bacon, eggs, and fruit as well as the surprise Poke made with rainbow trout a few hours earlier.

C's husband, FarmerJohn was out in the fields while we piled into their minivan to do errands and see some sights...

AMF Pro 300 Lanes

After our lunch at Hot Lips (gotta love that name!), we headed over to...

the lanes at AMF Pro 300 on SE Powell...

Awww yeah...

One last lunch at the CV Red Lobster

Take a good look at it...

Pretty soon, this will be another empty restaurant...

Hot Lips Pizza - SE Hawthorne

Hot Lips anyone?

No! Not THAT one!

Rolls and balls...

After watching "Cosmopolis", we headed back down to Aliso Viejo where TC hung out with her cousins (Bert's oldest bro's kids).

I thought this was really nice to see:

Kyla Ross is an Olympic gold medalist in the women's gymnastics team, aka "The Fierce Five". Here's a recent write up from the local paper about her return to town from the Olympics

She's a high school student at nearby Aliso Niguel High School. I also think it's cool that she's part Filipino! Her father is of Japanese and African American heritage while her mom is Filipino and Puerto Rican! What a beautiful mix! Anyhow, it was so nice to see community support.

This sign was near the Aliso Viejo Town Center where we would take the kids out to dinner...

Sweet Potato Fries @ Carl's Jr.

A few weeks ago, we stopped by Carl Karcher Enterprises, aka Carl's Jr. (near Zion Hospital) to grab a quick bite for TC.

This was the same Carl's that Bert was eating lunch at when I went into labor nearly twelve years ago. I remember begging the nurse to page him (ha ha, "page", remember this was 2000)! He was only gone for 30 minutes but it felt like a lifetime! So anyhow, this is THE same one that we fondly remember as his lunch break visit before TC was born...

But what did we get here? Hmmmm...

Canada Day 3 - Poke Manitoulin Style

We were happily ensconced in C's parents' home. We arrived super late the night before after having had a marathon day of driving through Ontario. Her parents used to own a motel and then coverted the rooms into extra living space, so we had our own rooms here.

Here was some of our breakfast for our first full day of our return to beautiful Manitoulin Island. Fresh fruit made by C...

Along with bacon and scrambled and over-easy eggs (not pictured)...

But the kicker of this awesome breakfast was an unexpectedly inspired recipe made by C's dad (heretofore referred to as Uncle)...

Dessert at 6th & Pine

As I mentioned in my previous post, we had some time to kill before seeing the movie. This was the view from the walkway that was situated ABOVE the street. So very cool.

This walkway led to the rest of the mall, where Nordstrom's was the closest anchor store to us...

As we looked below, Bert saw one of his dream cars...

Lunch at the Westside Tavern (before Cosmopolis)

Yesterday, Bert and I did a mini roadtrip up to L.A. to watch "Cosmopolis" which opened this past Friday in NYC and L.A.

Our destination was the Landmark Theaters at the Westside Pavilion. They had this new fangled "Parking Guidance System" and "Controlled Parking Program" where you can tell which floor of the parking structure has available spaces....

But wait, there's more!

Voodoo Donuts - The "other" location

It was funny seeing this as we walked through the door...

Homer Simpson should be annointed the "Patron Saint of Donuts"...

This here was the "other location" of a very popular donut shop. Let's go inside, shall we?

Oregon Day 6 - International Rose Test Garden

We had been in Portland for nearly a week and still had a few more days to spend in this lovely city.

Despite the constant dreary weather, we made the quick trek up the hill from our suite to the International Rose Test Garden...

Esta Abierto Ahora! - The (new) TJ Oyster Bar

After a most exciting morning washing clothes and fixing the house, I started to get cabin fever.

"Let's go out for lunch" was my solution.

"Ok, let's have Mexican" said Bert.

Not wanting to drive far, we went to the TJ Oyster Bar on Bonita Road.

Gone was the old signage in thick blue letters. It now sported their new logo. As expected, it was packed with a line out the door. We resigned ourselves to this fact and prepared to wait. One of the workers announced to those of us in line, "Our new store is now open, There's no waiting there!". Plus Bert pointed to this sign near the cash register:

Cue "Halleluia" music!

Of course, we had to do it up like Newcleus and "JAM ON IT"!

Thai Time III

As much as I was curious about a particular menu item...

we ended up ordering something else!

It had been awhile since we'd last been here...

25 Years!

[Update - Closed as of October 1, 2012]


A few weeks ago, Bert and I went here...

for a special gathering...

Dad's 73rd

Time to switch it up...

The presence of pancit can only mean a few things...

Chocolate, chips, and macarons....

Last week, I had the pleasure of meeting up with the newly married Kirbie (along with her DH)...

She had brought back some goodies from her Parisian honeymoon, which was really sweet and generous of her...

What treasure lay within?

Pasta dinner

So, after such a long day, we headed back to our hotel suite where I made dinner for us...

That's TC playing with the pasta...

St. Honore Boulangerie

Can you tell I just want to power through my Portland Day 5 posts?

No exterior shot, but here's an interior...

as we enjoyed the sights and smells of St. Honore Boulangerie...

FreakybutClosed...

Just a few blocks down the same street was this place...

but unfortunately, it was not open which meant we would have to come back another time.

Nevertheless...

Missing Sock Laundry

Even though our hotel had a washer/dryer, they only had one.  I didn't want to deal with waiting around for the lone washer/dryer so we went to this place instead...

Billed as eco-friendly, with high energy efficient washer and dryers and also, a multitude of machines so we could finish our wash faster...

Flutter

I love seeing stickers and street art...

You can't see it, but it was drizzling when I took this photo. Of course...rain in Portland.

Artisanal lightbulbs?

While walking on N. Mississippi, we came across this interesting storefront...

Hmmmm...I wonder if this is where "Portlandia got their idea for their "artisanal lightbulbs" sketch...

Ruby Jewel Scoops

I'm on a roll. As Freddie Mercury would say, "Don't Stop Me Now"...

How could we pass up this ice cream place?

Bridge City Comics

What we really loved about our Portland trip, despite the gloomy weather (as you can see in full force here) was the individuality of each neighborhood...

We headed out of the SE Division neighborhood and traveled out to another neighborhood. In doing so, we passed by the Steel Bridge (there are eight different bridges in Portland). It is a vertical lift bridge and the only double-deck bridge with independent lifts in the world. The other side connects to the Old Chinatown neighborhood.

The next stops on our agenda (yes, there was an itinerary) would take us to N. Mississippi Street...

Return to Pix Patisserie - Division

As we walked further down SE Division, we made a stop here:

Pix Patisserie, one of two locations (at the time of our visit)...home of the chocolate beer float and imaginative macarons...

The Village Merchants

Right after our lunch at the D Street Noshery, we wanted to "walk off" (some of) our meal...

We didn't go too far, since this place was right across the street...