Portland, Oregon business trip

I Love Portland.

I first moved there in 1985 where I lived for 10 years before relocating to the Seattle area. Check out the web site for visitors .

We stayed at our sister property (similarities in our ownership groups) Park Lane Suites and the new Park Lane Inn located just a block uphill from west Burnside between NW 21st and NW 23rd. Park Lane Suites looks a lot like one of the many multi-story apartment buildings in the neighborhood while Park Lane Inn is a 40-room motel across the street. I opted to stay at the Inn to experience the new rooms that have recently opened after a major upgrade. I think this is one of the best values in downtown Portland. The minimalist (lots of white in the decor) rooms at the inn are all new and have hardwood floors in place of carpet, comfortable beds, flat-screen TV and no tub, but a good-sized shower. My family and I stayed in one of the suites around Christmas and the large rooms really felt like home-away-from-home.

Our meeting took place at Elephant's Delicatessen located about 3 blocks from the Hotel. I really recommend visiting for any meal or to shop for wine or food-related gifts. I brought home treats for the family and a liquid concentrate mango iced tea. They have 2 meeting rooms for rent and the catered breakfast and lunch were excellent. The experience was punctuated by excellent customer service.

What a treat it was to have dinner at Jake's Famous Crawfish with colleagues. This is a classic fresh seafood restaurant that has been a fixture in Portland for over a hundred years. I dined there 20+ years ago and I would say that they have found a business plan that works for them and it has not changed much.

For reasonable priced family dining we always stop at Old Wive's Tales when visiting Portland. They serve great food, reasonably priced and are very kid-friendly.

Watch for more about The Rose City in future entries.

Spring Break on San Juan Island

After our trip here the last weekend in January (my first blog entry) my wife was a bit jealous that she couldn't join us, so we returned for 2 nights during spring break. We took the car with us on the ferry to allow us to roam the island. In my opinion, it's well worth the extra $ 28 or so (round trip). This time we took the non-stop ferry from Anacortes and the trip took just over an hour. The Anacortes ferry terminal is about a 2-hour drive from Kent.

The photo above is the lighthouse at Lime Kiln State Park a.k.a. Whale Watch Park and we were really hoping to spot a whale. The prime season for whale watching is June - September, so we were not too disappointed when we did not spot one. Our first destination was intended to be this park, but we wound up in Roche Harbor at the north end of the island instead, about 15 minutes drive. This is a great spot to spend time exploring. We found a historic walking tour, store with all the essentials and a nice wine selection and historic Hotel de Haro with a beautiful garden.

Dinner the first night was very good Mexican cuisine at Mi Casita, recommended by the staff at Best Western. Carnitas and Tamales were both really good choices. I have a soft spot for Carnitas that made me tolerate kind, but inconsistent service. The rooms at Best Western were very nice and both times we stayed we had a suite with a full kitchen, fireplace and hide-a-bed. The staff was very helpful in offering good advice.

High winds knocked out power to the island the next day, but it didn't phase the crew at Market Chef where we had lunch after learning about them on Trip Advisor and confirming the positive review with the good people at Best Western Friday Harbor Suites where we stayed.

Day two was spent exploring the island from Cattle Point and American Camp at one end of the island to Rueben Tarte Beach, English Camp and more of Roche Harbor.

This is a destination where I really feel like I've been "away". I'll be back.