Friday, July 02, 2004

Another lovely day of vacation

It's hard not to enjoy vacation days, but it's possible. So I'm always happy to have had a full, fun day.

Marc and I made our way from Spokane to Portland, stopping on the way to admire Mount Hood. They do make these hills big out here! I'd venture to say they have a few feet on the Catskills! ;)

The bonus was turning around after admiring Mt. Hood, to be confronted with another huge mountain in the distance. After a moment of, "hey, what's that one?," we studied our map and decided it had to be Mount St. Helens. It was the side that didn't get blown out in the eruption, so it didn't look too unusual, but there it was.

After we arrived at the Heathman Hotel, we met our wonderful massage therapist, Puna. He gave us massages the likes of which we've never had before--and we get massage therapy at home. Then this wonderful man gave us dinner advice before going on his way. If you're going to be in Portland and want the massage of a lifetime, send me an e-mail. I'll be happy to provide Puna's contact information.

So we got to enjoy a fine meal at Jake's, a local seafood establishment of long standing. We began our meal by sharing an appetizer of fried calamari with three dipping sauces: cocktail sauce, sherry wine & horseradish orange zest marmalade. As unusual as that last one sounds, I can tell you it was all wonderful.

Then Marc and I each had salmon--he had a grilled Chinook salmon, while I had a stuffed salmon. We followed this by a large step away from our diets, ordering flan and banana cream pie for dessert. We shared each other's dessert, and it was the perfect end to the meal.

As a final treat, I found the neon sign outside of Jake's to be nice enough to warrant a photo, so that will be posted on a moment. :)

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