A Foodies Mecca

*Warning: this post is heavily linked for your researching pleasure*
Ah Portland. Sans rain; just bright, warm sun. We went in celebration of our seventh, yes SEVEN can't-believe-how-the-time-has-flown, years of wedded bliss. We wanted to do all things food related since we're a bit on the obsessed side with good food. We brought the kiddo, not necessarily the way you picture spending your anniversary. We did get a night out the day of so we thought we'd celebrate with Tayden since he is the product of our love (insert gagging sound here). Our first stop was to the Portland Farmers Market at PSU. We got some fabulous raw milk sharp cheddar from Rogue Creamery, some decatant Italian black truffle sea salt, sampled lots of other cheeses around the market like our very own Juniper Grove here in Redmond, fruits, teas, wines and veggies. We stopped for lunch at one of the best rated food carts in Portland, Taste Bud, and had the canadian bacon and asparagus pizza.

From there: we got lost. Like waaay lost (have I mentioned yet how confusing Portland roads are?! Not to mention the Blackberry Maps app gave us funky routes!) We finally reached our desired destination of Bob's Red Mill and were like kids in a gluten-free candy store! We loaded up on tons of mixes and flours--our most adventurous: teff flour. Anyone tried this? We'd love any suggestions!

Next stop on our tour was to the Little Green Grocer in the Pearl District. It is just as the name implies, little, but choc full of wonderful finds, namely Elbow Chocolates which is what drew us there in the first place (told you we were obsessed). We decided on the No. 6 Dark Rocks Chocolate Bar which we had seen featured in Food & Wine's Top 10 as #1! It's a 61% dark chocolate bar blended with popping candy--yeah, like Pop Rocks! Can't wait to dig in.

By this point in the trip we were tired so we stopped for a bit at a kiddie water park to let Tay run around. He was a little unsure what to make of it at first, but slowly eased in (he's SO like his dad!) and by the end was having a blast. The last stop we had to make was at Stumptown Coffee Roasters in the legendary Ace hotel. Mmmm...best coffee e-ver.

We ended the day in a most disappointing way. The one thing we didn't figure out before hand was dinner. We drove around for an hour trying to find something that looked promising but to no avail. We figured we'd find something fun on the way out of town...wrong. We settled on Olive Garden. Hey, it was either that or Puke-in-a-Box. Even with an ending as this, it was still a fantastic family day get-a-way. Happy Anniversary honey, I love you!