To: Vacations.

As those Corona commercials pun-fully remind us, vacations shift our attitudes. Through disrupting comfortable monotony with new geography and new/renewed relationships, we're jolted to remember what's just so wonderful or what needs to go in our lives. Lists and promises made while away generally fade yet re-emerge in quiet moments - unexpected stay-cations. And here I find myself again, needing to raise a few glasses to my rollicking, recentering trip to Portland.

Here's to occasional, amazing over-indulgence: Bacon Bloody Mary.


Here's to enjoying the best without any snobbery: Right Turn with amazing desserts at Clyde Common.

Here's to being challenged: Salted Plum Collins

Here's to taking the time: Agua Fresca Margarita

Here's to a holistic approach: Milwaukee Mule enhanced by icy cold copper mug

cheers.

i'm not worthy

I had the most amazing series of happy hours and meals when I was visiting some of my dear friends in Portland. So much drinking, so much fun, so much love. I think I've been overwhelmed by the joy of that visit to the extent that I couldn't put together a few pictures followed by words and sentences to document those times and the beverages that accompanied them. Perhaps un-blog-able.

exeunt omnes

This picture blends the bourbon and old wood at Berghoff's, a fitting setting for a final hurrah of the fellowship. The restaurant and bar are embedded in old Chicago but are trying to be creative and contemporary to stay afloat.

I was smitten with the $7 bourbon flight. Three healthy pours of three mighty fine bourbons including Berghoff's own 7-year aged.

Summer Sips

I should have been making hatch marks to tally the number of Tecates I've swilled this summer. While that's the official beer of summer '09, there are a number of other drinks that have tasted like the season.

• Cheap, ideally twist-top wines consumed out of Solo cups while soaking up the summerfuntime at free concerts in Millenium Park. Euphoria.


• Sangria at a burger and beer joint. Hackney's really decent sangria just has bits of apple and orange in it and always makes me want another.


• The iced coffee sweetened with local honey that I brew and fridge each week. Always consumed out of a blue travel mug I've had for ages, this coffee makes me attuned and appreciative of the city I pass through between bus stop and revolving door.

Finally, I have to snag another of Mario's Italian Lemonade before the season is out. More than just Italian ice, there's chunks of fruit frosted in those little paper cups too. Check out delicious cantaloupe Italian lemonade.

what we do when we're alone

While I have had some lovely drinking experiences this summer (including a hefty liter of German beer The Brau Haus and a few amazing Belgian beers at The Hopleaf), it's too late to write about those. The precious immediacy is past.

Now I'm drinking my way through a bottle of Trinity Oaks' Pinot Noir, a cheap wine that was on sale at Whole Foods. There is little to recommend it beyond its low low price and claim that the company plants a tree for each bottle of wine purchased. That makes me feel good as I engage in hedonism/laziness watching episodes of old episodes Check, Please! on my laptop and gorging myself on finger foods.

"dirty arnold palmer" sounds really dirty

The summer has me running. Working my Big Deal summer job on the 9 to 5 tip, visiting and having visitors, & meeting and greeting at happy hour o'clock. I've also just read Michael Pollan's In Defense of Food so I am trying to recommit myself to cooking and eating real food. Writing letters and journals has fallen to the wayside. I have only been so-so at keeping up with the couch-to-5k training. I do, however, have these lovely slow moments reading sections of A Moveable Feast sitting thigh-to-thigh with a stranger, waking up, sunny, on the bus.

Somewhere in between it all, there's also apartment hunting happening. I have faith that we will find an excellent apartment in Pilsen. And while we're searching there's many a place we can stop and relax in Pilsen. This week it was Simone's. We popped in here twice on one day when we saw apartments nearby. At brunch we were served a banging Bloody Mary. The drink was garnished with practically an appetizer of cracker and cheese. The wasabi spiciness was right on, and I just can't get enough of this Bloody Mary with beer-back.

In the afternoon, we had the John Daly aka Dirty Arnold Palmer aka sweet tea and lemonade with a boozey kick. The base of the drink is Jeremiah Weed Sweet Tea Flavored Vodka & Bourbon Whiskey. Yes, that's vodka with bourbon in it. While this drink is a little sweet for my taste, I enjoyed the one I had and it inspired me to learn more about John Daly. This golfer apparently said
"I believe nicotine plus caffeine equals protein." Michale Pollan does not agree, but I give this a smug half smile.

one of my best friends' weddings

One of the signature cocktails - Singapore Sling
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A champagne toast
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A mighty fine Rose
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Keg beer in the wine glass
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French press coffee toast
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Tastes like growing-up