Flo and Maynard

The title of this entry has meaning for three people, the rest of you are out of luck. It's fight club. Nobody talks about fight club. What I can talk about is our weekend with my next door dorm neighbor when I was at Linfield way back in the 1900s. She recently packed up her belongings and moved from L.A., where she lived for 7+ years, to downtown Canada. I know, you're thinking - "Canada, eh?" but seriously, we had decided this month was a good time to visit so Friday morning she left her new homeland and headed for Sellwood Proper to visit moi, Darr, and the kids (a.k.a. Ellie, Mabel, and Beauty the wonder dog). It's probably easiest to break it down by day.

Friday:
She arrived, looking totally refreshed after her hour long wait at the border and seven hour drive to our place, with a smile on her face and a basket full of goodies for her weekend hosts.

Side note: People bearing smiles and gifts are always welcome at la maison de Gilroy.

We took Beauty the wonder dog for a walk at the Sellwood Riverfront Park and along the beach and then headed to a local haunt (i.e., Eleni's Estiatorio) to satisfy the hunger pangs that hit after our strenuous shore exercise. A popular and accepted method of dining at Eleni's is to order a plethora of appetizers to share amongst the folks at the table rather than each ordering separate entrees. We all agreed it was best to participate in this tradition. To prove to the skeptics who doubt my tales of trying new foods, here's a listing of what was ordered:

1) Biftekia - Painted Hills beef meatballs with onion, fresh oregano, mint and Italian parsley served in our special tomato sauce.
2) Kalitsounia - A Cretan speciality. Home-made filo dough filled with a blend of Greek cheese and mint or spinach.
3) Kalamarakia - Fresh calamari dusted in flour, pan-fried in olive oil and fresh lemon.
4) Garithes Chania - Tiger prawns in a spicy tomato sauce with feta cheese and lemon.
5) Midia Chania - Prince Edward Island Mussels steamed in a spicy tomato sauce with feta cheese and lemon.
6) Kebab Arni Kai Poulo - Tender skewers of marinated lamb and chicken accompanied by a vegetable ragout drizzled with herbed olive oil.
7) Spanakorizo - Spinach sauteed with onion, fresh dill, rice and lemon. Topped with feta.

And I tried a little of every dish. Yum!

A trip to Portland just isn't complete without going to Piece of Cake, so we headed there after dinner to grab some slices (thanks, Marilyn!) and return home to finish the rest of our second bottle of Greek red wine and consume our Chantilly cake (a.k.a. the best cake in this solar system).

Saturday:
I woke up at 5am but I was the only one. We didn't leave the house until after eating the leftover Chantilly cake for breakfast, with some fruit, you know, to give us the proper nutrition to start the day. Then Jess and I walked the kayaks down to the river - Darr came along with Beauty the wonder dog to see us off and catch the momentous event on, well, not film...on a memory card??? Anyway, we paddled our way down the Willamette. The weather was gorgeous and luckily we left early enough that we (1) weren't too hot and (2) didn't have to dodge evil speed boaters on the river. When we finally returned Darr and Beaut were waiting for us. It was super cute because when Beauty realized it was us, she jumped in and swam out to greet us. < insert audible "ahhh" sound here >

Jess and I spent the next four plus hours shopping. We started our buying extravaganza in the Pearl District, doing our part to help the economy at Title Nine and Oblation, before leaving downtown to explore Bridgeport Village. I can't remember all of the purchases, but our spending did garner us items such as an iPod Nano from the Apple store and a bedside table from DWR. We made our way to Sephora at Washington Square before we went home for a short siesta. Then we headed back downtown for dinner at El Gaucho. Stuffed with steak, we came home where we chatted until about 2am.

Sunday:
We slept in, had a light breakfast, and helped Jess put together some cds for her return trip. It was a lazy Sunday morning. The weekend went by surprisingly quick and both Vancouver and Portland have a lot more to offer so we're already discussing what we can do for the next visit and the visit after that and the following visit and...