Skyfall

I love long weekends! My long weekend started with a great swim and then Michael and I went to a friend’s house for a dinner party. It was a unique kind of dinner party. Our friends were going to reveal the results from their ultrasound! It was a really fun idea. We arrived and they told us to put on a little pin with our guess: boy or girl?

Mustaches for boy votes, pink lipstick kisses for girl votes. Our friends had taken their sealed ultrasound results to the party store and asked the guy working there to look at the results and put the appropriate colored balloons into a big box and seal it. They had to wait three days until the party to find out for themselves! I couldn’t wait. The anticipation would kill me. 🙂

It was a boy!! It was fun being part of the reveal along with the soon-to-be parents. There was also tons of food: salad, fruit, pizza, cookies and cupcakes. I might have eaten one too many of those amazing things.

It was a fun night and it was good to meet some new people and see some old friends. (One was a coworker I used to work with years and years and a 100 pounds ago! It was funny seeing her reaction when she finally recognized me.) I spent way too much time playing with my friend’s adorable Italian Greyhound:

Needless to say, Saturday morning at the gym I pushed myself a little bit harder to work off those mini cupcakes. I spent 40 minutes on the bike and then spent the remainder of my workout doing kettle bells. After only a few weeks of doing them, I notice a change in my body. My core feels a little stronger, my shoulders looked sculpted and I feel stronger all around.

It was such a nice day in Portland on Saturday–freezing cold but dry. Michael and I wanted to get out of the house and enjoy the rain-free day so we went out to lunch after my workout. I’ve been dying to share this sandwich with you guys. WOWZA. Probably one of the best sandwiches I’ve eaten as of yet.

We went to Meat Cheese Bread in SE Portland. With a name like that, you can’t go wrong. Michael got the steak sandwich with blue cheese on it and said it was also one of the best sandwiches he’d ever had. Mine is pictured above. It was the “Green Bean” sandwich. In it was a soft boiled egg, sauteed green beans, aioli sauce, and bacon relish. The baguette was soft and chewy, but lightly toasted. I cannot express just how delicious this sandwich was! It sounds like a weird combo but it was not weird at all. I definitely want to recreate this masterpiece at home.

With our bellies full and satisfied, and with me commenting that I wanted to eat two more of those sandwiches, we headed downtown to spend the afternoon at the Chinese Gardens. The gardens are in the middle of Chinatown in downtown, hidden behind giant white walls. It’s deceiving because you can’t tell what beauty is hiding behind the walls and it also looks really small but it’s pretty big once you get inside. It’s feels like it’s three times its size once you’re inside the sanctuary.

It really does feel like another world inside there. There were giant koi fish swimming in the waters and the place was filled with pretty chrysanthemums.

Aren’t those wonderful? I think the orange one above looks like something you’d find in the ocean. We meandered around the gardens, enjoying the charming scenery.

It had been at least a decade since I’d been to the Chinese Gardens. It’s a great place to take people visiting Portland from out of town, but for some reason I always forget about it. Michael had never been there, which surprised me as well.

The ground was a mixture of stonework and this amazing tile work. The ground itself was art. There was so much more that I could show you, but you should come to Portland and take a look for yourself. It’s an enchanting escape. 🙂

Our fun-filled Saturday ended with a movie date. We saw “Skyfall” and it was an exceptional movie. I enjoyed it so much and there wasn’t a moment in the movie where I was bored, confused or ready for it to be over. In fact, when the credits started I was kind of sad that it was over. I won’t give anything away but I will say that the casting was fantastic! Well done! Go see this movie! 🙂

QUESTION: What was your favorite part of the weekend?