Class Photos

Spring in Oregon

Thursday, 5 inches of snow at the house + Saturday, a LOVELY day at Anne Aime Winery in the Willamette Valley = Spring in Oregon. Teaser great days try to pull us out of the Winter's gray grasp.

The excuse to get together was the latest wine release and wine club lunch. We scrunched in with lots of other people at the long table where we shared a salad and delicious pork shoulders along with tastes of the bottles we picked up.

We stuck around and did one of my favorite things: sat down with a panoramic view, people I like, and a bottle of wine. Who needs a second house? Who even needs a hotel? Let someone else pay the taxes, pull the weeds, and host us. We can simply enjoy the hours we want and not do the work it takes to make it nice.

Double Dragon: Restaurant Review

Bánh mì generally, comes from the French occupation of Vietnam. You combine a French baguette with Vietnamese flavor, and, ta-dah! You have Banh Mi. True to that tradition, the White guy from New Jersey who opened Double Dragon slices open a several inches of a baguette, toasts it, and stuffs it with fillings. The menu offers grilled vegetables, pork belly, and other items. I had the Vietnamese-seasoned pulled pork. The baguette was fresh, and the pork was very tasty without burning my mouth. Bottles of hot sauce are available for those who like it hotter. It came with (very few) seasoned potato chips.

The environment is casual and basic. Order at one end of the counter and pick up at the other end; no table service. The front room has glass walls on three sides, making for a nice bright environment, There’s a windowless back room, too. Plenty of room to sit down. There are even a couple of picnic tables outside on the corner of SE 12th and Division.

Ban Mi at Double Dragon provides a pretty good quick food fix: 3 times tastier than Subway and, at $7.50, only 1.5 times the price.

It's Just Lunch

“It’s just lunch,” kinda summarizes our quick trip to Orange County and our visits with three generations of family.

Scott was kind enough to pick us up from the shadow of John Wayne in his beautiful, black Mercedes. If he were ever to participate in the dating service called “It’s just lunch,” then, no doubt, he would impress the ladies in such a car, which is not to suggest that he needs a dating service or a car that does 95 miles per hour with greater ease than my Honda does 35.

He dropped us with Jay and Gloria that day, where we enjoyed catching up and then a tasty dim sum lunch.

Sunday morning we shielded our Oregonian eyes from the sunshine as we walked along the Ocean in Surf City, USA before catching up with Rachele at lunch. You can see how clever she is in the photo, as she disapproves (not improperly) of So. Cal’s cultural pressure on women to look beautiful, even as she effortlessly meets that standard.

We had some more quality time with Scott, Jay & Gloria through Monday before heading home.