espn zone - disney does baseball

so the day after we got back from the big bat mitzvah weekend we went up towards Orlando to see the Cardinals in spring training against the Braves.

the long and short - both teams were bad but the Cardinals were worse and it was cold and rainy (for Florida) and on top of that it was freakishly Disney in the park (the worst one yet) with bad expensive food and a rule of no umbrellas (huh?)

so anyway- here are the photos - not much exciting - and we spent four plus hours on the road to see less than three hours of "baseball" such as it was--- won't be heading back there next year...

next up condo closing and fabulous wine event!

marissa's big weekend!

so then Friday we went to lunch at the pastrami place - I would call it Mile End but that one is the Brooklyn one- this one is the Portland one---LOL - and now I remember it is Kenny & Zuke's (what kind of name is Zuke????)

the sandwiches were good but hey - it was no Schwartz's from Montreal...

then we went to S&S house to pick up Grandma Sue and bring her to the hotel for some rest (she got in at 2AM last night!) and later everyone came to the NINES for the casual dinner - sushi, chicken wings, and good finger food- followed by wine time at S&S house - including Marissa's birth year wine- a 2000 Bordeaux!

so here are a few photos to get us started - of the NINES (as in "dressed to the") - the location used to be a department store - actually still is - just a shrunken version now with a hotel on the top floors. Lobby level eight.

first two from Kenny & Zuke's where they had my favorite (available in N. America) ginger beer!

then the NINES - where these ladies obviously were not dressed to...

then off to S&S's - where the wine was a special pour for Marissa's Bat Mitzvah and a photo of a painting by her brother Jack! along with a very very very cute dog that calls Marissa "mom" - LOL - her name is also Lucy (just like my little cat- frequent star of blog photos! LOL)

then the next day was the big day! Marissa's Torah portion went very well and the service set a new record in length of time it takes to get through the thing- Catholics have nothing on the Jews (being Presbyterian- sort of- I can't understand how it takes more than 40 minutes to get through a "service"... so the more than three hours - and we didn't even get there for the start - seemed interminable to me!)

 

 

the kiddish luncheon was super! - worth the wait for the mac and cheese and some really super salads along with tables of cookies that we managed to down a huge selection from.... then time off for a few hours until the party begins!

 

the party started with an incredible sushi buffet and lots of good passed appetizers and then we went into dinner... the kids had kid style food and spent their time socializing and readying themselves for dancing. We watched a fun slide show of Marissa's long (LOL) life from birth to 13!  And then dinner for the adults was served course by course....

 

 

the party went until the appointed hour but I did not- as I was attempting to stay on eastern time as much as possible.  However- we did have time to stop by the photo booth to have our photos taken to add to Marissa's scrap book from the big evening- all in good fun -

 



the next morning everyone joined for brunch in the lobby eatery - a farm to table place with really good food...

 

 

 

 

then later again headed back to S&S's to wind down the big weekend- and eat left overs all afternoon... along with the famous Voo-Doo donuts (which I wasn't all that thrilled with considering the wait was a mere 45 minutes - although the bacon maple one was unusual) - then back to the hotel at a reasonable hour because we had a 6 AM flight out on Monday morning - it takes all day to get back to Florida - so we weren't home until nearly 6:30 PM!

my cousin Michele had been our cat sitter so the girls weren't eve n cranky when we got home- but they did have some trophy geckos to show us! LOL - little killers!

so next up-  some ball games, closing on the condo, a great wine event, two good plays - actually one GREAT one- some visits from friends and then we head into April... better late then never!

the part about wine

we decided that since we are no longer regularly attending the International Pinot Noir Celebration (IPNC) in Oregon we would go to Portland a day or so early in order to spend time in wine country and do some tasting -

so we arrived late on Wednesday to the lovely (clean anyway) Best Western in Newburg OR and after settling in headed off to Nick's Italian Cafe in McMinnville for dinner.  Nick's has had a "face lift" and was barely recognizable from the street- the menu still holds strongly with tradition and so we were pleased with that- the new space is much more open and flexible but lacks the quirky charm of the old one.  gone is the dining room table and the wood screen and the clubby "front room" and counter seating. But time marches on...

food was excellent and they still have the stupendous Minestrone soup (in the running for the best ever) and the dungeness crab lasagne (yum!)

the pear and Gorgonzola pizza was perfect!

their home made bread was crusty and chewy- and went just right with the olive oil and the minestrone soup!

I got distracted by the meal (the crab lasagne and whatever Phil ordered) and forgot to grab a few more photos... good stuff!

the next day we got up and started visiting wineries with our first stop being in Carlton at the Winemaker's Studio where we loved (as usual) the Hamacher wines and also bought some of the Retour pinot-

 

From there we went to DDO- one of our favorite wineries and one where we buy each vintage- the DDO stands for Domaine Drouhin Oregon-

there we tasted the latest Oregon wines and a couple of the wines from their French operation- and managed to find some things to buy...

the weather which was overcast and rainy the day before was perfect on the day we toured wine country!

while we were there- they were "here" so to speak- everyone was in Chicago for a wine event at City Winery...

Next we headed to an excellent lunch at the Dundee Bistro and then over to Argyle for some bubbly tasting....

then as the day was getting "long in tooth" we headed out to Bergstrom- up on a hill, and tasted some fabulous wines there and managed to again find some thing we NEEDED to buy... LOL

 

 

we headed into Portland in horrible traffic and checked into the NINES hotel and then quickly headed out for dinner with our buddy Craig - at Little Bird. 

We had eaten there before and loved it but this time they were not on their game and although the meal was good it didn't meet the expectations set by our previous visit.

After dinner we crashed and made plans for tomorrow with family members as the bat mitzvah weekend begins in earnest on Friday!

march madness

and not the basketball kind either.... so as you can see from dates on the listing of my blog posts, March completely got away from me -

so I will try to go back and cover some of the really great reasons you haven't heard from me-

First- there was the trip to Portland for Marissa's Bat Mitzvah
then we came home (FL) and went to Kissimee for a Cards game (Braves)
then we did the walk through on the condo we bought
then we closed on the condo
then we did the Wine Walk to Ca d'Zan (a fab fun event we had no time for but did anyway and it turned out to be a superb evening)
then we moved (after buying beds and do a whole LOT of cleaning)
then we had visits from Lew & Ellie and Chuck & Georgia to celebrate the new home
then we went to two plays - one of which was one of the best plays I have EVER seen
then we had new closet treatments installed so we could complete our move of clothing from the rental to the new place
then we had the electrician, the plumber and the HVAC folks in after visits from ADT and the cable company
and we went to the recycling center with cardboard from shipping boxes numerous times
then we went to another Cardinals game in Ft Myers (Twins)
then we figured out what to take back to Chicago and what to leave for future visits
and finally we drove 1200 miles and spent one night in a hotel with Penny and Lucy-

LOL

so you can see why things got away from me in March... I promise full reports over the next couple of days and get us caught up- before we leave town and the country...LOL

a few photos to hold you over-

on we go....