We just got back from an amazing trip to Iceland. Which is spelled Island in Icelandic. Go figure. We have wanted to go to Iceland since we have been together, and it has always been too expensive, so we decided to do a stopover there on our way to visit Erika and Morten in Denmark.
The houses were amazing in Reykjavik — lots of corrugated metal and simple shapes and bright colors. There are regular homes right in the middle of downtown Reykjavik, which is a really small city. There are only about 120,000 people living there. That’s literally smaller than Beaverton, Oregon.
We decided we would totally go back to Iceland — next time, though, we’d rent a car and drive around the perimeter of the island (the interior is uninhabitable) and camp and enjoy the outdoors.
Fun fact: The highest recorded temperature in Reykjavik (of ALL time) is 79 degrees farenheit. It was in the 40s when we were there. Luckily, it barely rained at all.
We swam at The Blue Lagoon, which was cool but turned out to be a major tourist trap. We got off our motorcoach from Reykvavik and then soon realized we were being herded down a path like sheep with the entire population of a Royal Caribbean cruise ship — yikes. On the ads for the Blue Lagoon, they show this beautiful blonde Icelandic woman bathing by herself in the thermal pool. Yeah, right. 
This past weekend, Eric and I went to Pullman (our old stomping grounds) to WSU to watch Eric’s brother Jamie graduate. It was really fun, including the dinner we made for Jamie, their brother Danny and a few of Jamie’s friends on the night before graduation.
Eric made one of his classic recipes - it’s pasta shells with pancetta, asparagus, green beans, shallots, creme fraiche and butter. It’s creamy, fatty goodness and it pretty much melts in your mouth. Yum.
I worked on my forearm muscles by whipping up some fresh cream to adorn our strawberries with for dessert. It was a great meal for the night before graduation. Thanks to Danny for taking all the photos in this post!
Just a quick post to share the cuteness of the animals at the Oregon Zoo, even on a rainy day.
I was hoping to be able to offer a more culinary post about how I love the food service at the zoo, but we hit the zoo at a painfully slow time and they didn’t have the AfriCafe open when we went in for lunch, so I didn’t get my favorite ZooFries. They rock.
The polar bears have been my favorite since I was little, and I saw them lots and lots of times over the years, especially the summers I spent doing shows in the zoo with the Young People’s Theatre Project, and I have never seen them as active as they were yesterday. It was amazing! They were wrestling, diving into the water and playing like puppies. Totally cute.
Because of the dreary day, though, most of the animals had the same instinct that I had when the day started - to curl up and take a nap. All in all, a fun day, even if it lacked the requisite ZooFries. Maybe next time!
Eric and I ventured downtown Portland today, first to meet my dear friend Megan from high school to do a portrait shoot - she’s so cute! Eric was my dutiful reflector-holder, and it was the first time he’s been along on a shoot with me!
After the shoot, we walked around a bit and then decided that we wanted to eat at the highly-acclaimed Kenny and Zuke’s Deli, located between 10th & 11th on NW Stark.
Read the rest of this entry »
I had a whirlwind of a week last week. I spent the week in fabulous Las Vegas attending the WPPI conference, which is an association I belong to for wedding & portrait photographers. It was my first time going, and I had a total blast. I met other photographers, I enjoyed the parties, and I sat through 44 hours of seminars. I have a mountain of notes.
Read the rest of this entry »
