Day One of Spring Break

Welcome to my new blog. I’m so excited to write about my adventure this week. I’ve wanted to go on a food tour of San Francisco for a long time so we decided that this year during Spring Break would be the perfect time. My mom and I have spent a lot of time researching different restaurants that we want to go to. We’ve watched every episode of some of the Food Network shows like Unique Sweets to come up with the perfect list of places to eat. So here goes – my self-guided food tour begins. Follow my blog after this trip and I’ll share more adventures on my trip to Peru in August as well as other “foods, moods, and dudes” that I encounter.

First off, we had to leave Seattle at the perfect time in order to hit Portland in time for lunch. Portland is a foodie town so the choices were endless but we decided on a quaint little sandwich shop on Morrison Street called Bunk. We had read that the sandwich to try was the Pork Belly Cubano with ham, Swiss, mustard and pickles. We ordered one to split and also a Pork Belly Reuben with Swiss, sauerkraut and Russian dressing. Because we’re Italian we also had to try the meatball parmigiano and then Michael was happy with the Tillamook grilled cheese sandwich because Tillamook is amazing so who wouldn’t be happy with that. Each sandwich was served on a tray covered with a sheet of butcher paper and a side of kettle chips. My mom said the Cubano was the best sandwich she had ever eaten. My dad is a little harder to impress but he was licking his fingers at the end. Michael loved his grilled cheese but announced that next time he would order a meatball sandwich all for himself. It was delicious and we could relax knowing that we were at least off to a great start.

The menu at Bunk

Grilled Cheese

Ruben in front Cubano in the back 

Meatball 

Bunk

Next it was time to find some dessert. We drove to this amazing little town just outside of Portland called Lake Oswego. We were on the hunt for Kyra’s Bakery for some yummy gluten free (yes, gluten free can be yummy) cupcakes. Unfortunately the shop was closed and my mom almost started to cry. I was ready to throw in the towel but my dad said I couldn’t give up that easy. We’re on an adventure after all and there’s always a plan B when it comes to dessert. We got busy looking up options on our devices and before long we found an alternative – Pacific Pie Co. back in Portland only a block or two from where we had lunch. Oh my, how do you choose off a list like this one? We decided on a slice of chocolate bourbon hazelnut pie, a slice of bacon bourbon pecan pie, a slice of chocolate coconut cream pie, a slice of chocolate peanut butter pie and, finally, a chocolate salted caramel tart. Can you say sugar overload? They were absolutely delicious. Mom thought the crust was a little short of perfection but the filling was out of this world! My favorite was the chocolate peanut butter pie but only because I don’t want to be like my mom and admit that my favorite had bourbon in it. Dad’s favorite was also the chocolate peanut butter which was a good thing for mom because she could have the whole piece of chocolate bourbon hazelnut all to herself.

Salted Caramel Tart 

Bourbon Hazelnut 

Chocolate Peanut Butter

Bacon Bourbon 

Chocolate Coconut 

Menu 

A nap was in order for me and dad while mom took over the driving. I woke up just in time to see a few Redwoods as we headed to the coast of Southern California. We drove to a town called Crescent City and we found a café right across the street from the Pacific Ocean called The Good Harvest Café. We were all hungry again, believe it or not, so we got right to it and ordered. Dad got Red Snapper which was very good and mom got fish tacos which were even better so she shared with dad and they were both happy. Michael ordered fish and chips, one of his favorites. These were some of the best fish and chips we’ve ever had. The fish was flavorful and the breading was just perfect, not too dry and not greasy at all. I ordered a chicken feta sandwich which was tasty but the chicken was a little tough and I wouldn’t order it again. We also had a small cup of their clam chowder since we were sitting right there by the ocean and it seemed like the right thing to do. It was yummy!

Chicken Feta

Fish Tacos 

Now it was time to drive to the motel in Eureka, just a few more miles up the coast. Mom was freaking out because we were driving right at the edge of the cliff over-looking the ocean. If you’re afraid of heights this is not something you probably would ever want to do. We stopped for a few picture ops and rolled into our fancy motel just in time to crawl into the hardest bed I’ve ever slept in and the longest night of my life while I listened to my dad’s breathing machine and my mom snoring all night long. Who’s idea was this anyways?