Spring Break, Part 2

Spring Break was just all around a good week for me. I felt productive, but I also got in a lot of fun and socializing. I finished my taxes and dropped state taxes off at the Revenue office downtown, saving myself a stamp. I dropped off a huge bag of stuff at Goodwill, and sold some books at The Book Bin, resulting in a nice little credit for future book buying. I spent a lovely, rainy evening at f/stop Fitzgerald playing trivia and drinking Wandering Aengus cider with friends.

Then I took off to Seattle for a weekend getaway with some girlfriends. We stayed at the beautiful Alexis Hotel in downtown Seattle right down the street from Pike's Place Market. The weather gods blessed us with beautiful weather and we wandered the market, had lunch at Pike's Brewery, and generally enjoyed the sunny day. In the evening, the four of us girls decided it would be fun to have a few cocktails on the town, so we hailed a taxi and made our way to The Chapel on Capitol Hill for happy hour martinis. We had a great time and ended up at a little pizza joint in Belltown on 1st Ave. I can't for the life of me remember the name of the place (Hmmm. Perhaps one martini too many??), but it was delicious and made a great nightcap slice before we headed back to the hotel.

The First Half of my Salem Staycation

Since I just took a long weekend at the beginning of the month I decided to stay around Salem and vicinity for Spring Break.
My staycation so far: Pub crawl through downtown with friends old and new, Saturday morning walk with my nephew and a cup of coffee at the Beanery, a side trip to Portland for a manicure and dinner at Pambiche (awesome Cuban tapas!), lunch with friends at Sushi Kyo, a night at my personal hotel in Willamina with my good college friend, breakfast at the Casino and whale watching in Depoe Bay, Happy Hour at Boon's with friends, housecleaning which resulted in a giant bag of donations for Goodwill, and today I'm working on taxes.
Whew! I think I need a nap now.

Sent from my Verizon Wireless BlackBerry

A Neighborhood Harvest in Salem

I was contacted recently through the neighborhood association about a new project called Neighborhood Harvest of Salem. I think this sounds so cool!

Basically, people sign up their fruit trees or gardens if they have more than they can harvest, and then volunteers organize a harvest party to pick the fruit. Much of the harvest is donated to Marion-Polk Food Share and the rest is split among the volunteers.

What a great way to have fresh, local fruits and veggies at the food bank! Plus, all those extra cherries on that tree in your backyard can be split among people in the community. And you won't end up with a tummy ache. Win-win, I say.

Look What I Won!

I was so excited to hear that I won this necklace on the salemites.com contest! I love Jessica's designs and I was excited to get one with our own gold man on it.

Boon's: My Local Bar

Boon's Treasury on odd little corner of High and Liberty has a lot going for it. It's got the best patio in town, good happy hour, yummy microbrews, and a wood stove for cold evenings.

But there are some other things that make Boon's a great hangout too. I have discovered that they have free Wi-fi and on less busy days, like Monday nights, they are happy to let you sit and work on homework for hours while sipping a beer and munching on some Cajun tots. At the end of a long term, coffee shops can start to feel a little redundant and since Boon's is walking distance from my house, it has become a my new favorite alternative.

And, miracle of miracles, I actually finished my homework before the midnight deadline! I think the beer really helped.

New Decor at Love Love Teriyaki

Love Love got a makeover! I stopped by the Love Love Teriyaki (near the Fred Meyer North) yesterday and saw that they have new booths. They still have mostly tables and chairs, but now they have added booths along the one wall. It looks really cozy and nice. They also had new menus on the wall behind the counter and a giant flat screen TV scrolling through pictures of their food items. It looks really nice and classy. AND...they still have the same great food. Mmm, I love love me some Love Love!

I would have taken pictures, but I locked my camera in my car along with my keys, so I was more worried about getting that taken care of than my photographic responsibilities. Sorry!