Right after Ben and I announced our engagement and picked our (very small) groomsmen and bridal parties, my bridesmaids bought train tickets to come visit. This weekend they arrived via relaxing train travel (which means you can drink while traveling by leisurely, limited-security transport. Win and win.). We picked them up from the Amtrak station and immediately carted them to NW Portland to go out.
I'm often crippled by the paradox of choice - so many choices to eat and drink in Portland often derails me and I end up choosing an old standby rather than branching out. We also don't love waiting in lines or battling bar crowds out at small hipster restaurants on Friday nights around 10 p.m... but we did it! NW 21st was packed with young people (who knew people went out past 9 p.m. here - we've been watching too much TV I think). We went to the Pope House Bourbon Bar and enjoyed very strong Manhattans, a dim bar, and a thick crowd but had a blast. Upon getting home, we immediately made up some more old-fashioneds and played Cards Against Humanity.
On Saturday, we kicked off a very Portland day with Blue Star and mimosas made at home before heading out to a McMenamins brewery/movie theatre where we watched the surprising amazing Lego Movie and drank beer while laughing non-stop for an hour and a half. Adjacent to the Bagdad McMenamins theatre is a backstage bar that offers shuffleboard and pool in a really cool environment. We pushed through some more beer and I excelled at shuffleboard (it's rare I excel at anything sport-ish so let me gloat). Not to let the day lose it's food and drink based track, we finished the night off at Bamboo Sushi, my favorite restaurant in Portland, with spicy tuna rolls and tempura shrimp sushi.
Today, we went out to Clyde Common for perfect eggs benedict and Caesars (bloody mary with clamato in lieu of plain tomato juice) and capped the day with shopping all over town and then carting our friends back to the train to send them home.
Whew. It was the perfect distraction from the wedding planning stress that has been making my week hell (so many things going awry and wrong). It was amazing to be able to sit down and talk about everything under the sun with my closest friends that I see all too infrequently.
How did you all spend your weekends?