TL;DR

Portland

• Stay
  • My friends’ house!
    • Isn’t it better to have friends whom you can stay with?
• Eat/Drink
  • EEM Thai BBQ PDX, 3808 N Williams Ave #127, Portland, OR 97227
    • To eat:
      • White curry with brisket burnt ends. So damned good over rice. Trust me.
      • Smoked pork krapao (pork belly burnt ends with a fried egg)
    • To drink:
      • Should woulda coulda – gin, strawberry, basil, plant milk (oat), lime, Thai chili (light heat on the end)
    • https://www.instagram.com/p/C745cf6PNlR/?img_index=1
  • Hillsboro Downtown Station | Food Cart Plaza, 320 SE Baseline St, Hillsboro, OR 97123
    • A lovely collection of food carts with lots of variety – smoothies, Mexican, Philly cheese steaks, and more!
  • Sushi One, 6516 N Denver Ave, Portland, OR 97217
    • Mackenzie and Hal ordered from this place and they served up a mountain of food.
  • Twisted Croissant, 2129 NE Broadway, Portland, OR 97232
    • This place is known for its pastries, and your honor, if it please the court, I submit into evidence one Rose Cruffin.
  • Pine State Biscuits, 2204 NE Alberta, Portland, OR 97211
    • Just go look at the photos below of the biscuits, gravy, and fried chicken that together mash into my belly, and you tell me if you want to check this place out. Also I loved the art for sale from Old School Stationers
  • Coco Donuts, 33 N Skidmore St, Portland, OR 97217
    • I am a believer that Portland is a donut capital if there ever was one. And certainly Voodoo gets the attention, but Coco Donuts has a nice offering as well.
  • Thai me burger/noodle, at the Hawthorne Asylum Food Cart Pod, 1080 SE Madison St, Portland, OR 97214
    • Sadly it appears to be closed now, but this Drunken Noodle spot was delicious.
• See/Do
  • I didn’t play tourist in Portland on this trip – the focus was friends, food, and reconnection!

Tacoma/Seattle

• Stay
  • My friends’ house in Tacoma!
    • Isn’t it better to have friends whom you can stay with?
  • Grand Hyatt Seattle,  721 Pine St, Seattle, WA 98101
    • Great location and beautiful views – but you pay for what you get! Also they have a champagne bottle vending machine in the lobby.
• Eat/Drink
  • Gateway to India, 2603 6th Ave, Tacoma, WA 98406
    • Long before I became schooled in the deliciousness of Indian cuisine, I was a young college student in Tacoma, WA. And someone – I can’t remember whom – invited me to join them at Gateway to India. This is where my culinary baptism began as I was introduced to the staples – naan, chicken tikka masala, samosas, saag paneer, pakora, biryanis…
  • Tacoma Java, 2703 6th Ave, Tacoma, WA 98406
    • Stopped in here to meet a friend and our collective respite from the heat was granted by a tasty iced coffee
  • Diversions Café, 1500 N Warner St, Tacoma, Washington 98416
    • The place where I worked my senior year of college. Where I inhaled the beautiful smell of coffee day in, day out for nearly the entirety of my college years. Where I manned the Thursday night closing shift and drank coffee til 1 AM, only to pass out moments after I would get home. They’ll have reduced hours during the summer but if you come during the school year, prepare for the lines of caffeine-deprived junkies (both students, faculty and staff).
  • Dough Zone Dumpling House, 815 Pine St, Seattle, WA 98101
    • This name might initially make you think donut shop – but no it is not. Rather it is a tasty mecca of dumplings and well worth a visit.
  • One Bite Café, 17171 Bothell Way NE 1st floor, Lake Forest Park, WA 98155
    • Cute place for a boba or dessert
  • Supreme Dumplings, 120 Park Ln #B, Kirkland, WA 98033
    • They claim to be the best soup dumplings in Seattle, which given Din Tai Fung’s location across the water in Bellevue, is a bold claim. And it was quite good.
  • Ben and Jerry’s, 176 Lake St S, Kirkland, WA 98033
    • I mean, do I need to tell you what Ben and Jerry’s is, or shall I just let you tell me?
• See/Do
  • The University of Puget Sound, 1500 N Warner St, Tacoma, WA 98416
    • I mean you have less reason to visit than I do, given my status as an alum. But if you want to see where they filmed the movie Prefontaine (on our track), where Ted Bundy, Adam West, Rick Steves, and Dale Chihuly spent some of their college years none graduated), or visit the town where they filmed 10 Things I Hate About You (not on campus but down the street for the family house and in downtown at Stadium High School), then you should visit!
  • Flagship Alaska Airlines Lounge, North Satellite, SeaTac Airport
    • If you’re flying Alaska, try and get access to their lounge system – and especially their Flagship lounge in Seattle Tacoma Airport. Beautiful, inviting, with an excellent food and drink program.

Trip Background

The much acclaimed twenty-year reunion occupies a sacred and amusing place in the minds of many adults. Most people don’t go back to their college or high school reunions, but as someone who loves reconnecting with long lost classmates and friends, I love them. I had originally planned to bring the wife and kids on this trip, but seeing as my then-wife and I were going through a separation and I was moving to New Jersey for my new job, we agreed it made sense for me to go solo.

I also realized that if I was going to cross the country to Tacoma, WA for this big event, that I could just as easily add on a trip to Portland and Seattle to see friends. And so it was that this became my return to the Pacific Northwest (PNW) for the first time in over two years (the last time being a trip for Salem, OR for my best friend’s wedding.

Day 1 (June 5, 2024)

My 8 AM Alaska Airlines flight from Chicago to Portland was made extra comfy by the upgrade to first class, and the accompanying Monte Cristo sandwich. Alaska really knows how to take care of its first class passengers with a food program that I think dominates the other American airlines. We flew in over Mount hood and the lush green hills I’d fallen in love with many years earlier, arriving in Portland at 10:30 AM to a classically beautiful blue sky summer day. You have to understand that these are the kinds of days that I remember from my time living in the PNW, the kind that make you want to live there (and then you go through a rainy winter and you begin to question your decision making).

I met up first with my college classmate and tennis teammate Noah, whom I hadn’t seen in almost a decade.

The last time we caught up in person was when we both happened to be in Nashville in 2015, which was a lovely coincidence. We met at EEM Thai BBQ PDX and shared the white curry with brisket burnt ends and the smoked pork krapao (pork belly burnt ends with a fried egg). Wow. Those were outstanding. To drink, I had a “Should woulda coulda” – gin, strawberry, basil, plant milk (oat), lime, Thai chili (light heat on the end) – a tasty drink.

I drove over into Hillsboro for another reunion – this time my college roommate Jessie whom I hadn’t seen in nearly decade.

Since we graduated in 2004, she had moved to Australia, had a family, and then moved back – and when I saw her last, it must have been 2016-2018. She invited me to Hillsboro Downtown Station | Food Cart Plaza, a lovely collection of food carts with lots of variety – smoothies, Mexican, Philly cheese steaks, and more! I do love that food cart parks have grown in popularity over the last twenty years as they give me so much more variety than a standard restaurant.

That evening, I went to my friends Mackenzie and Hal’s home in Portland, and since they have two kids, we decided to take it easy and order in dinner from Sushi One.

I didn’t expect this mountain of sushi and it was damned good. Mack and I spent the night catching up on life telling stories on the porch as I drank wine and gradually dozed off. 

Day 2 (June 6, 2024)

I found the Twisted Croissant on Instagram (shocker), and I’d heard its desserts were pretty epic.

This place is known for its pastries, and your honor, if it please the court, I submit into evidence one Rose Cruffin:

Wow. Twisted Croissant was just merely a desintation to meet up with Sarah, another college classmate whom I hadn’t seen since my last trip to Portland in 2013. Come to think of it, this trip really became a college reunion before my college reunion without my realizing it!

Later that morning, I met up with my friend Corey whom I’d worked with back in San Francisco at Pine State Biscuits – and yet another delicious meal graced me with its presence. I can’t say for certain but I think I had the Reggie – fried chicken, bacon, and gravy on a lovely biscuit.

Also I loved the art for sale from Old School Stationers so much that I bought one!

I am a believer that Portland is a donut capital if there ever was one. And certainly Voodoo gets the attention, but Coco Donuts has a nice offering as well. It was nice to happen upon this place!

To end the night, Hal, Mack and their girls and I went to the Hawthorne Asylum Food Cart Pod and I chose the pad see ew from Thai me burger/noodle. Sadly the place appears to be closed now, but this drunken noodle spot was delicious.

Day 3 (June 7, 2024)

I set off early from Mack and Hal’s home, grabbed a coffee and some donuts, and made my way up to Tacoma for the beginning of my reunion weekend. I was staying with my college roommate Trevor and his wife Julia for the weekend, and they were very excited to invite me to their local rec center to play pickleball. I’d been hearing about this sport for awhile and having played competitive tennis and badminton, I decided top give it a try – and to my surprise, I loved it!

Afterward, Trevor, Julia and I headed to Gateway to India – long one of my favorite restaurants in Tacoma and where I became schooled in the deliciousness of Indian cuisine. This is where my culinary baptism began as I was introduced to the staples – naan, chicken tikka masala, samosas, saag paneer, pakora, biryanis… I am so thankful that it was delicious then, that it is delicious now, and that it is still delighting people to this very day.

I stopped in Tacoma Java to meet a friend from a professional community I run, and it’s amazing how different cafes can be all over the world and yet put me into the exact same state of relaxation.

When I left my friend, I continued walking around 6th Ave. in Tacoma, which features a lot of restaurants, bars, and shops – even moreso than when I was a student here – and I immediately became nostalgic for times long past.

That night Trevor and I headed over to the university campus for our formal reunion event and there proceeded to be hours of hugs, handshakes, and catching up on two decades’ worth of stories. And by the way if you haven’t visited the campus before, take a look at the photos below.

Day 4 (June 8, 2024)

Trevor and I decided to wander the campus with his girls, but before I met up with him, I decided to get a coffee at Diversions Café – and this proved to be an overwhelmingly nostalgic moment for me.

This is where I worked my senior year of college. Where I inhaled the beautiful smell of coffee day in, day out for nearly the entirety of my college years. Where I manned the Thursday night closing shift and drank coffee til 1 AM, only to pass out moments after I would get home. I returned to this slightly remodeled Diversions for a coffee and a danish and immediately the memories of late night shifts and study dates flooded in. Such a wonderful feeling.

Trevor, his daughters, and I wandered the campus, stopping in at the science hall so he could see if anyone was around and to his and my surprise, there was a student doing research who stopped to talk with Trevor for a half hour.

I left Trevor and the girls and headed north to check in at the Grand Hyatt Seattle and then meet my friend Ami at Dough Zone Dumpling House for some excellent soup noodles, scallion pancakes, and dumplings.

My tour de friends continued with meeting up with my friend Ivan at Log Boom Park so his dog could get some exercise, and then we continued with a boba at One Bite Café – a nice little find in Bothell that I had no idea existed.

From there it was off to Bellevue for dinner with my college best friends at Supreme Dumplings in Kirkland – and their claim to be the best soup dumplings in Seattle is rather bold, given Din Tai Fung’s location across the water in Bellevue. And to be fair, it was quite good. After dinner, the kids were eager for dessert so we stopped at Ben and Jerry’s for a cone and we admired the view from the waterside. When people ask me what’s the redeeming factor of the Northwest given the rainy winters, I point to days like this – summer nights with gorgeous sunsets (that often don’t happen til 8 or 9 at night).

Day 5 (June 9, 2024)

The next morning, I returned my car at SeaTac airport and got to enjoy the Flagship Alaska Airlines Lounge in the North Satellite.

It’s warm, comfortable, and inviting. And I have to admit, it’s quite a step up from the Admirals Clubs I’ve been used to for years!

I didn’t get the first class upgrade on the way home, but remember how I said Alaska has a better onboard food and drink program than any of its domestic competitors? Well the cabin attendant recognized my status and gave me their fancy old fashioned cocktail for free, and then I got a bunch of their snacks – and you are going to tell me Biscoff cookies and pretzels are better than these? Also tossing in an almond roca (Tacoma-based!) was a lovely Northwest touch.

And this is what I get in coach!

Final Thoughts

Isn’t it obvious by now that on most of my trips, I make it a priority to see people I know and care about? I’ve come to realize that if I wait for everyone else to come to me, I may never see some people again. And these are people who care about me who, for whatever reason (funds, family, etc.) may not be able to fly cross country to see me.

The Pacific Northwest is not where I ended up – for several reasons – but it is still a place that captures my heart (mainly in summer – go elsewhere in winter lol).