Vacation - Sushi Belt

On the way to the coast on Monday of vacation, we had to stop for lunch. Our destination? SushiLand in Clackamas. AKA the sushi belt. This is an amazing idea and I wish we had one here!

Below is the sight when you walk in...

Here is the menu - these were on the tables so you could find out how much each plate would cost, and also so you could tell what was what...

Here are some of the plates we got - salmon, eel, and california rolls. We had lots more, as you'll see further down...

The other very cool thing was that we were able to watch an entire salmon be filleted and deboned with amazing precision...here is the salmon before it produced many yummy pieces of sushi!

And this is the culmination of what Eric and I ate - just the front two piles. For both of us it cost around $20 - not a bad deal at all!

Vacation - Stepping Stone Cafe

On Saturday, July 11th, we took a plane from Grand Rapids to Portland, OR (via Atlanta - yeah, I know, out of the way!) It was a long enough trip between Atlanta and Portland for me to watch two movies (Watchmen and Sunshine Cleaning).

We stayed at a friend's mom and stepdad's house in West Linn for the trip, and after we all got there, embarked on breakfast on Sunday morning. We hit the Stepping Stone Cafe in Portland. Eric and I are big fans of the Travel Channel show "Man v. Food". Adam visits Portland in one of the shows, and visits 3 places while there - Stepping Stone, Voodoo Doughnuts, and Salvador Molly's.

Eric and I outside waiting for a table...

Their menu...

Some of the decorations inside!

One of the things that really caught our eye were the Mancakes that Stepping Stone serves. They are 13 inch pancakes that are monstrous! You can get an entire stack for $4.50. Before we even left for our trip, I knew that we would order one stack of Mancakes, add blueberries, and have a side of bacon with it - for the two of us.

The Mancakes hang over the edge of the plate...we asked for extra plates!

It was like eating a piece of cake!

These were soooo yummy. Between the two of us, we ate the bacon and also half the Mancakes - we took them back to the house to eat later, but because we were gone a lot of the rest of the week, we didn't end up eating them. I highly recommend taking a trip here for breakfast - they have bunches of great food. But, we also had lots more yummy food along the way...

I'm working on catching up on blogs about our vacation, so keep an eye out!

Be prepared

I will be on vacation next week. Yes - an actual vacation where we go somewhere and everything! We'll be heading out to Portland, OR with our friends Steph and Kevin and like all vacations I go on, I'll probably need a vacation from the vacation afterwards!

Eric picked up a Seattle guide the other day, and I picked up a Portland guide last night. I already have many pages earmarked (with little sticky notes) for restaurants and other places I want to hit up. We travel most of the day on Saturday, and Sunday is full of fun, including breakfast at the Stepping Stone Cafe (for mancakes!!! - see what happens when I let Man v. Food on the Travel Channel help me plan trips?) and Powell's Books (I never claimed to be anything but a nerd). We have trips planned to the Oregon Coast and Seattle. We've even got plans to take in the new Harry Potter movie at the IMAX (of course).

I'm getting my camera ready for pictures - lots of them. The majority of them will probably be of food. Mmmm, doughnuts...did I mention we're going to Voodoo Doughnut? (Yet another Travel Channel find). Hmmm, is it time to go yet???!!!

Getting back into the swing of things...

Yesterday got to be one of those days where everything I hadn't done that last few days caught up to me. By the time I left Muskegon to come back to Lansing, it was about 7pm. And by the time I got back to Lansing it was after 9pm because of the weather.

But there is no end to the to do list. In fact, it keeps growing! This week, my plan is to get all my stuff organized, and clean up my apartment. Here's hoping I am successful in that.

This past weekend, I did get laundry done, I didn't end up reading anything until last night, and I did watch a movie. So, not much done in the vacation department...

Let the weekend begin!

Yesterday was finally Friday. This week was incredibly slow and long. In addition, I was having an emotional week - partly because of the holidays, partly because of the news at work this week. Now it's Saturday, and I feel pretty run down. Of course, I couldn't sleep in this morning, but it was for a good reason - haircut!!! It's always so relaxing. :-) As usual, I didn't do the exact same thing as last time, but I did change up the color - got it a little darker, and with some highlights. I really like it, but we'll see how it goes tomorrow when I actually do it! My new profile picture was taken today.

I do want to take a moment and thank all of my friends that have been around and put up with me for the last couple of weeks. I appreciate all the support and just plain understanding. I hope you all have a happy (and restful!) holiday.

I am looking forward to being off from work until January 3rd. I've been feeling really burned out, and I just want to sit around, watch movies, read books, scrapbook, and just be lazy in general. I'm really looking forward to watching lots of football too! GO BLUE!

Currently reading: The Almost Moon by Alice Sebold