If you caught my last blog post I've had some exciting changes in my life as of recent. Even better, I got to kick off my new life adventure with nearly a month on my favorite coast! It was so wonderful to be home to relax and regroup a little, all without having my departure looming over my head. Somehow the month still flewwww by but I did get some quality family time in, which I SO needed! Here are some of the highlights of my trip!

Portland

I kicked off my west coast tour in one of my favorite cities with some of my absolute favorite people -- the PERFECT combo!

It's always so much fun visiting Portland! I may have only lived there for a year, but it always brings back great memories.

Little Duck and I put our walking shoes on and had such a fun adventure! It's probably good we walked a lot too because we followed our amazing breakfast with donuts and cupcakes. #NoShame. Okay, well we saved the donuts for later, but hey, when in Portland enjoy the food!

After an awesome day. We united with our other lovely ladies and enjoyed a fun night out! We checked out a delicious little Italian spot in the Pearl District that was dishing up some seriously good bites and then we headed to the Nutcracker! The last time I had seen the Nutcracker, Little Duck probably wasn't even up to my shoulder in height, so you know it has been a LONG time! It was such a nice holiday treat and I'm so thankful that the Hardersens invited me to join them! 

For our last day in the city, we visited my all-time favorite Portland spot, Pine State Biscuits! Nom, nom, nom! Followed by some shopping at some seriously cool home stores including City Home -- LOVED this place!

Enumclaw

After our amazing trip in Portland, we headed back north! My mom recently moved back to my hometown so it was so wonderful to break in the new digs! We hosted the whole fam for Christmas and it was a great time catching up with everyone!

We even got a little bit of a *White Christmas*! Barely, but enough to say we did ;-) After Christmas I worked quite a bit, which doesn't make for that exciting of blog posts buttt I did capture this work-from-home day with my dad! We have matching hats because we're cool like that.

Fast forward a little bit and Chris headed west for a visit. Almost as soon as he arrived, we headed up north to Vancouver B.C. for a little getaway.

Vancouver, B.C.

I've been wanting to visit Vancouver B.C. for awhile so we decided to finally make it happen! Surprisingly, even though it's only about 3 hours away, I'd never been so it was some new scenery for the both of us.

Normally I'd do a lot of research on visiting a new city, but for this trip we kind of winged it by just booking a hotel and some great suggestions from a friend.

If there's two takeaways I have from our visit.. it is that Vancouver people are some of the friendliest I've ever met and man is the city beautiful! 

Seattle

Following our Vancouver trip, we also made a trip up to Seattle. Aww, love this city so much.

It may have been a little chilly, but the day was gorgeous so we hit up Alki Beach. I just love the views over there.. oh and the donuts weren't bad either!

We also checked out an Oregon Ducks bar for our bowl game. The bar was a lot of fun and it was awesome to see so many Ducks fans in Seattle. The game ended up being an epic bust though sooo we'll just skim over that fact!

And Back to Enumclaw!!

For the rest of my trip I mostly stayed local for some more family time and a few Seahawks games! Plus I got to be home for my mom's birthday (the first one since I was 18) soooo that was really nice too! 

It was such a great trip, although still somehow not long enough! I think being home so long almost threw me off in a weird way! If plans had to get pushed around I was thinking, "oh no problem, we'll get together later" and then poof! Suddenly there wasn't time for later. So to those I didn't see, or see enough of. I'll be home again soon! :)

This burger might change the way you look at burgers. Yes, seriously. Chris and I discovered the Bondurants' Pimento Burger and let's just say our burger game has changed a little. Bondurants is an awesome neighborhood spot that features small batch bourbons, local distilleries, a draft list the rotates and some banging food.

Meet our new favorite burger on the Upper East Side in all of its pimento cheese, lettuce, pickled green tomato, hot sauce (this is key) and pretzel bun goodness.

The key things that set this burger apart with some southern flair are 3 things -- the hot sauce, pimento cheese and pickled green tomato. Combined together they give a nice kick to your mouth that compliments the burger perfectly. Add in the pretzel bun and you've got a seriously delicious burger. Just try it. You need to.

That's not all though. They make these tots.. that are unlike any tots you have had before. They are handcrafted and all sorts of delicious. They're bigger than what you are used to and once you take one bite dipped in their spicy ranch or ketchup you'll be hooked. We've been here a couple of times by now and vowed to try some of the other options on their shares menu, but we just can't get away from them! So tasty.

If you're a burger lover like I am it's worth the trip uptown (or down the street for me) to check them out. Eat up!

If you are a cocktail lover, then this post is totally for you! I attended a tasting in the city for a really cool vodka company called Our/Vodka that will be launching in New York in 2016. 

The concept is really interesting too. Our/Vodka is a global brand that has gone local with partners in select cities around the world. Here's where it gets even cooler too.. While there is a global recipe, each location sources local ingredients creating a unique product that brings out the character of each city. Neat right!? Our/Vodka has already opened distilleries in Berlin, Amsterdam, Detroit and Seattle and will be adding New York next year in Chelsea. Another cool fact? It is going to be the first legal distillery in Manhattan since prohibition, yes really!

The event took place downstairs at a neat location in Nolita, which set the tone for the brand. It was an intimate event, which was great because it really gave you the opportunity to get to know the product.

To be completely honest, generally when I'm drinking vodka I'm drinking it in cocktails and not straight so it was interesting to go through the tasting. We started with a blind test of a competitor premium vodka. The first taste wasn't too surprising.. tasted just like your traditional vodka with the predictable bite. From there we tasted the Detroit version of Our/Vodka, which you could immediately tell a difference from the first brand. It proved to be much smoother with less bite and more flavor notes. Next up was the Seattle version, which was similar but there was definitely a distinct difference in the flavor notes from the Our/Vodka Detroit. While similar, it was cool to taste first hand of how the different local ingredients affected the flavor palette and even the alcohol content.

After the tasting, it was time to taste the product in a more familiar manner.. cocktails! They had 3 carefully chosen cocktail options that were created our of fresh juices and flavors to complement each city's vodka. Of course I had to go with the Seattle one, which highlighted rhubarb. 

Something that really came across during the event is that Our/Vodka has been very well-thought-out. This isn't just another spirit brand to come to market. They really seem to have put in the time to partner with the right people, and choose quality ingredients to create a truly different product with a story that has depth, which I found very appealing.

It was a really nice event and I'm glad I was invited to check it out! Definitely stay tuned for their 2016 New York launch. All of my fam and friends in Washington can check out their Seattle location too! Talk about cross-country connection ;-) Cheers to that!