Charleston Bound

A few years ago I discovered that the secret to life is always having something fun to look forward to. For me, more often than not this involves travel. It's still a few weeks away, but I'm already getting pumped for my next trip: Charleston, South Carolina. The friends I'm visiting are definitely experts when it comes to the city they live in and love (and travelers at heart themselves), but still it's always fun for me to get recommendations from you all. Also, it's a great way for my "local experts" to learn a new thing or two about the city they live in. Any thoughts on Charleston??
Oh, and I almost forgot the best part! I'm taking the train!!!!!
{classic Charleston images via the new LIFE Photo Archive hosted by Google Images. Click here to learn more about the dance with the same name as the city it orginated. If I'm lucky, maybe my friends will take me dancing...}

PDX Guide

Valentine's Day weekend 20 of my closest friends and I headed out to Portland, Oregon for good friend's wedding, so I thought it'd be fun to put something together for everyone to enjoy. So I created a rough compilation of all the great comments/suggestion you left on my blog as well as a few tips I picked up from my favorite design bloggers and fantastic coworkers. I also marked up a google map to match...So here you have it. All in one post.


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AREAS WORTH A VISIT

• The Alberta Arts District - NE Portland....tons of small galleries and boutiques, great area (there was just a great article in the NYT about this area)
• Ace Hotel and get a fancy coffee drink and then hang out in the hotel lobby and take black and white pictures in their retro booth (Grace knows best)
  
• Streetcar Ride through downtown...it's free in "fareless square"
• Walk along the river (the Willamette - rhymes with damn-it).....great parks, people watching, art.
• N: funky hipsterish + historically black neighborhood (Alberta Arts District), NE: mostly residential, SE: funky hippie-ish, NW: yuppie-ish, SW: downtown and stuff, Pearl District - new area with development and good eats
• Forest Park
• Pittock mansion
• walking and shopping on Hawthorne
• Old Town/China Town
• A hike up Mount Tabor for an excellent view of the city
• The Hollywood area has a cool non-profit movie theater
• Ground Kontrol (for the adult that never really grew up) - retro video game arcade with beer!

SHOP

• Powell's Bookstore - the largest independent bookstore in the nation (#1 recommendation from locals). On W. Burnside, it is a great place to spend a rainy day.
• N.E. Alberta Office (very cool "office supply" company with design sensibility) and the Together gallery are wonderful!
• A stroll through Cargo, an eastern-inspired home furnishings store
• A shopping tour at Redux on East Burnside
• Life + Limb and Olio United - two noteworthy design shops

EAT + CAFFEINE

• Do not miss Voodoo Donuts! (Valentine's day special: donuts shaped like black hearts and bleed red goo... or the "Tex Ass" challenge - finish the giant donut in 90 seconds and it's free!) [good for late night!]
  
• Stumptown Coffee...2 locations downtown (SW), original location on SE Division
• The Fresh Pot- Mississippi has a nice coffee shop
• Tin Shed Garden Cafe - great breakfast place next to Office (I ended up eating here TWICE!)
  
• Saint Cupcake for a "Fat Elvis"
• Breakfast at Broder -- a cute Swedish cafe
• Dessert at Pix Patisserie -- tres tres francais
• Happy hour at Bartini in NW Portland -- try the spicy mango martini
• CAVA - owned by artist Amy Ruppel 's husband Randy Montgomery - heard great things about mushroom bruschetta
  
• Pok Pok on Division for amazing Thai street food in a fancy setting...expect a wait
• Ken's Artisan Bakery on NW 21st & Everett...for pastries and bread
• Saturday Market

DRINK + DRINK (courtesy of the bride & groom)
beer

• Deschute's Brewery and Public House: A great beer selection, all locally brewed, and some of the best soft pretzels you will find on the West Coast (they have a ton of other foods too). 210 NW 11th Avenue.
• BridegePort Ale House: Two locations, one in the Pearl and this one over in the Hawthorne district that is a bit more inviting. Another selection of great Portland brews. 3632 SE Hawthorne Boulevard.
• Rogue Ales Public House: Good beer, great burgers. Enough said. 1339 NW Flanders Street.
• Henry's 12th Street Tavern: 100 beers on tap and good Northwest pub food located in the old Weinhard's brewery building. 10 NW Burnside Avenue.
• McMenamins Kennedy School: A former elementary school transformed into a great pub/restaurant/hotel serving handcrafted microbrews in a bar that literally used to be the girl's bathroom in its former life. 5736 NE 33rd Avenue. McMenamins Kennedy School
• Kellys Olympian: cheap beer with great retro neon sign interior
  

wine

• Noble Rot: Wine flights, reasonably prices house options and seasonally rotating menus made of fresh, local ingredients. 2724 SE Ankeny Street.
• Vino: A Poppino family favorite in SE Portland, it has $10 wine flights on Fridays (for 5 tastes) and allows you to bring your own apps from the nearby Whole Foods. 1226 SE Lexington Street.
• Thirst Wine Bar & Bistro: On the waterfront, serves tapas and Pacific NW wine flights accompanied by a lovely view. 0315 SW Montgomery.

PUBLIC TRANSPORTATION
$2 on the MAX from the airport to hotel

MORE READS

• Budget Travel's Portland, Oregon: Can a Place Be too Perfect?
• I also ended up buying the Portland Superguide. Sure, $20 for 28 printable pages may sound a bit steep, but the maps were great and I felt like it was a guide written just for me (aka a worthy investment) - even the design of the guide is savvy and every place listed was right up my alley. Or maybe Portland is just a city right up my alley...

Portland . . .

has style!
yet, alternative...
and likes to eat awesome doughnuts at 2am ...
is walker friendly (with great public transportation),
and biker friendly,
and they stay awake with coffee,
because with all the great bookstores, they love to read
and admire interesting architecture from downtown
to Chinatown.

Click here for the full flickr set from my recent weekend getaway to Portland, Oregon.

Tacos!

Ever since visiting Bangkok I've become quite a fan of "street food." Alas, there is none to be had in Baltimore, but seriously, nothing beats a $1.50 taco from a cute street stand that you can walk right up to at nearly any hour. The top stand in Austin holds a special place in my heart as this delicious taco in the warehouse district of downtown led us to a fun salsa club where my best friend then proceeded to meet the man of her dreams (thanks to a great tip from the taco guy and an inquisitive friend who was determined to go salsa dancing). [Note: food stands are a great place to get local advice - where do you go to for local tips? check out this recent article in the Washington Post.]
This stand is from my most recent trip to Portland - no life changing stories out of that one, just a damn good taco that didn't break the bank. I love how food stands were sprinkled all around the downtown parking lots in downtown Portland. Other stands had Greek, Thai and more - man, way better than my lunch plan for today!

Boarding Pass: Tara of Cracked Designs

Last month you may remember me raving about the Journey Journal I received for Christmas. So for today's edition of BOARDING PASS, I thought it'd be fun to showcase Tara Scheuerman of Cracked Designs who is behind the awesome journal (which now comes in US, Europe and Latin American editions). I love how her responses celebrate kitsch Americana and the great American roadtrip. Take it away Tara....
last trip taken:
A road trip to Montreal! We stopped in Toronto first and then spent most of our time visiting a friend in Montreal. I loved how the city was such a beautiful blend of old and new.

next trip on deck:
I'm going to Big Sky Montana in two weeks to do some snowboarding & skiing with a bunch of my closest friends! I am super excited.

one place you would go back to again and again:
San Francisco, hands down. I fell in love with that city when I was there a couple years ago. I want to live there, badly. It's just so darn beautiful.
place you'd most likely recommend a friend go visit:
Dollywood, in Gaitlinburg TN. Come on, it's Dolly Parton's theme park! Every person must go there, it is so awesomely funny. Also, Graceland (even if you don't like Elvis) It's crazy.

preferred method of transportation:
car! I LOVE road trips.

place you've never been but dying to go:
I really want to go to Switzerland, it seems so quaint. I also want to do the Route 66 road trip. My husband and I want to do that trip soon before all of the old stops along the way vanish.

I collect tons of really old postcards from everywhere I go. I know I hit the jackpot if I find postcards covered in dust! I have tons of them

place you'd never go back:
I would go anywhere more than once! I really can't think of a place where I wouldn't go again.
most memorable trip:
My husband and I went up to Door County WI after our wedding for a mini honeymoon and the first night we were there at about 3AM, I had to take him to the hospital...he ended up getting his appendix out. We were also camping, so it took us about an hour to get out of the park and then another hour to find the closest hospital, it was awful. We are scared to ever go back.

how do you prepare for a trip?
I mostly freak out. I am a horrible packer and almost always over pack. I always feel like I am forgetting something and usually am pretty stressed out until I leave. I also research the place I'm going to find odd things off the beaten path. I also love going on brewery tours around the country, so I definitely look up all the micro-breweries in the area I'm going.
how do you record your travels when you're traveling?
I always have a journal or sketchbook to write or draw in. My husband and I always come up with the best card ideas when we're traveling, so I always have a journal handy to write down any gems! I also of course have my 'Journey Journal'!
what is your favorite thing to photograph in a new place?
Definitely old signs: hotel signs, landmark signs etc. So many times, old signs are hilarious. I always like to think about what they looked like in their heyday, so I like to make them feel important again! I also seek out really tacky tourist shops to photograph. I'm not a big landscape photographer at all.

on an average, how many pictures to you take on a trip?
A whole lot! At least a couple hundred.

what's in your "designer travel kit" ?
My Canon Digital Rebel, a sketchbook, a Polaroid camera (sometimes) and my Journey Journal
what do you do after a trip? how long after a trip does this happen?
I usually upload all my photos and then print them. I love being able to actually hold a photograph. I love looking at photographs the moment I get home, so I usually upload them the day after I get back. I have started to blog though, so I will be starting to add images from my travels to my blog.

craziest place you've ever been?
There is this place in Georgia called 'Babyland General' where cabbage patch dolls are 'born'. It was so creepy. You actually watch the dolls being 'born' out of 'mother cabbage' which is this huge tree. I have never laughed so hard. It was great because everyone who works there is really serious about these dolls being human.

website: Cracked Designs
Blog
Online Etsy Shop

Thanks, Tara!

P.S. Click here for more featured designers in BOARDING PASS.

The Art of Flying

Question: How is it that all through childhood every airplane I was ever on (Southwest excluded) always had a television screen of some sort (movies!), yet in 2009, on my four flights to and from the west coast (ahem, Northwest) had no tv of any sort!?!?? It just struck me as odd quite frankly. Luckily I was able to entertain myself by experimenting with my new camera (actually reading the owner's manual for the first time ever) and with a good book.And then on my return flights I had the oddest small world moment where much to my amusement, the three friends I shared a hotel room with our final night in Portland happened to be on the exact same flight as me (sadly we did not figure this out until we had actually boarded the plane, as I had assumed they were flying into DCA or IAD). And to top it off, completely by chance I had a seat next to two of them! Talk about random luck! It's a small world...

Coffee Break

In Portland there are a few things there are no lack of - great breweries, local wine, strip clubs (this city has more strip clubs per capita than any other city!) and coffee. After getting back late Monday night and thrown right back into the throws of things on Tuesday, now more than ever I'm wishing I was back on vacation and I could make my multiple daily stop to one of the great Portland coffee shops for a chai (I'm not a coffee drinker). I quickly became a fan of Stumptown, a very local chain, and loved that each location had it's own style (meanwhile most Starbucks tend to have the exact same feel). However, my favorite location of all was at the ACE hotel, where I lounged on the couches in the great interior and sat next to the classic black & white photobooth per Grace's recommendation. Speaking of photos, hopefully I'll get the rest of my pictures uploaded this weekend (the trouble with getting a fun, new camera is that you take even more than usual).

Concierge

Concierge.com is another great travel resource I learned about through Margaret's responses to BOARDING PASS. So I was only further amazed when Wanwisa Posner of Modern Vintage Designs who I've been in touch for about a sneak peek emailed me to say she won a Dream Trip through Conde Nast's Traveler contest. Check out the great story behind her winning image above and where she plans on taking her dream trip this June right here.

Wayfinding

People often give me strange looks when I tell them as part of my job I design wayfinding systems (hopefully one of these days you'll get to use some of it in DC). Wayfinding becomes such a part of our daily landscape, that most people aren't even aware it's there, but it's what gets us from place to place, and as a stranger in a new place (like Portland!) are completely dependent on it . It has also become one of my favorite things to photograph when I travel - I can always go for an odd sign or interesting typography to make my day (yes, I'm easily amused). Anyway, it's probably not for everyone, but I'm quite excited for the release of The Wayfinding Handbook by David Gibson of 212 (for those of you in the area, 212 designed the downtown Baltimore signs and they do lots of great work). I also love the website that accompanies the book.

Boarding Pass: Margaret Vest

When it comes to travel, I do pretty well, but my friend (and fellow UVA rower) Margaret Vest manages to put me to shame. She also has the added bonus of having a sweet job that allows her to travel and stay at 5-star hotels (but at the end of the day would still prefer a trip to a local market). When I was living in Paris I was lucky enough to have her as one of my 18 visitors that year, but we're still trying to figure out when and where we're going to travel together. I've always loved her creative eye and artistic journals (and even better, she's been known to make her own cards on her travels which are always a treat to receive in my mailbox) and I'm thrilled to show her off in today's edition of BOARDING PASS. Thanks, Margaret! last trip taken:

Pittsburgh for New Year's (it's a long story)

next trip on deck:
Easter Island to celebrate my dad's 60th!
one place you would go back to again and again:
Cartagena, Colombia (my mom's hometown)

place you'd most likely recommend a friend go visit:
Cape Town, South Africa

preferred method of transportation:
Well… since I work for Orient-Express, I'm going to have to say train! Be it luxurious overnight, or day hopping commuter train… I like to watch the scenery go by and be able to stretch my legs.

place you've never been but dying to go:
Now that Easter Island and Morroco (New Year 2010!) are on tabs… I'mgoing to have to go with India.

most memorable trip:
Between college and career, I took a year off to travel around Europe by myself. I learned more about who I am during that time than in the rest of my life combined… but it still wasn't long enough to go everywhere I wanted to there!

how do you prepare for a trip?
I buy the Rough Guide, make reservations for at least the first and last night, then scour concierge.com and artforum.com and bug anyone I know who's ever been there to see what I must do, and, last but not least, plan the color scheme that will dictate what I pack (and what
needs to be bought… Easter Island is going to be a chartreuse kind of trip by the way)… a scarf is probably the thing I plan my packing around the most… they're so multi-use (blanket, towel, cover up)… I even wore this great stretch jersey one when I went to South East Asia
to protect me from the intense air conditioning.

how do you record your travels when you're traveling?
I sketch, photograph, collect every scrap of paper I encounter and write… fast paced trips or ones with other people tend to be all photographs, solo or slow paced journeys are when I allow myself the time for sketches and writings

what is your favorite thing to photograph in a new place?
As Scarlet Johansen's character in Lost in Translation said… every girl goes through a phase where she photographs her feet… I've never outgrown it… I like the "I've been here" feel about it… and it's fun (and one part of you that is never un-photogenic)… my mom also complained while I was traveling by myself that there were not enough pictures of me in my pictures… so I started the "self portrait project" where I play with reflection shots and getting an angle on
myself from arm's length away.on an average, how many pictures to you take on a trip?
I take hundreds and hundreds… usually however many gigs I have… that's how many I take… unfortunately, I'm not as productive on the editing side…
what's in your "designer travel kit" ?
Definitely take my camera… sometimes my little one too if I'll be going out at night with the girls… an unlined blank book to write, sketch and paste scraps in… and black rollerball or fountain pens are a MUST.
what do you do after a trip? how long after a trip does this happen?
HA… well… I usually upload the pictures to albums… mac.com for the snapshots and flickr.com for the artsy ones… then announce it with an e-mail to my buddies… sometimes I have gotten distracted and didn't keep the journal up, so I go back and write the day by day and add the
mementos of those events… sometimes pictures too if I've gotten around to editing them… but that step is sometimes done year(s) afterwards… which is kind of fun because it's like reliving the trip… I try and get pictures up pretty quickly for travel companions and family, but I'm sad to say I still have not edited nor posted all the pics from Brazil, and that was New Year's 2008… sigh… once you work in front of computer for 9 hours a day, coming home and doing the same is quite difficult!
What type of traveler am I?
While I love the 5 star grand hotels and chaffuered transportation when I travel with my company, I'm still a B&B/hostel/small hotel kind of girl at heart… I'll eat in a market over a fancy restaurant any day of the week… though I have to admit, getting a private boat to take me to our hotel in Venice was a very special experience.
What takes the most getting used to when you travel?
While my features make my ethnicity hard to place (I'm a Colombian/German mutt) my height makes me stick out like a sore thumb wherever I go… when I lived in a small village in Cyprus they called me the 2 meter girl… though apparently I have to go to Amsterdam because I'm actually close to their average height!

More from Margaret on Flickr

CLICK HERE for more featured designers.

Thanks, Vest!!!