The kind of day we all need (and deserve)

Yesterday was a very indulgent day and I thoroughly enjoyed it! Fellow art quilt blogger, Gerrie Congdon, just moved to Portland and I have been looking forward to meeting her. I picked her up at her new house and we went down to Portland's Pearl District to meet up with one of my favorite people, June Underwood. We decided to start with lunch at Andina, a Peruvian restaurant that has gotten rave reviews in the local paper. It is a beautiful space and the food was very good, and something new to try.

I should have taken this picture before we dug into the food, but we kind of fell on it like hungry wolves when it arrived at the table. We shared 4 plates of tapa-like dishes. There was potato omelette, quinoa-crusted prawns with dipping sauce, avocados stuffed with shrimp and crab and little red peppers stuffed with ham and quinoa. (are your mouths watering yet?) We also had desserts. Mine was chocolate sorbet with just a hint of chili pepper. Oooooooo.

After lunch we strolled around the area and visited several art galleries. At the PDX Gallery we saw work by Bean Finneran that was quite fascinating. They were constructions made entirely from curved ceramic rods. They were quite similar, though not identical to these.

Here are Gerrie (front) and June carefully considering a piece of art at the Lawrence Gallery. At the Lawrence Gallery there were two obnoxiously yippy, barky little dogs chasing each other through the gallery—wierd. And annoying.


When we took June home, she invited us in for tea and showed the stacks (literally) of artwork she has been working on recently. June is incredibly productive. You can see some of the work in progress that we saw yesterday on her website.


After delivering Gerrie home, I headed right back downtown to meet my other friend, Jeri. (It was a Gerrie-Jerry-Jeri day—including a brief visit with June's husband, Jerry Underwood) Jeri F. had invited me to meet her for dinner downtown then see "Cats". We decided on the ArtBar at the Performing Arts Center where we could sit and visit over a nice glass of wine and graze our way through appetizers and a bowl of soup.

By the time we got to the theater, the wine and a long day had taken its toll. I had a hard time staying awake. I loved "Cats" when I saw it in New York many years ago. Last night's performance was good, but the sound was mushy and the actress playing Grizzabella couldn't hold a candle to Betty Buckley, the original Grizzabella. (It took me all night to remember Betty Buckley's name)

What a great day. Good food, good art, good musical theatre and, best of all, a new friend and two old friends. Does life get any better than this?