After an early morning flight from Austin we arrived home Easter morning. Being Easter brunch was in order so we went and met our friend Ben and his new boyfriend Scott at Speakeasy for some mimosas and bruch fair. Bellow is Ben and Scott gawking at some woman’s elaborate Easter church hat. And one of Adrien looking very sleepy.





After breakfast we strolled through Fort Greene getting some red velvet cake from the famed Cake Man Raven which we ate in Fort Greene Park. The weather was nice enough- it was chilly but at least the sun was out in full force.

Adrien and I arrived in Austin Thursday morning, and Thursday afternoon (I was coming in from Austin, and he was coming in from Portland). I got to eat at one of my favorite restaurants Curras for lunch where as always I got enchiladas with poblano crème sauce. After picking up Adrien from the airport we had a nice relaxed meal with my parents. Friday I went shopping with my Mom while Adrien took pictures of a site our near my parents house for a school project he is working on all semester. For dinner Adrien and I went to a movie at Alamo Draft House. Alamo Draft House is a great movie theater that is set up so that you can order and eat food and drinks during the movie. We got way too much to eat- a huge salad, chips, popcorn, fries with queso, and a few locally brewed beers. It was more of an event than a movie because they were showing an old classic moving (ET) and there were live comedians up on stage making fun of the movie through the whole thing and there were drinking games involved.

Saturday we went and toured around the new housing development my parents are moving into (I wish I had taken pictures but totally forgot to.) After that we went to the Austin Museum of Art to see a show of emerging Austin artists. We strolled around the capital grounds that are close to the museum where Adrien was surprised to see this huge Ten Commandments statue. The blond squirrel running around the capitol grounds also shocked us.







Saturday night we prepared an Easter feast (since we had to leave for the airport at 5:00 am the next day). The feast consisted of herbed biscuits, fried ham and bacon, deviled eggs veggie gravy, fruit and crème, fruit candies and Ebelskiver. Ebelskivers are round filled pancakes that you can fill with just about anything, and are made using a special pan. These were filled with key lime custard and mascarpone. The centerpiece is a Easter bunny shaped loaf of break from a local bakery. Here is the feast as well as a few pictures of the enjoyment of the feast.

I just returned from a quick trip to Portland. Adrien is still there but I had to return for a couple of classes before meeting up with him in Austin later in the week. We arrived late Friday evening with the cats we have been taking care of in tow. After just a few hours of sleep we took the kitties to the airport to ship them off to California where they will be living for some unknown period of time. Saturday was busy between: the trip to the airport, a delicious brunch a the Screen Door that included amazing cheese and chive biscuits, facials with our good friend Noni, and naps in the afternoon. In the evening we went to an amazing Cirque du Soleil. We went with Adrien’s parents and a couple of their friends. Before the show and during intermission we got to hang out in the VIP tent where we drank a good amount and ate lots of little snacks. The show was really wonderful and made better by my recent interest in historical carnivals after watching Carnivale and reading Water for Elephants. Here is a picture of us outside the tents, and a shot of the inside of the VIP tent where they were projecting various distorted images and films.






Sunday we spent most of the day with Adrien’s parents. We drove east of Portland first stoping at the Columbia Gorge Hotel for their “World Famous Brunch.” The bruch is 5 courses long with a couple of choices for each course. My brunch consisted of: apple fritters; berries with crème; a section of a Belgium waffle with caramelized bananas, and vanilla gelato; a giant baked German pancakes with pears and pear brandy. We skipped the dessert course because we were all stuffed and instead got Spanish Coffees to drink as the strolled around the beautiful grounds of the hotel.








After the brunch we continued driving east ending up at this amazing yet strange and surreal museum out in the middle of nowhere- the Maryhill. Their collections ranged from Romanian royal artifacts, to Native American artifacts from around the world, to miniature fashion and cheese sets. The backdrop of the museum was even more surreal with its dry sharp cliffs and the dozen or so peacocks that wandered the lawn. We of course had to chase the peacocks as seen below. In addition to the Maryhill we visiting a exact replica of stone hinge, commissioned by Sam Hill who built Maryhill originally to be his home.







Monday we spent the day touring a very small distillery that has recently begun making Absinthe, as well as vodka and gin. We got to try a few different samples, which were all very good.