Honored Guest

My special guest this week was Fr. Walter Jenkins, CSC.  Fr. Walter and I first met when he spent a year of formation at Moreau Seminary when I was a candidate seminarian. We've been dear friends ever since and though we haven't lived in the same place since then, we have enjoyed regularly visiting each other or sharing some vacation time together. Fr. Walter is currently studying for a doctorate in education administration at the University of San Francisco and he came up to Portland to spend the Thanksgiving holiday with me and the local CSC community.

On Monday, Walter and I took advantage of some wonderfully clear weather and drove the Mt. Hood Loop, stopping at Multnomah Falls, Hood River and Timberline Lodge. It was a rare treat to have such clear skies this late in November.

Tuesday was a pretty wet and raw day, so we spent a bit of time shopping in Powell's and then visited the Chinese Gardens (more on that in a separate post). 

Then on Wednesday we had yet another beautiful day which we spent in the Willamette Valley. We stopped at all three of the wineries that Kevin, Jeanette and I first discovered back in August. It was a much colder day, obviously, but it was just as clear which made for great views of majestic Mt. Hood:

Walter and I both have a discerning palete ;) so I was glad to take him to a few of my favorite restaurants and to try a few new ones. 

The Screen Door is fast becoming an essential stop on my tour of Portland, especially as it was just named one of the city's top ten restaurants by Portland Monthly Magazine. Walter and I both enjoyed the fried chicken, and took pecan pies home for later!

In a first for me, we also ate at Cafe Castagna. The dining room was very noisy and not much to look at, but the service was quite good and the food was most enjoyable. After a long day of touring I felt like a heartier meal was in order, so I enjoyed a steak and pommes frites.

Finally, we had Bay 13 to ourselves on Wednesday evening as the city emptied out for the Thanksgiving holiday. The scallops I had were nicely done, but the sweet potato "risotto" bombed: it wasn't risotto at all, but rather minutely diced sweet potato chunks. Still, we had a nice conversation with the waiter about the state of restaurants in Portland and, oddly enough, about some of the trends in "green" building.

I'll post more about our trip to the Chinese gardens and our Thanksgiving feast at UP, but let me say it was just delightful to have Walter spend the week here in Portland and I'm looking forward to the chance to call on him in San Francisco sometime soon!