The Story So Far...

Our heroes have braved the wild interstate and rush hour traffic to make it to their hotel in Portland Milwaukie, and braved poorly labeled roads and directions to make it to Corbett Fish House and secure a meal. Tomorrow: will they survive downtown parking?

So, anyway, we stayed in Boise last night and had dinner with my mom's cousin and her daughter (uh, my second cousin? I think) at an awesome Thai place in Boise. Siam Thai. Highly recommended. Before that, we wandered a bit in downtown Boise. Note to self: also print out direction back TO the hotel, especially in an area full of one-way streets. The first place we went was rather blah. Boise Book and Gift Company. Not much there. The second place was awesome. Eyes of the World Imports. I found another silk outfit. So I now have two good sets of dress-clothes. This one is in a rich purple with red undertones.

We got into Portland just as rush hour was starting tonight, just before 17:00 local time. It looked like it might take an hour to go the last ten miles, but finally we realized that we needed I205South, and the big lineup was for I205 North. After that, the traffic wasn't too horribly bad. For Portland. After finding the hotel, we went to find Corbett Fish House, because nearly all of its offerings are gluten-free. It's...rather out of the way. And 17th was not labelled 17th, but as Harrison. We missed it entirely on the first go-round, and finally saw the alternate name for Harrison on the way back to the hotel for the Portland-vicinity map. Very, very good food, though. Nice atmosphere, too. Awesome decorations, mostly. The tables all had maps under glass. Lots of maps on the walls, too. Lots of fish-themed-paraphernalia. The football stuff...didn't quite fit.

Anyway, I ordered a Tugboat Dinner, mainly because it came with four different things to try, all fried in rice flour: walleye - good; halibut - excellent; chili-catfish - okay; oysters - blech. Yes, I have now discovered that I do not like oysters. I'd never tried them before. How to describe them... If you've ever been on a dock, or around a pond that is starting to dry up, and smelled that rotten sea-smell, well, that's about how the oysters tasted. They looked like someone had sneezed into a skinlike membrane and sealed it up, then fried it. My meal came with two. I ate the smaller one, and somehow my description would not induce my mom to try the other. ;^)

The meals also came with very good french fries. My mom ordered perch, which was also quite good...after I put some salt on it. Corbett's does seem to go extra light on the salt, but at least that's easily fixed. We also shared a Calamari appetizer, and I was so taken with it that I had to run out to the car and grab the camera:

Aren't the little baby squid cute?!? And tasty.