the ace hotel, portland

For Portland Cocktail Week, back in October, we split our hotel time between the historic Benson Hotel, and the hip Ace Hotel. If we go back next year, I’ll definitely skip the Ace. For the same price as the Benson, we downgraded to a dorm-size room with paper thin walls, and a rough bed wedged under the window on the floor. Not so good for sleeping and hanging out in the hotel. Damn hipsters.

The lobby on the other hand, was fantastic! Loved the quirky details, honest Pacific Northwest color palate, the adjacent Stumptown coffee shop, and ultra-comfy couches. Perfect place to grab a coffee and refuel between events.

vintage chicago in shadows and sunrays

a windy city summer afternoon

love letters from new orleans

new orleans nibbles

new orleans treasures

I visited New Orleans for the first time last month, to attend the most exciting liquid event of the year — Tales of the Cocktail! I will admit, I always thought that going to New Orleans would be quite frightening — I have always harbored a deep fear of all things voodoo (which is weird because I’m not religious at all), and have been both compelled and afraid of this aspect of the city’s reputation for a long time.

The other prominent aspect of New Orleans is Mardi Gras and Bourbon Street, an overindulgence fest with trashy sugar drinks, boobs and beads, which I’ve always tried to avoid, because I’m a classy girl (quiet down now naysayers, there’s no room for your banter here). So, anyway, I figured I might as well get over all these pretensions and check out the Big Easy, and what better time or excuse than a cocktail festival?

high culture.

The Chicago Art Institute Modern Wing = a Renzo Piano masterpiece.

I would love to see how the natural light works during the day, because apparently he employs the use of special auto-adjusting lights to keep a very specific, consistent balance of light in the exhibition rooms. I can only imagine how bright white daylight would illuminate the exhibitions in a very clean and elegant way. All that aside, I have to say it was spectacular at night also.

san antonio ‘mission trip’

Mission Concepción

I’ve been meaning to post these for forever. They were shot back in May, at a couple of the historic missions down in San Antonio. I still haven’t gotten around to thinking about exactly what to say, so I think it might be time to just post them and let them speak for themselves.