Vivid 2015: Martin Place & Darling Harbour

One week into Vivid, and one of my favorite spots so far has been Martin Place. It might be because it was one of our first visits, or because of the great company, but it has been one of my funnest Vivid experiences!

There's a cool "drum circle" where lights in the drum shine according to the rhythm you play.

 

One of the biggest displays is one set up by Intel. You stand in front of a web camera, and the giant display above displays your movements in swaths of light. People seemed to either look really cool or really creepy up on the big screen.

This year, a cool pop up bar takes up a good section of the square.

My personal favorite was a big wooden tree-like structures. Some the rings had copper sensors so you that as you touch different areas of the tree, the light changed to follow your touch. And for the first time ever, the Anzac memorial was lit up. The colors on the memorial gradually changed to represent the different branches of the armed services and the theaters they fought in.

The other area that had a small but interesting display was Darling Harbour. I'd read about the combination light, water, and laser show but wasn't sure what to expect. Naively, I hadn't expected the giant crowds we encountered. It was so incredibly packed with people, we sat through one round of the light show and then jumped in the first cab we could find. The light show itself was pretty cool but I wasn't a fan of the accompanying music. So overall, while spectacular to look at, Darling Harbour was a bit of a hit and a miss.

 

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Back in Sydney with double the fun!

It was pretty hard to leave the US this time around. I felt like the time with my family was far too short: there were so many festivities and celebrations, which were all completely wonderful! But that also meant that there wasn't really any time to just "be" - hanging around and doing not much with the family. Not only that, but our time in Tennessee was so short, there were friends that I simply didn't get to see at all. Feeling like I was leaving before my visit was over was really hard, and every time I boarded a plane for the trip back, there were a few tears that crept up.

However, so very luckily for me, I had great things waiting on me in Sydney. Specifically, my lovely aunt and uncle coming over for a visit!!!

Coincidentally, we arrived back in Sydney on the same day: T & I just an hour or so ahead of them. While I went into work for the day (going to work after the 14 hour flight isn't quite as bad as it sounds - it helps you stay awake at least!), they went out and explored the city. Then T and I got to meet up with them for the happiest back-in-Sydney dinner ever!

High on the To Do list for their visit is seeing Vivid, so that's what we did on Friday night. After a really fun dinner at the Buffalo Dining Club, we walked through Martin Place to check out the lights.

A view of all the lights to explore!

Taking in Vivid in person!

Aunt Kaye playing with pixelated lights

Taking selfies, just like the kids do it

I'll do a longer blog post with more pictures to do Vivid lights proper justice, but seeing Vivid lights + spending time with these lovely people took the sadness right of my return! In fact, it makes me feel:

Portland: the city version

We were really lucky to have about a full day in the little-big city of Portland itself! We were both very excited to check it out: T because he loves the Portland Timbers,  and me just because it's the kind of thing I love.

One thing we both really liked about Portland was the cheap and easy public transportation. It was only $2.50 to get to the city center from the airport. It did take about 45 minutes and was slow as molasses, but it was so easy to get passes and to get around.

The easy public transportation made it possible for us to pick and choose places we wanted to check out all around the city. One of these was dinner on our first night: a farm-to-table cafe called Farm Cafe. I'd read about this cute little place, and so we jumped on a bus to find it. It was nice and easy, the only fumble being when the bus driver had to yell at me "Push it!" in order for me to figure out how to leave the bus. Aside from that little episode, we found Farm Cafe and a little brewery across the street from it easily. 

Our dinner was just lovely: T had the herb-crusted tofu with marsala. I had polenta cakes with wild mushrooms, which the menu made clear to state had not been inspected by the FDA. Living on the edge as we do, I decided it was worth it! 

We also had great food during our Saturday rambles. Our breakky was a little find that Toby chose, the Milk Glass Market. We caught the light rail to what turned out to be a quiet neighborhood in the north part of Portland. The little cafe was known for its biscuits, which we did not find disappointing! We shared a cheddar biscuit with fried egg and roasted red peppers and a breakfast focaccia. It was a perfect start to our day!

Our afternoon food find was more a snack than anything.  We shared an ice cream from the Salt & Straw shop in Nob Hill. I'd found this ice cream shop on Pinterest when researching our trip, and apparently everyone else in Portland had too. We waited for about 10 minutes for a scoop of Almond Brittle with Salted Ganache; lucky we arrived when we did, because by the time we left, the line was out the door and down the sidewalk. It was sooo good - and what is better than ice cream in the middle of the afternoon??

Of course, we didn't just eat the entire time in Portland! We also walked around (what one of us would consider an excessive amount). 

First up was visiting the Portland Saturday Markets (even though it was Sunday). The markets were alongside the river walk and up into the central part of the city. I thought the markets were a perfect reflection of Portland: artsy, unique, and a little bit gritty. 

Even in Portland, T's market face made an appearance. 

In the afternoon, we headed out to the neighborhood of Nob Hill. There were lots of shady trees, cute boutique shops, and good-looking restaurants. We meandered down the streets and enjoyed being out in sunny Portland!

Also in our ramblings through Portland, we encountered a few things that really gave us the feel of Portland as a quirky unique place. Like this whisk-shaped bike rack in front of a cupcake shop. Or the aluminum cast pig that apparently hang out in different areas in the Nob Hill neighborhood. 

We also got the picture that Portland is VERY into recycling. Pretty much as soon as we stepped foot into the airport we noticed that practically every trash bin has a companion recycling bin. And this was consistent throughout the city - pretty cool!

The rest of our time spent in Portland was less interesting (at least for one of us). Starting Sunday afternoon, I worked on conference things. But I hear that T had a pretty great time checking out a local soccer bar that served Bosnian food, as well as the Portland Timber stadium. Needless to say, we both liked the city a lot! Hopefully a longer, repeat visit is somewhere in our future!

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Portland: the outdoor version

Before leaving the States, we made a stopover in Portland, Oregon. I was attending a conference for work there, so it gave us a good chance to explore the fun little city!
We rented a car for a few hours the first day and headed down Highway 30 toward the Oregon wilderness.

Off that one highway, there are so many beautiful areas: lots of great hikes and just amazing waterfalls. We didn't have a lot of set destinations, but just drove and stopped when we came to a spot that looked interesting.

Latourell Falls

Highway bridge by Latourell Falls

We did a short hike out to Bridal Veil Falls. It was really dark and quiet once we were under the tree cover. It also started raining, as you'd expect it to in Oregon, but under the trees it just turned into a light mist. Lovely!

Bridal Veil Falls

The biggest destination in the area is Multnomah Falls. Multnomah Falls is a giant waterfall - the second biggest year-round waterfall in the U.S. - it falls in two stages for a total of 620 feet. There is a beautiful bridge that spans the middle of the falls. Since it was Saturday, it was also pretty packed with tourists. =/ We'd gotten spoiled with how deserted the other areas were! We decided not to do the hike to the top, rather than fighting all the foot traffic. Next time!

There is also a beautiful lodge with a restaurant near the falls, which Scott had recommended we try. It was a pretty cool day, and there was a fire going in the fireplace, which felt so nice! We sat down for a cozy lunch of mac & cheese and a salad with a local Portland beer. It was a pretty good cap to our wilderness fun!

Then we turned the car around and headed back to the city. We both agreed that we need to revisit and schedule at least five days for hiking and exploring! It was one of the most beautiful areas I've ever seen and I would love to spend tons more time there.

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It's a party in the USA!

Blog silence for the past couple weeks is because.... I've been getting ready and traveling to the US!

Not to underplay how much I love my family, but one of the most magical parts of the trip so far has been this:

Yes, that is a whole row to myself on the 15 1/2 hour flight to Dallas! You sometimes see these lucky people but I never thought I would be one of them. I am not sure how I can ever go back to normal air travel after this. =)

The solid night's sleep set me up well for all the fun family festivities that happened non-stop once I got there. We had a retirement party for my Dad, which was a blast!

I was also lucky in that I happened to be home on Mothers Day weekend! And I was triplely lucky that my grandmothers were both there too. So the only thing to do to celebrate at that level is a high tea, which Holly and I put together for them.

We used my mom's wedding china and some other family heirlooms, which made it extra special!

Meanwhile, T went for a hike in the lovely mountains of Tenneseee.

Being with my family means spending time at the boat dock and enjoying the peacefulness of the river. I really miss being a one minute walk away from the water!

We also got in a visit with Toby's family. As always, there was plenty of time with the kiddos, and hang out time for the grownups at night. I think Toby's mom probably got confused about what year it was and at times thought we'd been transported back to Toby's high school days!

Celebrating May Fourth as only Mintons can

It wasn't all fun and games, though. T and I boldly decided to clean out our storage unit in one of the afternoons we were in town. It started off looking pretty intimidating!

But we are lucky to have so much helpful and generous family (with pickup trucks!) that we ended the afternoon with this!

No visit home is complete without spending at least a day with Holly. In this case, it ended up being almost two full days, for which I am so grateful!

Celebration dinner at Bonterra Wine Room, Greenville, the most southern food possible (pimento cheese with fried green tomato), and afternoon drinks at Northampton Wines

Greenville, Hudson, and Bonterra (in a refurbished church)

Being home after a year was interesting. I never before realized how "down home" being in the South can feel. From the signs along the road to the way people talk to you, it's a different feeling from anywhere I've been in the world.

The Gaffney peach of House of Cards fame

I also could swear that everyone's southern accents have gotten stronger, but T says they've always been like that. =)

The lovely Main Street in Greenville

The trip was such a whirlwind! I am not sure that such a short trip is worth the sadness of only getting to see our friends and family for a few hours (if at all!). Certainly all the people that saw the tears at the Charlotte airport would probably not think so either. But I'm so lucky and happy to have been able to see my most-loved ones, even if it was fast!

The farewell committee to see us off to the airport =\

Thank you to all the family and friends who transported us, fed us, helped us, and generally made our quick visit so very happy!

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