73 & 364/365 Years

That's how old Phil was today -- tomorrow is his birthday! He's in the lower right corner of today's blip, wearing his trademark chapeau.

After a leisurely start, we took a bus to the big shopping mall downtown, which houses an ice skating rink, as well as a wide variety of stores. We didn't ice skate, but I did buy some basic long-sleeved shirts on sale and we had lattes in a bookstore.

We then did the first of several walks today that totaled more than five miles over three outings. After our time in the mall, we walked to a Lebanese restaurant, where I had a late lunch of tabouli and baba ghanoug (the restaurant's spelling), and Phil had gyros, a smaller portion of tabouli, and humus (the restaurant's spelling again). The portions were very generous and we have leftovers for tomorrow.

Replete, we strolled slowly back to our cottage. After a rest and putting a load of wash in (the cottage has a washer and dryer), we walked to a bus stop that would take us part way to our final destination for the day -- a bar/cafe specializing in Belgian beers and food. After waiting 25 minutes for a bus that never came, we set out walking the 1.3 miles to our destination.

Phil had the best kriek he's ever tasted, and I agreed -- it was redolent with the flavor of dark red cherries. He paired that with truffle frites (thin French fries/chips), followed by a delicious pear crumble with locally-made vanilla ice cream. I might have helped him eat that, just a little...

I ordered a luscious New Zealand Sauvignon Blanc wine, and -- you guessed it, kale salad again! This one had Pecorino cheese and toasted bread crumbs. Feeling very virtuous after all the kale salad I've eaten in Portland, I had an order of frites as well, which gave me the energy to walk the 1.3 miles to our Portland home base.

It's now 10:25pm; our laundry is in the dryer, we're blipping, and I'll catch up on comments tomorrow!

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