Farewells // Canada to the US of A

Saturday morning was a morning of farewells. Chasen woke up early to cook breakfast for the family, and since my grandma had been wanting to eat the Chorizo Frittata featured on Food Network earlier last week, he wanted to cook it for her as the last meal together for the year. During the meal she started to cry, telling us how much she will be missing us and the food he cooks for them. It was extremely emotional to see her cry. As we packed all the luggage into the car and stood outside, she started crying again and pulled us into a hug. I felt a lump in my throat and then started to cry as well, and didn't stop crying even after we crossed the border. It was hard knowing that with each mile we drove, I was further away from my family. Even though I would only be gone for 6 months, it will be the longest time spent away. 

Crossing the border took a looong time. Since I had to do a Port of Entry interview to obtain my study visa, we had to be stopped. The line inside was long and the interview was uneventful. In fact, the most eventful thing that happened in those 2 hours was when a girl with a short dress bent over and we saw her hooha...that was just awful. Once we crossed over, it was smooth sailing. 

Our first "real" stop was at Theo Chocolate Factory in Seattle WA, my favourite chocolate factory of all time. They're the first (and one of the few chocolate companies in the world) that is both fair-trade and organic, and they are the last bean-to-bar chocolate factory in the west coast. The other was Scharffen Berger which was eventually bought out by Hershey and moved to Pennsylvania...

The building that is Theo's home is also considered a historical landmark and was originally used as a refuse collection site. It was later retrofitted and reinforced to accommodate Theo. Last year on our anniversary, Chasen took me on the tour. I definitely recommend it and It is only $7/person! It's the perfect date if you are in the area :-)

What a cacao bean looks like :-)

Our last stop for the night was at a friend's place in Beaverton, OR and he recommended Lardo in Portland for dinner before we made our way over. It's a 4 star sandwich joint and is locally famous for it's food! 

We ordered the cold fried chicken (pickles, bacon, spicy blue cheese, lettuce) and the Lardo fries (fried herbs and parmesan)...the fries were a little too salty in our opinion but the chicken was amazing! We also ordered the Spring Farm Salad (farm greens, radish, carrots, bacon, spiced hazelnuts, red wine vinaigrette) which was surprisingly delicious! I usually don't order salad at restaurants but this one did not disappoint. 

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