Trust me: if you're in the neighborhood, you need to stop at Miyamoto and try their Nigiri and Norimaki. It's just off Stark, on SE 81st.

Then again, if you are not in the Montavilla area, you need to get yourself there. You should make a day of it, because there are so many places that are worth your time to visit. The Montavilla Farmer's Market will continue every Sunday through October. The Bipartisan Cafe is the comfortable neighborhood coffee shop to get your Pacific Northwest java on. The Academy Theater is a treat for the whole family at just $4 adults/$3 kids to get in. You'll need to grab a tray to carry your beer and wine in along with your food and candy.  And if you want to watch the movie without the little ones, childcare is available. Flying Pie Pizzeria makes the best pizza in town with an active staff that provides a show while you wait, and pizza for your movie. There's the awesome Salty's Dog and Cat Shop pet supply store, Paperdoll stationery shop, and on the other side of 82nd is the GIGANTIC Monticello Antique Marketplace (in competition with her granddaughter for the main reason why my mother keeps coming back to Portland).

All these businesses (and of course many more) are smack between two parks: The Montavilla Portland Public Park, and the huge, high, and uncomparable Mount Tabor Park (the dormant volcano is currently hosting an exciting bicycle racing series, Velo on the Volcano every Wednesday night. Click here if you want to see some pics from July 1st).

And if all this doesn't bring you in, consider Miyamoto. The owners of Roscoe's on the corner were convinced to clear out their storage room and open up a sushi shop. Open only three weeks so far, they are jammed daily. They haven't even had time to erect a proper restaurant sign yet. They haven't advertised. Actually, I get the sense that they're just trying to keep the fresh fish, rice and seaweed moving across the counter to their hungry customers.

So you should go, and volunteer to paint them a sign or something. And bring your spare patio table and chairs from before you upgraded, because they've got space for outdoor seating. ...but don't get the impression that this lovely shop has been slapped together on a whim. It's classy, clean, and comfortable.

Let the food convince you though, and eat! You need to order and eat. The portions are large, for what you may typically expect for sushi. We left there stuffed to the gills. The prices are so reasonable, we left a larger tip than usual. Even so, we still spent less than we were expecting.

While we were there, we talked with Kevin, Renee, and owner Quinn, who made us feel immediately at ease. Renee is fun to talk to and exquisitely attentive. Kevin focuses on putting together the best of what they've got to serve in attractive arrangements, whether you're dining or in taking out. Quinn moves fast and manages to keep track of everything going on while simultaneously ready to say hello and answer your questions the moment the need arises.

I should add some "getting here" tips. Don't use 82nd Street - yucky yucky. Take the Stark/Washington exit off I-205 if you're coming from north or south. And use Stark, yes, Stark street, coming from east or west. It's a lovely and smooth route which is nearly always clear of traffic congestion. Another important point: in Montavilla, Stark and Washington are one-way streets, so you may need to make a left turn to get onto Stark and begin soaking up everything we have to offer.

Look out Portland, right behind Mississippi and Alberta, Montavilla's the next up-and-coming neighborhood.

I am very excited to see that it's about to become full-on harvest time. That was actually a pretty quick process, despite my impatience.

The raspberries seem to be producing much more and for much longer than they did last year. I'd like to believe it's because I made the family collect compost all winter and then I've been dumping it on the raspberries. It's a forgotten part of the yard in the winter, so I don't mind making a mess.


If there's a pile of onion skins, apple cores, carrot peelings and coffee grounds and no one sees it... is it still an eyesore?

We've already been eating zucchini every day for 10 days now, and so when our neighbor came over talking about how much he liked zucchini, I sent him home with one. And a handful of cucumbers too. We will soon be overrun.

You should see these plants! They are going gangbusters. I think the watermelon is going to take over the whole hill. I keep telling them about gravity, and the foolishness of producing a watermelon on the slope, but for now they don't listen much. My cherry tomatoes are finally turning red and I'll be giving those away too.

Last night while I was watering, I actually had the idea to put a sign up on my herbs: Please take some! I am overrun with basil and sage and cilantro.

One of Mark's friends was teasing him about having the Obama Victory Garden in the front yard, like the first family. Actually, that's something I don't mind being teased about...

Sand sculptures in Pioneer Square was the activity we chose today. We were able to get outdoors and enjoy the weather while it was still in the 70s.

Sand in the City will continue through the weekend, and it's free with donations welcome, so it's a good place for families to stop. They had a pile of sand just for kids to play in -- GOOD IDEA! The tykes who hadn't found the sand pile yet were beside themselves wanting to dig a hole in Bartman's head, ride the dragon, or climb Mt. Wall-E.

Vendors, live music, and the ubiqutous panhandlers filled the plaza. It will only get more packed as the day goes on, so I'm glad we went early. The sand sculptures reminded me of going to see the sculptures at Moonstone Beach in Trinidad, CA. Not as much fun in a bricked courtyard, but without a beach downtown, the sand sculptures are that much more impressive.


The theme was fun and family friendly, with animated characters including Sponge Bob (he's 10 years old this week! Everybody wish Mr. Squarepants another successful ten!), Manny the moody mammoth, Bart Simpson, even Max in his "wild thing" outfit, riding the shoulders of a sand Wild Thing. There were Hungry Hungry Hippos, that little Banker from Monopoly, Smurfs and Shel Silverstein.


Yeah basically, a whole bunch of stuff to get kids excited. Or... thirty-somethings who love kid stuff like us. We even spotted Carl Frederickson's house, perched on top of a mountain peak with a bunch of balloons tied to it.


...and the kid-friendly theme makes sense because all the proceeds were going to support the Kids on the Block.

My mother lives in Moyie Springs, Idaho. Good luck even finding on a map. She and her husband actually live "out of town," which, when we're using Moyie Springs as our reference point, is an extremely rural situation. They're likely the only inhabitants of the mountain, other than the elk, deer, mountain lion, Whiskey Jacks, ground squirrels, tanagers, Pileated Woodpeckers, etc.... you get the picture.

Anyway, she found a choice huckleberry spot. Huckleberries, for any sad individual who hasn't experienced them, are shaped like a blueberry and twenty times more flavorful. They are rich wine purple all the way through, whereas blueberries have blue skin and white insides.

Mom knows I love huckleberries. When we were kids and hungry most of the time, August was a month when satisfying our hunger was merely a matter of walking into the woods. Wild strawberries, huckleberries, black caps, thimbleberries, dewberries.... A kid could eat herself sick. I spent most of the month of August with purple fingers and lips and tongue.

Mom ran a tight household. She would hand a large container to each kid and tell us it had to be full to the top in order to get breakfast. We would get fed one at a time, as we arrived home with our berries jugs full. Being the oldest, my brother Eli and I were often required to pick a gallon of huckleberries each before breakfast. In exchange for one glass gallon mayonnaise jar full of berries, Mom would feed me pancakes. And THEN, we were pretty much allowed to eat from the forest anything we wanted for the rest of the day.

I developed a mighty love for huckleberries that has not dimmed. Mom outdid herself this week when she filled a tupperware container of berries, taped it tightly closed, wrapped it in plastic, sealed it in cardboard, and mailed it to me!! Yesterday we ate three day old huckleberries over vanilla ice cream for dinner. Oh man, it was DEE LISH! They stayed remarkably firm and smelled incredibly fresh and are so tasty tasty.

I went up to the Uncles' place today in Scappoose. Larry sent me out to pick blueberries because they always have too many. I picked many, ate many, tossed a lot to the chickens as well. I ended up with 1 1/2 gallons of blueberries. Before I could finish though, Larry insisted I must pick the Marionberries as well. So, I finished up the blueberries, and he and I picked about two quarts of Marionberries. They're like a blackberry - yum yum yum.

I packed berries into the fridge this evening and realized, there is no way out of the situation into which I have put myself. Two quarts of huckleberries, two quarts of marionberries, a gallon and half of blueberries. In circumstances like these, I realize the decision is out of my hands: I must make pies.

Pies and pies and pies. I have no choice. What else can I do?? Lucky for us, we've got the vanilla ice cream at the ready.

Now, don't you wish you were my next door neighbor?