Being the tourist guide in your own city always makes you explore more things and might take you to places you normally don’t go that often which is great! A similar thing happens when you take different kinds of transportation: Even if you have the same destination you need to go to every week: If you mix it up (car, bike, walking, public transportation) you will notice different spots you might not have known just taking by car. The last couple weeks motivated me again to play tourist in my own city more often as well as to try to get to same places taking different transportation and ways to explore more by even doing your daily routine. Here we go with my new April-finds, ever-greens to go’s as well as some “re-born” Continue Reading
Wanna go on a little city hike today?
When I first moved to Portland, I rented an apartment in NW Portland as it seemed so convenient to get to work as well as it felt such a nice #placetobe. The combination of being walking distance to the city center, having the chance to always do a little neighborhood shopping and the fact of being so close to forest park sealed the deal for me. Upon today NW is still one of my #placestobe in Portlandia and one of my favorite half day activities is definitely a little hike in forest park accompanied by a brunch, lunch or coffee afterwards. One option is to park your car somewhere on NW Thurman Street. If you like to fuel up before the walk, get yourself a coffee, a snack and fill up your water bottle at the Dragonfly Coffeehouse and Continue Reading
All for soccer. Soccer for all!
Happy Thursday! Couple weeks ago I introduced you to my friend and one of my role models when it comes to entrepreneurship, leadership, community involvement and volunteer work Kaig, the founder of PCFC, Portland Community Football Club. As the players are getting ready for the 5th Season, Kaig and team are in crunch time mode too, trying to get the funds the club needs to make sure we can keep the standards of last season, elevate our game on all levels and keep doing what PCFC is all about: All for soccer. Soccer for all. Portland Community Football Club (PCFC) offers an inclusive and equal opportunity for youth between 5-16 years old to participate in a club environment with quality coaching and at an affordable cost. Continue Reading
Prasad – so good, so healthy and sooo yummy!
Yes, on Tuesdays we talk about #placestobe. Today I would love to take the chance to introduce you to Prasad. Or should I better say: I will remind you that it still exists as it feels like it has been there forever but we all have forgotten about it? My gut feeling is that a lot of Portland peeps interested in healthy food, especially bowls as well as organic, gluten-free and plant-based food, know Prasad and Harlow already. That's exactly how I was. I knew both places, I liked both places and would stop by there very randomly ( just because I never happened to be around this area during lunch time or early dinner time). The fact that I was looking for a pre-natal yoga class ( yes, I do it and it really does good to me so I Continue Reading
NOW OR NEVER!
It was a Tuesday at the end of January. I went to bed way too late the night before. We had a business dinner where we had a lot of challenges to tackle and we actually didn’t really come to a lot of solutions at all which was frustrating on so many ends. So I here I was that morning thinking about what else I needed to pack while taking a shower and getting ready for work. I had 10 more hours left till Mr. V would drop me off the airport to leave for 10-day trip to Australia. I had never been to Australia before, it had always been a huge dream to go, but also something that did not seem realistic to me: Too expensive, who would go with me and also time was an issue ( “if you go you should travel around Australia for at least Continue Reading
Do you know somebody, who can…..?
It brings me a lot of joy to build new connections, to find solutions and to help people out with all kinds of things. I always try to be in the position to answer the question above with a “YES” or at least try to direct people to another person who might be able to bring them a little bit closer to what they are looking for. That’s also one of the reasons why we established the #greatpeople column on my blog. Besides the fact that I am so grateful to be surrounded by so many great people I believe in the power of passionate people, a huge network of all kinds of amazing human beings and talents as well as personal recommendations. Of course you can google it, there are great Facebook groups for almost everything you could Continue Reading
Fresh air, salty hair? The Oregon Coast – let’s get out there!
The Oregon Coast is big, so pretty and comes with so many great places and things to explore. You can totally spend your annual vacation just traveling the coast side. But if you just like to get out for a day, the closest touch point coming from Portland is definitely Cannon Beach. That's what we try to do from time to time and every time we do it, we drive back saying: " We should do it more often!". It’s just a super nice day trip and will make you feel so refreshed heading back to the city in the evening. To me it’s also a kind of all-year-thing to do, since every season by the beach feels so special and good. And even if it is super rainy day it’s not as bad as rainy day in the city and change of scenery. At least this is Continue Reading
BE REAL. BE AUTHENTIC. BE HONEST.
Time flies (what else is new?) and so it has been two months already since I left my job. Some days it feels like it yesterday had been my last day, other times more like two years ago since I had left. “How are you? How is it going? What do you do all day? Are you enjoying your time? How is the book coming along?” Those are pretty good and reasonable questions and I would ask the exact same things for sure. What can I say. I am not known for taking the easy routes in life. I would rather move to another city or even country, have a long distance relationship over two continents for a couple of years or train for a marathon in a super busy Olympic summer than run into the risk of being bored at some point I guess. Just to remind Continue Reading
Hi, I am Andrea!
“Why don’t you meet me at my hotel?” I think a lot of people have experienced that question trying to arrange a meeting with Andrea Michaels. I think I have met Andrea in more places all over the world than in Los Angeles, where she and her agency, Extraordinary Events, are based. It must have been around `09 when I first met Andrea in person. My boss back then described her as a pretty lady, super important U.S. client, and just a great person I needed to meet. Continue Reading
A little getaway: California, Manhattan Beach. Hermosa Beach.
One of the great gifts that comes with living in Portland is that whenever you need a break from the rain ( which most of us probably feel like especially this winter) you can easily hop on plane and spend some days in sunny California. This is exactly what we did last week and besides all the good things you know about getaways like taking a break from life and relaxing for a couple of days, it amazes me how much the combination of sunshine, oceans and beaches adds to it. At least for me. As always we never have a plan when heading anywhere because we hardly ever have time to come up with one before and secondly because we like to explore. Have fun day dreaming while reading our experience and #placestobe we got to explore and that Continue Reading