This past weekend was kind of all over the place, emotionally, for Michael and I. We laughed and we cried, we had meaningful conversations and we felt inspired. It wasn’t our typical few days off from work, but I’m certainly thankful the weekend took the course it did.

We capped off a productive week by meeting two of our favorite neighborhood families for pizza at 158 on Friday night. Wouldn’t it be great if every weekend began with sharing delicious pizza with friends and laughing so hard it hurts?

Saturday was all too bittersweet. Two of our dearest friends, Darcy & Carolyn, closed the doors to their shop, 2 Note, on upper Exchange Street, in preparation for a big move to Hudson, New York. We have the store to thank for the fact that we’ve become friends with two of Portland’s most beloved individuals – five years ago, frequent visits to the old 2 Note location on Moulton Street turned into shared meals, which then progressed to all kinds of hilarious adventures and a friendship we couldn’t possibly value more. It wasn’t easy to walk through the doors of 2 Note on its final day, and it certainly wasn’t an easy farewell to what was our very favorite store in town, but we know that our friends and their shop are destined for big things in New York + beyond. (2 Note fans, fear not – their entire collection is still available online!)

We needed a bit of a pick me up after the tearful goodbye, and in true Meredith & Michael fashion, we found it in food – milkshakes and sweet potato fries at Silly’s. My Hippy Hippy Shake (a chocolate peanut butter milkshake with pretzels on top) didn’t whisk all of my blues away, but it sure was a tasty start. A walk with Orvis helped to bring up our spirits even more that afternoon, and once we finished the movie, About Time later that evening, we fell asleep with the happiest feeling of gratitude in our hearts. What a day!

After a blissfully lazy Sunday morning of eating goodies from Scratch on the couch while reading blogs (me) and watching This Old House (Michael), we took Orvis to the beach – something we hadn’t done as a family in a few weeks. Ideas were flowing after a smoked salmon salad lunch (thanks to a generous delivery by our friend, Betsy), so we spent the rest of the day working and brainstorming before trying a new recipe for dinner.

What did you all do this weekend? We hope whatever it was, you enjoyed yourselves immensely! Have a great week, friends!

Photos taken by Meredith Perdue for Map & Menu.