Products to Pack: Jack Black for Men

Men travel, too, and like to look their best even while packing light. Jack Black products are certified organic, vegan and cruelty free, which are awesome in any product. There are no funky unnecessary additives like fragrance, colors or parabens. Shaving cream takes up a lot of room in your 3-1-1 bag and it’s not always great for your skin, especially when it’s dry from the elements and recycled air on the airplane.

The shave lather or beard lube is perfect to use for keeping your face smooth and moisturized and packs small. For extra luxury and skin care, add the double duty moisturizer, lip therapy and or Dry Erase Ultra-Calming Face Cream. They have a product for everything, whether you want your hair to look thicker, your wrinkles to appear less pronounced, your face to be protected from harmful sun rays or your hands to be softer. Who said beauty products are just for women? Though they can use Jack Black as well, it’s specially formulated for men.

My husband loves the thickening shampoo and the shave products save room in our carry-on and smell and work terrifically. Also choose from shower gels, facial cleansing, body scrubs, hair gels and more. Check out these fun travel sets for every jet-setting man or one that just wants to sample the goods first. Look great, feel great and be environmentally conscious. What more can you ask for?

Eat Mobile: Portland's Food Cart Festival

2013 was our second year to experience Eat Mobile, Portland's annual food cart fest that brings together 50 of the city's best carts who give out some of their tastiest samples and compete for the coveted Carty Award. You pay for your admission bracelet weeks in advance (because the event sells out) and then all the samples are free. You only pay for alcoholic beverages or bottled water, though Vitamin Water is free, since they are a sponsor  of the event. Not only is this festival fun to go to because we love to eat, but it is also cheaper than going to a restaurant, you get to try a ton of different kinds of food and figure out where your favorite carts are located in the city. 

As you know, food carts are a great way to save money on dining out, both at home and when you travel. You can also learn more about the event here, in case you're interested in visiting Portland in late April next year to check it out. There are quite a few vegetarian carts and/or vegetarian options at regular carts. We are lucky not only to live in Portland with such a fantastic choice of food carts and food in general, but we are also a leader in vegetarian food in the city.

Eric started out hardcore with both chocolate mini cupcake and salted caramel ice cream  from Scoops. I wanted to enjoy my first pick: Thai ice tea ice cream. Yum! (I promise it was better than my face suggests.)

Spicy hummus and chickpea fries

I think this may be yet another salted caramel bite. Chocolate brownie with caramel drizzle and light salt flakes.

Look! I found Carlton Banks all grown up! Just kidding. This dude from Chez Dodo was a good sport, smiling for the camera while also dishing up inside out veggie samosas. Totally delicious.

Garcelon's Soup & Grilled Cheese was dishing up spicy crab chowder which made me want to rush home and learn to make chowder myself...or buy a whole bucket to take home and freeze.

Car2Go was handing out yummy cupcake poppers while folks were waiting in line for - wait for it - cupcakes! These dessert goodies below from Hungry Heart Cupcakes.

Here's a close up of one of their delicacies: chocolate maple bacon

There was a totally long line at a cart called Cheese and Crack (not a typo) which serves up locally made cheese, crackers, jam, meats and chocolate. The line was actually way shorter than you would expect after you tried their samples.

Worth it! While in line we traded off grabbing samples from other carts we pasted, included Hungry Heart, but also Kind Bar was giving away full-size bars and Moberi Smoothies had a very inventive cart where they used people-powered blenders to serve up smoothie shots to samplers.

My favorite waffle cart was at Eat Mobile. Gaufre Gourmet makes liege waffles with fun toppings. The ham and cheese waffle is so good. here they were serving something called the spicy goat, with salami and goat cheese, and also strawberry lemonade waffles that had a lemon glaze and topped with strawberry slices.

Another totally awesome part of Eat Mobile is that they are eco-conscious. Instead of giving out tiny utensils at each cart, they gave out these adorable Bambu sporks, it and everything that food was served in and on were compostable and the whole event was solar powered, including the demonstration kitchen/stage and DJ cranking out fun tunes to make the event that much more fun.

Do you frequent any food carts? If so, what do they specialize in?

Infographic: Monterey Bay Aquarium Joins CityPASS

Has anyone thought about planning a trip to the Bay Area this summer? If you have, yet another reason to go is to visit the Monterey Bay Aquarium. They just joined the CityPASS program, giving you an even better deal on your San Francisco trip. If you aren't familiar with CityPASS, you can learn more about it from my review. Basically, you buy one card per traveler, skip the ticket lines and go straight to the entry gate at participating merchants. It saves you time, but because you are buying a multi-ticket card, it also saves you money. Your CityPASS is valid for 9 days from first use, which is a perfect amount of time if you are visiting a city for one or two weeks.

Your San Francisco CityPASS includes entry to the following attractions:

• California Academy of Sciences
• Blue & Gold Fleet Bay Cruise
• If you'd rather visit Alcatraz instead of taking a Bay Cruise, you can do this by calling and purchasing your CityPASS PLUS directly. Click here for more info.
• Aquarium of the Bay OR Monterey Bay Aquarium
• Exploratorium OR De Young Museum
• + 7-day passport on MUNI transport and the famous San Francisco Cable Car

If this trip sounds like a great time to you, learn more about the Monterey Bay Aquarium below and click on the infographic to go straight to CityPASS and buy your PASSes today. You can also see some of the other cool things to do in the city with this 48 hours post.