I have officially (not so officially) given up on trying to find flights home in November.  Well, that’s what I’m telling myself anyway.  The problem is that I keep asking myself: will I make it until Christmas?

I really, really don’t like the way my body responds to that question… shortness of breath, throat closing, the sharp pain in my heart.  Okay, okay that’s enough. Which is why I’m officially finished thinking about going home (kind of).

I need to think about something else… like pizza.  Ooey, gooey, delicious pizza.  Yumm.

Last week, I found myself in Southern Oregon for work.  I was staying at the Homewood Suites in Medford, but working in Grants Pass during the day.  Homewood Suites hotels are really nice because they provide their guests with breakfast, dinner, AND alcohol… who’s ready to paarrrttttayyyy?  In other words, I was super excited that I was able to save money and have fun with co-workers.  Let’s just say the hostess knew I liked my double glasses of Chardonnay.

The downside to staying at this magical place of wonder?  I didn’t get to try out very many restaurants while I was there.  We would go out to eat for lunch, but I didn’t find anything spectacular though.  But on the day we were leaving, to fly back to Seattle, we were able to eat lunch in Medford.  Boy, am I glad we did.

One of my co-workers has a friend who lived in Medford and recommended a few places to us.  Despite me and another co-worker craving Chinese, we all agreed that pizza sounded delicious.  As I was driving, the first thing I noticed about this place was the cool sign detailing its name… because it looks like the inside of a kaleidoscope!

Kaleidoscopes are pretty cool, at least they were… or I thought they were… WHATEVER.  They're cool and Kaleidoscope Pizzeria & Pub is pretty cool too.  This place has awesome Yelp reviews and I totally understand why.  We walked in and the restaurant had this cool funky vibe, it seemed pretty easy going and laid back.  Brian and I split a medium (14″) pepperoni pizza ($15.75 ) and I had a caramel apple martini.  I've been a HUGE fan of the caramel apple martini since I had one in the SkyCity restaurant in the Space Needle.  This martini was exactly what I needed after a long day of hard work.  It tasted exactly like a caramel apple, and having actual caramel sauce in the glass was my version of a cherry on top of whipped cream.  I forgot to write down the ingredients, but you can bet I'll be trying to make my own version soon.

The pizza.  Sighhhh. The pizza.  I know that's what you all care about.  You're probably like, what the heck who cares about the martini, BRING ON THE PIZZA.  The answer is: me, I care about the martini.  Since you've been so polite and patient… I'll tell you about the pizza.  It was good.  And I mean really good.  By the way, this is coming from a girl who makes it her mission to try as many pizza places as possible and once dreamed about a road trip where I only ate pizza with my friend Brittany.  I take my pizza seriously.

There was the perfect amount of cheese, pepperoni, and sauce.  I didn't feel like one ingredient overpowered the other in any way.  It was delicious, superb even.  At least one of the top two places I've had pizza on the west coast so far… I'll re-try Zeeks (the other contender for numero uno) and let you know what I think ASAP.  The cheese was piping hot and gooey, which is the only way I can eat it, and the crust/dough was pretty top notch too.  I ate two pieces and was stuffed, I took my two other pieces with me on the plane all the way back to Washington to enjoy at 1am after bar hopping.  I wouldn't have asked for anything more.

Next time you're in Medford, Oregon hit this place up.  Its worth it.