Part 2 of 2. Read this entry first!
The drive to Portland took about 4 hours. As I passed Centralia (the midway point between Seattle and Portland where many of the STP riders camped on Saturday night), I saw people riding on a frontage road near the highway. Patrick and the others spent the night at a school in Napavine, while I was headed for the swanky 5th Avenue Suites in downtown Portland.
My first impression of Portland was not particularly good, as downtown is full of one-way streets and it took me three tries to figure out where to park in order to check in. But once that was taken care of, the hotel staff was really great. The valets helped me unload the car (with 4 peoples' worth of stuff in it) and directed me to the front desk, and the front desk guy (whose name was Leaf River) got me checked in quickly and got a bellhop to help me move all the luggage to the room. In retrospect I didn't tip the valet or the bellhop enough considering the number of bags I had, but hopefully they forgave me. I'm a novice when it comes to tipping at hotels.
The room was really nice. It had a living room and bedroom area with sliding doors between the two. It was decorated with pleasant and unusual fabrics and colors, and there were free Aveda products and Tazo tea to be had! It wasn't cheap, but all of the hotels in Portland were in a similar price range, and Patrick had stayed here before and said it was really nice. I agree. I'd definitely stay there again.
After settling in, I walked to the Pearl District and ate dinner at Silk by Pho Van (previously Pho Van Bistro), the second pan-Asian bistro of the trip. I sat on the sidewalk out front, next to a table of women who spent their whole meal talking about divorce and drugs and meeting rich guys on match.com.
I had limeade (too sweet, sadly), lemongrass chicken, and caramelized eggplant. Both chicken and eggplant were yummy, but I bet there were things I would've liked even more on the menu. I guess subconsciously I compared it to the awesome lemongrass pork we got at Out the Door in the Ferry Building, and it just didn't live up to that. But I'd definitely go back to Silk given the chance.
After dinner, I stopped in at Powell's briefly but was overwhelmed by the size of the store and decided to come back another day. I headed back to the hotel, took a bath and had some tea. It was a good day.
Sunday, July 16
On Sunday I repeated the mistake I'd made in Seattle by deciding to walk to breakfast someplace that turned out to be pretty far away (I guess I'm overly optimistic about how quickly I can cover long distances). I headed across the Morrison Bridge to Hawthorne, which ended up being a rather seedy route to take. The pedestrian underpasses on the bridge smelled like pee and had lots of wadded up newspapers strewn around (but there weren't any homeless people hanging out there when I passed through). The 10 or so blocks east of the bridge were very industrial and abandoned looking and not pleasant to be in. Plus I was getting very hungry and tired at that point and in need of breakfast! But I kept walking.
Farther in, the surroundings became more residential, which was nice. My original plan had been to walk to Paradox Cafe for breakfast, but I ended up giving in and stopping for breakfast at the next restaurant I passed that was open. That restaurant was Wild Abandon, and it turned out to be great! Yay, serendipity!
They seated me on their new backyard patio, which was very nice and homey. The waitress was super friendly, the table settings were all charmingly mismatched (the coffee mugs were all different--near me were mugs with the Safeway logo, a Christmas wreath and "World's Best Dad" printed on them). They were playing a Johnny Cash CD inside. It felt very comfortable and local. I would have loved it more had I not been ravenous at that point!
I ordered a big stack of blueberry pancakes, and once the food arrived and I dug in, I started feeling better. The pancakes were good, though not the best I've ever had, but the ambience made up for it. I could totally imagine Patrick and I going there for weekend breakfasts if we lived there. I was again seated next to a table of women, but these women all worked at local schools (one a librarian, one a counselor) and seemed much happier with their lives. They had some complaints about how the schools were managed, but they seemed to be happy. One had gotten a job at a new school that she was really excited about (yes, I shamelessly listen to other peoples' conversations when I'm eating alone). They were regulars at the restaurant, and the owner came out to say hi and chat about things. What a nice place!
Next, I walked down to Hawthorne Blvd, which seemed like a nice street. Not as clean and polished as the Pearl District, but very comfortable and familiar. It had some friendly-looking bars with cute little half-size picnic tables along the sidewalk, yarn stores, restaurants--all sorts of good stuff. I ended up going back to the Hawthorne District twice more during our trip, and I'd say it was my favorite neighborhood in Portland. I could totally see us living there if we moved to Portland.
Next, I walked up to Burnside and across the Burnside Bridge, which was nicer than the Morrison Bridge (but the Hawthorne Bridge, based on future experience, seemed the nicest of all). At the west end of the Burnside Bridge was the Portland Saturday Market (also open Sundays), which I explored briefly. It was full of people selling their handmade goods, as well as food carts. I would have liked to have visited a farmers' market in Portland too, but I didn't manage to do that.
Most of the items at the market didn't really interest me (it was a lot of the same stuff you might find at the Marin County Fair, for instance, but slightly nicer). Lots of hippie-ish items. One thing that caught my eye were the glass mobiles by Leah Pellegrini, but they all cost over $100, so I figured I shouldn't buy one without Patrick's input, and he was busy riding his bike at the time. Maybe we can buy one in the future.
Next I walked around the Pearl District a little bit, visiting Oblation, Dig, and Print Arts Northwest. Oblation was great, but after visiting Flourish, I was spoiled and not as thrilled as I would've otherwise been. Their letterpress facilities are located in the rear of the store, so you can watch them at work, which is cool. They don't offer any classes, which probably makes sense, as they need to use the presses to print their products. The lady I talked to at Oblation said many of the local colleges offer letterpress classes, which is nice. Even better would be to find a place where I could buy time on a letterpress, since I already took a few classes in college.
Dig had some interesting items, and the woman working there was really friendly (she also recognized my purse as being from Queen Bee/Buy Olympia and asked if I'd bought anything else from them. I had, in fact, and told her that I was really happy with both items I'd bought from them). If I had a real garden, I might actually buy something there! There were some interesting pieces at Print Arts NW, but they were all pretty pricey, and the woman working the desk there seemed kind of snooty (I guess it was a gallery, so maybe that's just how they are at galleries). Oh well!
I had planned to have lunch at Wildwood, but when I got there (more walking!), it turned out they aren't open for lunch on Sunday. Man! Instead, I walked over to 23rd Ave and had lunch at Jo Bar. I'd wanted to eat at Papa Haydn, but the wait was too long, and as it turned out, Jo Bar is owned by Papa Haydn. If I'd known that, I would've gotten dessert, since that's what Papa Haydn is known for.
I had a salad topped with crab and shrimp cakes that was pretty tasty. Once again, I was seated next to a table of women talking about divorce and drugs (this time legal drugs--Ativan is apparently a god-send). One of the women monopolized the conversation, talking about her daughter's love life and how her daughter is so lucky to have been going to a therapist for two years--most kids don't get those kind of life tools. People are interesting.
Jo Bar was nice enough, but there wasn't anything special enough to make me want to go back there. Maybe if I'd had dessert I would've felt differently.
I walked back to the hotel, rested my tired feet and cooled off a little bit (it was warm in both Seattle and Portland), and then took the MAX to Holladay Park near the Lloyd Center, where the ride finish was. I sat next to two girls on the MAX who were probably in high school. One recounted the tale of when she and a friend ran away to Portland (I guess they live in a suburb nearby) and didn't have any money, so they got a strange man to buy them a meal and ended up staying at his apartment, where he tried to take advantage of them. And then they got run over by a (slow-moving) car when they were trying to push-start it and then peed their pants laughing. Kids today! My adolescence was nowhere near that interesting, thankfully.
There were many people in bike clothes at Holladay Park. Patrick and I located each other and then went and sat in the (New Belgium!) beer garden with the others for a while. I'm so proud of them all for finishing!
After a while, we had to say goodbye to Ashly and Isaac (they took a shuttle back to Seattle). We took the MAX back to the hotel, taking advantage of the bike hooks near the doors to the train (what a good idea!).
After everybody had showered and enjoyed the luxury of our hotel, we decided to go downstairs and have dinner at Red Star, since nobody felt like walking very far. It's a good thing we stayed close to the hotel because people were pretty tired by the end of dinner.
The food at the Red Star was really good (even if you haven't just ridden 200 miles in 2 days), and our waitress was super nice. I started with a roast corn, onion and watercress salad, which was pretty good. Tree and Patrick both got the special--a roast torpedo onion topped with fromage blanc. It was delicious! For our entrees, I had seared pancetta-wrapped diver scallops with heirloom tomatoes (yum!), Patrick and Tree both had the fajitas (also a special), and Andrew had an awesome steak. Desserts were equally good. Tree had a brownie sundae, Andrew had a piece of the buttermilk pie, Patrick had a cherry-peach crisp, and I had an American fool (a waffle cone filled with bavarian cream and lots of fresh Oregon berries). Now that was a good meal!
Monday, July 17
For breakfast on Monday, we walked a few blocks to Greek Cusina, which Patrick had been to before and recommended. There was a giant inflatable purple octopus crowning the entrance, and the twin themes of purple and octopus/squid were predominant throughout the restaurant. Patrick had a waffle, and the rest of us had the greek scramble (eggs with feta cheese, roasted tomatoes and olives--with the pits left in, oddly enough). Our scrambles came with toast made from thick-cut bread. It was pretty good, but a little butter-logged. It was a fine breakfast, but not my favorite of the trip. Apparently they have plate breaking later in the day, which could be entertaining.
Next, we walked to Powell's, and we fared much better than I had the first time I tried visiting. Tree and I navigated the store with the help of their online directory, and we picked up a few books that her sister had recommended for my book club at work (I have to pick the book for September). Tree also bought World Vegetarian. I think we both could've spent all day there. I like that they have both used and new books for sale. I bet they would've bought all of our books that we don't want anymore. If only we'd brought them with us to Portland! Used bookstores around here are so picky about what they'll buy!
Tree and I left Andrew and Patrick at Powell's and spent some time at Oblation. A little later, we went to Let it Bead, which was a few blocks from our hotel. They had a ton of pretty beads, and I could've spent a long time there. My only complaint was that the store smelled like patchouli. But I would definitely go there for all my bead needs when in Portland.
After a brief respite at the hotel, we all took the bus to the Hawthorne District (much easier than walking there, though the downtown bus stop smelled all pukey, which reminded me of Central Square in Boston). I was a little too quick on the draw with the bus pull cord, and we ended up walking a bit on Hawthorne to reach our lunch destination--Hot Lips Pizza.
There seemed to be some sort of lecture about buying organic outside the pizza place (after checking online, I think it was the owner of Hot Lips who was doing the talking), and though there was free pizza for the lecture attendees, we decided to go inside instead. We each had a big slice of pizza and local beer/strawberry soda (the soda was made at Hot Lips; they also had bottled raspberry and blackberry Hot Lips sodas).
The pre-made pizza selection was kind of limited when we got there, and Patrick almost ordered a piece of vegan pizza by accident. The nice butch girl behind the counter offered to put cheese on it for him, but he decided that pepperoni would be a safer bet. The pizza was pretty good, and I would definitely go back just because it seems like a friendly place that cares about the earth. They have interesting daily specials (the special that day was a summer squash and brie pizza, which sounded good, but we would've had to wait 10 extra minutes for it). They also have a cute little electric car that they use to deliver pizza. I like it!
Our next stop was the Yarn Garden and the neighboring cafe, the Sipperie, a few blocks down on Hawthorne. They sure had a lot of yarn, but since I haven't knit anything in the past year (I don't know why!), I didn't buy anything. Patrick and Andrew had tea and a brioche at the Sipperie while Tree and I looked at yarn. It seemed like a welcoming place to hang out (and decorated so sweetly!). There were some cute little girls and a harried mother (aunt?) having a tea party and knitting session while we were there, but one of the girls had a meltdown, so they had to go home. I want to have a tea party! On our way out, the proprietress of the Sipperie stopped Andrew and said that she loved his shirt (pictured below) and that she wanted to make a shirt that says "My BF is a DM." That was unexpected!
Tree needed to get to Hillsboro because she had an interview scheduled for the next day. We employed multiple forms of transportation to get there (bus to hotel, MAX to airport, rental car to Hillsboro). I was glad to have a chance to visit Hillsboro, as I was interested in seeing Orenco Station, which was featured in Sunset a few months ago. It sounded like the kind of neighborhood we might like--very walkable and close to a light rail station so Portland would be easily accessible.
We had a bit of trouble actually finding downtown Orenco Station, as I hadn't printed a map of Hillsboro, and we ended up wandering around in some of the Orenco Station housing first. I was a little disappointed, as it all looked the same, and I was under the impression that Orenco Station was trying to have some variety in their home options, so it wouldn't look so much like a planned community. We saw two funny dogs biting confusedly at a sprinkler, which was entertaining.
We ended up getting back in the car and found the downtown area, which turned out to be a block from where we'd parked the first time. It was a very small downtown with maybe 15 stores in all and a nice park at the end of the street. There was an Indian restaurant (Swagath) and an Italian restaurant, and I think that was it in terms of eating options. I was expecting it to be a little bigger (clearly I had too many preconceived notions!).
We stopped at the Starbucks there and got snacks. The man who helped me was very nice--a little too nice. I think he may have been a robot. Anyway, Patrick and I split a piece of reduced fat banana chocolate chip coffee cake, which was too good to be healthy.
After our snack, we walked over to the Orenco Station grocery store--New Seasons Market. I'd read about New Seasons when researching Portland, and I was excited to see what it was like (plus I just like walking around nice grocery stores!). I really liked it there. They had big aisle of bulk food bins and a really nice produce section. I think I would enjoy shopping there very much. Their general corporate policy seems right up my alley too. They seem like a grocery store I could love. And it looks like they have a store in the Hawthorne District. I'm swooning!
Next we stopped at the nice little park at the end of the main street and took pictures in front of the nice ivy-covered columns at the park entrance. I'm wearing my new favorite skirt, which I got at 4 Clothing Solutions here in Menlo Park. It's all nubbly-textured and has a pretty floral print. All in all, Orenco Station seemed like a nice place, but a little too artificial and new for us. Maybe as it grows it'll get bigger and more interesting. I think we'll stick with Portland proper if we move up there.
After that, Patrick and I took the MAX back to Portland, and Tree and Andrew stayed in Hillsboro so she could go to her interview the next day. While we were waiting for the train, some guy started hitting on a woman next to us. She didn't seem interested, but she had nowhere to go since the train hadn't arrived yet. He asked her if she'd been to Swagath (of course she had--it's one of two restaurants in Orenco Station!). The woman ended up turning around and talking to us about how long the train was taking to arrive in order to get out of talking to this guy. That was no problem; she seemed nice enough. But then when the train came, she sat right across from us and talked to us for the whole ride. It's not like she was annoying or anything, but I'm not used to having long conversations with people I don't know. Maybe I should learn to be a little more social.
Anyway, this woman had recently moved to Orenco Station after getting divorced (see, there's the divorce thing again--what is it with Portland?). She seemed pretty down about being divorced but was positive about Orenco Station, since it allowed her to live within her means. She had worked for the Portland school system previously, and she didn't have a very high opinion of their public schools. She recommended Catholic schools instead, which is where her kids went. I am not inclined to take this advice. When we parted ways in Portland, she wished us the best of luck with our future. That was nice of her.
From the MAX station, Patrick and I took the streetcar up to 21st Ave (we really made good use of Portland's public transit system that day--thank goodness for the $4 all day pass!). We had dinner at Wildwood, which was open this time. The part of the restaurant in which we were seated had curved wood ceilings, which reminded me of Mudd's in San Ramon. I started with a salad of dates, frisee, pancetta, spring onions and a champagne vinaigrette. It was yummy, though the dressing was a little overly vinegary for my taste. I love the combination of dates and pancetta though. My entree was a ragu of roasted tomatoes and fava beans topped with panzanella (bread salad). Yum! It was definitely a good meal, but I wasn't wowed by the experience. I think my expectations were too high. I'd go back again though. It's definitely a nice place.
After dinner, we walked down 23rd Ave and stopped for pearl milk tea at Tea Chai Te. They definitely weren't a run-of-the-mill pearl milk tea place--they were more like a tea place that just happened to make pearl milk tea as well. We really liked it though. It was on the second floor of an old building, full of couches and tables and very cozy feeling. One wall was lined with an array of tiny stoppered glass jars, each one filled with a different kind of tea leaves, so you could experience the tea before ordering. Luckily the pearl milk tea ordering process was pretty easy--we chose (1) the type of tea (black, green, rooibos or mate), (2) the flavor (a list of maybe 20 flavors; not as extensive as most bubble tea places), and (3) the accompaniment (tapioca, pudding, or both). I had black tea with almond flavoring and tapioca pearls (plus non-dairy creamer and probably some sweetener). It was different from normal pearl milk tea--I could actually taste the tea in it, and it was less sweet than usual. It was good, but not quite what I was expecting. I would definitely go there again to relax and have a cup of tea, but I would probably seek out a more traditional pearl milk tea establishment (Fat Straw, perhaps?) for my Portland bubble tea needs.
It was getting late, so we tried to take the streetcar back to our hotel. However, the streetcar we boarded only went two stops and then everybody had to get off. It was unclear whether another streetcar would be coming, so we just walked the rest of the way. We passed the place where all the streetcars sleep at night and came upon another Hot Lips location in the Pearl District, housed in the shell of an old warehouse (the Ecotrust Building, apparently, which is where I could've gone to a farmers' market had I been there on the right day). I thought it was a pretty cool use of the building. There was also a stretch of sidewalk nearby that was made of wood planks instead of concrete. People are so creative in Portland and Seattle!
The last stretch of our walk back to the hotel, through downtown, made me a little nervous because it was dark and downtown seems a little sketchier than other parts of Portland, but nothing bad happened. I'm sure I had nothing to worry about.
Tuesday, July 18
On Tuesday morning, I again tried to go to Paradox Cafe in Hawthorne for breakfast (this time with Patrick in tow), but I opted to take the bus instead of walking. Success! Paradox is primarily a vegetarian/vegan cafe, but they also have meat and egg options for those of us who haven't learned the error of our ways. The cafe was decked out with turquoise blue vinyl diner seating, and it felt very cozy (this seems to be a recurring theme in my descriptions of Portland establishments). The bathroom wasn't so great--I had to walk through the kitchen to get there, and it was basically a closet with a toilet in it (the sink was just outside the door), painted entirely red. But whatever; I should just be happy they had a bathroom!
Our waitress was nice, though she forgot to bring Patrick the orange juice he asked for until nicely reminded (but it was really good orange juice--worth the wait). I ordered the vegan french toast, scrambled tofu (I was so excited to have an option other than eggs for once!) and a chicken-apple sausage. The french toast was actually really good! It had what I think was margarine on top, and it was almost too buttery and delicious. Patrick liked it too. Being a vegan doesn't seem too bad if you're living someplace like Portland :) The scrambled tofu pretty much tasted like tofu, but I still enjoyed it. The texture was good. The chicken-apple sausage was fine. Patrick had a wheat biscuit with almond gravy, potatoes and sausage. The biscuit and gravy were pretty good (I think he liked them more than I did), and the potatoes were yummy. They were more like oven fries (all covered in seasoning and crispy) than home fries, as there were no onions or peppers accompanying them. It was a good breakfast, even for us omnivores.
After breakfast, we made a brief stop at Clogs 'n' More, as it seemed like an appropriate thing to do, and I thought I might be able to find some dressy close-toed shoes that I could wear in lab. I tried some clogs on, but none were quite right, and we left the store clogless. The staff seemed nice though.
Next we walked down to Division Street to have a post-breakfast snack at Pix Patisserie (a little after-breakfast French pastry is acceptable when you're on vacation!). We shared an Amelie--chocolate mousse with a praline center, topped with orange creme brulee, caramelized hazelnuts and gold leaf. It was like a giant Ferrero Rocher chocolate, only fancier. It was delicious, of course.
They had a nice selection of French macaroons, which we were eager to try after our positive experience with Miette's macaroons. We shared a grapefruit macaroon, which turned out to be filled with chocolate. It was so pretty to look at and delicious to boot! I loved their little macaroon plate as well. We took two back to the hotel for Tree and Andrew--another grapefruit and a pistachio--but sadly they did not get to eat them off of little macaroon plates.
As we were walking back toward downtown, we happened upon yet another Hawthorne yarn store/cafe, this one called Mabel's Cafe and Knittery. Since we had just eaten our mid-morning pastry, we did not buy anything there, but it looked very appealing, and I think it would be a very pleasant place to knit and have a cup of tea and a scone (or whatever baked goods they sell). Their blog is quite charming too. Man, those yarn store/cafe combos totally know the way to my heart.
We reached our next destination, River City Bikes, after walking through the less savory part of town that I'd encountered on my original visit to Hawthorne on Sunday. I'd noticed their building on my Sunday walk. The building has a parade of metal people riding bikes along the roof (I tried to take a picture of it, but it was too far away). And their garbage/recycling bin corral has a gate made of bicycle parts. Again, I am impressed by all the creative stuff going on in Portland!
Patrick thought it was a sweet bike store, as did I. It was pretty big, and they had these beautiful (but expensive) wood bike fenders made by the owner. Maybe if we moved to Portland Patrick could buy a set (for all the rain! I mustn't forget about the rainy part of the year!). The location of the store isn't great, but we read in the newspaper that they're thinking of expanding the streetcar line to run along the east side of the river, which would make it more accessible (and perhaps lead to improvement of the abandoned places nearby).
We tried to go across the Morrison Bridge to get back to the hotel, but this time there actually was a homeless guy hanging out in the pedestrian underpass, so we turned around and took the bus back instead. Everybody else was just going around him, but I'm a wimp.
Andrew had taken the light rail from Hillsboro back to the hotel while Tree was doing her interview, so we met up at the hotel and walked to the Pearl District for lunch. We decided to eat at Andina, a Peruvian restaurant that was featured in Sunset a while back (Sunset proved to be a good resource in planning our trip, as did citysearch, tripadvisor, and local newspapers' best of issues). The menu was a little foreign to us, and I wasn't sure what to order, but our (very quiet) waiter encouraged us to take risks. So I did, and it was so much more exciting than ordering something safe!
I ordered chicha morada to drink, which was a spiced purple corn drink. It was very purple. It smelled like spiced apple cider and tasted kind of like grape juice. It was pretty good. I'm glad I tried it.
We started out with complimentary salsa and bread. The salsa was not a typical tomato-based affair, oh no. At left we have a concoction of mint, garlic and jalapeno; in the middle is passion fruit, brown sugar and some kind of pepper (I should've taken better notes!); at right is a peanut-based salsa with head cheese and cilantro. They were all tasty; I liked the middle one best.
Andrew and Patrick shared a small plate of fried, cheese-stuffed yucca logs with a cheese sauce. They looked kind of like Twinkies but did not taste like Twinkies. They seemed to go over pretty well.
I had three small plates, all strikingly presented. The first was Tabule de Cereales Andinos, a salad of Andean grains sprinkled with queso fresco, avocado and olives. It appeared to have two colors of quinoa, but it may just be that I don't know my Andean grains well enough. It was really good, and it seems like something I could replicate at home. The second plate was Anticucho de Pulpo, a grilled octopus kebab with a rocoto (apparently a kind of pepper) and caper chimichurri. It was good, but not very flavorful. I liked the texture just fine though. The third plate was Causa Mixta Nikkei (I totally butchered all of the names when I ordered, I'm sure), a potato-lime cake topped with spicy tuna, crab salad and a crispy shrimp and garnished with avocado. The potato cake would've been a little ho-hum by itself, but the addition of all the seafood on top made it really good. Yum! I am so glad I ventured out of my food comfort zone. I'd love to go back and try some more Peruvian tapas.
After lunch, we walked to the Chinese Garden (we only had time for one garden--Japanese or Chinese--and Andrew's uncle said the Chinese Garden was best). There was an admission fee, but it was worth it. The garden was beautiful and peaceful. Lilypads are so nice to look at! We had tea at the Tower of Cosmic Reflections. The tea I chose (Tuocha from Tao of Tea) tasted grassy, like alfalfa smells. It wasn't bad, but I think I haven't learned to appreciate tea fully.
Next we walked to Saint Cupcake to see what Portland's cupcake scene was like. The shop was cute, and the cupcake presentation was appealing, but I'm afraid they weren't quite as good as those at Cupcake Royale. I think the key is the frosting. But their cupcakes were nothing to scoff at, and I was still happy to eat them. Patrick and I got three dot (mini) cupcakes to share: banana chocolate chip (Patrick's favorite), vanilla toffee and pumpkin spice (my favorite). Andrew got a full-size cupcake for himself and picked up a pumpkin spice for Tree (poor girl had two desserts waiting for her when she got back from Hillsboro!).
We took the MAX back to the hotel and hung out until dinner time. Andrew met up with his Uncle Ron at Saucebox (yet another pan-Asian bistro, the fanciest of the three), and we met up with Tree upon her return from Hillsboro and headed there to join them. Saucebox is known for their cocktails. Andrew, Uncle Ron and Patrick got mai tais and Tree got something called the Kickboxer, I believe.
The entrees were awesome. I had halibut with pea shoots and bok choy, topped with fried lotus chips. Tree, Andrew and Uncle Ron ordered a salmon dish that was equally delicious. Patrick got green curry and a Saucebox sushi roll, which was filled with the tenderest salmon ever. Yum! We did not order dessert because there were late-night donuts in our future! In retrospect, this trip was not good for my diet. But at least I walked around a lot!
We headed back to the hotel and waited until 10pm, because that's when Voodoo Doughnut opens. We walked down to the tiny storefront, which was packed with people. There were a surprising number of people out and about, considering it was a Tuesday night. I'm such a square!
I felt a little frantic trying to decide what to get, as there were many donuts to choose from (displayed in a big glass case as well as on the menu), and I had to decide by the time we got to the front of the line! The inside of the shop was too small to stand to the side, so everybody was in line by default. I decided to order something unusual, which may not have been the best choice. I got a Mango Tango, a donut filled with mango and topped with Tang powder. I did not enjoy eating it very much and ended up disposing of half of it. That was probably for the best anyway. Patrick got a Froot Loops donut and felt equally lukewarm about it.
Tree and Andrew wisely based their decisions on flavor instead of kookiness and were both happy with their donuts. I forget what was in Tree's donut, but it was shaped like a cone and involved chocolate and red sprinkles (it was meant to look like a joint, you see). Andrew got a Tex-ass donut, which was bigger than his head! Sadly, the lighting in this photo wasn't great, but this is him consuming his donut. He ended up saving half for later and then sensibly threw it away the next morning. Donuts don't seem as appealing after sitting in a fridge overnight.
So the lesson here is that if you visit Voodoo Doughnut, choose based on what sounds tastiest, not craziest.
Wednesday, July 19
We had to head home on Wednesday, sadly. I would've enjoyed spending a few more days in Portland (or Seattle), but I think I got to see a lot of it while I was there. I think we'd be happy living in Portland, but first we need to go back and visit again in the winter when it's rainy (even then, we might not get the full experience just visiting, but it's better than nothing). Seattle was awfully great too, but their public transportation system didn't seem as well-developed to me. I should really poke around online a little bit more to make sure that's right, as I would hate to rule out Seattle on a false assumption. But we won't be moving either place anytime soon, as we need to (1) visit again when the weather's crappy and (2) figure out if we could actually find jobs in our chosen professions up there. Plus we're doing quite well living in the Bay Area right now, and we're hesitant to move somewhere else when we like it here.
Anyway...we got up pretty early and had breakfast at Red Star. Our waitress this time around seemed kind of surly, but maybe I just got on her bad side. Tree and I had hot apple cider, and Patrick and Andrew had orange juice. Here is Andrew drinking his orange juice in a very apropos T-shirt (but not a very appropriate T-shirt).
I had oatmeal with toasted hazelnuts, brown sugar and dried cherries, which was good. Everybody else had granola with fresh berries--so many berries in the Northwest!
We checked out, loaded up all our stuff and got the bikes on top of the car without any mishaps. And then we started our drive south. We stopped in Eugene once again for lunch, this time at Metropol bakery. Good sandwiches were had by all, though we cleaned them out of pastrami (maybe it's not a hot ticket item in Eugene). The guy who made our sandwiches was friendly and had some sweet muttonchops.
After lots more driving, we stopped for gas in Yreka, which was very toasty. More driving, and we stopped for dinner in Mt. Shasta at Lily's. It was a nice place. It felt like the kind of restaurant local kids might go to before prom or homecoming. I had some sort of lentil-walnut burger (at this point I wasn't taking food notes--I just wanted to get home!) that was pretty good.
After more driving, we got to Tree and Andrew's place, unloaded their stuff, and drove the rest of the way home. It was a good trip.
