Portland, Day 3

Not much to report here. We had a very nice, very relaxed day - one of those where you can't at first remember many specifics about what you did but you know it was good...

It was sort of an admin day, really. My cell phone went haywire, refusing to start or stay on or, you know, work. I have anxiety attacks when I'm separated from my cell for too long, and that fact combined with being mid-trip and facing some long isolated desert drives in my near future made me think it was rather imperative to get a working phone ASAP.

But first - food! We enjoyed the market so much the day before that we decided to go back and food cart it again. After a couple more purchases (a silk scarf dress for me, some hot bbq sauces and spices for Bill from Nancy) we scanned our grub options. There were some interesting looking stands including some great looking African, hot and gooey cheesesteaks (which Nancy got), elephant ears (organic and whole wheat, to boot), Nepalese, pizza by the slice, roasted and spice nuts, and cheekily advertised BBQ -

"If this sauce doesn't send you, you have nowhere to go"

....but when I passed and smelled the Thai place, I was lined up and salivating within seconds.


SO. GOOD. Ground chicken, with onions and peppers heavily spiced with Thai basil, lime leaves, chilis, maybe ginger? Over white rice, and topped off with spicy long beans and a wedge of lime. I think it was $7, and better than any Thai I've had in a restaurant.


Tummies full, Nancy was nice enough accompany me to a Sprint store where I purchased the brand spanking new Palm Pre.


It's like an iPhone with a keyboard, which is perfect for me. I love the touchscreen abilities, motion sensing features, current apps as well as the promises for a plethora of additional ones in the future, and I also get to satisfy my need for tactile texting through the slide out keyboard. Highly recommended.

And for her admirable patience during the phone purchasing process, I though Nance deserved a treat:

After that terrible lush had her martini (I had mineral water and a stern look of disapproval on my face.... okay, not really. I had a martini >:) we began the search for a cab to return us to the hotel, we instead stumble across something with a lot more character - a trolley!! (http://www.portlandtrolley.com/)


Oh, what a find this was! For a small fee (just "donations suggested") we hopped aboard, and little did we know the ride came with a show. Two older gentleman were operating the trolley, one driving and one trying to hold himself up and shouting out stops as we neared them. I say "holding himself up" because I'm guessing he still finds the concept of standing in a moving vehicle very different from how things were in his day - when they strapped stirrups onto a Stegosaur and headed west. But they were two of the funniest dudes I've had the privelege to be around in ages. First the driver announced to the other passengers that we were from Vegas and would giving a "halftime show" in the aisle of the trolley at some point. Of course. Thank you. And then the bickering began - back to front, front to back, driver to pedestrian. Classic material. They also knew quite a bit of info about the town itself, so we got a bit of a free sightseeing tour out of it as well. All in all, HIGHLY recommended.

Back to the hotel to pick up the mutt, and then we attempted to go to Rogue brewery for dinner.


The NW has so many quality breweries, it seemed a shame not to do at least one night of "quality assurance testing". Right? Plus Rogue has a doggy dinner menu! I was very excited. We checked the address and hours (open til midnight!) and walked on over. We sat at the outside tables, since Zack was there, and waited. And waited. And then a put-upon looking waiter came over and asked us what we'd like. Um, menus? He gives us the happy hour menu which ended at 7. It's 9 o'clock. He askes what beers we want, we say we'd like a tasting. A tasting of what, he says? Beer I scream! No, I didn't, but I kind of want to. Instead I say can we see a list of beers? He walks away to get it. Comes back and drops it on the table and leaves again. We flag down another server to ask for a regular menu, she replies that this is all they're serving - some iffy sounding bar food. Not the Rogue beer/local cheese soup they're famous for, or the Kobe beef meatballs stuffed with beer infused blue cheese, and no doggy menu. Why? I ask. Because we close at 9. It's 9:04. Eyebrow raise....

We leave.

We will not return.

After a couple other failed attempts to find outdoor seating we end up on the other side of town at little pub where the waitress is super friendly, the local beer is cold and tasty, and the pulled pork sandwich and mac & cheese we share hits many spots.

For some reason Zack decided to wedge himself underneath a chair.

Fear not, Zack, for there is good news yet - tomorrow we get the heck out of Portland.

Portland, Day Two

I awoke this morning to the sounds of general mayhem. As mentioned before, there were some people camped out along the street in tents the night before, a sight that was both intriguing and a bit weird. Especially since I started changing for bed by the window before realizing the had a full view. No charge, happy campers, no charge.... So anyways, I woke up this morning to bullhorns and laughter and stumbled over to the window to see huge crowds, police barricades and.... roses. A bazillion roses. Real rose bushes in temporary pots, roses on shirts, roses in hair, rose posters and wreaths, and on and on and on and suddenly it clicked. We hapless travelers have timed our visit to coincide with the damned Portland Rose Festival (www.rosefestival.org), and are staying on the street that serves as the main drag for the damned Rose Parade.Now, such a festival would be huge in any city, but you must also remember that Portland is a very sad and middlin' kind of place, so this weekend for them must be like a decade of birthdays and Christmases all in one. Hence the mayhem. The city set up seating, as did many of the hotels, and hours before the parade start time of 10am its all completely filled. The camping out is starting to make sense. If you're a rose freak, that is, which they apparently are. I look over to where their tent was, and it is packed up but folding chairs supporting several people in rose-adorned sweatshirts have taken its place. They look very excited.

(In fairness, the Rose festival is a couple weeks long and there are many events that look like lots of fun, especially for the kid/family/Alana-who-loves-quirky-things sector of the population, so it might be an interesting thing to check out at some point! Actually, I'd like to purposely do two weeks there and report back....hmmm....A cynic does Rose Fest. What do you think?)

The decision is made that we need to vacate the hotel and general area ASAP, so we can get out of the crowds before the parade makes its way to us. Our destination? The Portland Saturday Market!

The market (http://www.saturdaymarket.org/) actually runs Saturday and Sunday, and is a big reason I aimed to hit Portland over a weekend. I miss the flea and farmers markets back East (Clevelands West Side Market is amazing) and wanted to work as many of those kinds of adventures into my trip as I could. And Nancy and I also just love to shop. The actual purchase of things is not nearly as important as the search. It's a girl thing.

We walked the few blocks to the market, and quickly determined that shopping on an empty stomach was a bad idea. Breakfast was needed. There were loads of food vendors to choose from, but we both gravitated rather quickly to crepes and iced coffee.

Mmm. Portland DOES have great coffee! And the crepes were made to order, and delicious. The berry selection looked great, but I opted for a savory creation with spicy sausage, spinach and gruyere cheese. Nancy had ham and cheese. Both were great.

Then onto the shopping. The market has a little of everything, from art to jewelry to clothing to food products. I had mistakenly thought there was a farmers market as well, but that's at a separate site which was unfortunately across town.

This man was walking around with his cat on his shoulder. Because he can.

These were real flowers at a stall at the market - its a Sarracenia, nicknamed "Pitcher Plant". The buds grow into vase like blooms that secrets a liquid that attracts insects. The slippery slope of the "pitcher" causes the insects to fall inside where they are trapped in a sticky substance, killed and digested. Awesome.

This is for Christina :)

Nancy and I both got rings, I got a bunch of little jars of gourmet jelly (jalapeno, rhubarb, marionberry, etc) and we had a great time walking around, touching everything (as I always have to) and people watching. We finally left because we got tired, and were also tired of people bugging poor Zack. He's such a cutie and such a sweetheart, everyone wants to pet him but I think it turns into sensory overload for him sometimes. I was amazed that people were bringing their toddlers up to pet him with ever asking me if he was friendly or could they pet him. Some people would just grab his fur from behind and the poor pup would get startled and jump. I started to get ticked at the rudeness, and Zack was getting weirded out, so we took out leave.


We passed this on the walk back to the hotel - Dad works for a similar (unaffiliated) version of this in Cleveland. Great organizations, if you have one near you definitely check it out.

And of course, Chinatown.

After a rest back at the hotel, we started contemplating our dinner options. We both were feeling rather homebody-ish, and after the busy and people-filled afternoon, didn't want to go to a busy restaurant or drag Zack around much more. The solution? Hotel picnic!

We went to Whole Foods, where we stocked up on wine (duh), several kinds of cheese, crackers, heirloom tomato (my FAVORITE), prosciutto, assorted marinated and stuffed olives and artichoke dip.

Back at the hotel, we got our complimentary leopard print robes on, ordered up He's Just Not That Into You, and dug in!

The spread

mm, tomato

Olives!!

Exhausted puppies make for great foot rests.

It was such a great meal, and a great alternative to finding a restaurant in a strange city while traveling. It was affordable too, considering all we had, and would have been even more so if we were able to find a local gourmet market instead of resorting to Whole Paycheck. I highly recommend hotel picnics!!

Oh - and we finished both bottles of wine :)

Newport to Portland

This day starts out differently than the others so far on this trip, because we actually have to be somewhere at a certain time - we're picking up Nancy at the airport!

But first, our customary morning coffee and gallop down the beach. The morning was so gorgeous with the pictures to match, so I'm just going to throw them all up!



Back up the stairs to our little room.

As we're driving I see this sign:


Which seems curious, just sitting in the middle of nowhere til I see this next door:



Balance, my friends, balance...


Trees!

Given the need for speed (t-minus 3 hrs til Nancy's flight lands) I decide on AM/PM coffee for breakfast. I'm peckish while in the store and make the terrible, awful, gastrointestinally disastrous decision to grab a sandwich too.

Good!!!BAAAAAAD!!!

It was all smooth sailing until I approached Portland airport, and then.....


whhaaaaaaaaaaaa?!?!



Ohhhhhhhh.

So I was a little late to pick up Nancy, but really, who here is surprised?

After grabbing Nancy we headed to downtown Portland and out home from the next three nights, the Hotel Vintage Plaza. VP is another in the Kimpton chain of boutique hotels, which is the same chain I stayed at in San Francisco and will again in Vancouver. The one in San Fran was awesome, and the VP followed suit.


The lobby


The seating area and lobby



Looking up from the lobby - the center was open all the way up to a skylight with rooms situated in spokes out from the middle.



Our very nice room


They left a little bear on my pillow


And since I am a Kimpton member (I signed up, for free, when I was in SF) and they knew I was bringing Zack, they left a package of cookies and dog-related stuff for Zack, a cookie for me, and a little giving me 20% in their highly related restaurant downstairs. Nice!

After settling in and relaxing for a bit, we decided to go search out dinner. We set off with no particular plan, stopping in different spots as we walked. Nothin quite hit our fancy. There was a couple bars with burrito menus, some diners, some swankier looking eateries, but... nothign caught our fancy. Everything seemed grey (and I'm not talking about weather) and sedate and boring.

So we trudged back to the hotel and brought down Zack and got a table outside the Vintage Plaza's Pazzo.

This turned out to be an awsome decision. We started off with a bottle of wine, and an appetizer of prosciutto wrapped asparagus.



All of the entrees looked amazing, so we decided to get two and split it. With the server's approval, we ordered up:


Pork shoulder braised in milk, over big giant beans and topped with a slaw of celery, radish and leek and i think parsley or cilantro? Can't remember. I do remember that we just touched the pork and it fell apart, which means it was aaaaaaawesome.



And pappardelle pasta with lamb ragu and mint. So. Freaking. Good.

One of the most delicious meals I've had in a long time. We were pretty stuffed but the very friendly server talked us into getting a half order of their specialty dessert, pistachio semifreddo


which was really semifreddo layered with chocolate cake and topped with roasted, salted pistachios.

Oh - and a side of Fleet Week:

Tee hee.


Nancy likes...... the asparagus! Not the sailors. Nooo....

After dinner we decided to wander and find an after dinner drink. The Spanish Coffee at Hubers was recommended, but they wouldn't let us drink it at their outside tables. Apparently the tables are not for sitting. Ok. So instead we walked until we came across Rock Bottom brewery where we sat outside and had a couple of amaretto coffees.


The view down the street from Rock Bottom

On the way back we passed:




The train


A bucket of seals


Me kissing a seal




A coupla beavers (tee hee)


A woman pushing her dog in a stroller.


The flowers at Pioneer Square



What happens when someone when someone with pale skin and a proclivity for bruising carries a heavy bag around all day - those are broken blood vessels, btw. Sexy.

As we got ready for bed we noticed that people across from the hotel were camping out. I know our arrival in Portland was probably the most exciting thing thats happened there since... oh... I don't know, ever??? But camping out to catch a glimpse seemed a bit over the top



Hmm.. we'll have to sort out this mystery tomorrow....