Portland y'all! - part I

As some of you already know, Portland, Oregon, is an amazing place. We've just returned from 3 days of play there. This is part one. Note: We ate and drank with no thought to our poor bodies and livers - so, this post has many food references.

We arrived at the Northwest Hostel at about noon on Thursday afternoon. However, the actual first stop was, literally, Saint Cupcake - I mean, it's on the way to the hostel...this is what we saw upon arrival! We got 3 "dots" (mini cupcakes) each and they were heavenly. The vanilla cake with vanilla buttercream icing topped with pink sugar crystals - the crunchy, sweet, cakey goodness - was especially memorable for me.

It rained while we ate the cupcakes and was cloudy most of the day afterward but, luckily, didn't rain more than a sprinkle again the entire time we were there.

So, we headed for the Hawthorne Neighborhood across the Willamette River. We wandered about on foot and ate at the Por que No? Taqueria (Hawthorne and 47th), which was delicious. This is coming from someone who doesn't prefer corn tortilla and is skeptical of taquerias. Along with my chicken taco with tomatillo sauce and onions, I got this great watermellon-guava juice that was super refreshing. This is us at the place:



This lunch was, of course, followed by dessert! Very close by was JaCivas Bakery, where we got an apple slice and an aztec cinnamon truffle. Afterward, we found Zupan's Market, which, in my opinion, gives Dean & Deluca (we've visited the location in Georgetown in D.C. many times in the past) a run for its money. Their produce in particular was outstanding. This is Sandy using an amazingly large artichoke as a prop:


More wandering - here is some puffin grafitti:


One of the meals we (and Sandy in particular) were looking forward to was dinner at Ken's Artisan Pizza. We arrived about 5 minutes after it opened and it was already filling up. We ate some fantastic wood oven pizza and drank rich, red wine in the mid-evening sun. Here is Sandy with his mushroom pizza:


We visited a nearby wine bar after, Noble Rot, and got a flight of Willamette Valley pinot noir and a flight of Southern Spanish reds. I preferred the pinots - all fantastic. The place itself was really a perfect neighborhood winebar. You know, it had all the elements: small plate menu of local food, a row of large windows that open up to the street, soothing yet upbeat music, a wonderful selection of wines. This is a horrible picture of S but gives some feel of the mellow location:

We hopped the 20 bus back to the Northwest neighborhood, where we capped the night with some Rogue beer right off the tap from the brewery! See me below near the end of the evening and feeling pretty good:
We adjourned to our private room at the best hostel in North America and slept an amazing sleep while breathing in lots of oxygen.

Ok, that was Thursday. Next - Friday!