portland, p to d

Before my trip to New York for New Year's, I figured I should write up all the fun I had in Portland, way back in September. 

Yes, I'm a slacker... I'm really sad how much my blog was ignored this year. But the bright side of my slacking is I thought of a really fun way to document my trip, hosted by the awesome Z's (that's JZ, KZ and RZ.. plus Portland Bella ;).

So just what did I do in P-O-R-T-L-A-N-D? Let's take a look, in un-chronological order:

"P" is for Pittock Mansion

Jenny (that'd be JZ to you), and I hiked the Wildwood Trail in Portland up to the historic Pittock Mansion on Day 3 of my trip. I've decided if I move to Portland, this is one of the places I'd like to live. Why? Well...

It's a mansion (my reasons for wanting to live in a mansion should be self-explanatory after seeing this photo ;)

Or this one, AKA the view from the mansion, up on a hill above Portland

But if that's not enough, it also has beautiful gardens, with Dahlias, my fave (but in this photo blurry) flower.

It's patio has these cool PURPLE and clear tiles, bringing sunlight into the basement

And there's a little house in the garden for Little Green Alien, who LOVES Portland (but that's another story, to be told if/when I finally set up his Facebook page), and had a ton-o-fun with RZ!

"O" is for Outside

.. which is a lovely place to be when you visit Portland between April and September (after that, it's cold. I don't like cold, so I guess I'd have to make Pittock Mansion my summer home ;) 

In addition to hiking the previously mentioned Wildwood Trail from the Audubon Society Visitor Center uphill to Pittock Mansion and then down the hill a little bit past it...

..we also drove to Hood River on Day 2, making a quick pit stop on the way at the Columbia River Gorge's famous Multnomah Falls, which we hiked to the very top of on my last Portland trip.

In Hood River, a cute little town on the river, we walked along it's cute streets into cute little shops, one of which is where I bought two cute Christmas ornaments made of pinecones, an owl and the porcupine at left, and some fancy soaps for RZ and me.

Hood River will also always be remembered as where I finally convinced / bribed a certain 9-year-old bookworm to read the first Harry Potter book, even though she was sure she wouldn't like it. (Two days after I got home from my trip, an "owl" from Amazon delivered the whole 7-book series to her house, which she read in approximately 3 weeks... and then re-read. Let's hear it again RZ, "You were right Kim. I love it." Yes, I know I was.. but I digress :P). 

"R" is for restaurants

Portland has gooood food (it's #5 on the top #40 US cities ranked by their food list). While I spent a lot of dinners with the Z's family and friends, we did go out to Sal's Italian Kitchen after our Hood River day, where I had a great lasagna and glass of Pinot Noir from Oregon's Willamette Valley. 

We then went to one of the hottest spots in the city, judging by the line around the block: Salt & Straw. While it may not technically be a restaurant, it was a foodie paradise packed with crazy, creamy concoctions of ice cream goodness, complete with tasting samples! This sampling process was extremely well organized... they had people go out into the line (within the store) and ask what flavors we wanted to sample, then they returned with tasting spoons. So by the time we made it to the counter, we were ready to order. I tasted Honey Lavender, which was a very pretty purple, but had too much actual lavender for my liking. I ended up eating a cone of Strawberry Honey Balsamic with Black Pepper, which -- despite how ice cream with pepper may sound -- was delish! (FYI to LA Peeps: Salt & Straw is now in Larchmont Village... although from the photo, it looks like it's taken over the space where Crumbs used to be, so I might have to boycott in memory of Crumbs :(  

"T" is for (Afternoon) Tea, my favorite meal of any day

To start our Hood River day, we stopped at Medley Tea House Cafe. Medley is a cute little tea shop on a cute street of stores in Multnomah Village near the Z's house. It's locally owned and operated and has a yummy menu. I had the "Fediezeldicker Breakfast Plate," Masala chai tea and a bite of a giant cranberry orange scone we all split.

Then, on Day 4 before I headed home, we had super-fancy tea at the super-fancy Heathman Hotel (yes Fifty Shades readers, that Heathman Hotel ;).

I had English Breakfast tea (but I don't think it was Twinings ;) and JZ and I shared the 'grown-ups' tea tray, while RZ got her own kids "Peter Rabbit Tea" plate (bottom right of the food photos below). The 'grown up' tea tray was packed with warm scones and jam, banana bread and salmon, chicken salad, goat cheese and cucumber sandwiches and sun-dried tomato deviled eggs, followed on the top tier by chocolate mousse, lemon tarts, devil's food cupcakes, a chocolate peanut butter cake and fresh marshmallows rolled in powdered sugar.

"L" is for Lost Lake

At the end of our Hood River day, we took a detour to visit Lost Lake, rumored home to Big Foot, that also apparently has a great view of Mt. Hood that we did not see due to it being cloudy. But the view of just the lake was pretty spectacular!

"A" is for Apple Picking in the "Fruit Loop"

In between shopping in Hood River and searching for Big Foot at Lost Lake, we drove through the Hood River Fruit Loop and ended up at Kiyokawa Family Orchards & Fruit Stand, where we grabbed a red wagon and headed out to the orchards to pick our own Gala, Fuji, Elstar and Honeycrisp apples. I'm only sad that I couldn't bring fruit back into California with me. Fresh apples are the best!

"N" is for Namesakes of The Simpsons characters

Did you know that Matt Groening, the creator of The Simpsons, is from Portland? If you'd ever visited Portland's "Alphabet District" you might start to suspect it based on some of the street names ;) Here are a few of the character's namesake streets I was able to take drive-by photos of:

"D" is for Doughnuts at Voodoo

And no trip to Portland is complete without waiting 30-90 minutes in line at Voodoo Doughnut. We were lucky and only had to wait about 30 minutes, which was enough time to peruse the menu online and narrow down our choices....

I settled for three doughnuts this trip (clockwise from the one with peanut butter drizzle in the top center of the box shot below): "The No Name" (which was disappointing.. it made me really thirsty.. I think because of the peanut butter drizzle on dry rice crispies), "Butterfingering" (which is exactly what is sounds like, a doughnut with butterfinger sprinkled on top, and was fine) and the "Dirt" doughtnut (which was my fave this trip -- the "dirt" is Oreo crumbles.) The other two doughnuts in the box below were the Z's -- "Diablos Rex" and powdered sugar filled with lemon.

I'd had "Captain My Captain" and "Grape Ape" (sitting next to each other in the case in the bottom right photo below) last trip, and so far "Captain by Captain" (covered in Captain Crunch Berries cereal) and "Dirt" are my faves.

Thus concludes the story of my four-day adventure in Portland, which took 22 times longer to write up than to experience. LOL! If you enjoyed this and ever want to visit, I know a good tour guide ;)