Oregon Vacation - Portland

Our final stop in Oregon was Portland. We experienced the clouds and rain of the Pacific Northwest during our last few days. No sun to be had.

We enjoyed the artwork on the sidewalk and streets. And the Pearl District.

Powell's City of Books - mindboggling.

The riverfront sported a mix of park, old-style bridges, and just-built resorts and attractions.

I highly recommend visiting the Portland Rose Gardens.

and the Japanese Garden.

and the Classical Chinese Garden.

We stayed downtown on the west side near the river at Hotel Fifty. Decent and not exorbitant pricewise.

We walked most places and took the Max to get to the Rose and Japanese Gardens.

Portland is a food town and right before we arrived we heard about fisticuffs taking place over pork.

Coffee highlights included lattes at Stumptown Coffee

and Pints (a coffee by day and beer by night joint)

I loved the frothy milk designs that apparently were de rigueur here.

We stopped at Voodoo Doughnut for breakfast one morning.

Downtown Portland supports an incredible number of streetfood vendors. It was so tough deciding on what to try for lunch. We finally chose Peruvian beef and noodles

and Korean beef with rice

Delicious!

At the Chinese Gardens we spent 2 hours savoring tea in the Tea House,  actually named the Tower of Cosmic Reflections,  run by the Tao of Tea. A very Zen-like experience where we did reflect on the cosmos.

We enjoyed ducking in out of the rain for bourbon cocktails and marinated olives at Brasserie Montmartre. We liked the Don Draper so much (old fashioned made with infused cherry boubon) that we are attempting to make it at home (cherries are infusing as I blog).

Dinner hightlights included (along with a pictorial drool-fest):

Blue Hour located in the Pearl District. A soaring converted warehouse space.

Veritable Quandary may have been my favorite place in Portland. Our waitress was also the wine buyer and a most excellent server of food, beverages, and information without being intrusive.

On our last night we dined at Metrovino upon the recommendation of our most excellent waitress from the previous evening.

And in trying to return to Richmond, Oregon did not want to let go of us. We experienced numerous delays and ended up spending the night at O'Hare and eating McDonald's because it was the only place still open. Bummer! This is what the airport looks like around 6 AM when trying to find your departure gate (that had changed, yet again).

Hallucinogens not required.