Portland: Day 3 & 4

We wore up a little late the next day, well I woke up early, Matt woke up late and by the time we were dressed and out the door it was more like brunch time so we went to try the famous Portland food carts  and I'm not much a fan of eating off of a truck unless it's our production catering trucks, I just rather eat in a restaurant if I'm eating out but it was one of those must do things so I went for breakfast food and went to The Gaufre Gourmet which was waffles.

 

I had a waffle that was insane. It had lemon curd, chunks of meringue, whipped cream, and graham cracker bits. Pretty amazing.

Matt had bao mainly because I was sure he'd like it and he did. His was a tofu bao.

After lunch we went shopping around the Pearl District near our hotel. I went to Oblation Letterpress, a popular stationery store.

I bought quite a few things including this cute telegram card.

We had lunch at Isabel which was some kind of Mexican food I think. It was in a cute space on the corner as a few drops started which never really matriculated into full on rain.

Matt had this thing which was tofu, black beans, potatoes. He enjoyed it.

I had this kinda healthy meal with tofu and broccoli, it was good.

The Pearl District is where I'd want to live if I lived in Portland. Cool little shops, plenty of restaurants, a Whole Foods, clean, yuppie. My kinda jam.

The houses mostly all had black trimmed windows and black doors and lots of brick.

I was on a mission to find a candle so my baths would have a pretty smell and ended up in this store called Cielo that was domino famous. I didn't even notice it, Matt did as we were leaving.

They were featured as one of the Go To Shops for home decor while in Portland. I bought a candle. That was that.

They did have this cute chair with cool fabric but it probably wouldn't have fit in my luggage.

We headed over to the Esplanade and rented some bikes and rode for not too very long because we had dinner reservations pretty early.

Oh Portland, miss you already.

We took a bus to the place that was our favorite in Portland and of the whole trip probably. Portobellos, a Vegan trattoria. It was recommended by the vegan clothing store girl.

It was tiny and we got there at 5:30 right when it opened for our 5:45 reservation and filled up almost immediately. No wonder the girl told me to get reservations asap.

What excited me about the drink menu and dangit I didn't take a picture of it was the fact that it had a section called "mocktails" which were drinks with no liquor which made my heart happy since Matt does not drink and I always wish he could share a drink with me.

Look at this happy face:

I on the other hand, had a sangria made with oranges and strawberries.

So why is a vegan trattoria such a big deal? Well, fresh pasta is always made with egg. So while it's easy eating vegetarian pasta, it's dang near impossible for Matt to eat at any of our favorite local italian joints because they all use egg. Of course since it's a vegan place, everything is fair game for us!

We started with asparagus fries with vegan dipping sauce. YUM.

So here we are vegan pasta place and what does Matt order? Pizza. Sure it was the most amazing vegan pizza of all time with cashew cream instead of cheese, whatever.

I ordered spaghetti. The sauce was incredible. Vegan or not.

The next day was the big day with the 4th of July our country's birthday so I got all patriotic.

I think all of Portland was out of town. Deserted.

We took the train and the bus to explore Washington Park and were the only people on the bus.

We saw the famous Portland Rose Gardens (not the sports arena).

We also checked out the Japanese gardens which were very peaceful and beautiful.

Let's just be straight here, I was kinda out of things to do other than just shop so what the heck, let's just spend the day at Washington Park which houses the gardens and has a zoo that has otters, and other animals but you know, secondary to sea otters. Here's me with a sea lion, aka, not an otter.

Me being a bear.

Matt refusing.

The zoo was actually really beautiful and though a lot of the animals were sleeping, it was very enjoyable walking around and just enjoying the beauty of Oregon. The rain gives it lots of growth and life and nothing feels as if it's impeding into the environment which struck me about the city of Portland. It's trying to blend into the location and not trying to overtake it. 

After the zoo we took the train back and went down this horrifying elevator that goes something like 30 stories under ground, I dunno but I was not expecting that. The station was cool though. And chilly.

To mix it up we had pizza for dinner. Sizzle Pie which earned a very special place in our heart for having a row of vegan pizzas, vegetarian pizzas, and a gift for pizza naming.

Matt ordered the Spiral Tap slice. My Captain America.

Now we're heading for the fireworks and I'm thinking oh it's gonna be crazy crowded with people everywhere and traffic up the ying yang! Mmm, not so much.

I really wanted to watch the show from across the skyscrapers so we camped out across from the city to watch the big show.

People were sitting there in the river in boats. 

The view of the fireworks wasn't so great but the sound was incredible. The skyscrapers reverberated the sound of the fireworks into this cool echo, very cool.

Happy Birthday America. Portland I love you. Etc. Etc.