PDX3/4

So I know I know this vacation was a couple of months ago, but when you work 60+ hours a week for a couple of months straight, you can slip behind a bit. Anyway if you just want to check out the pictures and don't feel like reading all the way through, here's a quick couple paragraph summary.

Horsetail Falls

Had hotel breakfast. Saw three cool waterfalls while foolishly hiked without pretty much anything necessary like water or a warm coat. Meet the self-proclaimed greatest rapper I’ll ever meet. Had some kickass lemongrass chicken with brown rice. Almost missed the underground tour again. Learned so much about Shanghaiing. Saw an ironic Scientology ad. Had a wheatgrass shot. Vegan dinner, that definitely looked like it wasn’t vegan. Talked to an environmentalist. I browsed through a big ass bookstore. Drunk some craft beer. Had the craziest ice cream flavors ever. Got tricked into going to another vegan place.  More hotel breakfast. Found out roses don’t bloom in the winter time. Supported the gluten free lifestyle by getting a coffee, took the Portland Arial Tram. Found out the mansion was closed for renovations. Saw some kickass art. Drunk some craft beer. Saw a really huge waterfall this time. Drove down to Hood River. Had a lot of craft beer. Got full service gas. Packed bags and left Portland.

On this day we finally took advantage of the hotel’s breakfast. I went ahead and upgraded to the full buffet and to my surprise they had my favorite thing on the buffet. Eggs benedict. I know as well as just about anyone that you can’t keep eggs benedict perfect in buffet form, but still this was a great effort that you couldn’t complain about. Runny yolk, solid hollandaise. My big complaint would be that I wish I would have known that it was there before I filled my plate with other stuff.

After breakfast, we drove out to the trial to do a little bit of hiking. Our trail started at Horsetail Falls. I have to say I made a couple of mistakes in going on this hike. One, was my jacket wasn’t thick enough. While I was fine walking throughout the streets of Portland, I was slightly chilly walking throughout the hills along the trail. The next mistake was not bringing my spare camera battery the Sony DSC-RX100 is my camera of choice and it is a great almost bit of a hybrid camera. It has an incredible zoom and the megapixels are so crazy that I have to downscale nearly all of my photos before uploading to many websites. I have to learn a bit on how to use some more but I’m looking forward to playing with it a lot. It is pricey, but I went with it at the suggestion of MKBHD. I also got a really cool case for it on Amazon. People always think the case is much more expensive than it actually is. But I digress.

Underground Tour

Anyway the breathtaking views and the moderate steepness of the hike sort of takes your mind off of how cold you might be. I took a lot of great pictures along the way and a walk as such really reminds you if how great nature can be. We took a ride back into town to get some more things like spare battery for my camera. We then made our way out to the food carts. We were waiting for food at Mai Pho, when we were greeted to a performance from the self-proclaimed greatest rapper I’ve ever meet Smar-T Jones. He had a pretty good flow and it killed a bit of time while we waited for food. I ended up buying his CD, which I still haven’t played at all, because who listens to CDs. It’s the inconvenience of loading a disc into something with none of the nostalgia of needle to vinyl. It was a cool experience and he had a physical bitcoin which was kind of cool.

Vegan Fast Food

When we finally dug into our food, I had the lemongrass chicken with brown rice and it was awesome. That lady is sick with the lemongrass. It’s been quite some time since I had a meal that good but it was great. It was so bright and had a uniquely complex spice to it. As we sat down to eat in the park, there were a startling number of piegons that almost made me feel nervous and they sporadically flew around in cirlces. I almost felt it a scene from the Hitchock classic Birds would soon erupt.

We finally made our way along the Portland Underground Tour. Don’t be decieved by the name, as I was. Though it clearly says it on the website, most of the tour is above ground. You do a fair bit of walking and get to know tons about the history of Portland. The gritty stories of Shanghaiing was something that I didn’t even know existed. Everything about the history makes everything make sense about how Portland is such a weird city today.

I was feeling a little bit drained, from the early wake up and hiking so I decided it would be good to stop at Kure and grab a wheatgrass shot. I don’t know what it is about wheatgrass juice but after a little bit of it I’m ready to run through walls. The taste is one that most people don’t enjoy but I fancy it quite a bit. I really more or less got drawn into the place because of the proximity to my hotel and also it’s modern look.

I wasn’t starving but was still a bit hungry so we stopped to eat a Veggie Grill right next door. Being in the city PETA hailed as being one of the best cities for vegans. It shows very much as nearly every place has vegan and vegetarian options. Veggie Grill was a pretty solid place to grab a bite as it was like your upscale version of fast food but vegan. Think vegan version of Red Robin or Fuddruckers. I ended up staring at the menu for quite some time as the menu has quite a bit of variety, before just picking out the Santa Fe Chickin’.

Ice Cream

The “chickin’” is made from vegetable protein which is fried and topped with some guac and a spicy vegan mayo. I have to admit the sandwich is one of those that makes you think that you can live without meat. The fries were particularly tasty as well. Combine that with the beer from Deschutes and you’ve got a winner. Powell City Books was the next stop. It is a massive bookstore. It’s really like a Barnes and Noble on crack with a huge used section. You could really get lost in the place and we spent about an hour browsing through the place. We even made a stop up to look at the rare book section, which had some really old books. I think if it can’t be found in this store it hasn’t been written.

More Ice Cream

I’d been wanting to try the local beer scene though, so the next stop was Cascade Brewing. We ended up getting the soup of the day to snack on while we were there and tried a few of the beers. The place have a comfy feel because the design of it all. All of the tables are made from barrels. I kind of have mixed feelings about this because it makes all of the tables high tops which I am not a huge fan of. It looks good though.

I liked two of the three beers that I tried there, I wasn’t really expecting to like the third though since it was a sour. The Oblique Black and White Coffee Stout ended up being my favorite. It was one of the better stouts that I tasted on my trip to Portland. The Defroster Winter Ale was the other beer that I liked. It had a nice spice to it that wasn’t overwhelming and was perfect for Portland’s 50 degreeish winter. The Vine was the one beer that I didn’t like. It was just a little too sour for my taste, but I typically don’t like sours so I was not surprised.

After this it was dessert time. One place that I knew I couldn’t pass up on while I was in Portland was Salt and Straw. They make all kinds of creative ice creams. I’m usually not a dessert guy but the variety of flavors that they have easily wins you over. There were lots of flavors to try so we ended up going with a couple of the samplers. As for flavor selection, I would have to say that one of my favorites was the olive oil ice cream. DMC said it tastes like nothing but I thought it was pretty savory and the olive oil notes come through clearly. Next up would have to be the lavender ice cream. I wasn’t expecting to like this one as much as I did but the floral notes of it really shine through but not in a perfumey overwhelming way. It was just light and creamy. Finishing with the bronze was the salted caramel. It was odds on favorite going into this little competition. I did love the combination of salty and sweet that is a classic. Caramel ice cream is one of my favorites and a sure fire way to make me happy when I'm in a bad mood, even though I loved this ice cream I still loved the other two more. I attribute that u to the fact that I don't have much of a sweet tooth and both were just off sweet.

Jamaican Bowl

The Elvis was great as well, combining peanut butter, bacon, jelly and banana. I think the king had a real winner in this combination. If you like complex you'd like the universe, but it wasn't my favorite. It had too much going on and I wasn't as much of a fan though it was still good. Oddly enough it was Dylan's favorite.   We also had the strawberry balsamic which combined sweetness and tartness to give you this good tangy aspect that goes well with the creamy texture.

The Hereafter

Afterwards, we didn't know where to go but I got tricked by Dylan into going to yet another vegan joint.   I can't complain because Sweet Hereafter was a solid place. I have to say, fear not carnivores, their Jamaican bowl is delicious affordable and is satisfying to even this omnivore. We were stuffed by the time we got here but the Jamaican bowl was talked up so much and I do have to admit that it is the best incarnation of Tofu that I have ever experienced.

While you sit back and enjoy the sounds of mellowed out new wave electro music you can enjoy great food and drinks as well. The Hereafter is served in a mason jar and gets lots of points for presentation for me but it was honestly not my favorite. I did however really enjoy the Long and Short of It. That drink was a little sweet but had a really nice strong kick to it.

From Portland Aerial Tram

The next morning we had our first stop at the rose garden. It was kind of silly of us to go because if you didn’t know roses don’t bloom in the winter time. We essentially fought the bulk of Portland’s traffic, a mere 15 minute delay for absolutely no reason. Now we were at a bit of a loss for what to do next so after driving in circles for a bit, we stopped at Tula Gluten Free Bakery.   It was more of a stop to gather our bearing, empty our bladders and decide what to do next. I am however a sucker for coffee, and I love trying out local coffee to figure out which one is the best. This place didn’t have too bad of a brew, but it wasn’t at the top of the list.

We had to drive by the site of one of our favorite sketches on Portlandia. The feminist bookstore In Other Words is hilariously Women and Women First. We had to take a drive by just to get a picture of it to say we were there. It was still closed so it was just a drive by stop.

Pittock Mansion

From there we rode the Portland Aerial Tram. I was expecting the tram to not arrive back at the same place so I guess I was expecting more than what it was. You only need tickets on the way up and not on the way down. I paid for three hours of parking not realizing the trip to the top and back down with a little bit of time at the top to take pictures can all be done in under 45 minutes. I didn’t lose out much since parking in Portland is so cheap anyway.

Inside Art Museum

Thinking that the Aerial Tram thing was going to take much longer we didn’t have anything else planned out so we looked up Pittock Mansion. Unfortunately, it was closed for repairs so we didn’t get to go inside but we did get a good view of the area because it is on top of a very tall hill. Not good planing on our part since it was also right next to the Rose Garden. That’s something to keep in mind if you ever plan a trip to Portland in the summer.

Next up was the Portland Art Museum.   I paid for so much parking time over at the Tram that I still had a couple of hours left as we got to the art museum. I decided to chance it and just leave my parking receipt from the tram on the dash. The museum is rather large and has a variety of art ranging to classic to contemporary, even sculptures and photographs. It took quite a while to look at everything.

From there we went to Hair of The Dog Brewery. It was well into lunchtime and I had to satisfy my desire to go to some of Portland’s breweries. I ended up having the Reuben sandwich. Overall the menu of the place was rather pedestrian, but it gets the job done and the beers were quite good. I ended up getting a flight of four beers and though all of them were quite tasty, I have to say that Adam was my standout favorite and well worth the trip there.

Multnomah Falls

Full Sail Brewing

Following our visit to the brewery, we embarked on what was this time a much more focused and prepared approached to seeing some nature. It wasn’t too much walking as we got to see Multnomah Falls. It is a rather massive waterfall, probably the biggest one that I have ever seen. Many of the bridges in the area were closed for repairs, so we were still able to get some good pictures, but hiking around the area was totally off limits.

We did continue driving on towards the Hood River. Along the way we made a couple of detours off the expressway to take some photos. Realistically, a few days isn’t nearly enough to soak in all of the beauty that is on display in the area.   There wasn’t much to do at the Hood River, seeing as how it was far to cold to go swimming or anything. So with that in mind we continued the brewery tour a bit. Full Sail Brewing Company had awesome food and beer to boot. The great thing about it was between the two of us we were able to get a couple of flights that would allow us to sample all fifteen of the beers they had on tap.

Hummus Plate

Along with the beer we ended up getting the Hummus plate to snack on. The plate came with tons of fresh veggies. The cucumber was sliced a bit too thin for my taste as it made it difficult dip in with the hummus. There were also olives, tomatoes, feta and artichokes. It was probably one of the best hummus plates I’ve had (save my own).

Of all the beers we tried there, I have to say there wasn’t a bad one in the bunch. My favorite among all of them was the Bourbon aged barleywine. I mean to a certain degree it’s hard to screw up when you’re aging in bourbon barrels, but this barleywine pulls off that rich strong malty flavor and wraps it up with a lot of finesse as opposed to many of the barley wines I have tasted in the past. Also their IPA was one of those that I liked very much as sometimes IPAs can be very much overhopped.

Relics of finished beer

Since we were a bit of the ways away from civilization, we decided to go ahead and take in the stars for a bit. Being in a place that suffers from a lot of light pollution, you rarely get to see how amazing it is to see all the stars in the sky. It was quite chilly though so after a few minutes, we hopped back in the car and turned in early for our fight to San Francisco in the morning.