So, here's a summary of our time in Portland:
Day 1 -- Our 5-hour flight landed in Portland around 3 or 3:30 p.m. We picked up our rental car and drove to our hotel in the city center. After getting settled into our hotel, we walked just across the street to the river walk. We had an early dinner at Little River Cafe. Scott had a burger with blue cheese and caramelized onions. I had a burger with brie and apples. We ate outside looking over the river with a beautiful view of Mount St. Helens [correction: Mount Hood] in the distance. It was a gorgeous, sunny, warm day. Very little humidity and a high in the upper 70s.
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| Believe this was Peaches and Cream |
The food gave us a bit of fuel, and feeling more energized than we expected after a long day of traveling, we explored the walking path along the river and ended up at the Oregon Brewers Festival, which we hadn't planned on attending until the next day.The Festival is an annual event (the last weekend of July each year), and it was only by coincidence that our trip coincided with the festival days. There were more than 80 different craft beers from around the country. Purchase a glass ($7) and you could buy a full glass ($4) or sample ($1) from the ginormous selection. The festival area was huge! And there were tons of people there! I'd love to see the attendance numbers. It was crazy...almost overwhelming. I wish we had taken a picture of the crowds, but we were too busy trying to get in the right lines. Over the 4 days of the festival, they had more than 80,000 people from around the world. I'm not sure how they were counting. If it was just by the # of bracelets they gave out, there are likely some doubling up going on because of people like us who got a bracelet on Saturday and another on Sunday. There was no price for admission, and they just gave you a bracelet to make it easier for the beer pourers to know your ID had been checked.
After trying a few beers, we walked back to the hotel and vegged.
Day 2 -- We were up early (still on Eastern time). It was a very overcast and chilly morning. We had a great late breakfast at Mother's Bistro & Bar. The wait time was about 40 minutes. From what I understand, that's pretty standard at this popular place -- especially brunch time on a Sunday. Fortunately, they take your cell phone number and text you when your table is ready, so you can walk around if you'd like rather than idling around in the crowded waiting area or outside.
So, we did opt to walk around a bit while we waited, which is a good thing, because after all that we consumed we certainly benefited from walking off a few calories first. We started with a large pecan cinnamon roll that we shared. Then, Scott had one of the daily specials -- eggs benedict with a phenomenal homemade hollandaise sauce. I had a pork apple sausage and cheddar cheese scramble. Both came with incredibly delicious roasted potatoes. Yum, yum!
From there, we walked off more of our breakfast and went to the Portland Saturday Market, which takes place on Saturdays and Sundays. It was okay, but not particularly impressive. A lot of booths, but most of the crafts weren't that high quality. We didn't buy anything, but it was fun to amble about.
The sun came out around noon just as we were headed to the Brewers Festival again. There was a MUCH lighter crowd on Sunday. When we first arrived, there weren't ANY lines, and while we only stayed a couple of hours, the lines didn't get very long at all. Really only 2-3 of the most popular choices had any lines.
What we tried over the course of the two days:
- Swill by 10 Barrel Brewing Co. - This was voted the favorite at the festival and was ours, too. We didn't taste it until the end of the 2nd day we attended. Otherwise, we might not have even tasted anything else. It was that good, and I'm not a beer drinker.
- Traverse Cherry Wheat by 13 Virtues Brewing
- Raspberry Wheat by Cascade Brewing
- Oddland Spiced Pear Ale by Elysian Brewing Co.
- Peaches and Cream Ale by Fearless Brewing Co. - Another of our favorites. Ranked #2 by festival goers. It smelled even better than it tasted.
- Grandma's Pecan Brown by The Dudes' Brewing Co. - Scott really liked this one, but I'm not a fan of dark beer anyway, so this one was much too bitter for my taste.
- Copperopolis by Lucky Labrador Brew Pub
- Portmunder by Old Town Brewing Co.
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| Voodoo Doughnut sign (original location) |
After the festival, we went to Voodoo Doughnut, which has a bunch of crazy toppings. There was a long line, which is typical, particularly on Sundays. The Anthony Bordaine show "No Reserversations" and a number of other travel and food shows has made it famous. They have opened a couple of other locations in Portland and will open one in Denver later this year. It was worth it for the entertainment value alone. But the doughnuts were yummy, too. We got half a dozen so we could munch on them for a few days and try as many varieties as possible.
After a couple of long days of walking, we chilled for the rest of the day and had a light dinner at Chipotle.
Day 3 - (This morning) After a couple of doughnuts for breakfast, we checked out of our hotel and started early with a walk around the International Rose Test Garden. Probably not the best idea for Scott's allergies, but I enjoyed it. There were lots of roses, of course. They all started to look the same after a while, but there were a few standouts -- in appearance and smell. Photos below. Apologies for the wonky formatting.
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| Rock n Roll |
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| Chris Evert |
By 10 a.m., we were off to our next destination -- Mount St. Helens and Mount Rainier. More about that tomorrow.
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