The city of Portland gets a high five, or at least a ‘hang loose’, from us. How could we not love a bike friendly, food mecca, funky city filled with genuinely helpful people? Many times local folk have come over to strike up a conversation, give recommendations, and help with directions, all with a ‘lovin’ life’ kind of vibe.
Yesterday after another morning tennis match we headed downtown to the converted warehouse area called the Pearl District. We had a heavenly visit to Powell’s book store, one of the largest independent bookstores in the country, where I drooled over the travel section and new releases. We then rode over to Brewcycle, where I had rented us 2 seats on a 15 seater bike brewery tour. We had an eclectic group made up of 10 people from a social media advertising company (most of which played Pokemon Go while we biked along – “Did you know we’re going slow enough that this is going to count for my walking distance?!”), a couple from LA, a local Portlander, and us! My favorite part of the bike is that the people are the signal lights, so at every turn the people on the appropriate side of the bike had to stick our arms out. We stopped at 3 different breweries for tasters. One of them had ‘reduced gluten’ beer, which has some enzyme in it that destroys the gluten particles. Say what?! So far RobO’s guts are still happy (though his head is NOT due to a bit of a hangover).
Working hard to go up a hill!
Our next stop was tasters and eats a Gluten Free brewery called Ground Breaker.
Our final stop on the day was at the First Thursday festival, an array galleries, art vendors, food trucks, and street performers. After a wander through we enjoyed sitting in a park, spectating a game of bocce, followed by an early night to bed. Beer drinking in the sun takes a lot out of a person!
Today has been a relaxed final day in the city: tennis, food trucks, hanging around our funky neighbourhood, Indian food, ice cream. When I suggested this Indian place to RobO and described the location as being right beside the Salt & Straw ice cream shop (see last blog for details) his eyes lit up. He says, “That’s perfect. If the Indian food is really spicy we can just go next door for ice cream afterwards! It’s like doing jumps with your motorcycle right across the street from the hospital!” How can I argue with that logic?
In case you’re curious, we each sampled many of the flavours that we didn’t try the last time. The olive oil? Surprisingly good. Fennel and maple? Also good. Vanilla? Boring. We settled on the Cinnamon Snickerdoodle (me) and Freckled Woodblock Chocolate with caramel sauce (RobO).
Tomorrow we fly back to Calgary, then stop off in Drumheller for the Blue Rodeo concert. I guess then back to the grind until next time!
