lj-mood: idle
Portland was fun. I got there late, around 8:00pm after around 11 hours of driving (14 hours after I started). I called my friend and we went and had dinner at McMenamins. Their Cobb Salad with Cajun Spiced Chicken was barely spicy enough to keep my taste buds happy. Their Terminator Ale got me nice and mellow for a walk to Powell’s city of books. Which was amazing. I was tired enough that I buy anything right then: one of the rare occasions where I walked out of a bookstore without buying anything. We then walked down to Voodoo Donuts. It was close to midnight by then, and luckily for us the place was empty and I got to take my time on my selection.
I had the bacon maple donut. It put just enough sugar into my system that I could speedwalk back to where I was staying (on NW 22nd & NW Flanders).
I woke up late on Tuesday and walked down NW 23rd to have brunch at St Honore a cute and very busy bakery. It was a nice day and I got to sit outside in the sun with a book, a quiche and a pot of tea until it was time to join my friends writing group at Fat Straw on the South East side.
I explored a few cafés and more patisseries and not to mention pubs and more pubs.
Ok, I ate a lot and drank a lot. I also walked a lot.
Once after peeking at a map and seeing that Washington Park was only about 4 blocks away from my guesthouse, I decided to walk there to the rose garden. Unfortunately the map did not mention that those 4 blocks were all uphill. Fortunately, I walk in San Francisco so I was used to the hills. It was fun overtaking the group of mid-westerners who had also decided to hike up to the park and were taking a breather at an intersection.
The rose garden unfortunately was bare. It was still winter there, not a single rose to be seen. So I took a picture of the willow tree.
The next day I walked down to the Classical Chinese Gardens.
More pictures and notes to follow…
