Portland-Part 2-The sights

Pretty roses, found while walking around the lovely SE section. I also really enjoyed walking around near Mount Tabor. Million dollar homes everywhere and so quiet that you could hear a pin drop.

Hoyt Arboretium. I went here last time I was in Portland, and I had to come back. Such a beautiful and quiet place to hike around in. There was a mysterious electric guitar coming from the middle of the forest (??? It doesn't make sense to me either!), but Nik and I couldn't locate it. Weird!




We drove to Cannon Beach on sunday! I thought it would be a scenic drive, but it turns out to be kind of a sad one, with all the deforestation everywhere. The coast, however, was quite lovely. It was chilly, but I had to take off my socks and shoes and walk along the shore. It's just one of those things that you have to do (Nik didn't believe me). It was such a nice beach and the water was sparkling and so clear. High tide was coming in, but in such a peculiar way. Very irregular, and taking quite a few people by surprise who were laying out on blankets! I would love to come back there or to other nearby areas along the coast on a hot summer day and stay for a couple days.








Bridges!

Random parade at a street fair in Alberta!


Okay, so the 24-hour Church of Elvis was NOT at all what I was expecting. I thought it might be a store or a kitsch gallery of some sort, but this was literally all it was. And of course I was a sucker and put a quarter in, to see what would happen. There was a long-winded story about how it was going to take my picture and send it to Elvis, but then it said it was having technical difficulty and Elvis would have to get back to me. Haha, you can also get married there by the king, for an additional 50cents.


Being goofy and killing time before our flight, in Pioneer Square:

Portland-Part 01-The food

Hello! I'm back from my lovely vacation in Portland, Oregon! Actually, I got back super-early tuesday morning (red-eye flight, UGH), but I spent all day tuesday sleeping off those pesky timezones and just being generally lazy. Lots of fun was had; good food, good laughs, and pretty surroundings. Hooray! My camera sucks in low-light situations, so unfortunately there aren't any photographic evidence of a few tasty dinners that I had at Portobello Vegan Trattoria and The Farm. You'll just have to take my word for how yummy they were. Here's part one, the food pics, kinda out of order.

Doughnut from Voodoo Doughnut's traveling food cart! I happened upon them at a random Alberta street fair on saturday.

Vegan french toast from Juniors! Deeeelicious! It was pretty awesome going to a diner and being able to order french toast.

An average tofu scramble from Bijou Cafe.

A lovely glass of sangria from The Farm Cafe. This was the best dinner I had all weekend! Such a great restaurant, with the best atmosphere. It isn't strictly vegan, or vegetarian even, but they sure did the veggie options well. Nik and I shared a hummus platter appetizer and I had the Herb Crusted Tofu with Mushrooms Marsala as my entree. Mixed berries with vegan vanilla ice cream for dessert.

We drove to Cannon Beach on sunday and ate an adorable little cafe by the shore, called Sweet Basil's Cafe. I had the Portobello panini. Hit the spot after walking on the beach all day!

Lunch at Paradox! I had the mushroom veggie burger with sweet potato fries. I can't resist sweet potato fries. If they're on the menu, I'm ordering them.

Soft serve from Blossoming Lotus. It was Mexican hot chocolate, but they had another name for it that I can't remember right now. It was okay, but not as good as I remember their soft serves being.

Nik got the tofu avocado sammich and he was pretty mehh on it.

I got the raw pizza which I loovvvvvve. Have to eat it carefully, or everything falls off, but so yummy.


We chilled out at Deschutes Brewery for a bit on monday with some light food and their beer sampler. My faves were the Miss Spelt and the Ivana Weiss. Nik and I are total lightweights. Chips and salsa for food.



Elephant ear from the saturday market! Marionberry jam and powdered sugar as a topping. Sooo yummy. It's from one of the food vendors there, and if you ask for it with no butter, it's vegan. Hooray for sweets for breakfast!


Homegrown smoker cart. I have to say I was a tad disappointed in this. I was really looking forward to this all-vegan smoker cart, but everything just had a strange taste to it, due to the smoker. I got the chronic tempeh ribz and soy curls, with mac no cheese, beans, and cornbread as sides. The sides were amaaaaaaaaazing and I would go back just for those. Nik got a field roast chorizo and he felt the same way as I did about the smoked taste.



And last but not least, a cinnabon from Sweetpea!! This was the first place I went friday morning and it did not disappoint. Yum yum, I need to make some cinnabons soon.


I also went to Portobello Vegan Trattoria, but didn't get any pictures. This was on the top of my list for places to go, and it did disappoint a little. I thought it has real potential to be totally awesome, but everything just ended up lacking a little. Nik and I went a little crazy with the appetizers, ordering the pickle plate AND the cheese plate. Cheese plate was super-yummy and I would order that again, but the pickle plate was pretty bland and everything seemed to be pickled in the same brine (and what is UP with pickle plates never having any actual cucumber pickles on them?! I've never had one that did!). I got the Potato Gnocchetti with a Basil-Hazelnut Pesto for an entree, while Nik got the Manicotti. Both were yummy, but I thought the "Gnocchetti" were too large and thus a little bland, and Nik thought his needed to sit under the broiler for a good five minutes for ultimate yummy cheeziness. Calzones for dessert were the best part!! Sooo full.

More non-food pictures tomorrow! Hope everyone is lovely!

Dooooooodles

Click to view at a bigger size.

I kept seeing those intricately sculpted chinese dogs in all the antique stores we browsed in, and I was quite taken with this pattern that I kept seeing being repeated on them. I think I'll make a proper print out of it soon.
From a scenic overlook, on our way to Multnomah Falls. There was a tiny boat speeding along the river into the mountains.

Pretty leaves seen while taking a break on the trails of Multnomah Falls.

Mount Hood, standing halfway up it.

Mountains across from Mount Hood. It went on forever and the light was changing rapidly as the sun set.

Sitting at a picnic table in the backyard of the Lucky Labrador Brew Pub. There were a bunch of dudes at the next table playing cards.

Art Museum of Portland's Native American section. One of my favorite sections of museums! The masks alway crack me up for some reason. So cool!

Little dolls in the same section! Nowadays, they would grace the shelves at Kid Robot (and be made of vinyl)!



I promise I'll stop talking about Portland now. I had a lot to get out of my head and into pixel form!

Right now, I'm gearing up for a craft show that is happening in early June and working on some new things for my shop. I've had a habit of collecting fun things to paint on from the side of the road lately. I have a little stash and can't wait to start painting them.

Portland, OR photos

Finally went through all my photos and put them online! I already posted all my food porn photos the other day, so these are all the rest of the 5 days that Kristin and I spent there. Lots of hiking and pretty sites and WALKING. Such a fun city, and I hope to go back. I won't clog up the page with a bajillion-photos, so here are a few sneak-peeks and then links to view all the images:

Portland photos, part 1
Portland photos, part 2

sorry if they take forever to load! Feel lucky I didn't include all my uber-nerdy plant photos! :)

Vegan Vacation Porn

You knew I'd start with the food porn pictures right?

Blossoming Lotus was, by far, my favorite restaurant we visited on our trip. We went there twice!

Live Wrap (cilantro lime pate, tomatoes, cucumber, sprouts, and avocado in collard greens, with cashew sour creme):

Live Pizza (buckwheat crust with cashew cheese, basil pesto and veggies):

Tempeh Fajita (with onions, peppers, and lettuce, served with wheat tortillas, cashew sour cream and live green HOT sauce):

Chai Hemp soft serve. mmmmm. my favorite. I also tried the Almond Mint another day and that was pretty tasty also.


Sweetpea Bakery:

Cinnabun!

Snickerdoodle! So yum. Just like my mom's! chewy in the middle and crispier on the outside.


Vegan nachos with homemade cheeze sauce at Hungry Tiger, Too. Very mild cheeze sauce, but tasty. I give kudos to places that make their own sauce. It was very white beany and noochy.


Voodoo Doughnuts. Chocolate Coconut.


Late night pizza at Bella Faccia Pizzeria in the NE! We trekked up there specifically for this pizza and it was totally worth it.

Paradox Cafe. I had the tempeh gyro. The highlight of my meal was the soup of the day though, which was Kale, veggie sausage, and another important ingredient that I'm forgetting right now. The picture I took of it was a blurry mess. It was a rainy day (the only we had! yay sun!), so it was perfect.



Last meal in PDX was at the Vegetarian House in Chinatown. We had just missed the lunch buffet, but our meals were still most excellent.

Bean Curd pockets with Napa Cabbage:

Bird's Nest. This was crazy! I was expecting a cool-looking dish, but this exceeded my expectations! Crispy Potato bowl with Veggie Chicken, snow peas, and carrots with sauce. I wanna make a potato bowl!