Riding around Portland or Loving Portland

Yesterday I finally made it to Portland, yay! I left the house around 11, with my bike on the back of my car, drove to the Willow Creek MAX stop. It took me about an hour to get downtown, I got out at the PGE Park stop (now called something else...) in NW Portland and immediately rode down to the water front (I beat the MAX, following it's same path which is always nice!) I had plans to stop but was enjoying riding too much that I rode down to the waterfront, North along the waterfront, across this bridge (picture below) with a bike/pedestrian path that is at the same level as the waterfront trail, then South along the river on the East side to I think Hawthorne bridge. After that loop I felt good about stopping and I went to the Alder and 10th food carts.


The food carts, which I failed to take pictures of (oops) were awesome. Too many options, it was hard to choose! I also wasn't too hungry because I'd eaten breakfast just before leaving Brooklyn. I ended up being a little boring and getting a panini. $5 for a sandwich and a soda! Awesome deal! I only ate half the sandwich then I sat by the Teachers Fountain at Yamhill and Park, sketching my surroundings and doodling. I think I sat there about an hour, soaking in the Vitamin D. I wasn't going to finish the other half of the sandwich so I decided I'd give it to a homeless person. This being Portland it didn't take long to see someone, so I stopped about 2 blocks from where I was, offered her the other half of my sandwich and went on my way.

From there I rode up to NW and sat at Bridgeport Brewpub and had a beer on the deck in the shade (where it got a little chilly) and doodled some more and people watched. It was quite pleasant. From here I rode my bike way out there to Upshur to check out Canvas Art, bar and Bistro. I got there and wasn't too hungry and peaked in, thinking I might move on. I saw that they sold some art supplies and remembered that I haven't been able to find my pencil sharpener. I went in and asked the lady behind the counter if she sold them, she lent me hers from behind the counter then came back a second later and said I could have it. I thought, aw that's nice, I might as well check out the menu and see if there is anything that sounds good for a snack. It was almost 5pm, happy hour! I saw an option "pint & paint". I was intrigued and asked about it. What it is: a pint of beer on tap and a little kit of paints and a palette and some brushes and you can paint on the white butcher paper they have there! I was sold. If I had someone to take on a date, we would go here :)



After painting and slowly sipping my beer, I decided to head back to the center of town... and get donuts! On Saturday when I went to Saturday Market my friend Laura and I walked by Voodoo Doughnuts but the line was like halfway down the block and didn't seem to be moving very quickly! So as I was riding I realized I was approaching and when I got to Voodoo the line was only to the door rather than out the door! I swooped up on my bike, locked up and waited... for a while to get my donut on. I went for the Voodoo and the fruit loop one (I don't remember what it's called).

This is where it's nice to have someone you are traveling with, you can each get something and split it. When traveling solo... you either eat all the things or spend more money for less food.



I loved the Voodoo. I am not normally into filled donuts but this one had raspberry filling that was like jam... it was so good and looked so fitting when half eaten! The fruit loop one was really good, I wanted to eat the whole thing but physically couldn't. It was sooo yummy. I'm totally going back here... in like a month! I ended up eating about half of each because this was, afterall, my appetizer for dinner!


After Voodoo I headed to the East Side to meet my friend for Ethiopian food at Queen of Sheba. I love Ethipoian food and I was really excited. I kind of knew where I was going so I didn't stop to check my map until I got across and I was on the right street and it looked like I should be there really soon. Suddenly I was way the hell up North and I still have no idea where I took a wrong turn. You can see on the map below that really long stretch of riding north... yeah. I don't know what that was about. It was pretty quick and easy to ride that far out of the way (which is a nice hint to the size of Portland).

In total, I rode about 17 miles around Portland, mainly in the West side. I'll go in again to wander the East side next time... and try some new food carts (and try to be more hungry/adventurous)!


Here is our meal at Queen of Sheba, we went with the vegetarian combo where we each picked 2 dishes. I find Ethiopian food to be so filling that I don't miss meat (not that I'm a huge meat eater anyway). It was tasty, I especially like the potatoes... mmm.


My new Oregon Love logo I just made, based on the green Oregon bumpersticker (and tattoo):



Oh man, looking at those donuts is making me really want another one.
Side note, I'm thinking about doing a green smoothie cleanse starting next week. For at least 10 days... I will keep you, lovely readers, in the know about that and how it goes when I do it. I also still have to get back to the beach house. So much to do eh?!

Last night in Port Townsend, just got back from the coast

I took a nap while Sam and Spencer made an amazing meal
A whole bunch of harvested food- mushrooms (Chantrelles, Winter Chantrelles and Hedgehog- I'd never had Chantrelles before but omg, LOVE!)
Amazing sunset Wednesday night... beautiful!

Cleaning the mushrooms
Sam made an awesome ramen... We seriosuly ate like royalty... PNW royalty!

The air in the Pacific Northwest has a distinct smell. The smell of the ocean and the plants is something I haven't smelled anywhere else. I love it. So freaking happy to be back in the PNW!
Spending 2 nights at the cabin out on the coast was the perfect end to my two weeks in Port Townsend. Tomorrow I'm heading up to North Vancouver, BC to hang out with some friends who I just saw at church camp... and some friends I haven't seen in more than 10 years! Yay PNW! Love you!

Port Townsend

Last night I picked up Spencer at the Edmonds Amtrak station and we hopped over to the ferry and arrived in PT about 11:30pm. It was nice to sleep in a real bed (with a memory foam mattress topper!) after being at church camp all week!

Today we took the bike path to town, went out for coffee (where when you get drip coffee to stay, they heat up your mug with hot water... dang that's service!). Then we went to the park which was beautiful, hung out on a big rock on the beach for a bit, played on the swings, rode to uptown and had a snack. Ben came and met us in the park with a frisbee so we hung out there for a bit, then got some pizza at Waterfront Pizza which was super tasty and came back to have dinner with Spencer's parents. We also gathered some berries; we were hoping for blackberries but found loaded bushes of evergreen huckleberries! Now we're just chilling doing computer-y things. A very nice relaxed day. Tomorrow I think we might get started on Spencer's cabin's kitchen. All these other plans for hikes and parties and jaunts to the coast are coming up so I don't know how much work we'll actually be able to get done... and there will be huckleberry tarts! I'm thinking I'll do it the homemade poptart way cause those are tasty! I'm also looking forward to getting a fire going so I can roast giant marshmallows again :)

I will be here in Port Townsend until next Friday when I'll head up to Vancouver BC to hang out more with the people I was just hanging out with at church camp!

Chicago: Amazing lunch, books and projects

Yesterday seems so long ago. Perhaps because I was still full from yesterday's lunch until about 2pm today! In the morning I started working on the mud room remodel (pictures to come soon) by patching the hole that Marty thought was 5"x5" but when I removed the painted pieces of cardboard that was covering the hole it turned out to be more like 14"x7"! Then I met Marissa and her husband in town and we had an amazing lunch at Bandera.
To start we shared a side of mac and cheese and Bandera's famous cornbread.

Then my main was the Seattle style (BBQ? not sure how that makes sense) salmon with cucumber salad and green rice. Inthe background there Eric (left) got a stake sandwich with awesome fries and a cup of jus to dip the sandwich in. Marissa got a salad with rotisserie chicken, when I took a bike of the chicken it melted in my mouth! It was all sooo good, so good. I hadn't saved room for dessert but I got it anyway, berries and marscapone. It was heavenly! Eric got banana cream pie and Marissa (right) had key lime pie (which she said was amazing).

After lunch, I rolled myself over to After-words bookstore on Illinois (once I figured out how to get off Michigan street... curse your layered streets Chicago!) I find myself drawn to the travel section; I purchased 2 books. I stumbled across A Field Guide to America's History, it's full of entries like "mills and factories" and "barns" with information on where to look for things and brief histories including drawings. I'm pretty excited about it! The second book I bought is blue highways which was recommended to me by a friend of my mom at church back in Delaware. I started reading it on the L back from the city yesterday and have already been inspired to take the blue highway route.

"He said, 'I noticed that you use work and job interchangeably. Oughten to do that. A job's what you force yourself to pay attention to for money. With work, you don't have to force yourself. There are a lot of jobs in this country, and that's good because they keep people occupied. That's why they're called 'occupations' (page 10)." I'm looking for job opportunities in my travels with the main goal of finding work... I guess he's referring to life's work?

I almost bought a book called Experience Architecture, but decided I won't need it until I try to write more about architecture and continue my thesis from undergrad... hopefully I'll get around to that someday soon, perhaps in my travels. With my new plans though, I don't think I'll be going back to school. I might just have to try research and writing on my own. That's a topic for another day though :)

Today I worked more on the mudroom remodel, here is a before shot (after the room had been cleared out).

The mudroom is becoming an extension of the kitchen, along with repairing some holes I am installing some cabinets and a countertop. Hopefully I'll be able to paint it as well, or at least prime before I head to my next stop (Columbia, MO)!