Last day in Portland, August 22, 2015

I have to admit part of the fun of this blog is picking which pictures I am going to play with using the Waterlogue app.


Our last day in Portland




I looked out at our view...





I felt like the picture below was literally a bird's eye view!




We had so much fun at Mother's the night before we decided to go for brunch!





It was great and we could see why there are line ups for brunch.  Donna bought her daughter-in-law the neat cookbook by the owner.

After breakfast was time to hit the Portland Saturday Market (even though it was Sunday).





I really didn't want to spend money but was hard to resist as there were so many neat things at the market.








For instance there were these rather fun Santa's made out of every day objects!






And no, I didn't buy Holly a catnip body pillow!




Nor one of these fun bird houses!





And these balls were fascinating as they travelled up and down the wires!






And then there were fun signs




Teacup mobiles were very fun!






But best of all were these balls that made neat patterns in sand made by Olander Earthworks.





And don't these macarons look delicious.  Sorry they are actually soaps!!!  I had to buy one for a friend.





I do like birdhouses!








I liked this neat sign!





And then we found these amazing painted cards!












I asked the artist, Aaron Trotter, to pose with his sketchpad.





I bought a set of the Portland cards and Donna bought his last Vancouver pack.







I kept finding fun things-how cute are these baby sandals!











In my last blog entry I talked about ironstone buildings-below is a close up...












We saw a long long line up




It was for Voodoo doughnuts








There was even a clown.  I am afraid we didn't have the patience to wait in the line so I can't tell you how they tasted!!!



Ten years when I was in Portland I ran into Scientologists trying to find recruits on Pioneer Square but their building here looked a bit deserted!

And we soon were back at our hotel and checking out!


It was a long drive back to Vancouver, BC but we did stop at the Tulilip Casino Hotel and had dinner (and spent $10 in the slot machines).


It was a spectacular ride home after that


Donna took the pictures since I was driving!


It was a fantastic trip, kind of summed up by this gorgeous sky!!!


My next serious road trip will be in Eastern Canada so stay tuned!!!

Friday in Portland

 I love the excitement of looking forward

to walking unfamiliar streets.





and I checked out the day





from our hotel window, overcast but cooler so perfect for my day's plan








Donna elected to go shopping and I chose to do a walking tour of Portland's highlights.





I walked over to Pioneer Square to pick up the Best of Portland walking tour.





The tour was two and a half hours and good value for $20.





Our guide was so informative and entertaining plus it was a small group and they were interesting people as well.





I learned all sorts of bits and pieces.





I especially loved all the public art and that is a statue above!












I particularly love these native fauna statues you find on the streets.  Also Portland blocks are short because the original developers wanted to sell more corner lots.






I mean how fun are these bears!




I love these drinking fountains that you find around the city.  These are called Benson Bubblers and were donated to keep loggers out of the bars!






These statues look as if they might swim away!




Now I am trying to remember the story with the coffee shop-one should not wait a couple of weeks to finish a blog...






This is the famous Portland building with the beaten copper statue of Portlandia.





Let's look at her a little closer.  Again there is an interesting story!





So many parks-even a women's park and a men's park...























I like that Portland buildings are only allowed to go so high





We enjoyed our visit to the Winningstad Theatre.













More of these gorgeous parks



I didn't feel as if I was in drought conditions here and we heard a lot about how Portland as a city conserves water!




Notice the mural on the Oregon Historical Society Museum





Did you know that Portland could have been Boston but a flip of the coin determined that it was named after Francis Pettygrove's hometown not that of the other founder, Asa Lovejoy














So many stories I can't remember but our tour guide certainly did!






The buildings below have cast iron facades!




Check out the world's smallest park!


By now we are down by the river-and yes another fountain...


Portland has many bridges


I headed back to the Monaco where I met Donna and I had a delicious taco at one of Portland's many food trucks-they have more than anywhere else in the world and tend to be in pods.  Fortunately there was a pod just a block from our hotel.


We headed out on the bus to do a bit of shopping and guess I was too busy to take more pictures.  Due to our bundles that included a couple of bottles of wine we didn't make a stop at the famous Portland book store, Powell's.  Next time

but we made it back to the wine reception at the Monaco where we listened to a very good pianist.



We wanted a view so the nearest place we were told about was the Nines Hotel

It was a very popular spot



We enjoyed observing the scene and checking out the views





We ran into a mother and daughter from my walking tour and they told us they had had a delicious lunch at Mother's and strangely we had had this recommended to us for brunch by Donna's son and daughter in law.


So we walked over there for dinner...



and had the most delicious dinner-we sat on the sidewalk and again got to observe the Portland scene!


Food trucks still popular as we walked home.


I think you have figured it out

We absolutely love

 Portland!!!