Sep 26: Assorted Portland

The previous night we stayed in the Red Lion Hotel on the River, a bit north of Portland. This morning we decided to exploit our proximity to the river with a morning stroll. I brought my camera to take pictures. We walked along the waterfront near our hotel (on Hayden Island, viewing the Columbia River).

After our walk, we drove downtown to explore Portland's food cart scene for lunch. We saw a few different pods (the term for a gathering of food trucks). We knew most trucks would be closed on Sunday, but we figured enough would be open to give us a sense of the scene. Indeed, I enjoyed seeing the variety of foods and variety of ad hoc stands they were being sold out of, even if most were shut.

We did a few errands (REI, Ross, etc.), then checked into our hotel for this night, the Park Lane Inn, the same hotel we stayed in the previous Sunday. It was inexpensive and perfectly nice; we decided to return. One reason we headed to this part of town early was to walk around the area. (Di Yin went running the previous week and was impressed with the sights and wanted to show them to me.)

We walked around the historic King's Hill district and its large, fancy houses. I recorded our walking route. We happened upon an open house and stopped in. It was surprisingly large; I would be happy with part of one floor. Built in 1906, it still had its neat, original-style wavy windows. (The old way of making glass panes by hand left them with waves.)

We also walked through Washington Park, which abuts King's Hill. Washington Park was very leafy and green, with lots of ivy. Sorry, by this point I was sick of taking pictures and didn't end up taking any in the park itself.

Incidentally, it was threatening to rain all day, but never rained.

For a refresher after our walk, we followed a friend's tip and headed to Cacao, a shop that specializes in chocolate and chocolate drinks. It selectively sources its own chocolate and truffles from various manufacturers and distributors. It's a fun store to browse to see what it chooses to sell and how it displays certain items together. Some of its items are odd, such as bacon-flavored chocolate and chocolate-smelling body lotion.

Next we went to Powell's bookstore, supposedly the largest independent bookstore in the world. The store is so big (bigger than other bookstores), they rightly give you a map. It feels so large that they should use the Dewey decimal system.

Nevertheless, I found Powell's disappointing. Incidentally, this was the same reaction as on my first visit to Powell's eight years earlier. Basically, it holds the selection of a good library. I was hoping to buy some obscure books not in my local library systems, but they didn't have any of these. At least I used Powell's to flip through uncommon books, books that are in my local library system but not at my local library, to learn if I wanted to drive to the other library / request that the books be delivered to my library.

For dinner we headed across Portland to the Screen Door, a Southern restaurant. Our fried chicken was some of the best I've ever had, and I'd give the restaurant a solid 3 and happily return.