Portland

Attention readers, Amanda and I both posted separate entries today, so if you've been keeping up with the blog, make sure you read Amanda's post below BEFORE you read this post. :)

Ahhhh, and now we are in Portland, Oregon completing our tribute to The Decemberists in the very place that they take up residency. I must say that Portland has been my favorite city that we've visited on this trip so far. We arrived on Monday night and our first stop was Powell's Bookstore. Wow, WOW! And might I add wow! I think that if I had not seen anything else besides Powell's Books in Portland, I would still be satisfied. It's a four-story bookstore with color coded rooms (like the Rose Room with all the lovely children's books, the Blue Room with the classic literature, etc.), and a coffee shop inside. Amazing! Thousands of books, old and new and very well organized. I like the old ones that smell loved and have the original pictures in them. After that we went went to the apartment where we were going to stay to meet our couchsurfing hosts. They said that we were guests #231 and #232, that's a lot of couchsurfers! They were hosting some other surfers at the same time that we were there so we got to meet fellow couchsurfers. They introduced us to raw food and let us try some raw cake. Mmm! Mom always told me never to eat singing food, does that go for live food as well (yea, I like the Muppets)? The next day we awoke pretty early because we had to move our car, which by the way, parking in Portland is absolute POOP. It's free over night, but when daytime arises it's impossible to find free parking unless you drive into a neighborhood outside of the city (which we did). But luckily, Portland is very bike friendly so we didn't really need a car. 

The food selections in Portland are endless and we haven't been disappointed yet. For lunch on Tuesday we went to the Pearl Bakery and had two delicious sandwiches. They were each $3.75, we both drank water, and there's no sales tax in Portland! So, we filled our bellies with local deliciousness for a mere $3.75 each.

After that we biked around the city some and realized that we don't really know how to bike around cities. But somehow, we managed, although we pissed off a few Portland drivers (sorry!). We made our way to the river and sat between the Steel and Broadway bridges watching boats and dipping our feet in the water. Later we met up with a friend who took us on a bike ride to Stumptown Coffee (delicious!) and to the East side of Portland. The East side is more peaceful than the West side, it's brimming with beautiful houses and rose gardens. 

Today we went to Voodoo Doughnuts because we had heard much hype about it. It's a tiny, hole-in-the-wall place with the most decadent doughnuts I've seen in my life! They even have a vegan selection (Portland is a vegan's dream destination). I had the Bavarian cream-filled doughnut. 

And now the park and sunshine are begging us to get away from these laptop screens. We leave Portland tomorrow.

-Stephanie