Today we explored Portland on foot. We took the MAX Line downtown and headed to the Pendleton Store (Mum wanted to take a look). After the sticker shock, and realization that most of their clothing is actually made in China and not Oregon, we headed to find a coffee. I was happy to see that we weren’t far from Voodoo Donuts – well we were farther than Mum wanted to go, but I enticed her by telling her they had a Bacon Maple Donut. Voodoo Donuts has been featured on several shows: Man vs. Food, No Reservations, Food Paradise, and Unique Eats, and has also been recommended to me by a friend – it did not let us down. We ended up sharing the Bacon Maple Bar, but devoured it before we had a chance to take a picture of it (sorry).
After our coffee and donut break we headed to Powell’s Books…another necessary Portland stop each year. Any bookstore that is so big that it needs its own parking garage is okay in my books (pardon the pun). The purple and red rooms were under construction, but both Mum and I still loaded up on reading material. And, although the picture doesn’t show it, the parking garage was full – that’s how popular this place is.
After we left Powell’s we were feeling peckish and decided to grab lunch. Since it was raining, we decided on Bunk Sandwiches – another place that was farther than Mum wanted to walk to, but she acquiesced. Bunk has been featured on The Best Thing I Ever Ate; Diners, Drive-Ins & Dives and Best Sandwich in America. Both Mum and I had the Roast Beef Sandwich which was absolutely delightful, and we both completely finished our sandwiches off.
After lunch, we crossed the street and waited for the train back to the hotel. The rain that we had been escaping for the last ten days, finally caught up with us and we dodged raindrops as we walked from the MAX Line to the hotel.
For dinner we decided to return to Fire on the Mountain Wings at their Interstate location. This is the third visit to this location and we chose it for its proximity to the MAX line – why drive if we already had a day pass for transit. We shared an order of fried pickles for an appy and Mum had a Buffalo Chicken Salad (with Spicy Peanut sauce) and I had an order of boneless wings with extra hot sauce. I also had two pints of beer to try to calm to burn that was happening on my lips and in my mouth. I am so glad that I didn’t have El Jefé sauce, but I did grab a half a litre of it to bring home. One thing I like about Portland is the friendly people and we were lucky enough to sit next to a group celebrating a birthday and we chatted with them throughout dinner.
After dinner we headed back to the hotel, watched the result show for DWTS and also an episode of The Voice before turning in for the night. Although we had a day full of food, we also had a day full of walking and I think we burned more calories than we consumed – if not, that’s the story I’m sticking to. Tomorrow is still up in the air, but I’m sure it will involve a trip downtown to visit the local food pods (a group of food carts).
Thank you for reading and I’ll talk to you soon.
L