Food Food Everywhere

Portland is a food lovers city, filled with restaurants and shops specializing in exotic spices, oils and balsamic vinegars, who knew there were over 20 types of balsamic vinegar? Portland also has the Food Carts, over 600 of them located in various pods around the city. We saw Polish, Middle Eastern, Italian, Mexican, Thai, Indian, Cuban, even Scotish food carts, all painted bright colors. The one stipulation the city makes, is they have to be moveable, they cannot be permanent structures. One of the top chef's in Portland recently opened his own cart. We went on a food tour of Portland and our guide told us that the dream of many of the students in the various culinary schools located in Portland, is to have a cart of their own someday. The curry I ordered was enough for 2-3 people and cost $5.00. It is hard to beat that.

It is all happening at Powells

The streets of Portland may have been empty on Christmas Day, but Powells was full, even Superman was there catching up on his reading. We had coffee and an almond croissant in the cafe, possibly the best we have ever had

Powells Book Store

Powells takes up one whole city block and is 3-4 stories tall. It is so large that there are maps available to find your way around. It is wonderful though. I could spend hours there, actually I could probably have spent the whole week there. Powell's was the largest book store in the world, however China always has to try and one up us, and now Powells is only the largest English language bookstores. Powells has 5 or 6 different stores through out Portland. They have a monopoly on books. No Barnes and Noble for this city.

Christmas Day not a creature was stirring

The streets of Portland were for the most part deserted Christmas morning. There was only 1 other person on the bus going into the downtown. We found out that Powell's bookstore, the largest English language bookstore in the world, was going to be open on Christmas, so that was our destination. We thought we would have the whole bookstore to ourselves, but that was not the case.

House in a Box

Simon dressed in his Rabbi outfit, one of my favorite, in front of our Hawthorne Garden Cottage. The cottage was 204 square feet, but had everything you would want, including a mini gourmet kitchen, flat screen TV, CD player, hairdryer and even a dishwasher, called Simon. In the summer the cottage is surrounded by a flowering garden, allas we weren't there in the summer, but it was still very lovely.

Nanuk of the North aka Simon

If it's good enough for the Artic, it's good enough for Portland.

Dressed for the weather

I'm dreaming of a wet Christmas

We arrive in Portland the 1st day of winter. The forecast is for a week of showers, with the temp in the low 40's, and that's the high. Simon and I are bringing our long underwear and winter coats.
Our cottage is perfect, for a hobbit. It is 240 square feet. I think Simon and my body mass is more that 240 square feet. It is adorable, surrounded by a garden, and it is in an area where we can walk or take the bus to everything. What is everything in Portland you may be wondering, well there are gardens, museums, art galleries,a China Town, and Portland is being lauded as one of the top gourmet centers in the country. Yes, we are going to eat our way through Portland.