Eating our way through Portland

Saturday morning we decided to get breakfast at the Portland market we had heard so much about. It's along the waterfront and people kept telling us it was the largest outdoor market in...somewhere (the U.S., the state?) In retrospect, it was probably a bad idea to go there hungry and we should have known it would go badly for us when the first thing we ordered, a "scone," actually came out as a big piece of warm raspberry cobbler.

After the cobbler, we decided we needed some "real" food so David went to the Beirut cafe stand for a falafel sandwich. We ate the falafel and watched the pigeons in the square. A bit parched from the salt and not having any water, we decided to try some strawberry bubble tea with tapioca beads. When we passed a stand selling elephant ears and David asked "what are those," it was all over. Not exactly the breakfast of champions...

Completely stuffed and but definitely full of energy, we walked back through Old Town to the Chinese Garden. Inside the walls, the city had recreated the lush paradise of a traditional Ming Dynasty garden. Our tour guide told us about all of the beautiful art, sculpture and carving in the decor - every object and plant was placed and shaped to convey a subtle meaning. Before leaving the garden, we had tea in the traditional tea house where we learned to drink it using the lid as a filter.










After the garden, we walked over to the Pearl district and took the trolley up to Nob Hill where we spent the afternoon browsing and people watching along the quiet, tree lined street. On the way back to the hotel, we got off the bus at Powell books - a mega-bookstore where I feared I might never see David again.

Sunday morning we took the metro up to the zoo to try and catch a train to the Rose Test Garden. Unfortunately our hotel concierge had failed to tell us that you have to pay admission to the zoo in order to access the train and the admission was really steep. We decided to forgo the garden and walk around the nearby arboretum before heading back to the hotel and home.

It was really nice to get away for a few days and we enjoyed seeing rain again for the first time in a long time.