WAKE UP IN THE MORNING, FEELING LIKE… not shopping.

The day was ruined by rain. I had originally hoped to hike a bit more in the Mount Hood area, but we ended up driving down to the outlets instead (le sigh). And we ate, of course.

Before that, we had to find some food to fuel the hard work that is shopping. It was past 10AM by the time we reached Portland, and H was HANGRY. How could I tell? He stopped talking. He stopped smiling. He scared a random pedestrian while storming down the street, on the hunt for food. He’s pretty scary looking when he doesn’t smile (it’s the beard).

Comfort food for breakfast at Bijou (right next Stumptown Coffee, 1 street away from Voodoo Donuts).

Left: Biscuit with ham and sausage gravy. Egg in the middle of it all.

Right: Korean pork on rice. Egg on top. Kimchi somewhere.

There was a hair in the rice.

It was still good and we were hungry so we finished it. No shame. After wolfing this down, we hit the road and made it to Woodburn, where we shopped and shopped.

..and shopped. Dinner was interesting too. More on this tomorrow.

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Breakfast at Milo City Cafe:

Top plate: Salmon hash with sourdough and scrambled eggs

Bottom plate: Sourdough, Italian sausage, scrambled eggs, hashbrowns

In the middle of it all: COFFEE

Extremely friendly service and loads of comfort food. Go if you’re staying at the Hilton.

We started early so we could go farther. We were out of Portland before 9AM. I had so many hopes for the outdoors scene in this hood, but wet weather and lack of vehicle hat can drive over everything dampened my hopes just a bit. I wanted to visit either Lost Lake or Mirror Lake, but we made it to neither lakes… We drove through part of Mount Hood National Park, made it to Government Camp, but we really didn’t go too far because of forest service roads that my poor baby wouldn’t be able to handle. We stopped here:

Parked close to this view, where there were a few trailheads. H and I stood around, trying to decide which path to take, until 2 girls came out of the bush. They were super friendly and helpful, so we ended up going along what I believe is Buck Peak Trail. We
saw this:



Not sure if that was supposed to be the end point with the “good views of the mountain” that the girls told us about (I don’t think it was), but it was also getting dark and we still had a ways to go to get to Mt Hood. Back to the car.



No lakes today. Instead, we found the waterfalls along the Columbia Gorge!

Multnomah

 Horse Tail

Would’ve been more breathtaking if we were not already exhausted from the day’s travels and if there weren’t busloads of tourists roaming around. It’s all about perspective.

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By the time we drove over the Astoria bridge, and arrived at Coast River Inn, it was already pretty late. They say there’s wifi, but it’s so slow that there’s basically no wifi. We ended up watching the news (protests and riots in Portland downtown) and then hit the sack.
THE NEXT DAY… we walked around Seaside, looking for coffee and donuts. We found Liberty Cafe (beans from the Sleeping Monk at Cannon Beach), within walking distance of where we were staying, then we found THIS:

I almost ate the whole thing and forgot to share with H. There were chunks of bacon over a very fresh and fluffy donut base, topped with a maple frosting. Make sure you go to Dundee’s Donuts if you’re in the area.

We walked around a bit more and enjoyed our sugar + caffeine high, and luckily, the weather held up so that we could discover the breathtaking, natural beauty of the coast:

Very windy, but people still out and about.

Tourist town.

It would be so nice here in the summer when it’s warmer and the wind doesn’t try to bite your face off.

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Roamed around the city with G, G, and J, shopped a bunch at Woodburn, ate a lot more than I should... 

We had breakfast at Mother's Bistro on the first morning that we spent in Portland, and Stepping Stone Cafe (a diner similar to Jethros in Vancouver) for the second.  Mother's was amazing - the eggs benedict had one of the best hollandaise sauce I've ever had. Stepping Stone was sort of disappointing - it smelled in there and it was definitely more of a dive, the mancake (huge ass pancake) that I used $1.75 to substitute hashbrowns for was exactly what an average pancake tastes like, and the sausages were absolutely sodium filled. Typical American dive.

For dinner, we had Lebanese food on the 1st night.  It was my first time trying Lebanese, and it did not disappoint.  Por Que No? for tacos the 2nd night.  Words cannot describe how great these little meat filled flour wraps tasted.  Cheesecake Factory in Seattle on the way back for a late lunch/early dinner (linner). 

I love Portland.  The streets are beautiful, food is awesome, shopping is convenient, and the streets are made for bikers!  Can I move here please?