Ore-Gone (Oregon 11)

We were up pretty early to get our acts together before tromping down to the Pearl District and Blue Star Donuts to meet up with some old college friends. Rachel and Devin live in Seattle, but had reached out about meeting-up when they saw my prolific Oregon Instagram posts. It was especially awesome to connect with them as they are brand-spanking new homeowners and newlyweds and we got to congratulate them in-person and catch up on their busy year.

While they have been to Portland a handful of times, they were down to hang out with us and we did the 'touristy' rounds-- including Blue Star Donuts. Portland is a donut town and there are several big names in the local donut game. VooDoo Donuts is probably the most famous with "its a girl!"-pink boxes and donuts with outrageous flavors and toppings (grape dust, bubble gum, chili peppers, captain crunch) but Sarah said that locals prefer Blue Star for similarly experimental but higher quality flavors and execution (and slightly shorter lines) to satisfy their fried dough cravings.

The secret was certainly out as there was a bit of a line to order, and a much longer one as we were sitting down (Rachel and Devin have a super power of arriving just before the rush) but the donuts were absolutely worth it. Because there were 4 of us, and we were all super curious, we ended up with 8 donuts to sample between the us. I won't break them all down for you, but some of the highlights were the Raspberry-Rosemary Buttermilk, Orange Olive Oil cake, a lemon Poppyseed Buttermilk, and a passion-fruit coco-nib with a hint of cayenne. It took us a while to work through them all, and we were stuffed but happy as we left.

The next thing on my portland must-do checklist was the Saturday Market, since I love myself a good market and this one is especially huge and famous. Interestingly, I was expecting it to be mostly farmers market with some cool artists stands mixed in, but it was almost entirely small artists selling shirts, stickers, jewelry, furniture, etc. and it was HUGE. We browsed through some of the stands (I got a snow cone and some little knuckle rings while Rachel got her cats some new toys) but I doubt we saw more than a quarter of the market before we had to beg off of the exuberant crowds and sea of tents in search of lunch. We looked at a few of the food pods in the area but many of the carts weren't open yet and nothing tickled our fancy so we ended up at a burger place instead (Stu was happy, unsurprisingly).

After lunch, we all piled into Rachel and Devin's car for a ride out to the Japanese Gardens. The area also houses the Zoo, the International Rose Test-gardens (it is the rose city after all), and a local park with several tennis courts, basketball courts, etc. and all of the parking alongside of one long road which winds through it all. It was quite busy so we had made it almost to the end of the road before we had found parking and were ready to hike up to the gardens. Our spot ended up being pretty fortuitous as we were able to wander through the rose garden on our way up. The roses were glorious and varied and we had a grand old time walking up to one or the other and then sniffing before providing a comparative commentary for the group on relative loveliness. Finally, we reached the top of the hill and the entrance to the Japanese Gardens with a view of hood rising out of the hazy distance.

The gardens themselves are beautiful and tranquil, once you get past the crowds at the entrance gate. They're designed such that all of the gift shops, the art center, and the cafe are right there at the entrance so they don't disrupt the serenity of the gardens beyond. Other Asian gardens we've visited before have been based around large and imposing water features that are used to set the scene. While there were small, wandering brooks and a bridge-tipped pond, it was the trees, rocks, and zen gardens which took center-stage here in Portland.

For the main parts of the garden, it was obvious that everything had been cultivated perfectly to create a living piece of artwork the size of a courtyard, but it was the in-between areas that really struck me, with the exotic plants blending seamlessly into local trees and moss to create a landscape that felt more real but equally as intentional. Similarly, the rock paths transformed from careful curves and lines into stream-following irregular disjoints with hidden benches around cropped corners to sit and enjoy the natural beauty.

Afterward, we drove back to downtown proper to wander the city while catching up with Rachel and Devin. We stopped by Powells again, because that place sits like a rock at the center of the taut sheet of the city for us, but made it out without adding yet more books to the backpacks we'll have to carry all the way home. We stopped at another local brewery for a while to kill some time and relax in the Portland humidity. Finally, we stumbled across yet another art festival and spent some time wandering through pottery, wood-cut prints, abstract paintings, and upcycled metal sculptures. We managed to stroll until we were hungry again (seems like a theme for us, maybe; hard to pin down...) and headed toward a roof-top restaurant that Devin and Rachel had found previously called Departure.

The name seemed apt for the final evening of our trip, and the food matched the spirit. The small, expertly crafted plates and cocktails provided a perfect send-off for our foodie adventure. There was a good blend of smoky meat and seafood, which fit fairly thematically with our journey through the state. And the scenery was in turns strange (the restaurant's ambience was taken directly from Space Mountain as far as we could tell), unique (who would have thought that urinals come in Mad-Max chrome?), and exceptional (we were seated outside on the rooftop, right in the middle of the Portland skyline). It might have been my mind adding poetry to the vignette, but Departure felt like exactly the word I'd have chosen.

As our last Portland act, we found Wiz Bang, because I'll be damned if I was going to leave without a good dipped cone. This ice cream bar (their words) specializes in unique soft-serve flavors and has the technology to create various waxy shells around them. I had vanilla custard with a strawberry, balsamic, and cubeb pepper shell, and Stuart concocted a honey-lavender cone with dark chocolate shell. Mine was the unanimous winner.

The end of the ice cream signaled the end of our last day in Portland and time to say goodbye to Rachel and Devin. Once back to the Airbnb, we went around retrieving our stuff from the various corners of the apartment (we exploded into the extra space after Wendel) and then packing them away for travel. We did a little reading to polish off the stuff we had been reading on the trip so we could dig into some of the new stuff we had picked up in Seaside on the flight back. It was a short night with an unwelcome alarm going off at 4:30am to get us to PDX for a 7am take off. Obviously, we treated ourselves to one more cup of Stumptown each once through security, and then boarded our plane back to DC by way of Chicago.

Goodbye Oregon, its been a blast and we hope we'll see you again.

Stu and Chelsea