Portland 2: The Return (Oregon 10)

The final day dawned grey and overcast, which made for a good excuse to wear my Patagonia and Stu's flannel, so it wasn't all bad. We got up early-ish to give ourselves time to re-pack our bags in a more seemly manner and give Wendel a once-over tidy. We swept out sand and leaves, removed shoe prints from the dashboard, and pulled the top layer of dirt off of the windows. We took our time because we had enjoyed Wendel so much, and it almost felt like a thank you, then we hopped in and drove the last 50 miles back to where we started, Portland.

Driving Wendel through the city was much easier this time, which we chalked up to being older and wiser (and savvier with Wendel's quirks). We made the trek in rush hour and while it was certainly the most vehicles we had seen on a road during our trip, rush hour in Portland has got NOTHING on the DC-esque traffic we were expecting, so we actually had an hour and a half to spare before we had to part ways with the Vanagon. We used our time as any good Oregonian would: we grabbed chai and donuts at a place that had been on my Portland breakfast wish list (there were several more entries than Portland mornings so I had to be selective.)

Pip's Original was second on that list, but I hadn't expected to be able to go since Stu thought it was in a difficult location, way off to the side of the districts where we were staying. So we took our opportunity while we were still mobile (and honestly it was super close to Wendel's home anyways). Pip's makes enough different types of chai tea to offer a full-on tasting flight, and we decided to lean into that by ordering ourselves an impromptu flight of their mini-donuts to go along with it. We managed to take a picture before we'd completely eaten everything, but it was a close thing. The chais were all surprisingly different from each other. One tasted almost like a thai iced tea, and another used chamomile as the base tea. The donuts were something special, too, like a very high-class version of hostess powdered-donuts; my favorite were the ones topped with a maple and bacon jam while Stu preferred them covered in cinnamon sugar, honey, and nutella (who could have guessed that?).

After we scarfed down everything we had ordered quickly enough to make me slightly embarrassed, we enjoyed the cool digs, and especially the other patrons sipping out of their mismatched chai flight mugs, referencing the tasting notes and thoughtfully discussing the pros and cons of each chai in serious tones, just as we had. 

Reluctantly, we returned our dishes to the busking bins and nabbed Wendel. Time to take him home.

As I mentioned, Pips was quite close to the place where we needed to drop Wendel off and it went by so quickly. Then we were there, and I was knocking on their door and telling his owners about our lovely trip and how much we had enjoyed driving Wendel, and then we were grabbing our bags, handing over the keys, and walking off. It was like pet-sitting for a long time; where you become devoted and then you give the animal back to their owners but in your heart, they are your pet now because you are so attached to them. I'll admit that my eyes were a little misty, and it took me about a hour to break out of the funk and strangeness of being Wendel-less once more.

However, the recovery started with a lovely shower in our Airbnb where we had wandered to clean-up and drop off bags before truly starting our day in Portland. While it wasn't the vintage-cool of a Vanagon, our accommodations were much more spacious in a very cool (aesthetically; it was actually a bit warm up there and we kept the fans going) lofted space with lots of quirky details like a brass, claw-footed tub, and a pulley light in the kitchen counter-balanced by a mini cast-iron skillet.

Once we felt clean and respectable (I did my hair AND put on make up!), we grabbed a lyft to take us up to Northeast. I had been told that Portland's charm lies in its funky neighborhoods and to really see and enjoy Portland, we needed to commit some time to simply wandering around in one of them. I picked the Alberta Arts District, because the name seemed promising, it housed a number of lauded food pods, and is home to several unique boutiques marching down along Alberta Ave. We started with lunch as the Piedmont Food Pod.

Food Pods are semi-permanent food-cart venues where several vendors in trucks, trailers, shacks, etc. have set-up to serve a variety of offerings in parking lots, etc. They are something Portland is known for, and do a lot of the heavy lifting for the city's foodie reputation and, obviously, they were high on my list of Portland-musts. This one was not inviting from the outside, but once you had turned the corner into the Pod, you were greeted by a village of DIY decor and inviting chalkboard menus interrupted by sets of tables and chairs in various colors and styles.

There were Hawaiian bowls (more spam, less poke), fish and chips, 'health- conscious' counters, BBQ, thai, gyro, kebab, etc, etc. I got a chicken curry from BurmaSphere that knocked my socks off but Stu won this round with a kebab from a German-themed stall that made us nostalgic for the magical street food of Heidelberg. It was equal to any of our food-memories from that trip across Europe in 2015.

The rest of the afternoon was spent strolling down the main strip of the Alberta Arts District, both window shopping and stopping occasionally for a bite or a drink (you know, to keep our strength up). This part of Portland felt a lot more like I had initially expected from all my research and close-held stereotypes. Shockingly bright hair colors and nose piercings abounded, and a lot of the shops we ducked into were a certain flavor of weird and unique. We picked up a couple of small dirt- and fruit-loop-scented candles (that's two separate scents, don't worry), visited a boutique specializing in bespoke camping accoutrements (specially-sourced firewood included), and giggled through the Witch-and-Cat store (which is exactly what it sounds like).

We stopped part way through when Stuart spotted a pie and cocktail cafe where he grabbed a slice of Brandied Peach and I sipped on an Afternoon Delight (both were very delightful). Finally, we ended up at a brewery (Great Notion) which took the idea of adding flavors to various beers way too far. The Sticky Bun porter tasted more like maple syrup than malt and the blueberry one struck us as more of a breakfast novelty than a drink. Ultimately, the notions were only ok at best (badum tss).

As evening approached, we decided an encore Food Pod performance was in store (our first experience was just so spectacular!), so we hiked east to the Mississippi-Skidmore Food Pod, which operated in tandem with the corner bar that it spilled from, Prost! (note that exclamation mark is part of the name of the german bar, not just me being excited). We simply sat for a bit at the overcrowded picnic tables with a couple of seriously good german beers while we weighed our food options. A couple of beers later, we ended up with a smoked pastrami Reuben from Pastrami Zombie (which was also incredible) and boisterous conversations about board game and then video game philosophy with our bench-neighbors.

We decided to walk for a bit to help digest and see some more of the city, and ended up so content that we strolled through all 3 miles back to our Airbnb. We did happen to stop briefly at Burgerville  (we weren't wholly sober) to satisfy the effusive recommendation of our Whatum PCT hiking compatriots (it was good, in the vein of Shake Shack and In-n-Out, but sadly not up to either of those counterparts).

Finally, we wobbled the last couple of blocks home for the night, to be ready to get up early-ish to meet with some old friends tomorrow morning.

Good night from "1898 Urban Victorian Loft Near Convention Ctr."

Chelsea and Stu