Portland (and materialism)!!!

Another one of the best parts of our trip (I know that I’m up to 4 or 5 now, but this was really great!) was that Em & I got to leave the kids with the grandparents for a night and headed up to Portland!! We lived there for a while about ten years ago, but Em hadn't been there since then, and I'd only been there really briefly, so it was a special trip!

Our first stop was the Mcmenamin diner (affectionately known as “Dirtbags”) on 23rd Street. It’s near where we used to live in Portland, and was about the best place we could afford back then! It’s actually pretty good. If there is one great thing about Portland, it’s that they have amazing food for just about any amount of money. The Mcmenamin places (and the awesome Dots that we didn’t get to this time) give you decent healthy food pretty cheap. On the other hand, the Mexican food is horrible, which is why L.A. is still better!! Being back there brought back some good memories though – it’s nice now that we’re not quite as poor as we used to be : )

We stayed at a beautiful hotel called the RiverPlace, and you can see why since this was the view out of our window! Portland really is such a beautiful city, and one of the best things about it is the Willamette River running through the middle, with all of the amazing bridges. We do love Los Angeles, but the L.A. River (trickle) is just not the same thing!

I swear that we really do like Los Angeles a lot (maybe I’ll have to do a post about that!), but I have to admit that there are some great things about Portland. One of them is a group of movie theaters that show second-run movies with really cheap tickets. They make their money by selling food and alcohol in the theater and have tables in front of all of the seats!! It is so cool, and is made possible because Portland has more easy-going alcohol laws than Los Angeles – which is why there are so many breweries (a typical Portland block has a brewery, three coffee shops and a record store!)

This theater is called the Baghdad and I think it’s the most beautiful one in Portland – a real classic old movie house. We went to see “Blood Simple” when we were there. We don’t drink that much, but watching a Coen Bros. movie with a glass of wine is pretty great!!

Look at how cool the interior is!!

We had an amazing breakfast at the Hawthorn Café. The food there is unbelievable and very healthy! The funniest thing is that there was a guy working there who was the nicest waiter and even moved us around to find the best place to take a picture of us. He was such a cool guy, and when we were leaving we saw that he was also cooking the food!!

Apparently the best place for pictures (I love the painting behind us!)

We couldn’t go to Portland without going to Forest Park, which is behind our old apartment there. It really was one of the best things about living there having this incredible park right behind us. It looks like a rain forest, and has a beautiful creek. There are even tiny owls that stare at you! Did I mention that we were pretty poor up there? Having this great free park right behind us was a real blessing!!



The tree that we called "The Dragon" - can you see it?

Our final meal there was at Nicolas, which is a great Lebanese restaurant on a divey street near the river. It’s hard to say whether it’s better than Carousel in Glendale, which has awesome Middle Eastern food, but it’s pretty great – apparently they have a “special oven”! They make delicious vegetarian mezzas, and definitely have the best falafel, but can it beat Carousel’s schwarma? Very hard to say. One thing’s for sure though, is that we had some great meals in Portland!!

That brings me to an important point about Portland – they really do have some great stuff! After a couple of years there, we know that L.A. is the place for us right now (again, I feel guiltily like a need to do a good L.A. post!), but there are so many nice things about Portland that we miss. If only we could put all of these places together somehow!

One last thing that I want to mention is that Em indulged me so much in looking in the stores up there! We went to a lot of hippie stores in Portland (and Eugene – they have great stuff too!) I feel kind of guilty being so materialistic after that “M” post, but we were on vacation, so hopefully I get a pass. Anyway, I love looking at all of the amazing 60’s style stores up there (and we did get some very cool stuff!).

I liked this silly wooden deer head (didn't buy it though).

I even managed to drag Dad and Molly to three hippie stores - thanks guys!!!