Portland, part 2

8/17/2011

People have been telling me for the last few years (pretty much since I moved to the west coast) that I would love Portland. That if I loved San Francisco (hmm, let me think about that. yep, I love it here) then I would really enjoy Portland.

So, when (sparked by a random conversation on Twitter) a few elementary/high school buddies and I decided to trekk from our respective corners of the world to stay with another old friend who now lives in Portland I was pretty excited.

To summarize, it was awesome. The people, the food, the energy; everything was right up my alley. Our host, Chris, was incredibly generous with his home, time and tour guide skills and I'm super grateful for all of his efforts to ensure we had a really great time.

To save you from a long winded explanation of the events, I've decided to tell the story in photos, broken up into a few different posts....(a mix of iPhone and Nikon Digital SLR).

I knew it was going to be a great trip as soon as I saw this little addition to the SF airport:

So eco and wallet friendly ($4 for a bottled water = barf)! I was happy to have my water bottle with me and filled up ASAP :)

Don't you just love puddle jumper planes you have to board from outside? It feels kinda vintage (and romantic, especially at sunset).

First stop after being picked up from the airport--food trucks!

Clam strip po'boy, fresh from a food truck. Nom nom nom.

Since Ben was the first to arrive he generously volunteered to wait in line at the famous Voodoo Doughnut to snag us some of the crazy concoctions.

Breakfast at The Waffle Window the next am...(a window that serves waffles? I love everything about it).

A healthy way to start my day. Ha. (Oh hush, I was on vacation).

Next up was biking around the city, to the farmer's market and to the Saturday market. I accepted that safety first also meant me looking like a dork right from the start.

dork status.

uber dork status.

The guys were super patient and supportive of me and my rusty biking skills. I really appreciated that they kept to my speed, never rolled their eyes and made sure to never let me fall behind. Considering I managed to sustain only a minor injury from a stray piece of metal on the bike (i.e. I managed not to die), I think I did a pretty good job :)