Traffic isn't too bad driving north and then into downtown. Lana has Ambassador Elite status with the Marriott so they are willing to take our bags early as the room is not ready at 10:15 am. Back in the car and then heading to the airport. Our timing over the bridge wasn't good as we needed to stop for quite a while for the bridge span to open for a vessel. We topped up our tank at a 7-11 near the airport and then into Avis. The handoff to the attendant was pretty quick. Into the terminal and then a walk to the Max train line. This train takes you downtown and the fee for the two tickets totalled $3.75 so pretty cheap. My senior ticket was 1/2 of Lana's cost! About a 40 minute ride to our stop downtown. Much cheaper than taking a taxi or other transportation.
OBSERVATION: All Oregon gas stations have gas jockeys by law. They take your credit card and fill it up.
Portland's red line train into downtown Portland.
The stop is very close to our hotel. Easy walk and check in to our room. We will be using Lana's Google Maps to navigate. We are both hungry so off to one of our favourite sandwich places in downtown Portland: Lardo. We were first hooked by their porchetta sandwiches. Unfortunately, they no longer carry those sandwiches - or at least not today. No problem as all their sandwiches are top notch. The bill totals $36 inclusive of my Dirty Pretty Lardo lager beer and a macaroni salad. Very delicious and we found a small table despite the fact the place was super busy when we entered at 12:30 pm. No wifi. Place is very noisy and the stereo fairly loud.
Chicharrones (salt & vinegar) - crispy pork rind
Petey Pablo smoked pork shoulder, ham, pepper jack cheese, NC mustard sauce, pickles,
Duke’s mayo...
Korean Pork Shoulder house kimchi, chili mayo, cilantro, lime...
Our favourite Portland donut joint is Blue Star Donuts located a short walk from Lardo. We dramatically prefer this to the more famous Voodoo Donuts located near Chinatown. We get in line and can peruse our choices as they are placed behind the glass. Each donut is $3.25 so not cheap, but they are filling and elevate the sugar meter! Finally made it to the front of the line and found a spot against the window to enjoy our bounty and people watch.
Online pic of the interior of Blue Star Donuts.
Lana's order.
Randy's order - I love Horchata.
Our two donuts artfully positioned by our head photographer - Lana.
Our next stop is Powell's City of Books not too far from the donut joint. We love this gigantic bookstore with new and used books across all genres. I have a list of books that I add to over the year and then check prices with Amazon before visiting Powell's. Lana is more impulsive with her book purchases. I do buy three books and the rest of the books I will eventually order from Amazon. We spent more than 90 minutes browsing and checking the computer for their titles and then where they are hiding.
Online pic of Powell's Books.
Kind of a lazy day in Portland. We returned to our room and were figuring out our dinner destination. We were hoping for a decent walk to our dinner to get in our 10,000 steps for the day. Lana sources a Korean place across the river and an estimated walk of around 25 minutes. Perfect. We are not very hungry as lunch and the donuts pretty much filled us up! Revelry will be our dinner tonight. It is around 25 minutes walk to the restaurant, but it is a beautiful warmish night. There are a lot of street people in this part of downtown. We enjoyed our walk to and from the restaurant and both of us are in excess of 10,000 steps.
Interesting place that has a DJ on a regular basis and shares the space with Evo. High ceiling, gritty interior and definitely a hipster hangout. Some great choices on the Korean menu. Plus, extensive beer and cocktails choices. We loved our two dishes and I enjoyed the Korean beer that paired well with our dishes. We will return as everything was good inclusive of food, service, ambience etc. Total price was $45.
Online pic of the interior.
Korean fried chicken with peanut brittle. My Korean beer and Lana's non-alcoholic combo of Passion Fruit syrup and club soda. Fried chicken had sweet and spicy taste.
We have a room on the 19th floor with impressive views. Very comfortable and we are hoping for a good sleep tonight. Our Air Canada flight leaves at 15:00 and we plan to leave the hotel around 12 noon by hopping on the train to the airport. We will get a free breakfast buffet downstairs and in no rush to get ready for our trip. This is our last full day of our vacation. It has been another enjoyable 'hiking' holiday in a part of Oregon we have never explored. Our walk tonight to the restaurant was our 'urban hike'. ;-)
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