Well, we've concluded our first stop on our epic Pereyo Road Trip of what the hell were we thinking!? Family Reunions.
I love Portland. I really do. The city is filled with charming neighborhoods. Streets lined with old houses, smoke floating out the chimneys, yellow leaves blanketing wet lawns. There are so many businesses housed in unconventional places--everything from gourmet restaurants serving pho and burgers out of huts and school buses, to this dress shop operating from a double-decker bus.
The food? Incredible. And cheap! Portlanders are Pod-People. Everywhere you go you run into herds of independent food-carts, or entire blocks of huts smashed side-by-side. We ate Vietnamese, Chinese, Southern, Thai, and Italian. Deep-fried okra. Authentic muffaletta sandwiches. Tender bulgogi with homemade kimchi and Miso beef-heart hash. Uuuuuhhhhhhhhhmmmmmm. Mouth drooling...
If you are ever in the area, I highly recommend visiting Tasty N Sons for breakfast--their home-made biscuits with honey-butter, Moroccan chicken hash, chocolate potato donuts, and roasted fall-vegetable frittata were all a-mazing. Their menu is like a tapas-bar where you can pick small plates or slightly larger dishes (like the frittata and hash). Mother's Bistro in the downtown area was also very good (and very accommodating for families), but super crowded on the weekends.
I'm pretty sure I would move here in a heartbeat if it weren't for one thing: the weather. I'm forever ruined by the good weather in California and I'm not sure I could handle living in a city where it's overcast and rainy at least sixty percent of the year. Even if it's not raining, it just feels DAMP all the time. I guess that's why everyone has beards and dresses like homeless people. Sometimes it felt like I stepped into a parallel universe where I was the only person not dressed like a hipster/crunchy granola/tree-logger person. And so serious! It was hard to coax a smile out of anyone on the street, but maybe I'm expecting too much (after all, I used to live in the "Last Hometown of America", where everyone smiles). Considering the weather, I can't really blame them for their grim expressions.
The downtown hotel we stayed at, The Nines, was waaaay too nice for us, yet the people working there were so gracious and never sneered at us, even as Addie ran barefoot through the lobby cackling like a little heathen. I'll post pics of our room soon.
We visited Zach's brother and his girlfriend the first night (they, who introduced us to the food-pod religion), and then we reunited with one of my favorite people in the world. We finally got to meet her beautiful daughter (six months younger than Addie) and the girls played together at the hotel and by the riverfront. Little girls running through the rain toward flocks of geese...
Bye, Portland. Thank you for your hospitality and giving me the opportunity to wear my new rain boots!
Next stop: Seattle!
