After the kids got out of school Wednesday, we loaded the van and headed to Pasadena, where the kids would be staying at Grandma and Grandpa McAlister's house till Saturday. Our flight was later that night. We got to Grandma's, we all had something to eat, and Anna's dad took us to LAX. Our flight was at 9:05pm, and we landed in Portland at 11:35pm.
After getting off the plane, we made our way to the car rental area. I had reserved a car for Thursday morning. The original plan was to take a shuttle to our hotel once we landed, and come back to pick up the rental in the morning, so we wouldn't have to pay for the extra "day" (Wed.). But then it occurred to me that if we waited till just after midnight to pick-up/rent the car, it should not change the price I reserved for the rental. We would just be picking it up early. The lady at the Budget car rental counter was very cool, and it was no problem to pick up the car early. Soooo glad.
We used our new GPS to find our way to our hotel. The door was locked. They had to "buzz" us in. We checked in without any problem. No mention of us being Priceline guests or the steal we were getting on our room.
We stayed at the Hyatt Place Portland Airport hotel. I got our room for $38 a night via Priceline's name your price option. Online it was about $129 a night. Anna overheard someone checking in at $150 a night. Here's our room...
It was HUGE! This picture doesn't give it justice. It's probably the nicest room we've ever stayed in.A big part of our trip was centered on food! (No surprise there.) The first spot on our list was a place called the "Stepping Stone Cafe". We learned about it from Man vs. Food. It was one of his "stops" before his challenge. You can check it out here.
I knew I was going to get the bad a$$ omlette. Anna got a pumpkin man cake. We split them, of course. They were AWESOME! SO GOOD! Here Anna uses the utensils for scale on her man cake.
Right after that, we headed out for some more breakfast... VooDoo Doughnuts!! This is the original location in the downtown area. We were surprised at the length of the line. We were told the line is never gone. It may be slightly shorter or longer, but pretty much always there. VooDoo is 24/7.
We waited in line for about 40 min. or so just to get in the door. Once inside, it was about 5-10 minutes. I stopped keeping track once we were inside.
While in line, we struck up a conversation with the lady in front of us (she's the one in the blue jacket in the picture). She was there with her daughter. They're from Portland, but it was their first time at Voo Doo. During our conversation, we asked what things we should see while in town. She had some great info. Japanese gardens, rose gardens, Saturday Market, where to get a good burger, and so on. We are so glad we asked her. She pretty much made our plans.
Here are our first doughnuts- top: Mango Tango? raised donut with tang on top, and mango jelly filled (very good) right: Old Dirty B*stard- raised donut, dipped in chocolate, covered in oreo cookie pieces with drizzled chocolate and peanut butter on top (SUPER good), bottom: Memphis Mafia- fritter with banana cream, chocolate and peanut butter drizzled on top with chopped peanuts (very good), left: VooDoo donut- raised donut, dipped in chocolate, raspberry jelly filled. (very good)
Anna loves that Portland has drinking fountains that are always running so you don't have to push a button or lever to get a drink. This is across the street from VDD.
There's a "china town" district right near the VDD, so after eating a couple doughnuts, we took a walk through it. It's pretty run down, but there were some pretty cool shops to go into and look around. On the way back to our car, Anna wanted a picture with the sign and door of VDD.
One thing Anna had on her Portland "must do" list, was to take me to go see the core sample at the MAX station by the zoo. We navigated our way to that station, where we checked out the core sample. Along the wall where the sample is, there are also quotes and puzzles and math related items. I saw this and asked Anna to take my picture... get it?...
Anna thought I was so cool... so she wanted a picture too.
Remember I said that the lady in blue planned our trip... Here we are at the Japanese Garden. It was a beautiful place. The misty rain added to the tranquility.
We could juuust make out the outline of the downtown buildings. The camera couldn't quite pick them up. It just gives you an idea of what the weather was like while we were there. Speaking of weather, I think the highest it ever got in Portland, while we were there was 49-50?
As we were exiting the Japanese gardens, there was this big RED leaved tree. Other than the tip of my umbrella, it's a pretty nice shot.
We also walked around the Rose Garden area, but I guess most of the roses were cut back for the season. There were still some flowers, but it was not as nice as the Japanese Garden.
We didn't really have any lunch Thursday. We ate a doughnut just about every time we got in the car. 
Once back at the hotel, I started looking up the addresses of the other places we wanted to see and visit. I searched for the burger place the lady in blue mentioned. Then I stared looking up Mt. St. Helens information, for our trip the next day. As I began locating that info, I realise that Mt. St. Helens is closed for the season?! It's open from May to October. The roads were already snowed over, and all the visitor's centers were closed till May. I broke the news to Anna. She was bummed. We looked at possibly driving out to Crater Lake, but it was 5-6 hours one way. After doing some quick research, there was snow at Crater Lake, and 4x4 vehicles were recommended. Our little Ford Focus was not a 4x4.
Right after that, we headed out for some more breakfast... VooDoo Doughnuts!! This is the original location in the downtown area. We were surprised at the length of the line. We were told the line is never gone. It may be slightly shorter or longer, but pretty much always there. VooDoo is 24/7.
We waited in line for about 40 min. or so just to get in the door. Once inside, it was about 5-10 minutes. I stopped keeping track once we were inside.
While in line, we struck up a conversation with the lady in front of us (she's the one in the blue jacket in the picture). She was there with her daughter. They're from Portland, but it was their first time at Voo Doo. During our conversation, we asked what things we should see while in town. She had some great info. Japanese gardens, rose gardens, Saturday Market, where to get a good burger, and so on. We are so glad we asked her. She pretty much made our plans.Here are our first doughnuts- top: Mango Tango? raised donut with tang on top, and mango jelly filled (very good) right: Old Dirty B*stard- raised donut, dipped in chocolate, covered in oreo cookie pieces with drizzled chocolate and peanut butter on top (SUPER good), bottom: Memphis Mafia- fritter with banana cream, chocolate and peanut butter drizzled on top with chopped peanuts (very good), left: VooDoo donut- raised donut, dipped in chocolate, raspberry jelly filled. (very good)
Anna loves that Portland has drinking fountains that are always running so you don't have to push a button or lever to get a drink. This is across the street from VDD.
There's a "china town" district right near the VDD, so after eating a couple doughnuts, we took a walk through it. It's pretty run down, but there were some pretty cool shops to go into and look around. On the way back to our car, Anna wanted a picture with the sign and door of VDD.
One thing Anna had on her Portland "must do" list, was to take me to go see the core sample at the MAX station by the zoo. We navigated our way to that station, where we checked out the core sample. Along the wall where the sample is, there are also quotes and puzzles and math related items. I saw this and asked Anna to take my picture... get it?...
Anna thought I was so cool... so she wanted a picture too.
Remember I said that the lady in blue planned our trip... Here we are at the Japanese Garden. It was a beautiful place. The misty rain added to the tranquility.
We could juuust make out the outline of the downtown buildings. The camera couldn't quite pick them up. It just gives you an idea of what the weather was like while we were there. Speaking of weather, I think the highest it ever got in Portland, while we were there was 49-50?
As we were exiting the Japanese gardens, there was this big RED leaved tree. Other than the tip of my umbrella, it's a pretty nice shot.
We also walked around the Rose Garden area, but I guess most of the roses were cut back for the season. There were still some flowers, but it was not as nice as the Japanese Garden.
We didn't really have any lunch Thursday. We ate a doughnut just about every time we got in the car.
In the afternoon, we went to Walmart to pick up some things for our next day at Mt. St. Helens- water, trail mix, lunch bags (to stick hotel continental breakfast items in to take with us for lunch), a rain poncho for me, and whole rain suit for Anna, and some sodas for the drive, etc. We also went to a Target so I could buy a "Portland" beanie (I don't know the real name).
There was a new frozen yogurt shop near the Walmart (it said Grand Opening), and since we were a little hungry, we stopped in. They had 16 flavors! Anna, of course, tried them all- and we're not talking small tastes. Later she told me, she was done after trying them all, but felt that she had to buy some so she would feel guilty. She was FULL. I tried about half. It was really good.
We drove around a bit. The GPS wasn't finding what we wanted it to find from just punching in the names of the locations we wanted. We needed addresses. There were computers at the hotel we could use. So we started back, but not before stopping to get some real food. We went to a burger place Anna remembered from her trip last year. It's called Burgerville. It was pretty good, but nothing too special. Anna liked that they had compost and recycling bins next to the trash bin.
Once back at the hotel, I started looking up the addresses of the other places we wanted to see and visit. I searched for the burger place the lady in blue mentioned. Then I stared looking up Mt. St. Helens information, for our trip the next day. As I began locating that info, I realise that Mt. St. Helens is closed for the season?! It's open from May to October. The roads were already snowed over, and all the visitor's centers were closed till May. I broke the news to Anna. She was bummed. We looked at possibly driving out to Crater Lake, but it was 5-6 hours one way. After doing some quick research, there was snow at Crater Lake, and 4x4 vehicles were recommended. Our little Ford Focus was not a 4x4.
Then the thought of going to Seattle popped up (the lady in blue had mentioned Seattle in our conversation). Turned out to be about a 2 1/2 to 3 hour drive... not too bad. I did a quick search of places to visit and eat (Man vs. Food and Diners Drive-ins and Dives). It all sounded good, so we decided to drive to Seattle the next day.
We drank some horrible hot cocoa given to us by the lobby hostess, and called it a night.
2 comments:
Nice recap! Thank goodness for the lady in blue! Another cool thing was that because it was Veteran's day, we had free parking around town and got into the Japanese garden for free! More money to spend on doughnuts! :)
Dude, Jeaaaallouuuus! And totally in suspense for the next day recap. Gotta look into the constant flowing water thing, sounds weird, but if its Portland theres gotta be a catch.
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