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Adventures in Portlandia

October 29, 2012 •

My hus­band and I spent a delight­ful week­end in Port­land, dodg­ing show­ers and chas­ing sun­breaks. Through con­ver­sa­tions with friends, restau­ra­teurs and mer­chants, we learned why so many peo­ple love Port­land.

It’s a place of pas­sion­ate pur­suits: out­door sports (no mat­ter the weather), cycling, arts and crafts, wine tast­ing,  farm-to-table din­ing, and hours spent brows­ing books at Pow­ells. When peo­ple dis­cover you’re an out-of-town vis­i­tor, they can’t wait to share what they love most about Port­land. Friendly con­ver­sa­tions abound.

Outdoor Sports

Lulu-van-in-Portland

Know­ing we’d entered Port­landia, we weren’t sur­prised to see this Lul­ule­mon van just off the main drag. Lulu is a brand well-known for its man­i­festos urg­ing peo­ple to do what they love.

We fig­ured out why we’d seen the Lulu run­ners’ van, a few hours later, while watch­ing cos­tumed Ore­go­ni­ans cross the fin­ish line on one of the main down­town streets.

Dressed in comedic or out­landish cos­tumes, entire fam­i­lies were com­pet­ing in a mixed 5K/10K/half-marathon race.

Asian Design Influences

I loved the tastes, aro­mas and zen-like ambiance of the Japan­ese tea and cof­fee shop, Behind the Museum Café.

Espresso-style cof­fee is also avail­able for die-hard cof­fee lovers, using beans roasted locally in Port­land.

Japanese-tea-shop-articlesThis café spe­cial­izes in Japan­ese teas, small plates and desserts. One of its charms is the dis­play of antique fur­ni­ture and ceram­ics that can be pur­chased from a dealer who shares space with the café owner.

Another is the kimono dress and tra­di­tion-based cour­te­sies of the owner and her wait staff, who warmly greeted my friend Margie in Japan­ese.

Foods and desserts are all home­made, Japan­ese style, such as short­bread with gin­ger. Some are new to West­ern palates, such as the matcha brown­ies that Margie bravely tasted (the small green cubes in the photo).

Do What You Love

While sip­ping her tea, my friend Margie shared what she’s been doing since we worked together 10 years ago. Margie gave up an exec­u­tive role at a well-known PR firm to become a self-employed designer. You can see (and buy) her prod­ucts online at Sweet Per­sim­mon.

She cre­ates hand­made leather bags and totes that she adorns with scraps of silk or linen from her col­lec­tion of antique kimonos. She is also a teacher of clas­sic Japan­ese tea cer­e­monies, a sen­si­bil­ity that infuses her designs.

Margie had just returned from a 2‑week busi­ness trip to Tus­cany, where she researched leather hand­bags in places like Flo­rence where leather goods have been per­fected over cen­turies of crafts­man­ship. Her lat­est col­lec­tion should be avail­able in mid-Novem­ber. I can’t wait to see how the Ital­ian designs influ­ence her hand­bags… Leather, kimono silk and Italy — what an intrigu­ing com­bi­na­tion!

Treats for Wine Lovers and Locavores

portland-wine-bar Before din­ner Bruce and I treated our­selves to some fine local pinot noirs at a spe­cialty wine bar on Broad­way. He went for the pre­mium flight: small pours of three wines that were “drink­ing splen­didly” that after­noon. I opted for a glass of wine, rely­ing on the bar­tender to serve some wine that would match my descrip­tion of what I like in a fine pinot noir. With just two tries, she got it just right.

Thanks to OpenTable and pre­plan­ning, we enjoyed two top-notch restau­rants, Beast and D.O.C., con­sid­ered among Port­land’s finest. Both restau­rants more than lived up to their well-deserved rep­u­ta­tions for fine din­ing, based on absolutely fresh local ingre­di­ents and imag­i­na­tive cui­sine. In both cases we opted for the tast­ing menus, includ­ing the matched wines — a won­der­ful way to see how the chefs and wine stew­ards com­bined their magic. Both restau­rants are tiny, so advance reser­va­tions are required.

DOC-kitchen-Portland

You enter D.O.C. by pass­ing through the kitchen en route to a hand­ful of tables just beyond. On a cold and rainy night, the warmth from the stove is well appre­ci­ated as you wait for your table to be ready.

But the real treat is to put your­selves in the hands of the chef and wine stew­ard — go for their tast­ing menu!

Funky Crafts, Charming Shops

Yes, there are lots of brand-name chain stores in Port­land, but there are also local trea­sures such as Pow­ells Book­store. We spent sev­eral enchanted hours there, and felt lucky to leave with a bag of books that cost <$100. (We could eas­ily have done more dam­age to our wal­let.)

shoes-and-mosaics

We were charmed by the funky shop win­dows of bou­tiques like this one, which hap­pened to spe­cial­ize in pho­tog­ra­phy and mosaics (who knows why).

This bou­tique is down the street from a vin­tage con­sign­ment store, cur­rently fea­tur­ing cos­tumes…

Well-heeled shop­pers can revel in The Real Mother Goose, a high-end crafts store that caters to dis­cern­ing tastes and peo­ple who love “fine Amer­i­can crafts.” We could­n’t resist, and found our­selves fan­ta­siz­ing about some beau­ti­fully designed rock­ing chairs, tables and lamps. Sadly, well beyond our bud­gets…

All in all Port­land is a place for the pur­suit of pas­sions.

About This Blog

Reflec­tions on life, travel, books, and yoga. Think­ing out loud about the pur­suit of mind­ful­ness and well-being.

Learn­ing how to recover from the loss of a beloved spouse, and then to find a trans­for­ma­tive path for­ward.

About Me

Semi-retired marketing exec, transitioning from a career in high tech. Now "managed" by two Tonkinese cats. Missing travel and friends on the West Coast. Avid reader and foodie. Staying active with long walks, biking, kayaking and yoga.

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