Portland in 12
For April’s 12-of-12 Challenge, I was in Portland with one of my very best friends — Finny! We celebrated our annual girl’s weekend in the beautiful Pacific Northwest, enjoying the city mostly on foot and with a fork.
Breakfast at Bijou Cafe, where we sat, strangely enough, near Steve Kerr. St. Honore’s Bakery was my favorite breakfast find. The cranberry hazelnut rolls are heavenly.
Josephine’s Dry Goods is as great as the reviews. Wouldn’t it be nice to have a fabric district in Phoenix?
The Button Emporium didn’t disappoint either. Ribbon, trim and buttons of all sorts, lined up and beautifully displayed. You know you are on vacation with the right friend when you both jump at the sight of vintage trim/racks of Amy Butler fabric/organic fruit at a farmer’s market/a giant Banana Republic outlet.
There was also yarn, but I was too distracted by this sweet little guy next dooor at The Happy Needle — a needlework shop:
NOODLE! Isn’t he sweet? Napping in the sun.
In the meantime, if I needed a sign I’d fit right in here, voila.
We hit the farmer’s market, the Saturday Market, numerous fun restaurants (Oba, Manzana, Cha Taqueria, Everett Street Bistro) and took our rental Prius out to the country.
We took in the tulip festival at The Wooden Shoe Tulip Farm. It was a sea of beautiful color. I took more than 100 photos of flowers. (Note to self: less coffee, more restraint.)
This one reminds me of a hungry baby bird.
Definitely my favorite tulips. They were all wavy and I appreciate aesthetically how the light green of the stem carries into the flower’s petals.
And they were only slightly too big.
My favorite purchase — a sandstone elephant from Zimbabwe courtesy of Swahili Imports in the Pearl District. Other purchases included fabric, trim, local wine for a future community dinner, pickled asparagus from the farmer’s market and I’d be lying if I said there weren’t a stack of new books from Powell’s sitting next to me. Powell’s really is my idea of heaven on earth; floors of used and new books, a great coffee shop, and magazine racks that flowith over.
We are a year off, and I’m already dreaming of the next Fin/Donk weekend. And not just because she introduced me to Haagen Dazs double chocolate chip while watching a Deadliest Catch marathon. (What? This isn’t your idea of a great Sunday night? Obviously you haven’t partied with us lately.) It was a great trip; I am such a lucky girl.
~K
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Perhaps next year LA?
April 14th, 2008 at 5:04 pmOh wow, what gorgeous yarn and buttons, I’d never leave that store intact…the flowers are gorgeous too…ciao
April 14th, 2008 at 5:11 pmWhat a fantastic weekend the two of you had together. Your pictures are gorgeous, and I’m so glad that you shared all this with us.
April 14th, 2008 at 6:24 pmSounds like so much fun. I’m glad you have friends like Finny…everyone should.
ps. How did you manage not to take Noodle home with you?
April 14th, 2008 at 6:36 pmok that Yellow and white dress is TOO cute!
April 14th, 2008 at 6:37 pmLooks like a great weekend.
Sorry about the icky comments.
Loved the yellow dress photo!!!
April 14th, 2008 at 6:44 pmOooh the rows of tulips look gorgeous! And those gigantic wood clogs are hysterical. Looks like it was an outstanding trip.
April 14th, 2008 at 7:23 pmwhat a fun trip! and so many pretty things. i love that little noodle weiner dog. he would have distracted me from the yarn too.
April 14th, 2008 at 7:38 pmHow fun!! Next time around I think you should come to Utah and I will take you hiking to Bridal Veil Falls and such.
Love the wood clogs, hope you brought them home with you. LOL!
April 14th, 2008 at 8:05 pmI’m sure you had a great time. Everyone should take some time off to spend on a all-girls trip! Thanks for sharing the pics.
April 14th, 2008 at 11:34 pmOh, how I miss the Pacific Northwest! And how I hope to live there again sometime in the not so distant future.
Looks like you had a wonderful trip. Yeah for girlfriends!
April 15th, 2008 at 3:21 amI love love love Portland. Am waiting to go back.
April 15th, 2008 at 4:21 amSounds like a FABU trip! Love the pictures, all those flowers are so bright and cheery. Quite like you.
April 15th, 2008 at 5:20 amThat sounds like a PERFECT weekend!!
April 15th, 2008 at 5:47 amOh, I am soo jealous..Two of my best friends from high school and I are sorta planning a trip to Portland to visit Powell’s, and all these people visiting/living in Portland are killing me..I wanna go soo bad..
April 15th, 2008 at 6:01 amHow I love tulips. I could totally see the hungry baby bird imagery in the one picture. We just bought a house in the fall and I am delighted to see tulips starting to come up in the garden.
April 15th, 2008 at 6:11 amThis post broke my heart in such a good way. When I saw that sign, I instantly remembered living in The Netherlands and actually wrecking my bike on a busy street by getting caught in a tram track and trying to turn. It didn’t work, and I had about 12 young boys laughing at me. I was several months pregnant (although not showing yet) and completely terrified. So here I am, remember that, when you throw a bunch of beautiful tulips and wooden shoes at me! You really made me wish I could drop everything and visit Holland right NOW!
I am also jealous of everything else you did. I need to get to Portland!
April 15th, 2008 at 6:15 amNothing like a weekend with a great friend!!
April 15th, 2008 at 8:09 amLooks like you had a great time. I love the cute little dog (my childhood companion was a sausage dog, Petra) and the sign. Glad you had a good time.
April 15th, 2008 at 8:27 amThat dog! Those tulips! Those shoes! Too much fun. Well, not too much, but plenty
April 15th, 2008 at 9:36 amNoodle is a cuuutie!
April 15th, 2008 at 10:32 amSounds like a perfect weekend. Glad you had a great time.
How funny that you posted that dress (which I LOVE!)… I’m making a Sophia bag out of that same fabric! Looks like you two had a great time!
April 15th, 2008 at 10:36 amHow fun! Your many adventures always inspire me to get out and make more of the opportunities we have for fun. Even when I can’t jet out for a weekend, seeing others get to take little trips and experience such joy is inspiring.
Also wanted to apologize for your recent comment issue. Like others, I don’t always agree or follow the same practices you do but you are always open, honest and earnest in your positions. I respect that so much. It is harder to be hopeful about changing our world through community-building than pessimistic and isolationist. Immigration is certainly a thorny issue but personally, I can’t wait for the spring re-opening of my neighborhood’s lovely street cafe run by a group of Somalian immigrants. If only sharing good food on a sunny afternoon could lead to bigger community development and national solutions to the problems faced by those trying to escape poverty, war and devastation.
April 15th, 2008 at 11:22 amYou must have had so much fun. Portand is one of my favorite cities and you got some awesome weather to boot. I’ve been telling my hubby that I want to drive over the moutain to check out the tulips. I think we are going to miss them this year but the iris’s will be blooming when we get over there. I can’t wait. I’m glad you enjoyed our wonderful northwest. Sometime you ought to come to the drier side of the state and visit Bend.
April 15th, 2008 at 11:27 amHow fun. Girlfriend getaways are the best. Love the flower photos!!!
April 15th, 2008 at 12:37 pmthe vacation with finny sounds like so much fun! so glad you had a chance to get away from the craziness and recharge
time with old, dear friends is the absolute best.
April 15th, 2008 at 1:18 pmxox
That looks like a super weekend from beginning to end!! Noodle reminds me of Max- a weiner dog’s fav spot is always a sunny one. And- Deadliest Catch and ice cream is a well-loved way to spend an evening around here! (altho I am trying to avoid the ice cream part!)
April 15th, 2008 at 3:15 pmLooks like ya’ll had loads of fun. I love the picture of Noodle. So sweet.
April 15th, 2008 at 4:48 pmOh my goodness, how fun!!! I love your pics, although I MIGHT could sew a button on straight in the moon and earth were perfectly aligned! The flowers were just beautiful.
April 16th, 2008 at 6:09 amMy husband has performed that EXACT move on the bicycle sign at least twice:) Thank goodness for helmets!!!!!
April 19th, 2008 at 6:06 amMan, Portland rocks. I’m jealous that you’ve been to Powells! Sounds like you had a great weekend.
April 19th, 2008 at 8:49 pmWhat a fab trip! Powells is one of my fave places on earth… glad you got to experience it. And that sign… cracks me up every time I see it (we have them in Astoria too… maybe it’s a whacky Oregon thing).
Steve Kerr… too cool! I love him. Not that I’m a big sports nut, but because one time I heard in an interview, and he was asked something about the mega salaries in professional sports… his vs some of the really big names. His response was something like, “I get to get up each morning and do something I love doing, and you can’t put a price on that”. I’m paraphrasing - my memory is crap… but I’ll never forget it. Love that guy and what a great role model he is!
April 20th, 2008 at 1:38 pm