Voodoo child

Greetings from Portland, Oregon! It's my first time visiting, and here are a few random thoughts about the place: Portland is beautiful, it's very green and lush, you can see Mt. Hood in the distance, the weather was perfect today, the people are really friendly, and they have an amazing light rail train system. Oh, and they have some fabulous grub here. Today we were able to experience a bit of Portland's quirkiest, if not finest.

On the recommendation of my cousin Allison, who lives up in Seattle, we sought out Voodoo Doughnut, a Portland institution. Here you'll find all kinds of interesting concoctions, including the Tex-Ass donut (below--it's HUGE--if you can eat it in a minute twenty seconds, you get it for free--don't get your hopes up, haha), the Old Dirty Bastard (an Oreo and Peanut Butter donut), a donut with Froot Loops on top, and the very famous Maple Bacon Bar, which was Allison's suggestion. She promised that it tasted like pancakes and bacon in a donut, and she was right. O. M. G.

Instead of writing more about the donuts, I'll just post a few photos here for you. :-)

OK, you get the point.

Now, I know that when my Mom reads this, she's going to say: "All y'all ever do when you travel is eat."

Well, it's true that we like to eat. But we're really picky. We only want to eat the good stuff, preferably local and organic when we can find it! Voodoo may not be organic, but they're definitely local.  They make it very clear on their web site that their doughnuts are freshly made and, quote: "You can pay us more for our product which is locally made, locally owned, and an honest dream come true, or you can buy cheaper, megalacorp, machine cut, rebaked, defrozen, warehouse doughnuts and pastries."

But seriously, we didn't just eat today. We also walked A LOT. I'd say, we probably walked at least five miles. We got off at the wrong train station and ended up walking all the way down Burnside (where we found Voodoo Doughnuts) and then walked from there to the famous independent bookshop Powell's, which is so huge, you can get lost in it. Seriously, it's the largest bookstore I've ever been in. It covers an entire city block, I think.

Then we walked some more, rode the train some more, and walked some more back to Lloyd Center, where we watched the Zamboni man sweep the ice on the ice skating rink and then watched the cute little girls have their lessons. One little girl in particular caught our eye because she was so talented. She was only about five years old and looks ready for the Olympics.

By the way, in Portland there's no sales tax. NO SALES TAX!!! So if you, say, buy a $125 pair of new black Birkenstocks (I mean, for example . . . I'm just sayin') . . . then your total cost is . . . $125!!!

After that short break, we continued on foot towards our bed and breakfast, stopping along the way for a light dinner at Blossoming Lotus, an organic vegan restaurant. We shared a really tasty beet and curry cashew salad, then Sandy got the falafel wraps (a raw dish) and I got the chickpea stew and saffron rice special. It was fantastic!! Healthy, too. Karen, you would not like it. :-) (That was a special note to one of my new readers.)

Goodnight East Coast!