Portland, Oregon
We'd wanted to visit Powell's for years, the worlds largest bookstore. It takes up a whole city block, I lost Paul a couple of times in the red and purple rooms (each the size of a major bookstore) and it was wonderfully relaxing to have nothing scheduled except meals when we felt hungry.
The food was fantastic. We followed some local recommendations and all were great. You don't get mere cheese fries in Portland, you get Gorgonzola cheese fries, waffle-cut and covered in lumps of gorgonzola and awesome sauce in Henry's Tavern. I ate my first ever quail (tamarind-glazed with coconut sticky rice) in Silk, a Vietnamese restaurant. We found mini cupcakes, a fantastic deli (Kenny & Zuke's), and abundant food trucks that were all closed whenever we were near them. Missed Voodoo Donuts, so we clearly have to go back for that. And more time at Powell's.
I found the holy grail of notebooks in Powell's, plain, lined, or squared, acid-free NUMBERED pages with a table of contents. The manufacturer is Leuchtturm1917, one place selling them is lovenotebooks.com. Mine is a light green colour and I'm planning to use it for writing notes. Or karate notes. Or as a diary.
We went for a long walk in Washington Park, didn't make it the two miles to the Japanese Garden from the train stop, but it was good to be outside.
Spotted my first ever Aston Martin in the wild, just parked on the side of a road in downtown Portland. I think this is a Virage Coupe:
Paid a visit to Knit Purl since it was only a block away from our hotel, and found some of Brooklyn Tweed's Shelter yarn in the Homemade Jam colour. I picked up enough to make a Topiary wrap (the large size) since Portland doesn't have a sales tax. What Portland does have is a Doc Marten shoe shop, the first one I've seen outside of London.
We were only there for a couple of days, but Portland is a great city to walk in and relax in. Bicycles and dogs being walked were everywhere, everyone was friendly and helpful, and the weather was unseasonably beautiful. Everyone kept telling us we'd come on the right weekend and it wasn't normally like this till later in the year. Definitely one to do again!