adventures in Portland...

Portland is an interesting place. You can walk down the street & see seemingly normal people & then in the same block do a dodge & dance in the crosswalk (looking at you, Chris) with an old man in a bright red thong. There are quirky little shops on every block filled with unique books, local foods, eclectic fashions & even animals in formaldehyde filled jars.

Chris introduced Ashlyn to Portlandia which is an odd show, to say the least. Not my favorite show but this one particular scene is a pretty apt description of what you will find in Portland

Ashlyn's favorite part of the trip was Powell's Books. There are a few Powell's locations but we visited the flagship store which is the largest new & used bookstore in the world. They even have a rare book room. The oldest book is from the year 1494! And the most expensive is a two volume History of the Expedition Under the Command of Captains Lewis & Clark... priced at $350,000.

There are nine color coded rooms housing over a million books. Ashlyn was like a kid in a candy store! The biggest problem being, with so many books which ones do you buy?! We really had to reign it it because we could have spent WAY too much money on books...

I loved some of the older buildings & architecture in Portland. The old brick juxtaposed with the more modern railings on this building really caught my eye. There is such a great mix of modern structures & historical landmarks.

We ate some AMAZING food while we were in Oregon. It's difficult with all of our allergies & restrictions to find places to eat but we found some tasty spots:

•  Bo & Vine Burger Bar in Salem
• Khao San Thai restaurant where we ate such amazing food that we had to go back so we could bring Landon once he was done with camp
• Pizza a`fetta in Seaside with possibly the best gluten free crust I have ever had in my life 
• Chris' friend from work introduced us to ¿Por Qué No? on Mississippi Avenue with amazing street tacos & refreshing margaritas
• The Star Pizza which had the same gluten free crust as Pizza a`fetta as well as vegan cheese that didn't suck (if you've ever had vegan cheese you know that it usually does suck)
• Matt's BBQ  in Prost Marketplace, a fun spot filled with a wide variety of food trucks. This was another place that we returned to with Landon because we knew he would love it too

• and last but not least, Little Bean ice cream which is 100% gluten free & vegan. Their ice cream & homemade wafflecones are made out of chickpeas which I'll admit, sounds really weird but they were SO good! So good, in fact that we went back another time because we couldn't get enough

Landon liked the Nike store & this little hole in the wall shoe store in Chinatown that had rare & expensive shoes, including a bunch of Yeezy's.

This particular pair was over $1000.

One more post of Oregon fun to go!