Sunday 14 January 2018

Portland, Oregon Day Three (Dec.29, 2017)

This is the lobby ceiling that the water was just pouring through the other night.

You can't even tell that anything even happened.

Our first agenda item was to drop by Enterprise and pick up our rental car.
They had a Dodge Charger available for an extra 7 a day so we picked that one.
Some vehicles don't provide very much head room for My Honey but this one was nice and roomy for him.

We left there and headed to the nearby mall hoping we could get a garmin but there were no stores in the mall that sold that type of thing.

I did get a great winter coat (it is red with fur trim around the hood) at Old Navy for $23.00.
What a deal and I love it!

So I searched out the nearest Walmart on my phone and we headed there instead.
We found one and got the garmin.

I saw a store next to it called Joanne and it looked like an awesome craft store that I would like to check out at another time.
We were kind of hungry by this point so I looked up a spot for us to have brunch.
A restaurant not far from us was recommended as the best nearby spot so we headed over there.

The place was called Coquine and it was in a residential area.
A really pretty, hilly area.
It was kind of an uppity place but it was nice.

There were some interesting items on the menu.

My Handsome Honey.

We ordered the cornbread with cayenne butter - it was just ok.

Carrot soup - also just ok.

This was my favorite.
Chicken liver with fig jam and crispy raisin bread.
It was so delicious - wish there had been more.

My Honey ordered the chicken pot pie.
I've seen this take on the chicken pot pie before but to me it's a cop out.
When I order pot pie, I expect to see the whole pie filled with savory goodness - the crust is my favorite part so this kind of disappointing.

I had the steak sandwich with the egg on top.
It was really tasty - the filling to bread ratio looked off but it ended up being just right.

All in all - we did enjoy our meal there.

We left there and headed out of the city to look for Roloff Farms.
I knew it was closed but wanted to at least see the sign.

Found it!
It was super easy to find actually.

You could see some of the buildings off into the distance.

I thought there would be a closed gate at the entrance but I didn't see one.
Guess we could have taken a drive down the lane to be nosey but I'm not that bold.
(That's our sweet ride)

Since we were out in the country, we decided to just drive around a bit and have a look-see.

This part of the country is stunningly beautiful.

This church was just around the corner from Roloff Farms.
So pretty, even on this grey, wet, dreary, rainy day.

Everything looks so alive!

The rolling hills with the homes dotted here and there in the distance remind me of the Cavendish area of PEI that I love so much.

I've never seen trees covered in moss like this and they look so beautiful.
So even though the leaves are gone, everything still looks lush and green.

The church we stopped by had a cemetery next to it so we had to stroll through it.
What a beautiful, peaceful spot.

Next we stopped at the Rice Museum of Rocks & Minerals that the fellow at the tourist booth had told us about yesterday.

It was basically this home that was converted to a museum because the folks who lived there were just so into it.

There was specimen upon specimen to see.
Very interesting.

Of course anything pink drew my attention.

This looks ice crystals.

Looks like little eggs inside a larger egg.

A collection of blue hues.

Never saw anything like this before.

A Thunder Egg

I thought this was interesting.

They had some examples of some of the gem cuts he created and some of the gems he actually cut.

Never heard of the "accordian" but I like it!

Just liked the cool colors

Love the blue.

Kind of looked like moss.

Looks like a big foot - of course the color drew me to this one.

The shape of this one was cool.

Gorgeous sunny yellow.

They had ALL the colors.

Of course the purple is so pretty.

Almost looks fuzzy.

Another one that has such cool shapes.

This one had all different kinds in one specimen that was found.

Looks like upside down icicles.

There was just room after room of things to look at.

My dear Honey carrying my bag for me - he's the best!

They made it into art - this is petrified wood.

Then we came across my favorite - fossils.

I think these were actual fossilized eggs.

I find fossils so intriguing.

Imagine - this creature died in this position.
It's like a photo of it's last moment.

Some bugs that I DO NOT want to run into anytime soon,

Cool

Look at the detail in the fossils - it's almost like the bugs are there.

This was just coated in snail fossils.

The decor in the house was just as interesting as the rock & mineral collection.
The owners certainly weren't afraid of color.

Check it out - the wallpaper matches the curtains exactly!

The place had a gorgeous backyard.
Just look at the green grass - it's so boldly green, it almost looks neon.
Gorgeous.

After the museum, we were ready for a snack.

This little place is right by Roloff Farms.
Helvetia Tavern.
In fact, according to our guy from yesterday, Little People Big World has actually filmed in the upstairs of this place.
So of course we had to go in case some of the family might be there getting a bite but no such luck.

You could see the farm right behind it though.

This was taken in the parking lot at Helvetia before we went in to eat.

It seemed to be a little local hang out.
The place you go where everybody knows your name.

The ceiling was just covered in baseball caps.
I have no idea how they kept them clean but they didn't seem to be dirty or dusty at all.

I was in the mood for a caesar salad so I got one to start.

I also got fish and chips to go with.
The fish was little (but good) and the fries were just ok.

My Honey got a burger and onion rings.
The burger had some kind of house sauce on it and it was delicious as were the onion rings.

We were glad we made it out to see a bit of the country for sure.
I would come back in a heart beat to explore it more.
In fact, I already know that we will be back as I want to do the private tour of the farm at some point. I heard back from the email I sent to Roloff Farms and turns out they have no tours available until the 2nd (we leave on the 1st).
I am not surprised, it was short notice and it is Christmas time but I am going to try again in the near future hopefully.

We had tickets to see a live show "A Christmas Memory" tonight so we headed there after supper.

We got there and found a place to park but were super early so walked around to see what we could find.

What we found was the best book store EVER.
It was huge.
Powell books.

They had a Rare Book room that you could go in and check out (we didn't).
They had every book you could think of, room upon room of books.
They had used books on the shelves with the new books and reviews from staff and just regular folks on the shelves with the books.

This one looked like something I wanted to read so I took a picture to remind myself of it later.
I did end up buying a book about the making of Star Wars.
I could have spent a whole day in there but alas we had to get to our show.

It was at the Gerding Theatre

Better known as "The Armory".

A Christmas Memory and Winter Song.

It wasn't what I was expecting but we really enjoyed it.
The Christmas Memory was a memoir written by Truman Capote.
The actor came out and sat on a chair and just told the story.
I was surprised that it was just a monologue but he really did a super job of drawing you in and stirring your emotions.
I loved it.
After that, he was joined by the girl in the poster here and a pianist.
They sang songs and told little stories - they had the audience jot down some of their fondest (or worst) Winter/Christmas memories and they worked those in to the show.

I've never been to something like it before but am so glad we went.
Twisted Dickens (a play) was also happening in the theatre that night and at first I was second guessing our choice but I think we made the right one.

After the show, we were ready to eat again.
This place was just next door and the inside was just what we want in a place some day.

Personally I would skip the carvings but they were cool.

There were lights strung across the ceiling - you could almost imagine you were outdoors, it was so wide open.

It looked like the windows off in the distance were big giant garage doors that probably open right up in nicer weather.

They are really into their breweries here - almost makes me wish I liked beer, almost!

They did brew their own Rootbeer in house so I gave that a try.
It's pretty much the same thing in my estimation.

My Honey checking out the menu.

Being on vacation makes me happy!

My Honey & I

These benches though

Definitely going to have some of these in our place someday.
Big long ones (maybe a different color) that fit about 8 people.

My Honey had the chicken and waffles.
One of the tastiest we've tried.

I had the tomato soup - it was super good too.
This kind of weather makes me crave soup.

We agreed to share the Marionberry Cobbler for dessert.

OMG - it was heavenly.
The candied ginger biscuit was divine.
My Honey is a pro biscuit maker and I am already hinting that he try a version of this at home.
What a great idea adding ginger to the biscuit.

It was a sad day for my family today as the funeral was held for my grandmother today.

As they left the funeral home, my cousin (TH) noticed these hearts on the driveway.
We took it as a sign that all was good.

I am not sorry that we came on this trip but I do wish that I could have been with my family at least for today.
I did talk to them on Facebook Messenger (so greatful for technology available to us these days) so I felt like I at least got to see them and spend a little time with them.

I've mentioned before about the kind of woman my grandmother was.
So strong and full of faith.
She was the centerpoint of our family and she will be dearly missed.
I am going to do a post just about her one of these days as a tribute to probably the greatest woman/person that I have ever known.

My step count took a hit due to the car rental today.
The rainy weather didn't help either.
Tomorrow will be better.

Until next time, be happy!





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