Lunch Ride - Post Office, Community Center, BBQ Lunch

Did my usual ride to drop off the days orders from our websites and eBay stores at to the post office. I also needed to check out the Wifi at the Community Center - have a presentation there next week.

I thought great, I need a new route here in the SW Hills section of Portland. I have not been totally out of breath with blood vessels bursting since yesterday's ride.  Granny gear up, screaming on the breaks down. Oh Brakes - got to get more at the bike shop tomorrow.

As I was heading back up the Beaverton-Hillsdale HWY when I passed a BBQ joint (food cart really) with the biggest smoker I have ever seen. I had been meaning to check this place out. I asked everyone in my party if they had any objection to having a break and a nice BBQ lunch. No one objected - the beauty of riding alone! Good BBQ. Had a nice chat with an old timer there - we agreed Rain in Portland, what rain?

Portland Saturday Markets

This Saturday we hopped a bus and train into and around downtown Portland.

The first stop was the Portland Farmers Market at PSU - Portland State University.
I was surprised how large is was this early in the season. Two city blocks long and one city block wide. It runs between the buildings and under the trees on the PSU campus.

I could not get any pictures that really caught the size and atmosphere of the place, but I tried.
The market was packed with all kinds of people.

We picked up a few vegetables and decided we should head here for Saturday breakfast and a little shopping. We can catch the bus from in front of our place and get dropped off at the market for $5 (for the both of us) why drive and pay to park?

There were a lot of good food vendors there. Now here is a great environmental trick. To save trees, trash, and landfill, the vendors serve on real plates. After you have enjoyed your meal, simple return your plate and they get washed for the next time.

I have never lived in a city before but am grooving on Portland for sure.

Saturday Market Old Town.
Up in Old Town on the river is the Saturday Market. This market is more food vendor and goodies to buy. Completely different flavor than the Farmers Market at PSU. Fun place to walk around, street actors, completely different people up here, etc... One end of the market in the River and the other ends at Voodoo Doughnuts. The line for a doughnut on a Saturday is blocks long, but no one seems to mind. Rose loves their famous Bacon Maple Bar doughnut.

Back to Mi Mero Mole for lunch.
OK, you get a Beer, a Shot, and a Burrito for $10. Ya, you want it!
Casual place and the food is really good. Definitely, some of the best Mexican food we have eaten in the states.

Tulip Fest - Fianlly got there!

Great sunny day and we are off to the Tulip Fest.

Wow Tulips as far as the eye can see. We have never seen this before. The pictures just don't do the field justice.

We walked up and down some of the rows and Rose picked some flowers to bring home.

Click for larger image...

 

Old Steam Tractors were on hand. They were all running. I was amazed at these old machines from the early 1900's. I found out that they are mainly used as 'Portable Engines' not necessarily to pull stuff around. Although the one on the right from 911 was used to pull the grader to build HWY 26 from Portland to Seaside.

There is a very large Fly Wheel on the right side of the engine and a belt would be run between it and whatever they needed to run, cotton gin, baler, saw mill, etc... They take 3 hours to build up enough steam to run, so when they were in use someone stayed up all night tending them, so they would be ready in the morning.

Very cool...

Hops for Beer!
Portland is a world renown beer city. One of the reasons the beer here is so good, is that it is one of only a few places in the country that crows hops. We passed many fields where you could see the land setup for growing hops. They have telephone pols with wires (I don't know what they are made of) running from the ground up. The plants grow up the wires. OK, I'm ready for a beer!

Movies and pictures are great, but always nice to see things in person.

Cannon Beach Day Trip

We have blogged about Cannon Beach before. It is a great day trip or weekend on the coast east of Portland. Beautiful drive through the coast range with lot of tall trees and rivers.

It was a tossup between the Wooden Shoe & Tulip Farm and going to Cannon Beach today. It has been raining for the last couple of days (go figure Portland) and we thought the fields may be a bit muddy. But, when I checked online about the conditions at the Wooden Shoe & Tulip Farm and saw they were having an Easter Egg Hunt I said - "Forget It" I'll pick a destination at least 200 miles from a bunch of screaming kids. So, Cannon Beach won the pick for the day.

The other reason for our sortie to Cannon Beach was finalizing the hotel pick for our 20th wedding anniversary. OHG - 20 years of marriage. 

We really like the Waves Oceanfront. We just wanted to make sure so we checked it out and made the reservation. Six months early, but Cannon Beach books up fast. We got the room we wanted 2nd floor at the end of the building right over the Ecola River and the Beach. We'll be hanging out on the porch enjoying the views and Champagne.

We had fun walking, off the beating path, south of the main town along the beach houses. Rose said, "OMG, How much do these cost"? I said, "OHG, How much do these cost to insure"? Rose and I are no strangers to beautiful beach houses and these were really nicely done with beautiful gardens. These streets were a quite alcove off the beaten track and right on the coast.

We ask for a lunch recommendation and checked out those spots then had fun wondering the streets checking out some of the other restaurants for lunch and for further visits.Turns out the recommendations we got were the best and we had a nice lunch and beer a the Seasons Cafe. Local beer and a shoe box size Club Sandwich I don't think even Jeff could down in one setting. Rose really enjoyed her sandwich and she is not even a sandwich kind of girl. The beer was really good Jeff.

When we lived in Virginia, Rose and I found Chincoteague Island (your remember that place they swim the horses from the beach to the island every year). CD is the same sort of seaside small town with lots of local seafood, natural setting.

We think Cannon Beach is out new Chincoteague Island. In Chincoteague, we loved staying at The Inn at Poplar Corner and The Watson Guest House.  It was great, we had a 2nd story room over looking the Gurbstake Grocery Store and we would drink wine and watch the comings and goings of people in the evening. OK, you had to be there, but the happenings in a convenient / grocery store parking lot are much more entertaining than you may think. It was hours of fun.

I'm playing with my camera shooting panorama shots.  I need to start shooting some river backgrounds for my fly fishing website and blog, so I practiced with the two shots below. I can see I need some more practice at these types of shots.
Click on the pictures to see the full size.

The Waves Oceanfront looking south down the beach. We booked the room on the second floor.

That is the Waves Oceanfront looking north up the coast.