Greetins!
Taking off from Seattle, we decided to make a quick pit stop in Renton, WA to pay homage to the face melter himself, Jimi Hendrix, in Greenwood Memorial Park. His grave site was not difficult to miss, as it dwarfed all of the other headstones and was covered with portraits and lyrics etched into the marble.
Just jammin’
My fave
Oddly enough, as we headed further south, we heard on the radio that September 18th was actually the anniversary of Jimi’s death, which is the day we visited. I thought I had seen a ghost drift by…
The food has, as expected, gotten better the further west we travel. Heading towards Portland, we were curious when we read about a spot called Nick’s Famous Coney Island. One of us born and one of us raised in southeast Michigan, we had to check it out.
Neither of us got coney dogs, but settled for some pretty dolled up hot dogs. Gretchen ordered the Chicago Dog, topped with cucumber, tomato and onion. Guess they were out of pepperoncinis..
I went with the Bacon Cheddar Dog, covered with the obvious, and some house made pasta salad
Deciding we were going to continue eating healthy, we added some Coney Cheese Fries
Definitely not comparable to a Lafayette coney, but it more than fulfilled our hot dog jonesing.
After lunch we strolled around Hawthorne street and visited some shops. A few bunk vintage places, but a few jems as well. We picked up some rations and headed to John’s house, our latest home stay for the trip. I met John during the memorable Montie Halloween 2009, in his rodeo clown costume. John and his girlfriend Corey had a bevy of restaurant knowledge, and took us to Porque No? for some late night grub. Pork tacos with a beer was a nice welcoming to Portland. They also insisted we had to go across the street to The Space Room, a bar with just the right amount of space theme. We ordered a A.M.F, which was a kinder Spanish abbreviation for “see you later, buddy”.
Trouble in a glass
We crashed in John’s living room and took in the artwork
In the morning, we consulted again with John and Corey, and they decided on bringing us to the The Screen Door. for breakfast. Gretchen got the Blueberry Corncakes and I got a fritata with -wait for it- cremini and portobello mushrooms, carmelized onions, spinach and brie cheese, Topped with an aoli and arugula. Both were amazing! Too busy eating to take a pic.
After reading about it in a paper at the restaurant,
the two of us set out to the Time Based Art Festival held in an old school building. There were a few short movies, a gallery space, a few installations and a singing group. I think the meaning of most of them was too “deep” for Gretchen and I to understand. We’re just not on that level
Art movie still
Picture me rollin’
Humming troupe, holding out the same note for the entire day
Sweaters
Making a rock potion
After our culturing, we headed to the Powell’s Books in the Pearl District, the largest independently owned new and used book store in the world. Totally huge, with any book you could probably think of, even a rare book floor. The most expensive book in the house is the first public documentations of Lewis and Clark’s journey, published in 1814. If that sounds up your ally, it can all be yours for $350,000. Per this time of the day, we needed a beer, so we checked out Deschutes Brewing Co. We split a sampler tray and chose 6 different beers to try.
Our favorites turned out to be the Black Butte Porter (which we each nabbed a case of to bring home) and another one I can’t remember right now. But they didn’t have it in sixers to take back to Michigan, so it’s both gone and forgotten.We explored the rest of the neighborhood, and headed over to Dove Vivi pizza for dinner.
What followed was ecstacy.
Breaking it down: (Smoked Mozzarella + Balsamic Roasted Red Onions + Chives + Fresh Sweet Corn) + (Smoked Mozzarella + Sauteed Kale + Butternut Squash + Cranberry Reduction) = The best meal so far on the trip! This pizza was too amazing for words, receiving top honors from us both. We rolled back to John’s house and had a low key evening.
Monday, a brand new day of food and sights awaited. We started off visiting The Grotto, a catholic sanctuary and botanical garden that Gretchen’s great, great uncle, Father Ambrose Mayer, founded. She took a slew of pics for her Grandma (Hi!) and we took in the awesome surroundings.
We had be hearing lots about Portland’s food cart scene in the recent days, so we figured it was a must to check out. We headed to the downtown area for lunch to grab some meals on wheels. 
BBQ Fusion was our first stop
Gretchen was the first to holla at a BBQ bowl, filled with BBQ pork, pinto beans, rice and coleslaw. I followed suit. Awesome! Had the seal of approval from the Portland Trail Blazers coach himself.
After, Gretchen had a hankering for crepes. Whether it was to take her back to her European experience a few years back, or to settle a sweet tooth, I don’t really care. But we ordered a Nutella and banana crepe, and it was nothing short of artwork
Tres amazing. After our cart buffet, we took a suggestion from one of John’s roomates, and headed to the Portland Rose Garden, the oldest public garden in the U.S of A
The gardens have thousands of different varieties of roses, most of which were still in bloom, which was a surprise to see at this time of year. We felt inspired after the T.B.A and decided to get ~arty~ with some flower pics:
Taking my dad’s advice, we both took some time to, you know
Post-gardens, we headed to one of Portland’s many happy hours at a place called Bartini. Half off martinis and appetizers? You mustn’t tell us twice.
We split a Basil-Lemon martini and an Elderflower martini, and shared a polenta, mushroom and tenderloin appetizer, some coconut shrimp, and some goat cheese stuffed figs. We cannot complain about our lives.
Enough was enough. Too much food, not enough mental stimulation. So we picked up John and headed to the Hawthorne Theatre for their Monday night trivia. Suffering a tough loss, we took second (What is the difference between an Asian and African elephant other than size? Ears! Remember this, it may come in handy when you need 5 more points to win someday) and took home some trashtastic swag. 
Both of us are now outfitted for Rock of Love III. We ate a late night hotdog at Zach’s Shack before heading back to the crib for the night. John had a particularly strong beef with Zach’s, he himself preferring Franks-O-Lot, but we wont get in to that now. We would like to take a moment to thank John (and roomates!) and his girlfriend Corey for being such knowledgeable and kind Portlanders. I’m sure we wouldn’t have gotten as much out of our stop had it not been for them. Thanks, John!
Overall thoughts on Portland: The food, the FOOD! Every bite was amazing, every sip was a dream, every sight was a Kodak moment. Four stars! Tomorrow we have a early start, heading south towards Ukiah, CA. Hurray for Melanie!
Goodbye Portland, we will miss you.
Peace Love Dove,
Moeseph
Road Scholars 