Clever.
On our last full day in Oregon, we spent the entire time just browsing the city. We stayed in a fabulous hotel, Vintage Plaza, where the doormen treated the kids like royalty and were so unbelievably attentive that we’re sold on valet parking and bags miraculously appearing in rooms and interesting things backlit in interesting spaces. This shot was the art display behind the concierge area. Lurv.
As soon as we were outside, The Rev took off like a shot.
Heart attack number 8,267 for me since we were on a terribly busy downtown street. At this rate, I’m not gonna make it to see his 3rd birthday. Oy. (He’s on the sidewalk, by the way, just in case I made that sound like he was running in the street.)
We stopped for breakfast at The Cup and Saucer, which was the yummiest breakfast of our whole mini-vaca. Can you say vanilla butter scones? I can. Even when my mouth is full of one.
Hank has been following this blog for several years, and it was highest on his must-see list for Portland. Read the blog. If you’ve ever been interested or concerned or even vaguely curious about a car-free lifestyle, it’s worth a read. It’s truly fascinating, as well as being an honest testament to the community commitment to bikes and riding safely in the Portland area.
We misread what time they opened, so we drove around a bit checking things off of our Must-See-In-Portland list. Like the entrance gate to Chinatown.
We were instructed to be sure to get a doughnut from Voodoo Doughnuts, which we finally found.
But this was the line.
It was over an hour-long wait. We passed, even though they have a Bacon Maple Bar. Seriously. It’s a bacon-topped doughnut. Interesting.
But just down the block was Stumptown Coffee, which was holy crap delicious. The velvetiest latte that has ever passed my lips. Swear.
My goodness. So yummy.
And kinda interesting for people watching.
The girl in the red skirt was uber cool.
Very hipster. I think I’ll go shopping now…
Finally, finally, Clever Cycles opened. Thank goodness Hank did not succumb to purchasing the fold-up bike.
After all, they’re only about $1500. Yikes!! They are admittedly cool, though. It’s like a George Jetson bike. There’s even an additional seat you can put on the primary seat stem that hooks onto the downtube for a second short person. Like The Goldfish. That sweet bit of information nearly sold Hank on it again, but he resisted. He was strong.
We did go on a self-guided bike tour, though. We rented this bike.
That’s the front bucket, where your kids go. Here’s another look-see.
Very cool. Who needs a car??
I posted yesterday that all of today’s shots were taken with a Lensbaby Composer lens. They’re interesting, to be sure, and I really like the shots, but a whole post of these kind of makes my eyes hurt. What do you think?
I shot these with an aperture 4 drop-in. There’s such a narrow slice of focus…
I like this one very much.
I focused on this bird’s eye. Oof. I feel like I’ve had too much to drink…feeling woozy from the blur. And notice the blue sky? It was hailing on us about an hour before this was taken. Well, we were hiding under a bridge, but the hail was still bouncing off the bike path at us.
The view from the other side of the river.
And a stop to play after lunch. The Rev was yelling, “Fiyah Kuck!” He can spot those quicker than your quick.
Speaking of quick.
Someone up there picked up a groovy new hat at the bike shop.
It was like running cattle. And then there was flying and jumping, which is not like running cattle. Unless it’s that cow that jumped over the moon or something else silly.
We rode around for about four hours, and then decided on a change of venue. The boys needed more running and spinning and playing, so we asked around and found the Volcano Park, although I don’t think that’s it’s true name. It was an actual volcano, though. Sounds safe.
‘Twas fun. But ’twas very cold. We scooped up sulking boys and swung by the New Seasons grocery store for some snacks to take on the plane ride home. The parking area was on top of the store, which was quite exciting but produced a lot of questions from The Goldfish. He’s pretty inquisitive lately.
I think our boy there had a pretty great getaway. What do you think?
And that’s it. By this time, we were exhausted and weary from traveling and on our way to the hotel airport. We did have one last stop, however.
Ikea.
It was our first time, but quite possibly Hank’s last. He was in hell, to be frank. It was ginormous and there’s no visible way out aside from following the arrows on the floor that direct you through every department and spit you out into the eating area.
I liked it.
*cheesy grin*
And I can’t wait until they’ve opened that new beautiful store in Centennial. Although I have heard that to assemble anything Ikea requires a week solid and a degree in applied mathematics.
I know just the guy.
Ha. Him again.
Over and out.
