bobanddenisewanderlust

We woke to a beautiful day, with bright blue skies and no clouds. The temperatures were in the high 70’s to low 80’s. We went west, then south to Portland,

crossing the Burnside bridge. Our first stop was at the Saturday Market.

We were expecting a market like in Eugene, but this was different. It was large, with mostly ‘stuff’. No produce or baked goods. We found a parking place at a meter about 2 blocks away. We had an hour. It was interesting to wander through, as there was some nice ‘stuff’, and lots of junk. I bought a bamboo hand fan for square dancing, but that was all. We were done walking through in about 45 minutes. We returned to the car and headed to “Pearl Bakery” for lunch. Portland is not a very pretty city as it seemed run down. There were lots of people walking on the sidewalks and a lot of bike riders. Most of the streets were one way.  Their parking is by zones, so we had a little less than 15 minutes to get our food and eat. So we went in and grabbed two ham sandwiches, which were great. We finished eating, in the car, just when our time ran out on our parking receipt.

Our next stop was the Pittock Mansion.

The mansion was home to Portland pioneers Henry and Georgiana Pittock from 1914 to 1919. Both arrived on wagon trains in the 1800’s. Henry arrived in 1853, at age 19, from Pennsylvania, with no money. He began working for the Weekly Oregonian newspaper. In 1860, at the age of 26, he married 15-year-old Georgiana Martin Burton who had arrived a few years earlier with her family from Missouri. He later ran the newspaper and took it from a weekly paper to a daily one. They built the home and only lived in it for 5 years, with Georgiana dying in 1918 and Henry passing away in 1919. They had 6 children and 18 grandchildren. The house stayed in the family until 1958, when a grandson put the mansion on the market. The City of Portland bought it for $225K in 1962 and has set it up as a museum for public use. We did not tour the house, but did walk the grounds. The view is spectacular! This the view of Mt. St. Helens. 

This is the view of Mt. Hood. Doesn’t it look like the mountain is floating?

We drove about ½ mile down the mountain to the International Rose Garden. Portland is known as the City of Roses, with good reason. The Rose Festival is in late May into early June, so we had missed the peak of the roses, but they were still beautiful. Bob’s leg was still bothering him, so he dropped me off at the entrance;  I ran in and looked around and he picked me up down the hill.

Next we were off to the Portland Aerial Tram. On the way, we spotted a Farmers Market, and made a quick turn into Oregon Health & Science University. The Farmers Market was held on the Auditorium Courtyard. This was the biggest farmers market we have found! They had about 100 vendors, all of them food or drink oriented. We had to race through, as it ended at 2 PM, and it was already 1:15. Many of the vendors were already sold out and were packing up their stands. We stopped at a wine tasting. They had Ice Wine. Bob suggested I try it, as he knows I like Ice Wine. Woops, mistake. We bought a bottle; Shy Chemis 2009 Charade, for $25. Ice wine is usually twice as expensive for half as much.  Actually, considering the cost of Ice Wine, this was a bargain, for a 375ml bottle. Well, you only live once! Bob tasted some beer, and bought a bottle of Upright Brewing Saison.He had never tasted a Saison, and really liked it! We tried some ciders, but did not find anything we liked. We bought some cherries but could not find bread that we liked.

We had only put ½ hour on the parking meter, and arrived back about 5 minutes late, but no ticket. We continued on to the aerial tram. We arrived and could see both ends of the tram and decided it would be a waste of time, so we headed back to Troutdale, stopping at Camping World and Walmart on the way. We ate dinner and sat out behind the motor home.

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