Wow! Portland Rose Test Garden

 

 

Day Trip to Camas, WA Garden Show

Beautiful Day! Road Trip Time!

We saw Camas, WA, just over the Columbia River, was having a Garden Show. Wow, it was really nice. Camas really reminded us of Dunedin, FL. Anyway, Camas closed the streets of their Old Town and put on nice garden show. The place was packed with people buy everything.

The Boy Scouts were running around with Radio Flyer wagons, helping everyone get their purchases to their cars. Sure beats trying to carry those clay pots, and large plants all the way back to your car.

Rose was looking for a few more plants for our place. She has a nice collection on indoor plants, and our little vegetable garden on the back porch is coming along.

There are a ton on nice restaurants, and brew pubs in Old Town. We had lunch at Natalia's Cafe. The food was really nice, and we were right on the corner for good people watching.

It was such a nice day, and nice crowed of nice people, you just wanted to site and watch the world go by. Very relaxing.


We really liked Camas and will come back for more explorations. They seem to have events all summer long; and it may be worth a stay in the old Camas Hotel just to get away and explore more of the area on a weekend.


Washington State - Another US State checked off my list. I think I only have three left to visit before I have all 50 States in my travel book.

Click on image(s) to enlarge...

WE LOVE PORTLAND !!!

Spring has come to Portland.
People are out everywhere living life. Hustle and Bustle.

Portland is so alive. We feel like there is life out there again! The weather is fantastic!

Remember out pictures and story of the Hillsdale Farmers Market last fall.
We went today it has exploded with spring. Masses of people, lots more vendors and people giving away, and selling, plants.

Rose got in on her free packet of 6 plants. Later down the row, we bought a zillion more. We have 3 Earth Boxes, some planters we bought and 2 really great planters someone left by the dumpster. Hey, I got there first.

Later we walked down to "Freddies" one of the 3 grocery stores withing walking distance, just to top off the veggies we didn't get at the market. We have a little trolly to carry our spoils.

We can literally walk anywhere we need to go.

Yesterday, I went on one of  my bike rides exploring the area and trying to kill myself peddling up these steep hills. Man, I can't wait to loose some more weight to get my fat butt up these hills. We were aiming to live on the east side of the river where it is FLAT, but now I'm starting to think this was a cunning plan by Rose to settle us in the SW Hills, so I would have to haul my butt up these hills every day. Well, either way, I'm glad for the exercise and challenge.

I rode along a new section of the waterfront. People were out sunning themselves, walking, riding, playing in the river, fishing, and sailing.

I passed by the Willamette Sailing Club and they were having some races. Wow, reminded me of the Davis Island Yacht Club back in the old days. I may join the club one days and rent some sailboats to play with.

I looked around at the boats and they were all the ones I used to race when I was a kid - Lasers, Snipes, Thistles, 420s, etc.. Really brought back some memories. I looked down at the dock and there was a Lido 14 ! OMG, that is the family sailboat we grew up in. She was named the Yellow Peril.

Need to figure out what we are doing next week..

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.

Bob's Red Mill - Breakfast & Tour

We all know Bob's Red Mill great products from the grocery store. As it turns out the are based in Portland!

Rose found some tickets for breakfast and I felt like skylarking (West Indian for playing hookie from work) so we made the Thursday morning out of it.

The breakfast was good, and the store was really amazing. I had know idea they made so many products. When we lived on the east coast, you would see maybe 10 of their products, but there are so many. The pictures below cover just a small part of the store.

After breakfast we headed to the mill for a 1.5 hour tour. It was a bit different that other factory tours I have been on. We first saw a short film mainly about Bob and his wife Charlie's life and how they got into the milling business, and how they lost everything they owned at age 60 and rebuilt their lives. I thought their business philosophy was great.

The short story is Bob is an engineer, loves tinkering with things, loved the old stone mill stones and it when on from there. All of the grain is ground on old stone mill stones. This is not a high production plant. The grain is ground slow and "cold" as we found out if very important in keeping the nutrition in the food.

We had a great tour guide that talked us around part of the plant and was full of information. I really learned a lot about the different ways they grind, cut, roll, etc.. grain. I also learned more about gluten free that I ever needed to know, but fascinating stuff. Also, what types of flower to use for bread, pastry, muffins, I have been doing this all wrong - now I know why.

Bob and his wife are great people. He is more concerned about making a good product than making a fortune. In fact, when he was ready to retire, he turned down the offers from the mega food companies and - "Gave the company to his employees". Cool Dude!

Restaurant and Store

 Some of the old Mill Stones, but this is what they still use today. They are produced from quartz from a quarry outside of Paris, France.

Sunday at Home

We were planning on going to the Wooden Shoe Tulip Farm today for the Tulip Fest, but the weather is a bit dreary. The myth is that it rains in Portland all the time, but this is actually the first time we have changed plans because of it. We will have to blog about the Wooden Shoe Tulip farm later. It is supposed to be a bit of Holland with acres and acres if tulips. Oh, and Mexican food trucks for some reason?

So instead we worked more on our little apartment farm. We have strawberries, herbs, and eventually four earth pots for lettuce, tomatoes, and vegetables. We plan to put three of the earth boxes out it the front under the window where they will get better sun. Rose just has to grow stuff, and I like it, too.

 

When we lived in Aldie, Virginia we had a huge garden and small orchard. There were a few organic farms in the area, so we also enjoyed organic beef, lamb, and chickens. Nice to know your nearby farmer!

Here are a few pictures of our old garden in Virginia. 

 We built the whole thing. 24 ft by 36 ft.

We grew a shit load of vegetables!

Here is the build out of the raised beds. They are dug down 24 inches.

Here is the garden in full works with all the plants around the fence!

Corn is getting tall!

Our 5-in-1 Apple Tree.

Lots of Cherries

Asian Pears

Lots of Lettuce!

Rose planting one of the 16 ft by 4 ft raised beds.

 

E.E. Schenck Open House

E.E. Schenck is a large wholesale supplier of fabric, notions, thread, books, etc... right at the port of Portland. They carry some of the products Rose has on her two Internet stores. Nice to be able to just drive over and pick up stuff. 

They had a big open house on Saturday, so we checked it out, and picked up some supplies.

True to Portland, it was heavy rain and wind, but the place was full of people.

I know it doesn't look like it, they were all listening to a speaker at the time. We figured we would get the drop of the goods, while they were distracted - you got to have a strategy to survive being in a warehouse full of women shopping sales!

They have quilts all over this huge warehouse.

 

Hillsdale Food Trucks

In town at the highschool is a nice "Pod" of food trucks. I guess they do well from the kids and people working in town. Now if you know Duniden, or Safety Harbor that is like the two towns we live inbetween, with hills like San Franciso!

Friday night they were having a little "To Do" at the Pod, don't know why it is just Portland I guess. They had free music, free wine, and free samples from the food trucks. Nice group of people all hanging around and chatting to each other. Portlandiers are really social and easy to chat with. There are a lot of young people, students and hippies of young and old. The usual Portland topics of beer, wine, food, and pot are the norm.

We tried the samples and settled on the Phat Cart Food Truck. It was run by a bunch of young girls and the food was really nice! I had the Crispy Fried Chicken Sandwich - No not the  green salad.

There is also a Mac n Cheese Truck that really caught Rose's eye. There samples were good, and we may wonder up there for some lunch.

Oregon is the Hazelnut capitol of the world and there are so many around that people us the shells as mulch, driveways, everywhere.

Food trucks are a big deal out hear and so far, the food we have had has been great.

French Quarter

Rose and I went for one of our long Sunday walks through the park, woods, gardens with the idea we would end up at the French Quarter.
The French Quarter is in Multnomah Village a little over a mile from our place. This french man Yevs bought an old car service station and is making an indoor area for shops, restaurant and food trucks.  Lots of outdoor space to hangout and have events and beer - well it is Portland.

Rose found a really cool chair and had tomhave it.  We got to talking to one of the shop owners and she kindly took our money, gave us a recipt, and held the chair until we could walk home and get Ms. Bean. She also mentioned the food cart serving Lao food was really great, so we decided to have a bit. Need some hot curry to help us get home, as it is all uphill from there!

I've been to Laos, so got right to chatting with the lady in the food cart. She was really nice - well it is Portland and everyone is nice. Rose had the yellow curry and I the red. Very good , we'll be back!

By the time we were done eating Yves, the owner of the chair, turned up and gave us a ride all the home to our doorstep - well it is Portland and you know the rest...

Spring In Portland!

Mid February and the trees are already flowering like crazy. Color everywhere!