Day 2: Portland

When we woke up this morning, the current weather from the WeatherBug app on my phone said it was 42 degrees with a "wintery mix."  (Not something I EVER experience in Arizona, let alone in late May.)  Still, we decided to head to downtown Portland for the farmer's market, which can be found on Saturdays right across from Portland State University.  Throughout the week, the farmer's market can be found at various locations around Portland.  Despite the chilly weather, there were plenty of people checking out the goods.  There were the typical farmer's market offerings of organic produce, cheeses, jams and jellies, and breads.  There were also unexpected items like salted caramel sauce (yum!), buckwheat honey, and purple asparagus (very cool!).  The first thing I noticed were all of the strawberries.  They looked nothing like the strawberries you get in the grocery store.  I just had to by a basket, and of course, eat them on the spot.  (Everyone was, and no one seemed to care they weren't washed, so I figured I'd live....). They were perfect!

There were plenty of vendors preparing treats as well.  I opted for a nutella and banana crepe over the special (lemon curd with strawberries and whipped cream).  I've now realized, once you have a good nutella and banana crepe, there aren't a lot ways to improve upon  it.  I wished I would have gone with the special.  Nate got a coffee from Cafe Velo and we moved on to check out the rest of the market. 

We left the farmer's market to explore more of Portland.  Riding the free-rail tram made getting around easy.  We wandered around Powell's Bookstore, with it's many colored-coded levels and thousands of books. We then met Nate's aunt and uncle at St. Honore Bakery, a favorite of my parents'.  There pastries, especially croissants, are divine.  I chose a chocolate almond croissant, while Nate had a pastry named after the bakery itself.  Or maybe the bakery was named after the pastry.  Anyway, it was excellent.