Voodoo magic

Today was such a crazy day. This morning we woke up and went to the diner next to our hotel for a quick breakfast. After all of this eating out we've had to do, I was happy just to have some yogurt and an apple to give my tummy a break. Then, we went right out and began walking the city. Unfortunately, we were a bit early because we quickly discovered that most shops didn't open until 10 am. So we killed a half hour at Powells Books again before the other shops opened. We went to West Elm which I had always wanted to go to since I peruse their website all the time. Then we went to a couple of local home decor stores and a paper store. My favorite was a place called Crafty Wonderland. It was the definition of Portland quirkiness and I loved it! We also stopped at a spice shop with all kinds of spices, teas, salts, and seasonings. While walking we saw probably 50 or more food trucks of all different ethnicities. Although we didn't try any, they all looked good and became very busy at lunch time.

For lunch we made a quick pizza stop which turned out to be awesome. Sizzle Pie had delicious thin crust pizza organized into vegan, vegetarian, and meat eaters. My vegetarian spinach, feta, hazelnut and cranberry pizza was to die for and Ryan's "porky's revenge" was pretty good too. After lunch, we intended to head to a salvage store called "Hippo Hardware" but got sidetracked by VooDoo Donuts, the Portland staple that was on our Bucket list. So since we were right there, we hopped in line and waited just 20 minutes to order our VooDoo doll donut and maple bacon bar. Both were soo good and certainly worth the wait. Then we trekked 20 long blocks over to Hippo Hardware in search of some pretty glass doorknobs for our house. Well we found some but they weren't nearly as cheap as we'd hoped they would be so we left empty handed and trekked 20 blocks back to the hotel.

After a quick rest and a wardrobe change, we walked a couple blocks over to the Living Room Theatre where we watched a pretty good movie from comfy couches. I'd highly recommend "Now you see me" if it plays at a theatre near you. Next, we walked east about 10 blocks for dinner at Mother's Bistro. We found this restaurant on Tripadvisor.com and it did not disappoint. Good home cooking cooked by a mother of the month and complimentary cookies with the check. And as we were dining and people watching out the window, we noticed Cameron's book store across the street so we had to snap a picture. Cam, you didn't even know you owned a bookstore, did you?!

At the end of this exhausting day of walking and eating, we decided to head back to our hotel a little early. But the eating wasn't done just yet, we spoiled ourselves by ordering room service of a pint of ice cream from Salt & Straw, another Portland staple. The Sea salt ice cream with caramel ribbons sealed the best food day yet.

Tomorrow we hope to stop at a few places on the way out of town and then head to Astoria and Seaview, WA.