Portland - Saturday/Sunday

Saturday began with a fairly disappointing breakfast at Burgerville but was redeemed with Coriolis Sock Class with Cat. The techniques this woman comes up with are amazing. If you knit socks and you want to step up your game, go see Cat. She has this new technique called Houdini that's available on Twist Collective and she says she's going to write a new book and include that (or was it about that anyways...) so if you're looking for yet another way to knit a sock, now you know.

Though, I have to confess, we might have allegedly missed a bit of the afternoon class. As luck would have it, our class was sold out and several of the women in there really wanted and needed Cat's help. And, Cat was going to go over everything she did in the morning class in the afternoon as well. Armed with our class handouts and one of Cat's sock books we hightailed it out of downtown and off to our Aberta Street & Knittn Kitten adventure.

We had about 30 minutes between shopping and our dinner date at Bay 13. The dinner itself as well as the company was outstanding. After dinner we went somewhere for dessert. Before we could get to dessert, our dates had to go home. But, this turned out to be a good thing. As they drove us back to our hotel we passed Powell's. I had never heard of this place but as I learned its a book lover's fantasy land. Apparently the biggest bookstore, period.

Our original plan was to relax for the rest of the evening. I mean, work had been crazy for both of us this week, we got to our hotel after midnight on Thursday, we were out partying with Jim on Friday and now, here, we have downtime. I sat silently in the car as we rode back from the hotel trying to gage how far we were staying from this place.

Yeah, right, downtime. Once we got back to the hotel I hopped on the computer to see how to get to Powell's. Sure it was 9pm. Sure, it was in a part of town that could be a smidge sketchy late. Whatever people! We're talking books here! And, once I saw the map and saw that Voodoo Donuts was ON THE WAY to Powell's. Yeah. That was easy.

We downloaded directions from the Google and made our way to the Skidmore Fountain Max station and up to the bridge. As luck would have it a fairly cute, fairly scared looking female crossed our path and we asked how to get to Powell's. She pointed us in the right direction and off we went.

** Public Service Announcement ** Ladies, do not do this alone at night. During the day this area is fine. But, at night, there was a reason that fairly cute girl looked scared. You should not be walking around here alone.

After a brisk 10 block walk, we made it to Powell's. Wow. I spent about an hour in the knit & crochet books. That was followed by general crafts and Halloween. Wow. Other than picking up a random book as a gift on my way back from the bathroom, I was able to (mostly) control myself. I picked up 2 knitting books, 1 gift book, 1 reusable tote bag ($1) , a tshirt (gift) and a mug (gramma gift). Serious restraint!

On our way back we stopped at Voodoo. Though, I must confess, we were still so full from dinner we simply admired our donuts until the next morning.

As you can see I opted for the Voodoo dude and a traditional chocolate cake donut. Though my chocolate cake donut originally had the anarchy symbol on it, the frosting smeared on the way home. I'll be honest, the chocolate cake donut isn't anything to write home about. I wasn't my favorite. The Voodoo dude was quite tasty. As you might guess it had a raspberry filling inside. This serves two purposes, a good visual for a voodoo doll and keeping me to just eating around the filling thereby keeping me from getting sick from eating too much donut. (I'm not a filling kind of girl.)

Regina got the other donut they're famous for...

That's right, the maple bacon. Like my chocolate cake donut, she also got her own buttermilk bar 'cause she just likes those. I didn't try the buttermilk but holy crap the maple bacon rocked my world. Like chicken & waffles work together, so does the maple bacon donut. Yum! If you're ever in Portland and you don't happen to be a vegetarian, I highly recommend it!

Full from a healthy breakfast of voodoo, we went back to Powell's for a brief run around of all the sections we missed the night before. Though I can't say we saw all of it, I was able to hit the cookbooks (xmas gift), the pet section (more xmas gifts) and travel. So, I didn't feel like I had missed anything. I didn't see it all, but there wasn't anything I would cry if I didn't see it.

Now, our original Sunday plan included Crafty Wonderland. However, nothing in Portland, other than Powell's, opens before 11. And, with a 1:30pm flight, that doesn't work very well. So, we had to save Crafty Wonderland for our next visit.

I left Regina at the hotel since my flight was a few hours before hers, enjoyed a very healthy lunch, and was home by 4pm.

In case you're wondering, we've already started planning a trip in the spring.