Portland, OR - Day 25

"Special" coffee at Mother's
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Portland was amazing.  Trying to fit experiencing a whole city into one day is impossible, but we tried anyway :o)  We left the campground we were at (45 min outside the city) by 8ish to make breakfast at Mother's by 9, when they open.  Apparently it's the best breakfast in the city and the wait on any given day can be over an hour.  There was a line when we got there, but we got in right away.  Wow was it great.

Next stop was the market, which wasn't a farmers market but more of an arts and crafts area.  It was so much fun, we wandered around for an hour or so enjoying the environment - the sites, the smells, the people - and then headed to the Japanese Gardens.  These were absolutely beautiful.  There were 7 different gardens all constructed to reflect tradional Japanese gardening, including a flat garden and a sand and stone garden.  Our favorite was the natural garden.

Mmmmmmm mimosas
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After that we figured it was lunch time so we hit the Pearl district and the Bridgetport Brewery for lunch.  And beer.  Lots of beer.  And then we hit Rogue Brewery, which apparently caught on fire while we were there, or at least the alarm kept going off.  Lots of fire trucks came but we just sat and enjoyed our samples, which ended up being free because of all the commotion.  Whoohoo!  We tooled around the Pearl District doing some window shopping and then headed over to the Hawthorne District and the Lucky Labrador Brewery, which allows dogs.  I think by this time we were actually a bit tired of beer, but we stll went for the sampler again :o)  Samplers are great - you get about 4oz of anywhere from 4 to 9 beers depending on the place, so you get to really experience the full range of beers at the brewery.  Our favorite that day was Bridgeport.

The Japanese Gardens
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After window and thrift store shopping in Hawthorne, we made our way to the river for dinner and wine tasting at Thirst Wine Bar and Bistro, watched the sun set, and enjoy our wine late into the evening.  An EXCELLENT day!  Oh and the weather was a solid 85 all day long.  Who knew Portland could be so gorgous?