Do forgive me, because I know how much I preach about consumerism and slow living, but I went a little crazy shopping in Portland. I did, however, manage with difficulty to refrain from buying the black truffle salt and bergamot bitters at The Meadow, although I bought a packet of hot dark chocolate mix that made our following mornings with coffee special. Photos are of a few shelves in the shop. There were tasters for the bitters and I have to say that I was very, very tempted.
We started the morning at Blue Star Donuts, and hobbled our way up and down Mississippi Avenue for a few blocks in each direction. The Meadow was the first stop. We drifted through GiftyKitty which was as cute as and a bit more artsy and twisted than the name implies. At PDXchange, we both bought rings and I bought this absolutely awesome coffee mug, even though I had sworn a solemn oath not to buy any more coffee mugs. I had planned to buy a new ring in Portugal and didn’t, so that was my excuse to buy this beautiful silver labradorite ring.
A few doors down, Flutter was aptly named because its mix of new and vintage definitely made my heart twitch. I was very good here, only buying a long length of lace from a $10 basket, a little of it shown here hanging down around the light bulbs that I bought at Sunlan the day before. Susan was also very good, because she really really really wanted this parasol, and it was SO SUSAN, but she left it behind. It was awesome inside and out.
We then hit Rock Paper Scissors, a stationery and card shop with some art supplies, and Susan bought a few pencils and I bought a couple of felt pens and a few sheets of printed lokta paper.
At this point, we were D.O.N.E. So we ate a margerhita pizza at Tartuca at a streetside table. Nearly everywhere we ate had outdoor seating, extremely helpful when a particularly contagious Covid strain is making the rounds. This was one of several vegetarian meals that were amazing.
We collapsed for several hours and then walked up N. Williams Ave. in search of banh mi. The restaurant that we were looking for didn’t sell banh mi anymore, so we kept walking and discovered Dick’s Primal Burger, and Susan ordered a wild boar burger and mine was venison, goat cheese, and mushrooms. It was the best burger I have ever eaten.
The next day we would be getting our art on at a day workshop in Jill Berry’s studio.
slowly she turned 