An Escape to Portland

Welcome back dear reader, it’s good to see you.

You know when you have a burning desire to escape into an adventure?

Well, Elexa and I both love to travel and we recently had this very experience.

We were both off for about a week which was amazing. Our quick get away slash run away spot was Portland. It’s far enough to be an escape and not too far to feel like a chore to get to.

We booked our hotel for two nights the day of. I know, exhilarating isn’t it!

Not ideal for budget rates unfortunately. Somehow this type of freedom to do just this has never become old.

With this desire to escape and find adventure we packed our carry-on size suitcases and hit the road.

Thankfully while on the road the other drivers behaved themselves. There was no horn honking, swerving or use of obscene hand signs.

There was however some tailgating, though this was remediated easily enough by switching lanes. Personally I never have understood the tailgating.

Just go around, is what I think.

Oh, also a ROCK was kicked up and thrown full force into our driver side windshield. This was not ideal, obviously, but also not a trip destroyer either.

Okay, it was infuriating, specifically for my wife because it was her vehicle, not mine. She said that I would have been more upset than her.

She is right.

We have visited Portland several times and it continues to lead to adventures.

It builds on the simple fact that we have not explored all of Portland. Specifically the food scene. Each time we go, we strive to find the next best restaurant, food cart, and/or grocery store that sells hot food. Oh, and how could I forget about the coffee. It’s a new experience every time.

Food. That thing that we all need. Elexa and I are food lovers and Portland is a food lovers paradise. We dropped our things off at the hotel and high-tailed it to a collection of food trucks that rested in a half circle around a bar. The Heist is its name. I grabbed a jollof bowl, it was built with a mixture of noodles and jollof for the base. Tiny shrimp topped it on the left and fried sweet plantains on the right. Oh, and some corn placed in the middle. I mixed it all together with their sweet/creamy sauce. The sauce definitely helped, though unfortunately I felt that the bowl overall was lacking flavor. Unfortunately this was the same problem for Elexa’s tofu bowl that she had ordered from a different truck.

We crammed ourselves onto the end of one of the many picnic tables. These tables surround the open air bar that allowed us to look in and watch the Fifa World Cup that was playing on screens that were fiftyish feet away. It was quite interesting because people found ways to still watch even if they couldn’t see the televisions. They pulled out their phones and watched the Fifa World Cup on their tiny screens. Even though they were zoned out focusing on these small screens they were also participating with the people around them by cheering and groaning at key moments of the game. I didn’t realize it until I was part of the watch party, but it was something that had been at the back of my mind that I had wanted to be part of.

Afterwards we wound down with a visit to Portland’s most famous book store. Do you know it?

Powell’s City of Books. The bookstore that takes up an entire block and is, I think, four floors. I think four floors because the floors seemed to be slightly staggered on one another, hence making them difficult to count.

I love walking into Powell’s, it always feels like there are endless possibilities. I can find and read anything. In my mind I am willing to trust information from a book more than the say from the web.

Just think about it.

Anyone can create a website for under a hundred dollars. Heck, I did just that.

Now take a book, that takes real dedication.

While perusing the shelves of the Powell’s main entrance room I found a gem. It is called Portland Stair Walks by Laura O. Foster. When I saw it I knew I had to have it. The gold cover with the green sketch of stairs leading up who knows where filled me with longing to explore places such as this.

I bought the book for sixteen dollars and ninety-five cents.

Happy with my purchase we headed back to the hotel.

The following day we hit up the Portland Art Museum. This place was cool. I have to tell you I normally gravitate towards science museums not art museums. Though this one was cool. One of the collections that made the most impact on me were the pieces by David Hockney.

Each piece was drawn on an iPad. How cool is that?

Normally when I go to an art museum I am either looking at art that is incredibly detailed that was done by someone who lived long ago. On the flip side the other pieces are by a person who is currently living though it looks like a blob of paint on a canvas.

Obviously I am being dramatic and over generalizing. The point is this. I just don’t feel connected to the artist or their works of art most of the time.

Now, with these pieces that were done on an iPad. They seem within reach of something I could attempt for fun.

After the museum we drove around stopping at spots we thought looked cool.

The following day we packed up, checked out, and went and walked Portland Heights. This neighborhood is gorgeous. The yards were landscaped beautifully and the houses were a daydream to look at.

I will say it was challenging to use the map out of the book instead of a GPS map on our phones.

We definitely took some wrong turns. Halfway through Elexa and I were done. We half joked that we were going to call an Uber to come and pick us up to take us back to our vehicle.

We persevered and made it back to our starting point to then go and eat at a Cuban restaurant by the name of Cubo de Cuba. This place was AWESOME.

The baby blue entrance wall and surrounding yellow walls were all signed with autographs, hand drawn pictures, and writing. Most likely done in sharpie. The open ceiling allowed us to see straight up to the boards holding up the roof. Somehow it all worked together. As we ordered and then self seated ourselves inside, I looked out the window at the outdoor seating. There was a photo of a woman with wrinkled skin smoking what I could only assume to be a Cuban cigar. This made me laugh because below it read no smoking, no fumar.

Our food arrived within fifteen minutes. The basket of ripe fried plantains and basket of fried yuka sticks paired well with our tofu hash, beans, avocado, ripe and green plantains and mango. The mango was the real star here. I tried to with every other bite to pick up a piece of sweet juicy mango with the salty spicy tofu and hearty beans. The triple combo made me forget about the world. Elexa and I both ordered the same dish. Which can be a blessing or a curse. If the dish is bad or not amazing, you are stuck with two of them. In this case it was a blessing, we each had a food out-of-body experience.

Once we ate our fill we boxed up the rest and headed home.

It was the perfect ending to a trip that allowed us to escape into an adventure.

-Abe