Day 6: U.S. and Canada West Coast Drive

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Portland

For links with helpful information on Portland, including parking, public transportation, maps and more, you can visit the previous page for this travel blog story (5 Drive to Portland) and you will find the helpful information after the drive to Portland and before the story about Portland for day 5.

We started our day by going to Ken’s Artisan Bakery for breakfast. This place was recommended by someone who lives in that neighborhood. The croissants there were highly recommended by the local, but we felt the prices were exorbitant, so we got a mini quiche Lorraine instead and a hot chocolate. The quiche Lorraine was decent but not even close to being very good. Oh, but the “hot” chocolate. The hot chocolate was not hot – it was barely warm. I find it annoying when places don’t make their hot chocolate HOT. Just call it “barely warm chocolate” and then I’ll know not to waste my money on it.

After the unsatisfactory experience at Ken’s Artisan Bakery, we drove to the International Rose Test Garden located in Washington Park. The free parking lot had plenty of spaces available that rainy Sunday morning in September.

I love, I mean super duper love, flowers and gardens. For years I had been wanting to visit the International Rose Test Garden, and I’m soooo glad we finally went there! My husband went for me, but he enjoyed it too. He waited the majority of the time very patiently as I toured the garden and took a crazy number of photos of the roses. It was raining most of time we were there, but there was no way that was going to stop me from enjoying the roses!

Fortunately I was wearing shoes that kept my feet warm and dry despite the many mud puddles my feet kept sinking in to. They’re waterproof, lightweight, comfortable boots that I bought from Skechers on clearance shortly before our trip.

Click here for a map of the International Rose Test Garden.

As always, in the gallery below you can click on any photo to enlarge it and see the captions, and then either close it or click to the right or left to see the next or previous photo in the gallery.

We spent about an hour and a half at the International Rose Test Garden, and I think we missed one small section, but I had seen plenty of roses that day, my photo gallery had a bunch of new photos of flowers (in addition to the very many it was already storing) and we were getting hungry and tired of walking in the rain.

We drove and parked in the neighborhood (called Nob Hill) around Life of Pie Pizza for their Happy Hour, which is from 11am – 6pm every day. Man, oh, man, that pizza at Life of Pie Pizza is excellent! And the Happy Hour prices are great. It was $8 for a Margherita Pizza and $6 for house beer and wine.

They have two locations – we went to the one at 1765 NW 23rd Ave, Portland, OR.

We ordered one pizza to share and one beer to share. After tasting how good the pizza was, my husband ordered another pizza and another beer. The employee said, “You didn’t realize how hungry you were,” and my husband replied, “I didn’t realize how good your pizza is.” The beer was good too. They have a chili oil on the table that you can drizzle on your pizza, and that went so well on that pizza – it took an already terrific pizza and made it even tastier.

According to this news story from July 2021, “for the second time in two years, national experts have declared Portland the best city for pizza in America.” I had read that and we wanted to try it for ourselves. We’ve had pizza in multiple cities and countries, and the pizza at Life of Pie Pizza definitely ranks up there. It tastes far better than it looks. We’re both glad we went there.

After lunch, we walked south on NW 23rd Ave (also referred to as ‘Trendy Third Ave”) from Life of Pie Pizza. It’s a somewhat nice street with shops, restaurants, cafes and so on, but we were not impressed by it, except for that excellent pizza place we ate at for lunch. And they have a See’s Candies on that street, so I got a small bag of chocolates to enjoy as we walked.

I had planned to visit Nob Hill Food Carts while we were in the area if we were in the mood for more food, but our tummies were still very full from the terrific pizzas and beers. One thing that sounded interesting to me was Bing Mi at the Nob Hill Food Carts; they sell Chinese crepes, but it looks like they’ve moved to another location in Portland since we visited.

From NW 23rd Ave we drove to the Pearl District. We had planned on walking to the Pearl District and walking around that area, but the rain would not let up, so we decided to drive through the area. Nothing about it stood out to us as particularly interesting. Even Powell’s City of Books didn’t interest us, even though, according to this link (their website), “Powell’s City of Books is the largest used and new bookstore in the world, occupying an entire city block and housing approximately one million books.”

We had planned to visit Pioneer Courthouse Square while in the area, including maybe trying some food from the food carts there, but the rain put a damper on those plans.

Later that day we headed for dinner. I had read great reviews for Mi Burrito, a restaurant serving “authentic Mexican food.” It was mediocre. My husband is not a fan of Mexican food because he thinks it tends to be bland. I like Mexican food, but I do agree that it’s often not on the more flavorful side compared to many other cuisines. This place was pretty bland. The man at the counter was friendly. My husband and I enjoyed each other’s company, so at least there’s that. I would have preferred to have eaten at Del Taco again, and my husband who is not a big fan of Del Taco would also have preferred to have eaten at Del Taco. Oh well. You win some and you lose some. (There was another man there that totally loves the food there, so my opinion is just my opinion.)

We had planned to do a lot more walking in Portland, but it just kept raining and raining all day long. For sunset we had planned to go to Council Crest for the views, but we opted not to because of the rain.

Though Portland isn’t our type of city, it does have the International Rose Test Garden and Life of Pie Pizza, good beer and a lot of food carts throughout the city, so Portland does offer some good things to enjoy.

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