Coffee! If you’ve been following me for a while, you know I like coffee. And I love trying coffee in new cities, like Monmouth Coffee at Borough Market in London (if you’re ever in London, you HAVE to go here!) Stumptown is an independent coffee company, “the iconic and fiercely independent company that helped define coffee in [Portland]” and has recently been sold to a New York investment firm, according to this article. Nevertheless, I had to try!
Mmmm…
I love coffee shops, end of story.
Not only do I love coffee (see post here), but I love breakfast food! And if you’ve been following me for a while, you know that I love to go out for breakfast, no matter where I am – Montreal, London (and again). In Portland, my friend took us to the Tin Shed, a great patio/garden cafe that’s very vegetarian-friendly, located at 1438 NE Alberta Street.
Loved sitting on the patio…
Drinking a cup of coffee…
Eating my unbelievably delicious sweet potato French Toast made with brioche, and covered in maple syrup, served with a side of fresh fruit….
And people-watching of course (dog-watching too, apparently the Tin Shed is very dog-friendly, too)…
Read more about the Tin Shed on Yelp.com, Serious Eats, and this article about the hour-long PBS documentary, “Breakfast Special,” that featured this cafe!
Portland food carts! I don’t even know where to begin on this one. I had never heard of this phenomenon, food carts, until arriving in Portland seeing them all over the city, several of them crowded together along sidewalks and in parking lots! My friend was telling us, as she was driving us around the city, that it’s a real big thing in Portland, and food carts are a way for chefs and bakers to get there food out there without having to buy or rent an actual restaurant space. Here’s a video about them on the New York Times website, and there’s even a website dedicated to Portland food carts (all 400+ of them!) And my friends sisters’ boyfriend happens to work at one, The Portland Soup Company!
Located at S.W. Fourth and College, over by Portland State University, The Portland Soup Company gets so much lunch-traffic, and I’m not surprised, their food was absolutely delicious!
Here’s the owner, Jeremy Davidson!
They’re known for their soups and salads, and can I just say, they are delicious! I got a LARGE mozzarella sandwich (with arugula and sundried tomatoes) for only $6!
And a wonderful homemade cookie for dessert…
Yumm! Read more about The Portland Soup company at Food Carts Portland, Oregon Live and Yelp.com.
After a few relaxing days on the Oregon coast, building sandcastles and drinking margaritas on the beach, watching a beautiful sunset over a campfire, going on hikes at Cape Kiwanda and Proposal Rock, admiring the sea life at the Oregon Coast Aquarium and drinking local brewed beers… We went up to Portland to hang out, explore, eat great food and explore some more. Here’s a collection of some of my favorite photographs (more to come!)
Places featured in this post (aka places YOU should visit when you’re in Portland): Voodoo Doughnut, Powell’s Books, Fire On The Mountain, Lewis & Clark College campus, Tin Shed (click here for my post), Portland’s Rose Garden and the Coalition Brewing Co. Other city favorites include Antwerp, Berlin, Florence, Ghent, Istanbul, London, Montreal and Paris.
On our last day at the coast, we drove to Newport, Oregon, to the Oregon Coast Aquarium…
Saw some more seals (see Monterey seals here, and San Francisco seals here)…
Haha had a little too much fun at the gift shop…
And stopped by the Rogue Brewery for lunch and some beer samples…
And walked the “boardwalk” of Newport, stopping in a candy store to get more salt water taffy, and other souvenirs…
And spotting more seals!
One of my favorite days on the Oregon Coast, and one of the most relaxing days in weeks, was when we climbed Proposal Rock (see the rock in the ocean in the photograph below? Yeah, that’s it).
Climbing a large rock off the coast, how is THAT relaxing? Well, ok, it was an adventure: we had to cross a stretch of water at first, climbing up on the rocks and running across when the tide pulled out (I think there was some squealing and yelling involved!), we climbed up Proposal Rock barefoot, which was quite painful, but the views from the other side were amazing…
After our little adventure, we treated ourselves to the most delicious pizza from the (only) restaurant in town…
And spent the rest of the afternoon putting together a 1000-piece puzzle (well, OK, THEY did that)…
and watching classic chick flick after chick flick (yes, I did that part, wrapped up in a blanket on the couch, and don’t blame me, what girl doesn’t secretly still enjoy Sleepless in Seattle, When Harry Met Sally and You’ve Got Mail?) It was a wonderful day.
The lovely little town of Neskowin…
See previous Oregon coast posts…
And now, back to the Oregon coast (see previous posts here, here and here), and here are photographs of our adventure at Cape Kiwanda, a climb up the massive sand dune (see the second picture) and explorations around the cape.
