Portland, OR

Saturday Markets were our first priority on Saturday morning. Located under the Burnside Bridge, down by the Willamette River, the markets are typical of markets all over the world, with food, local fare, music and knick-knacks. We spent 2 hours strolling through, buying gifts for ourselves and others. We bought a real nice photo of Cannon Beach, where we had our first real date 9 years ago. I also got a sleeveless sweater, to cope with the cool Portland weather.

I Think the Sign Says it All

After taking our stuff back to the hotel, we walked over to the Bridgeport Brewpub to have lunch with Mike, Amy's old flatmate, his wife Jenny and their 3 week old son, Layne. We had a fantastic feed out on the patio of this old brew pub. This was Mike & Jenny's first trip out with the baby, and I think it was a success.

We explored more of the Pearl District after lunch and headed into some of the south east streets of downtown.

We went back to the hotel at about 5pm to chill before we went on our mini dine around (again in the Pearl - are you seeing a pattern?). We started at Oba, a fantastic Mexican restaurant, with drinks and some of the best tacos I've ever had. Andina (a Peruvian restaurant) was to be our next stop, but you could not get near the bar. Same problem at 50 Plates. We could, however eat at Touche - an Italian restaurant ABH had taken me too way back when we were first here. Hummus and a quick drink and we moved on. Bay 13 turned out to be our last stop (who new appetizers could be so filling), where we split some mussels, edamame and sushi.

Us @ Bay 13

I love that this city is so walkable (though Amy says I need to come back in January). Feels like we've covered a bunch of miles in the last 2 days, yet we've hardly left the NW section of town. Maybe tomorrow we'll explore further.