Escape to Portland

Bug and I decided it was time to do a little getaway. We were tired of the rain and gray here in Eugene, so we packed a overnight bag (in case we decided to make two days of it) and headed to Portland, where clearer weather was promised.

I knew I wanted to hit some fabric and yarn stores, and Bug was planning on doing the Widmer Brewery tour. We also wanted to try to find a place to have a nice crab dinner, because Dad had sent us some cash at Christmas so he could eat vicariously through us. Does anyone else have someone who does this? Because I had never heard of it before he brought it up...

By the time we got to Tigard, it was lunch, so we stopped at our favorite German restaurant, Gustav's.
The place was packed for lunch, but we managed to squeeze in with only a short wait. We shared the small Shepherd's Pie, which was fabulous, and the appetizer sampler and a bowl of Mulligatawny soup. All of it was delish, and we were quite full without breaking the bank.

After lunch, we drove around looking for several yarn stores that simply eluded us, but we ended up on Boone's Ferry Road, which I knew would take us somewhere delightful.

We ended up here: The Stash Tea Catalog store.

We picked up a few things that we had been wanting to try, but didn't have in any of our local stores, plus something for my Secret Pal. Psst, don't tell...
The ladies at the store were also kind enough to give me a sample of the wonderful Chocolate Mint tea that i had been wanting to try. It is catalog only, so I am definitely going to order some later.


We drove over to Bridgeport Village, where we perused the Discovery Channel store (one of Bug's favorites), the newest Apple Store, where Bug and I drooled over the new Power Mac G5. It is soooo much bigger than our pitiful G3...and that screen! You're only seeing half of it!
I also communed with Zabet's blog via the new iMac G5. It was amusing to see that she was ranting about Adobe when we were surrounded by their products.
(you can't escape them!)






After much technology goodness, we decided to splurge and check out the gelateria next door. All I can say is...Mango gelato is goooooood!


A quick trip to the Oblation paper store provided us with more fun window shopping and touching of expensive papers and checking out photo album design for projects I may tackle a bit later.

Then we ran to a couple of fabric stores before we went to Uwajimaya in Beaverton. We first encountered Uwajimaya when we went to Seattle, and when I discovered one in Beaverton I flipped! We love looking at all the exotic foods and try to guess what things are. For two lightly traveled southern girls, it's like going to another planet sometimes. :) Here's my favorite image from our trip to the grocery:

After all that running around, we decided to hit the East side of Portland the next day and found a comfy hotel in Beaverton. The next day, we were up early consulting our map trying to decide what we could fit in before the brewery tour at 3pm.

We headed out to find a place called pedX, a shoe store on NE 22nd. We got there and no such shoe store existed. Disappointed, we headed back down to the corner because we saw a yarn store that might prove interesting. We drove around the block to find some parking, and ended up about half a block away in front of: pedX!

They weren't open yet, so we headed down to close knit, the yarn store we had spied. it turns out that they are a new shop and have only been open for a couple of months now. We talked to the owner, Sally Palin, and she was simply wonderful and had great customer service. I only wish that she were in Eugene, because the yarn stores here have grumpy owners.

We bought some Cascade 220 Superwash in blue and orange to make some slippers for Bug and I got a skein of the heathered yarn in a dried grass color. It is beautiful! Now I just need to figure out what to make from it...

We dropped into Bolt, a beautiful little fabric store next door to close knit. They had all kinds of heavenly fabrics, so I selected a few for my next charm quilt and inquired about a pattern for the cute needle case they had on display. Sadly, it was not in yet, so I am still looking for one.

Back to pedX we went, and I was so excited to see all kinds of very cool and lovely mary janes. I found a pair that I liked, but thought they were too expensive, so I was going to pass. Bug saw how smitten I was with the cute shoes and swooped them up, swearing that they were an early birthday present. I think I kept thanking her for them all day long. :)

Our last yarn shop for the day was the Yarn Garden.
An amazing place with three rooms filled floor to ceiling with yarn and other knitting goodies. Here I found some [good things] for my Secret Pal. I hope she enjoys [good things].

Even Bug was at a loss for all the yarn in the shop. She just wandered from room to room fondling the yarn, she even helped me choose the yarn for her next pair of socks. I was so happy that she's taking an interest in my knitting and trying to learn more about it. I shouldn't be too surprised though, because she really enjoyed the fiber classes in weaving that she has taken.

Our last stop for the day was a late lunch at the Gasthaus, and a tour of the Widmer Brewery. On the way into the restaurant, we were greeted by the executive chef and seated very quickly. We ordered and had very good pub fare and free samples of their Northwest Red Ale.

Then we took the brewery tour. While I was not too excited about the whole beer brewing thing, tours are usually interesting and I'm up for interesting any day of the week. I was amazed to find that brewing is a really complicated and scientific process, especially when done on the scale that Widmer produces. The gentleman giving the tour was knowledgable, and kept the information on an easily digestible level for those of us who don't know anything about beer at all.

At the end, there was tasting, tasting, and more tasting, but I left that all to Bug because I was driving us back home. I think they brought out every beer they have in production and some they didn't. There must have been about eight pitchers on the tasting table by the time everyone was done. Even more surprising were the gifts they gave out at the end of the tour. We all received a pint glass and a bottle opener keychain just for taking the tour. How cool!

The best part of the day? Seeing a very happy Bug at the end...