Day 14: Final Day in Portland (and LOTS of donuts) - June 28

Voodoo Donuts is the place most people say you must try when you tell them you are going to Portland.  To me it sounded very similar to Psycho Donuts in San Jose – a fun place to get a strange concoction, but not something I would necessarily seek out. A few days ago I learned, talking to a very in-the-know 18-year-old boy, that at 4 am they take what is currently in the case out and create “buckets of donuts” that they sell for $10.  I let him know that my days of being up at 4 am are long gone and in fact never really existed.  But then, I realized that while the buckets may be intended for people still up, I could take advantage of the deal and still get a full night’s sleep!  I woke around 5:30 as usual and called Voodoo to confirm buckets were available and headed down there.  The buckets are kept in the back, not visible from the counter, and I couldn’t really picture what I’d be getting for $10, so I asked for 2 buckets to share with the hostel.  I was totally surprised when she brought out two 5-gallon paint buckets heavy with donuts! 

Eventually I woke the girls up and we came to the hostel kitchen to put the donuts out for the guests.  We filled plate after plate with donuts.  There were an unbelievable number of donuts!  Far more than even a hostel full of people could make an inroads on but a nice thing to wake up to on a Sunday morning.

From there we drove Nava to her ultimate practice and made our way to the Portland Saturday Market – yes, on Sunday – a great outdoor arts and crafts market.  We enjoyed checking out the local artists selling all sorts of cool stuff, and it was fun to see the waterfront area of Portland at the same time.   Voodoo Donuts is very close to the Saturday Market so we decided to go so the others could just see it – definitely not to order anything – and the line was well down the block!  When I was there at 5:30 am, there was ONE couple in line in front of me.  Heed my advice – do not wait in line for Voodoo Donuts!  Go early..or choice Blue Star Donuts (they are better).

We got FOUR great finds on the scavenger hunt today!  One item on the list is “a street performer.”  Of course we’ve seen many, many street performers during this trip, and my vision has been to get Rachel involved in some musical act but she is not the one among us most likely to embarrass herself in this way.  Today, we saw a woman who could do amazing things with a hula hoop and Julia put a dollar in her bucket and then gamely asked if she could try too.  Then, I got in on the act.  I don’t think we offended her artistic sensibilities at all…she seemed quite interested in getting us to be better hula hoopers.  I imagine the onlookers were happy though when we left her to her work.  She makes it look so easy!

The Thai restaurant Pok Pok was on Rachel’s list and has been confirmed as a “must” by many locals, so after a quick stop at Sunnyside Piazza (a community effort to turn "space into place")

we headed to Pok Pok for lunch. The food was like no other Thai I’ve ever had before.  Such an unusual combination of flavors and ingredients (for us – very usual for the millions of people living in Thailand – it is said to be very authentic by people who should know).  We really enjoyed the “red fire water spinach” and the curry noodle soup….and the mango sticky rice dessert.  I thought we’d walk over to Salt & Straw afterwards since our time in Portland is coming to an end and we only had it once.  But, again the line was too long to seem worth it, so we passed.

Jim was interested in seeing the Lewis & Clark campus so we headed that way.  Along the way we passed a store called Classic Piano and that is where we got our second great scavenger hunt find of the day: a player piano.  We asked if they had one and they walked us over to where they are kept, turned it on so we could get some pictures, tried to sell us a piano for the girls, and then when they realized we were traveling they left, leaving us alone in the showroom full of every size of piano.  The girls practiced their duet again, this time on 9-foot concert grand pianos!

We walked the Lewis & Clark campus, which is still beautiful but probably not going to be super high on the list.  Our third and fourth scavenger hunt finds of the day – a reflection of the entire family in something other than a mirror and a mascot – were found on campus.    We headed back to the hostel to hang out (read, blog, puzzle, do laundry, nibble on the remaining donuts) for a bit.  Yesterday at Powell’s we got Rachel the book Solo: A Memoir of Hope; she has already read over 200 pages of it.  We’ve had a lot of interesting conversations about Hope, asking questions like “Would you feel differently if she were male and accused of domestic violence?” and “Can you appreciate the art without liking the artist?”  (For me it is a no for Woody Allen and a yes for Hope – not logical.)  We’ve even heard unflattering things about her from people who have played with her, but in the end, we still really like her.  I figured knowing her story from her point of view would be illuminating if nothing else and her path as a goalkeeper is fascinating to Rachel. I’m glad she is reading it so quickly so I can get my hands on it next!

We finally got motivated to walk out for dinner once Jim and Julia finished the puzzle (missing the final piece!) and we could pry Rachel away from the book.  As is our Sunday night tradition, pizza was on the menu.  Grant recommended a great place on Mississippi called Lovely’s Fifty Fifty for pizza – and for ice cream.  He suggested a second option for ice cream called Ruby Jewel’s a little further down the block, and their homemade ice cream cookie sandwich option made them the choice for the night.  When we got there both girls surprised us by deciding they didn’t need more dessert – too many donuts in a day – but Jim and I rallied for some hand-crafted artisan Portland ice cream.  Someone had to do it!