The Voyage Begins

While Bob was practicing and watching the pros play on Friday, I joined Ann Goetcheus and her friend Judith for a walking epicurian tour of Portland.  It was a lot of fun.  We started at Chocolat, where we tasted drinking chocolate, and learned that Hershey's dark premium chocolate is only 18% chocolate.  From there we went to Flying Elephant Delicatessen (which has 70% of the catering market in Portland) and is famous for its tomatoe orange soup (the recipe is on their website and is delicious).  On to The Gaufre Gourmet (one of Portland's numerous food trucks) which makes Belgian waffles from Liege (an eggy, yeasty waffle with chunks of sugar in them).  Our guide, an actor from Boston who is appearing in Penelope, likes to go to lots of places and eat only a little at each one.  He was very high on Currier Coffee (a coffee roaster that delivers its coffee by bicycle within Portland).  They have one retail outlet which is organized like a bar; you go up, pay and get your coffee, instead of waiting in line.  They roast their coffee fresh and say you shouldn't keep your coffee after three weeks.  The trend in coffee roasting now is for lighter roasts (it's like a good steak; you don't want to burn it because it all tastes the same).  They made a great machiato.  On to The Pearl Bakery whose head baker led an American team in 2001 to win the world Boulangerie contest with an amazing roll with fennel seeds in it.  Julia Child had their bagette and announced that they were perfect.  From there we walked to the City of Portland Sustainability Offices where Hot Lips Pizza heats all the hot water off their oven vents and which used to be a train station which burned six times.  It was built with old growth timber which doesn't burn, so there are lots of singed beams and stringers.  We had a pizza with cilantro pesto, corn, black beans and queso fresco.  Lastly to Cool Moon Ice Cream which makes American-style ice cream in small batches.  We had thai iced tea and cinnamon and I tried a hot thai peanut ice cream.  Lastly to a store where we could taste olive oils and vinegars.  Each of these tours is different and goes to different places.

After picking up some more underwear for Bob we headed to the Zimbabwe Art Project, some of whose art was exhibited in the Gerding Theater.  They have wonderful painted fabric, embroidery, fabric art and painted trays with great stories.  Each artist writes out what s/he is representing and the story goes with the art.
 

On Friday Bob started his competition and I went for a hike.  I checked in with the Ranger Station to find out the Bull of the Woods was still pretty snowed in.  Instead I took an 8.2 mile hike along the Upper Clackamas River (seen in the photo above).  It was lovely.  There were few people, not many cars and the river was so clear.
 

View in the forest.  There were several areas of old growth pine and cedar.  I ate lunch on a gravel bar with a family of kids who were throwing rocks in the water. 

An interesting aggregate boulder in the middle of the river.  After finishing the hike I realized I didn't have the cord to download photos from the camera to the computer, so off to Oregon City I went to pick up a replacement.
 

This morning I watched Bob play the first three holes of the Beaver State Fling with his foursome in Senior Grand Masters.  He didn't do too well on the holes I watched (I don't know if I was bad luck or not).  Here he is throwing.  He came in second out of four, but collected $60 in scrip. Can you find the basket in the photo below?  After lunch we packed up and headed for Kah-Ne-Ta Resort and Hot Springs.  We had a lovely swim in the pool and a shower and are enjoying the dry, windy, sunny weather.  The wi-fi and phone coverage is sketchy.