My Great Day

Portland is a great city. I love it here. So yesterday, on my birthday, I wanted to have a Portland day and check a few items off my Portland To-Do list.

I started the morning at the Barefoot Sage on Hawthorne thanks to a birthday gift certificate from Robert. I got the Sweet Feet treatment which consists of an herbal tea footbath (pictured above, but these are not my feet) followed by an aromatherapy sugar scrub, a 30 minute leg and foot massage and a hot rock treatment. It was so relaxing, I wasn't sure I'd be able to stand after it was done.


But, stand I did. I was on a mission! My next destination was down the street to the Waffle Window for lunch. I have wanted to try out the Waffle Window ever since reading about it on Samurai Mom's blog. I walked up and down the street looking for it and was about to give up when I spotted it. I'd passed it twice without knowing. It's around the corner from the Bread and Ink Cafe and is literally a window in a door where you place your order.

There are seats on the sidewalk, but it's January and even though the sun was shining, I decided to eat inside the Bread and Ink at the tables specified for Waffle Window customers. The Waffle Window offers both sweet and savory waffles to choose from and as much as I wanted to try the Banana Rumba, I went with a savory Three B's (pictured above, although I did not take the picture) with bacon, basil and brie. Yum!

Next stop, Voodoo Doughnuts. I'd never been but have wanted to go for a while. It was a fun in a sugary sleazy kind of way, and I got the perfect parking spot right in front (in front of the guy selling the homeless news and next to the porno theater). I got a bacon maple bar, a grape ape, a dirt donut and the voodoo doll (see below.)

I wanted to go to Powell's, but I also wanted to go home. I drove by and the parking garage was full, so I went home. It was a great, great day. So great, that I wanted to do it again today. So I did.

I don't know these people, but they are fans of the new Portland Timbers Major League Soccer team. Downtown in the Timber's store, for the next two days, a professional photographer is doing fan pics that mirror the latest ad campaign (like the one above). I really liked the sound of "professional photographer" and "free" so we went.

The boys were stinkers about it until we got downtown. They wanted to stay home and play the new Wii game we checked out of the library. Did I mention they have a day off from school? Well, they do. They can't just sit home all day and play video games. I told them the trip was mandatory.

They had a great time. We got there right when the store opened up and the line was really short and the photographer was great and the pictures will be emailed to us in a few weeks.

Then we ran over to Powell's. Yay!! I love Powell's. The boys were not so sure. Books are boring, or so they thought. We headed to the Rose Room and found the aisle of video game books and the boys were in heaven. In fact, I left them sitting on a bench reading their books while I went to search for a book for me. I didn't end up getting it because it was kind of expensive and I do have it requested from the library, but it's taking a while and I'm getting anxious.