The Vegan Utopia of Portland

We arrived in Portland late at night after a short drive from Seattle. First thing we did was check in at The Ace Hotel. We were in the Night Owl/Early Bird room. I loved the murals: 

The following day was a chilly autumn day, so we bundled off and headed over to the Blue Moose Cafe for brunch. The staff were so friendly, and brought over samples of their soups for us to try. The Tunisian chickpea was so tasty it became my order. It came with freshly baked bread crammed full with grains and seeds. T ordered the breakfast burrito, which was also fantastic. Accompanied by strawberry lemonade, it was the perfect way to start the day. 

Next - a spin around the city.

 

We ended up at the vegan strip mall, including Herbivore, Scapegoat Tattoo, Food Fight! vegan grocery, and SweetPea Bakery. We enjoyed a hot chocolate and two varieties of cupcake: lemon buttercream and chocolate oreo.

  

Our celebration of Portland's plentiful vegan joints was completed by a visit to the Bye and Bye (all vegan!) bar. I had several white russians, while T had one beer as he was driving. We also had some food - a "meatball" sub and seasoned tofu for T (so-so sub, amazing tofu), and I had an amazing grilled "cheese" sandwich, tortilla chips and salsa. It was so refreshing to be able to go up to a bar and order both drinks and food without having to explain anything.   

Our second day in Portland was again spent eating, with a little record and clothes shopping thrown in. We started with the most amazing vegan pancakes with blueberries and home fries at the Laurelthirst. We soon moved on to Voodoo Doughnut, which had about six types of vegan donuts. 

A large part of our evening was spent perusing the shelves in Powell's Used & New Books. The store covers a whole city block, and the few hours we were there was just not enough time. I loved the little sign in the Banana Yoshimoto section - "Please enjoy a wonderful book by Banana Yoshimoto. She'll make your heart sing." 

Here are the books I picked up (apart from the Tape Op and 33 1/3 which belong to T and the Herbivore Travel Guide and Zinester's Guide to Portland which are from Herbivore): 

We picked up a delicious mexican diner from the loveliest people ever at Los Gorditos, a caravan that makes both vegan and non-vegan mexican food. Wow! The mexican mango and lime pop we had with it was fantastic too. 

Finally it was time to head out to the Timberline Lodge near Mt Hood for a little (scary) nostalgia over this film:

Seattle?

My first view of Seattle was the skyline at night. I was completely awestruck, as it has one of the coolest skylines I have ever seen. It looked so futuristic, more Bladerunner than Bladerunner. This was mostly thanks to the Space Needle - I am still amazed that it was built in the 1960's.

We were staying at the Ace Hotel, and our room was fantastic. The only thing separating our bed from the shower was a clear glass screen. 

 

We started out the following day in a very healthy way - vegan donuts and coffee at Mighty-O. It was almost too much for me, trying to figure out which donuts we should try, given that every single one was vegan. After a long process of elimination, we narrowed the 26 or so varieties down to 12, and we sat down to enjoy one (or three) with some coffee (for me, as T is not a coffee kinda guy). 

We stumbled outside in a donut induced euphoria, only to discover that there was a hot dog joint (aptly named Diggity Dog) across the street. Their vegan dogs were too much to pass up, although this meant that we had to take turns rolling each other back to the car. 

It was then time for our self researched and guided Twin Peaks locations tour. T and I have been long time David Lynch fans, and I consider Twin Peaks to be a jewel in his crown. I used to love freaking myself out as a 16 year old in New Zealand, watching it on Sunday nights at 11 pm with all the lights in the house off. Bob.......Wyndham Earle.......in a weak moment, those characters can still make me reconsider a midnight trip to get a glass of water.

Clutching our list of addresses from this website, we headed out into the wilds of Washington State. The big highlights were: 

Trestle Bridge - Ronette Pulaski was found wandering along this bridge at the start of Fire Walk With Me. 

The "Welcome to Twin Peaks" sign in the opening credits was shot along this road. 

Salish Lodge & Spa - The Great Northern Hotel in the series.

Train Carriages where the murder scene takes place in Fire Walk With Me. 

Twedes Cafe - The Double R Diner in the series.

All this hunting made us very hungry, so we headed to Pizza Pi Pizzeria in the university district of Seattle before making our way down to Portland. Their pizzas were exceptional, especially the breadstix with white garlic sauce:

And so a fond farewell was bid to Seattle. Next stop: Portland. 

Stanley Park

A hearty breakfast is an excellent way to start the day. A return visit to Naam was on the cards, given our suspicion that their breakfasts would be far superior to their dinner menu. Our suspicion was indeed proven a reality, as evidenced by our tendency to over order (and over indulge): 

Vegan pancakes with maple syrup and organic blueberries

Vegan breakfast special (home fries, sausages, scrambled tofu and pancakes)

Breakfast burrito and salsa

A long hike around Stanley Park then ensued to try and work over the enormous amount of food we had consumed. It was a beautiful day, and a lot of people were out and about cycling, running, walking and just taking in the views. 

It is quite a spectacular park, particularly for the vivid reds, yellows and oranges of the autumn leaves at this time of year. 

I really enjoyed watching the seemingly endless streams of seaplanes taking off and landing. Another treat was enjoying some maple syrup candies in the sun on a grassy bank next to the Totem Park. Best of all though was the huge number of dogs out with their human companions. There was one particularly enthusiastic fellow who would endlessly swim out to fetch his ball that his human friend kept obligingly throwing into the water. There were also large numbers of geese, swans, and even a pair of raccoons checking out the snack situation:

After swinging by Budgies to pick up another burrito each, it was time to cross the border back into the States and head to Seattle. We had a most entertaining border guard who was keen to hear about why we had come to the States, how we met and the like. The best part came when he asked if we had any food items to declare. T declared the maple and blueberry tea that we had bought, to which the response was: "Tea is ok. Do you have any drugs? Drugs are not ok." The three of us had a good laugh after we had said we didn't have any drugs, and he let us be on our way. Who said that American border guards don't have a sense of humour?

Vancouvering

Despite some peanut butter bagels for breakfast at the airport in Toronto, by the time we got to Vancouver we were both ravenous. None of the snacks on the flight were vegan, although one of the attendants gave us an organic apple and orange from her own lunchbox as she felt sorry for us. Very impressive service Westjet!

We headed straight out to find some food, and we found it at The Foundation. As it turned out, it would be where we were meeting T's friend Jud later that day for dinner. The service wasn't terribly great, and while T's meal was ok, mine was not too good at all. The highlight of the meal was the piece of vegan sugar pie we got to take away.

We (mainly me) were still hungry afterwards, so we sidled over to Budgie's Burritos just a few minutes away. Their vegan burritos were amazingly fresh and tasty, and the staff very friendly. I still think about those burritos.......

We followed up lunch with a drive around the city. I found Hastings incredibly sad, with huge groups of homeless people sitting and standing around in the rain. Many were lining up for shelters to get a bed for the night. It really made me wonder what happens when it gets really cold in Vancouver. I continued to think about this as we checked into our hotel, the Moda, and felt increasingly guilty that we had somewhere safe, clean and warm to sleep for the night. I often feel like this when travelling, as does T, so we try and do something practical about it, like always packaging up any leftovers from a meal out and giving it to someone who needs it. I know however that this is a band aid type of response and is not going to change anything substantively for that person. We also make donations to charities, but does anyone do anything else when travelling (or at home for that matter)?

A few hours later, we headed out to meet Jud at The Foundation. T and Jud worked together at Sonic Boom in Toronto a few years back, so I had heard a lot about him. We had a great time over some good food and beers before heading over to see Wire play. When we arrived though, there was a sign on the door saying that the show had been cancelled due to scheduling conflicts. It was a bit rough that they didn't at least have someone there to explain, rather than locking the doors, turning the lights off and a piece of paper in the window. There were many crushed Vancouverans hanging around outside, including a woman that Jud knew proclaiming that she had been looking forward to this night for over 6 months. I was disappointed too, but given that I had only known that we were going for about 2 days, I can only imagine how she (and others) felt. Still, we had fun drowning our sorrows at a crepe restaurant that serves cheap pitchers of beer.

The following day, T and I decided to take a day trip up to Whistler. It was a cold, rainy, foggy day, which seemed perfect for the drive up there. The scenery was quite spectacular, so I'll let the pictures do the talking: 

We didn't get back to Vancouver until about 9 pm, so we headed over to Naam, a vegetarian restaurant in the Kitsilano district. The queue was out the door when we arrived, and we were so hungry and tired that we thought it would be quicker to wait than to find somewhere else. Unfortunately this meant that when we were finally seated, we were right next door to a very loud guitarist who was providing the music for the evening. I think it was our grumpy moods, but the food was not terribly good either. Still, we weren't defeated, and resolved to return for brunch the next day to see if we could turn things round. 

The Toronto Social Whirl

Once we got back from Cuba, we only had a few days to make the most of Toronto before flying across to Vancouver. This involved scheduling everybody in for meal times (or snack times, which I am certainly not adverse to) so we got to see everyone. There were of course some individual snack times, such as a visit to Kensington Market Organic Ice Cream. There happened to be two vegan flavours which were perfect - chocolate made with hemp butter for T (who all but worships the coca bean) and pecan pumpkin, just in time for Thanksgiving for me. Pumpkin being used in sweet dishes is new to me - I had of course heard of it, but never tried anything sweet involving the orange stuff. I'm happy to report that it was spectacular - the owner Brad tried to convince me to get a regular not a kid's cone, saying that when we got back to Australia I would regret not getting the bigger size. Brad, you were so right.

The splodge on T's nose is for my entertainment purposes. He is so obliging. 

Prior to the social whirl commencing, we walked off the ice cream in Trinity-Bellwoods park. Luckily for me, TB is a huge dog park, so I got to meet lots of friends while crunching around in the autumn leaves. 

And now, let the social whirl begin!

T and his old roomies Tiff and Stan at the house of Tiff, her wonderful partner Paul and their gorgeous wee son Alex. Also whirling with us was Kirsty, the lovely wife of Stan and Rudy, Stan's Dad visiting from Calgary.  

Tiff and Paul's little guy Alex.

The next day we visited Mel and her gorgeous little girl Sadie. I also finally got to meet Karol and hear some of the stories involving her that T had told me first hand. I was not disappointed, and we all spent the majority of the afternoon laughing. 

T and I had had lunch earlier with Daniela at Live, a raw food restaurant. I never thought that raw nachos would be a good idea, but sun dried corn tortillas, cashew cream, walnut crumble, salsa, avocado and other yummies convinced me otherwise. I also had a tempeh Reuben sandwich which was amazingly tasty and fresh. I inhaled it so fast I completely forgot about photos of it, or any of the rest of the food for that matter. Somewhere in the feeding frenzy, Daniela's lovely sister Claudia came and joined us fresh off the plane from London. 

We were lucky enough to meet up with Daniela again with her wonderful partner Andy later on that day for drinks. Pomegranate sangria anyone?

Daniela is a very talented actress, and very recently played an international assassin on The Border. She was absolutely amazing, and in my view deserves every success.

T and I made a visit to Grapefruit Moon for one of their TLT's (Tempeh, Lettuce and Tomato). It wasn't quite as good as I remember it, but the coffee and orangina were fantastic!

Our UN summit at Vegetarian Haven of one Australian, one New Zealander, one Irishman, two Americans and two Canadians (otherwise known as Amelia, Joanne, Brad, Jeff, Daragh, me & T, although this photo has been cut off and I'm not in it! Why does blogger keep squashing/cutting off my photos? Help?). This was followed by a post-summit drink at a Belgian beer bar around the corner. 

Staying and hanging out with the lovely Sarah, her very sweet partner Ron, and their animal companions including Gypsy and Charlie see here. It was one of the most wonderful feelings in the world to wake up with the end of our bed covered in animals contentedly purring/snoring.

And then it was time to Westjet it over to Vancouver. The gods were smiling on us for this airport trip, as an old workmate of Tim's was working on the check-in counter and he placed us in fantastic seats for the flight. More on Vancouver tomorrow.......