We arrived back closer to Beaverton around 4-5 pm and drove through the Oak Hills and Cedar Hills neighborhoods. And since we were near Nike World Headquarters, we decided to pop in. This was around the time everyone was getting off work. We parked in the lot and kind of just wandered around the campus some (not sure if that is allowed?) They have a large lake/pond area and the buildings are named after athletes.

For dinner, we found our way to downtown Beaverton. This area was quite cute with lots of shops/restaurants and the city hall/library nearby. We decided to try Nak Won, which was a Korean restaurant – luckily we got a seat right before they became very busy. Seems like there is actually a decent Korean population, with many restaurants and at least 3-4 Korean supermarkets (including an H Mart). Later in the trip we did walk through a small Korean market and came away impressed with what they had in stock.

Post dinner we walked over to JUNE to have a cocktail before calling it a night.

Day 3 started with a visit to the Ole Bolle Troll (Nordic Northwest Troll). We then explored down to the Lake Oswego area. I saw a small bake shop and D recognized that the person had been on cupcake wars so we stopped to get a sweet snack. It was just past 3 pm though and their coffee bar closed at 3. All the baked items were gluten free but you really couldn’t tell. The First Addition neighborhood of Lake Oswego has older and more grand homes and reminded me somewhat of the Fab 40s in Sacramento. From Lake Oswego we kept heading east until we ran into the Willamette River. A quick stop at Tryon Cove Park brought us to this small jetty that was kind of cool.

D had read about the Elk Rock Garden just a short ways north so we went and walked around. This is a private house but the garden is open to the public. Pretty neat.

For dinner that night we returned to the downtown Beaverton area and tried Loyal Legion, one of many breweries. They had a cool system set up for doing beer flights where you had to do a minimum of 4 but could expand (see picture). Their food also was pretty good – had a bit of a German beer garden vibe.

I realized that we had already explored many of the neighborhoods we wanted to see so the next day decided to do some more touristy things. After getting up and getting ready, we drove a little over 90 minutes east along the Columbia river to Hood River (and the fruit loop). Here there is a collection of farms and stores geared towards fruit and agriculture. This is similar to Apple Hill east of Sacramento or Julian east of San Diego – where you can pick your own fruit, eat apple pie, drink cider, etc.

After a long drive, our first stop was to find some facilities and also eat lunch. We stopped at the Farm Stand in the Gorge Market & Deli and had some homemade soup. We then picked up a baguette sandwich and various pastries from the Pine Street Bakery.

The first actual farm stop was at The Gorge White House. As I would be driving the rest of the day, we just did a few tasters of some local cider. They had various mixed flavors that we could try. There was also a small fruit shop and some rows of flowers in the area. The next stop was at Packerd Farm. They had multiple tables set out in front of their shop with free samples ranging from various items like different salsas, pickles, and jams. It was quite warm out and the idea of food safety did cross my mind so I did not partake in many samples (I think I tried like one or two of the pickles). Inside they had more items – some freshly prepared baked goods, etc. One of the highlights is that they have goats that you can purchase a paper bag of food and go feed them. We didn’t do it but did go see them (and watched another group get accosted by them since they had food). On the way out I did pick up a peach empanada – which was quite good (consumed later back in Beaverton). Our third stop was at Hood River Lavender farm (next to a winery). It seemed the lavender season was already over (the plants were no longer vibrant and many had been cut back). Our final stop was at Draper Girls Country farm where we did another cider tasting (8 different flavors this time) and picked up some freshly picked fruit (apples and peaches). There was also a great view of Mt. Hood.

For dinner we tried a little Mexican food car in Beaverton. It was just okay.

On the start of the fifth day, since it was a Saturday, we wanted to see the Beaverton Farmers’ Market. This was located by the library and city hall and was quite busy. I’ve been to various farmers’ markets in different states and really did enjoy this one. I wanted to do some cooking while visiting so picked up various food items from different stalls (freshly made pasta, Italian sausage, tomatoes).

We then headed into actual Portland for Art in the Pearl (Pearl district). This free art gallery/exhibition is hosted in one of the park areas and was neat to see as well.

It was around lunchtime (or a little after) and so we went to Farmhouse Kitchen Thai Cuisine. I didn’t know this chef is pseudo-famous having been on some cooking competition shows. We had the Neua num tok rolls (Wagyu beef) and their special chicken dish. Both were quite delicious.

After lunch we checked out a home goods store called Schoolhouse Electric & Supply Co. which had products that definitely brought back memories of my childhood and what you saw in schools. Contained within the store is also a coffee house (Electrica Coffee).

We wanted to stretch our legs some so headed over to the Hoyt Arboretum and Vietnam War memorial which is within the large and vast Washington Park. As part of the Vietnam War memorial they have what is called the Garden of Solace.

To end our night we trekked over to the Cedar Hills Crossing area. This newer outdoor mall area reminds me of the newer strip mall/outdoor malls that they had in the Roseville area by Sacramento or down near Irvine in southern California. We tried Oswego Grill where I had the PNW Steelhead dish. They also have a Powell’s bookstore in this mall area as well as a Salt & Straw. Salt and Straw was super busy with a lot of younger folks partaking. The many seasonal items were good.

For our 6th day in Oregon, we started off by trying a Seattle chain restaurant, Ezell’s Famous chicken, that has one location in Oregon, which is down near Metzger. There is also a very large shopping mall called Washington Square in this region. There were some open houses that we wanted to check out (rather than just looking at the pictures online). We started with a house that was just off the Fanno Creek Trail. I really like the fact that there is so much green space and public trails, etc. that anyone can use. The first house we looked at was an obvious flip – they seemed to do a good job. It was located right off one of these public trails but that also means potential for unsavory characters to be able to access your home. We also checked out a million+ home that had river access. We explored down into the West Linn, Oregon City, and up to Oak Grove.

That night I made an Italian sausage ragu/bolognese and paired it with the homemade onion pasta that. Turned out to be quite tasty. Also had a little marionberry pie from Seasons Market.

One thing Portland is known for are their food trucks/carts. Beaverton has a fairly large one in their downtown area called BGs food cartel. They had some wide ranging food options but we decided to try a place that was making savory (and sweet) sandwiches with waffles as the “bread.” We then checked out Deadstock coffee.

This day we drove further out west to check out Hillsboro and Orenco Station. We also stopped by Oyatsupan Bakery, which is a Japanese bakery. We picked up a karepan and a matchapan. With so much driving, we stopped at the Tualatin Hills Nature Park and went for a walk. There were warning signs of owls I guess dive bombing people – which would have been a welcome sight to see but alas we were there mid-afternoon and no owls were to be seen.

Dinner was back in downtown Beaverton at Top Burmese Bistro Royale. We definitely were digging the fact that there was so much diversity in Beaverton, which was reflected in the food options. I had first tried Burmese food earlier in the summer when my cousin came to visit and we went to a local Burmese place. I’d describe it as a cross between Thai food and Indian food. Dinner was delicious. We picked up some more cookies from Seasons Market.

Our last full day was fairly relaxed.

Went to get some coffee at Thornton Coffee and then eventually made our way to Portland for an early dinner at Kann (only time we could get a reservation). This restaurant was started by Gregory Gourdet (celebrity chef) who is actually a friend of one of my good friends. We went to his previous restaurant, Departure, which was more Asian influenced. Kann is a Haitian Caribbean restaurant that has won James Beard awards. As a family style restaurant, the waiter did help us in deciding how many dishes to order. We had the following: Warm sweet potato bread (with berbere spice butter), Akra (crispy taro root fritters, remoulade), Lightly seared hiramasa (fish with pickled champagne mango, mint compressed pear, smoked coconut vinaigrette, crispy plantain chips, Half chicken (jerk braised leek, roasted fresno vinaigrette), Kann coffee rubbed flat iron steak (American wagyu, ti malice, grilled corn and gem lettuce salad), Pikliz (spicy pickled cabbage), and dessert: PEACH TARTLETTE (jackfruit cream, cornmeal crust, peony gastrique, tonka bean ice cream), GATEAUX AU BERRE (haitian butter cake, citrus curd, strawberry-koji ice cream, whipped coconut crème fraîche). Overall was a very delicious dinner.

Our final morning before catching a flight out of PDX airport started with packing up, cleaning the AirBnB and then driving over to Lauretta Jean’s for some yummy pie. We got a slice each of the Blackberry peach and also the chocolate chess – which we ate at the airport. For lunch we stopped at Pasture PDX and had two sandwiches: the Classic (homemade mortadella, salami, pickled peppers, onions, provolone), Tillamook (Roast Beef, 14 month aged Clothbound Cheddar, Onions, Horseradish, Aioli, Black Pepper, Cabbage (Horseradish is mixed in with cheese).

I didn’t get any running in during this trip but definitely did my “youtube exercises.”

I think it was a very informative trip for us. We ended up really liking the Beaverton area – more specifically some of the neighborhoods seemed more ideal to us than others. Now it is certainly more a matter of waiting for the right house before deciding on if we want to put in an offer somewhere.

-StewsCat