Portland sightseeing - Aug 31

Left hotel at 10:30am - heading to the Farmers Market - found a close parking garage - only $1.60/hr

Walked by this huge sign - bet it's pretty lit up at night:

Lots and lots of "permanent" artist vendors:

We liked this sign:

I liked this vendor.  He had copper jewelry but also flower hangers - really clever.  One more thing to dust...but I almost went for it...

Ran into Alex and John.  Alex bought this cute purse.

My all-time favorite vendor - so original and prices reasonable.  The mannequin was beautiful!

This vendor was facing the row of toilets. Alex and I thought it was funny:

This is the reason....

One long row of food trucks:

What to do...What to do...

These sculptures (in a variety of colors) were on each corner leading to the Pearl District:

We parked at the Washington Park and it was our first time using this pay station.  Kinda looks like Norm is trying to figure out how to get the quarters out of the machine...HA

What was Norm doing behind the sign?  Always peeking around!

After visiting all area, we got thirsty and headed for some breweries.  First on the list was Bridgeport.  We wanted to see the brewery part but they really only offered a bar/restaurant...sure was crowded.

What?  no dogs?

On to the next brew pub Full Sail - turned out to be a pricey bar/restaurant with a wait list due to only one waiter on staff so back in the car...

Thanks to the GPS...we drove over the Hawthorne Bridge and on to the little town of Westmoreland where we found the Thirteen Virtues Brew Pub.  Very casual and friendly with a restaurant attached.  Perfect for lunch!

We each had a beer (after some beer tasting) plus a hoagie & chips.  Huge portion and oh so yummy. We tried to buy Norm a T-shirt (size 3X) but they only had 2X.  What?  This town is full of beer drinkers - where are the 3X T-shirts?

The hoagie was huge and oh so good. At first I thought we'd have to bring 1/2 back to the hotel, but alas....we muddled through and only left crumbs...

Drove by this mural painted on a wall in the pearl district:

Had to take a photo of this pink tourist bus:

Last brew pub - Kells.  We'd had our fill of beer for the day so we just enjoyed the ambience - nice, dark and cozy pub inside:

5pm and we're back in our hotel room.  Found out it hadn't been cleaned because we put the tag in the door upside down....They came and exchanged our towels so no biggie.  We crashed and each took a nap....then watched TV until after 1am.  Didn't think I'd be able to fall asleep again but I slept like a baby.  My Jawbone bracelet doesn't seem to work at night though so I rarely get a reading for my hours of sleep.  It seems to track my steps well though - sometimes I think it tracks a bit more than I take but I'm not complaining. (ok, a little)

Art in the Pearl - Sat, Aug 30 - Portland

Parked at Star Park Station Place for $4 all day - what a bargain - and it allowed us to gather extra steps for the day!

Arrived at Art in the Pearl about 11:30am and caught up with Connie, Jean, Alex & John.  

Liked this booth - lots of moving parts:

Whoops - didn't see the "no photo" sign until AFTER I'd taken the photo....oops!

Loved the "Rocky Canyon Tileworks" ceramic mosaic tables:

Some booths, like this jewelry designer, was pretty sparce:

Norm is taking a much needed break:

Pam kept moving through the booths...

Loved the baskets at "Montana Blue Heron" booth - real pieces of art!

This piece (also Montana Blue Heron) looked like a boat to me - Norm thought it looked like a sea creature...I could easily have taken it home:

I was close to purchasing a ring at the "Stubborn" jewelry booth.  Prices were the most realistic and affordable that I saw at the festival.

After lots of walking about the booths, met up again at 1:30pm and walked to the Tai Peacock for lunch then....dessert at Pearl Bakery:

After lunch we walked through the booths again...

Norm wanted a photo of the healthy Corn Dog booth:

This was one of our favorite artists - "J. Berndt Textured Clay Wall Sculptures" - this was a sculpture that looked like it belonged in a high-end house.

Alex and I both loved this booth.....Help - I can't find the name of the artist!

This sculpture was $1800 and was soooo cool.  We thought it was not a bad price.  Not sure how we'd get it home though.  The ceramic spikes were pretty fragile.  I'd so love it though!

We liked the gourds in this booth when we first arrived and after looking through all the booths, we came back and purchased the long gourd at the top left.  The vendor is "Gourds by Handwoven".

We loved the gourds and baskets that they made too.

On our walk back to the car, we walked by the train station.  It had rained (quite a downpour) while we were eating lunch but it looks like its clearing and tomorrow will be a nice day.

Had such a fun day with CALS Exec Committee - so cool that we all made it to the festival today!