Day Eight. A whole day spent wandering the streets of Portland, Oregon, that was the theme for today. We started off with our usual breakfast from home: english muffins with sunflower seed butter smeared on top, Irish tea (the usual is chai, but no one thought to bring all the utensils and ingredients needed to make it), and fruit that mom and dad scrounged up from the hotel's breakfast bar. We spent the morning hours leisurely hanging around the hotel until everyone had showered and was ready to hit the town.

Walking to the tram stop closest to our hotel on our way to downtown Portland. Within a certain area the trains and trams are free, no ticket required. And it's based on the honor system, no one checks to make sure you have a ticket, however if you are every asked to produce one, you had better have one out side of the designated free zone. Somewhat of a novel idea for the U.S.

Waiting at the next tram to come along and carry us further into town.

Standing here, an incredibly kind woman overheard us discussing how and where we were going to start our self-guided tour of Portland and decided to lend us some advice. During the tram ride, she chose a place near us and told us sights that were worth seeing and other towns along the Oregon coast that were nice. The people here in Oregon are so friendly it's astonishing. Almost everyone we've encountered has been happy to help us find our way, give us directions, or recommendations. 

Today's activities began with the Portland Saturday Market.

The area designated for the market was packed with tents and people selling their goods. 

Loud music boomed from the local bands plating on the streets. We saw this band play on other street corners throughout the day.

We weren't particularly looking to buy anything, just get a feel for the culture here in Portland. 

Portland has a relaxed, free-flowing, fresh, casual feeling. The people are just doing whatever they feel like. 

The market ended at the water's edge, the Columbia River runs through the middle of the city. 

The river on to the left and a park to the right, we walked for a good mile or so and then turned inland to the cityscape.

Looking at the city from the river walk.

The streets of Portland. We walked miles around this city today; everybody's heels ache tonight. 

The Pioneer Courthouse: the oldest courthouse still in use today.

On our way to lunch!

And this is where we settled on. Kells Restaurant which is an Irish pub, apparently named the best Irish pub in the entire U.S. It certainly had good food. Even though Irish food is not known for being vegan, we were able to order our choices of meals vegan anyways. Have got to love the west coast!

Entering…

…And the inside of the building, which in accordance with most of the buildings in Portland is also from a past century, dating back to (if memory serves) 1889.

Having gotten around town much faster than we had expected (though by now we should know how we sightsee and travel well enough to anticipate these kinds of events) decided to move up a few of tomorrow's activities. We started with the Japanese garden and rose garden in Washington Park.

Our guide for the day, the youngest of our party led the remaining four members around the garden with map in hand. 

Next on to the rose garden. None of the roses were blooming, this spring being a little too cool for the plants to flower at this time of year. But we had a look anyway. 

After strolling through rows of rose bushes just leafing out, we boarded the bus that took us back into the city since the gardens are a little ways from Portland. Our next target, Voodoo Doughnuts.

We walked around for forty-five minutes hunting for this pink building. And once we found it we learned just how popular this sugary shop is. The inside of the shop was full of people standing in a line that wound all the way out the door. Luckily we arrived just in time to snatch the last place in line that was still under the roof; others were not so fortunate. The line moved slowly. Another forty-five minutes passed by the time we finally got our turn at the register. 

This is the box that contains the spoils of our journey in Voodoo Doughnuts shop. It's the only time we will ever go to such lengths for sugary snacks. 

The product. Voodoo Doughnuts makes a variety of vegan selections as well as the usual ones. There were not many left by the time we placed our order, but we still got our hands on some. We carried these deliciously unhealthy treats back to the hotel room, two of our group gathered coffee and we convened in the living area of the hotel room to formulate a plan for the next day.

Since we completed so many of our goals for our stay in Portland, we decided to leave the city, move on to the next unsuspecting place, tomorrow. Tomorrow's plan involves a  short walk around Vancouver, Washington which is only just across a bridge; a drive through of Salem, the capitol of Oregon; finally ending in Corvallis, Oregon. My mom reads many blogs from other homeschooling families we reside in Corvallis, one of them owns a cafe in town so we intend on stopping in for breakfast.

Although we had originally booked our current lodgings for two days, we, as per usual, are leaving a day ahead of schedule (we don't really have one) since we've gotten a good feel for the city which was our objective.

Tomorrow it's back in the car and on to the next adventure!

じゃあね！