Thanksgiving Day!

And so Thanksgiving Day is upon us! If you're unsure what exactly Thanksgiving is all about, this piece from the local newspaper here in Portland, the Willamette Week, might help:

 

So: Happy Thanksgiving!

We spent the entire morning (and a good part of the early afternoon) at Powell's City of Books, one of Portland's most impressive landmarks - apparently some people schedule an entire day to get lost in Powell's, browsing the bookshelves and drinking coffee.
Over five floors and across an entire city block, they must have virtually everything ever printed!

 

 

 

Obviously I needed sustenance!

 

Afterwards we went for our Thanksgiving lunch at a downtown restaurant, Ruth Chris' Steak House  (It's not just steaks - they were packed for Thanksgiving!).

 

Josh went for a turkey dinner, while I had Ceaser Salad..

 

And Scallops!

 

Afterwards we took a little stroll in Washington Park, and headed out to the cinema (again) to see Silver Linings Playbook - again, a really good indie-type film! We've been good at picking them here in Portland!

We decided to spend the next morning taking advantage of Black Friday shopping in downtown. Black Friday is basically the day after Thanksgiving when all of the shops do crazy sales. Yes, much like the Boxing Day sales - but this way you get to buy at bargain prices in time for Christmas. Oh, these Americans have it sussed.

I really do have so much to to thankful for (without sounding soppy) - amazing family and friends, both at home, at university and on this side of the ocean, and the opportunity to live in San Francisco for a whole year. Lucky or what?!

As much as I've enjoyed Seattle, Portland, the Thanksgiving break and travelling again in general, a part of me was just too excited to return to San Francisco - the California way of life has obviously got under my skin!

Portlandia.

Seattle was definitely interesting...but I'd forgotten how much the rain can put a dampener on everything. Ha.

 

And so we left Seattle, Portland-bound...but not without one last cuppa!

 

Driving South on the I-5...

 

 

Portland is a strange city as it's spread over the Willamette River, and divided into East and West accordingly. This means that there are quite a few bridges to take you from one side to the other. It's not called the City of Bridges for no reason!

 

 

From the bus we trudged to the hostel, the HI Northwest Portland. After staying at the City Hostel which was honestly brilliant, anything would be a step down unfortunately - this is just a standard hostel!

 

The Northwest district itself is really nice, full of Victorian houses - if a little bit far from downtown. Then again, Portland is a pretty compact city, so nothing is too far away - and downtown public transport is free, bonus!

 

 

 

We also arrived just in time for dinner - so we headed out for a burrito from Cha Cha Cha, a Mexican place in the nearby Pearl District...

 

 

And then made a little trip to one of Portland's most famous food joints - Voodoo Doughnut.

 

 

 

They have all kinds of weird and wonderful flavoured doughnuts, from Captain Crunch, topped with the multi-coloured (and no doubt e-number-filled) breakfast cereal, to the Bacon Maple (yes, the name says it all).

 

 

Josh went for the classic Voodoo Doll, complete with oozing blood (jam, of course) whilst I was pretty cautious (read:boring) and went for the Blueberry Cake.

 

 

 

I had a feeling this wouldn't be our only visit to Voodoo, so the next time I was to a bit more adventurous and went for the Maple Bar - Josh topped me by getting the Bacon Maple!

 

 

And so we awoke after a freezing night (as I was expecting from staying in a hostel - City Hostel Seattle, you lulled me into a false sense of security!) ready to see what Portland had to offer.

It's known as a very cool city, and we wanted to find out why! We spent all of the morning wandering around the city's downtown streets. Without any skyscrapers, Portland feels a lot like an English city - think Leeds or Newcastle.

 

The Portland Building, and Portlandia.

 

To shelter from the rain, we headed to the Portland Art Museum. Their special exhibition is currently Greek and Roman art - on loan from the British Museum!
Of the modern art, I always like to see the Van Goghs and Monets, and the photography exhibition was pretty good too.

 

 

Once the weather brightened up, we were just in time to check out something unique to Portland - food carts! They're becoming so popular in Portland with the lunchtime rush that the carts congregated in 'pods', which are scattered across downtown. Though it makes them easy to find, it also makes it very difficult to decide what to try!

 

I went for a Banh Mi, which is a Vietnamese baguette, with tofu, carrots, beansprouts, coriander and soy sauce. It was incredibly fresh, and for under $4 you can't really go wrong!

 

Afterwards we headed to another Portland institution - Stumptown Coffee, where we warmed up with a Chai Latte and Gingerbread muffin.

 

 

To round the night off, we went to the cinema downtown to see The Perks of Being a Wallflower - great film!

Seattle-ite.

The next three days went by in a blur of rain, me getting a lot of use out of my woolly hat and with a good amount of Seattle's finest coffee.

On Saturday, we awoke bright and early (after a much-needed eleven-hour sleep), ready to explore Pike Place Market, probably Seattle's most famous tourist destination.

 

 

We wandered around for ages, looking at all of the stalls and in a few used bookstores...

 

 and obviously we HAD to do all of the the touristy things. We had a coffee from the first Starbucks, which opened in 1971 at the market...

 

...watched the men at the fish market chucking around the Catch of the Day, fresh from Puget Sound...

 

...and put a penny in Annie, the Pike Place Piggy Bank.

 

For lunch, we stopped at Jack's Fish Spot, for some very fresh fish and chips - delicious!

 

 Being at the waterfront reminded me a lot of home - with the sharp sea breeze and the fishy smells, it's not unlike Hartlepool or Hull, both of which are very familiar to me! Along with the rain, it's easy to see why Brits in particular appreciate Seattle.

One of the most thing striking things about Seattle's downtown is just how quiet it is - it's like a ghost town!
Maybe it's because it's a weekend so there aren't any workers in the city centre, or maybe it's just because everyone's huddling out of the rain inside one of the many coffee shops. It's quite strange!

 

 

Still, it's looking festive at the moment!

 

 

We had a great meal at an Italian restaurant, La Vita E Bella,  only a few blocks from the hostel.

Gnocchi and Lemon Tart...

 

...and for a bit of evening entertainment we decided to check out another Seattle hotspot, the Crocodile (formally The Crocodile Cafe), a classic music venue only a couple of blocks from our hostel.
We had tickets to see The Coup,which are ironically a band from Oakland. They were great!
Though I was a bit upset I had to stand in the under-21 section - gigs just shouldn't be segregated! Apparently it's Washington State Law.

 

 

 

 

By the time Sunday rolled around, we decided to take it easy, so we spent the morning up on Capitol Hill, a trendy neighbourhood just east of downtown, at various coffee houses, farmer's markets and independent stores.

 

We returned to Pike Place Market for lunch (it's really the best choice for cheap lunch in Seattle), stopping at Beecher's Cheese to try some of their 'World's Best' Mac and Cheese - if it's good enough for Oprah, it's good enough for us!

While you eat you can actually see them making the cheese! That's it - those huge white blocks!

 

After lunch we took the Underground Tour, after hearing several recommendations.
It all took place underneath Seattle - which used to be the road level in the pioneer days, until they raised the entire city.
It was fascinating stuff, and so interesting to learn more about the history of the city, which I previously knew very little about.

After they raised the city, the original street level became underground arcades - these are some original skylights!

 

And this is the Smith Tower, the oldest skyscraper in Seattle.

 

For a low-key Sunday evening, we went to see the new Bond film Skyfall (incredible), at the Cinerama, only a few blocks from the hostel - it's a brilliant old-style movie theater, complete with

root beer and popcorn!

 

By the time Monday arrived, we decided it was time for us to take a boat trip to Bainbridge Island. On a summer's day, it's probably lovely to be able to see across Eliot Bay and up to Puget Sound - but not so much on a grim day like today.

 

Winslow, the small town on Bainbridge Island where the ferry docks, basically consists of a main street just like any other in small-town America - except Winslow is pretty much catered to tourists just like us, who are taking a day trip outside of the city.
The island itself seemed pretty though! We had lunch in a cute cafe called the Fork and Spoon before retreating back to Seattle.

 

At least on the way back the rain let up enough so I could take a few snaps!

Seattle skyline in the distance...
 

 ...and up to Puget Sound.

I look way too happy considering how cold it was!
 

 

For dinner we decided to be the ultimate tourists and splash out (after being soaked for the whole day) at the Hard Rock Cafe - in keeping the music scene which is so important to Seattle.

I had huge shrimp fajitas...

 

...followed by a monster brownie.