PNW Trip Continued: Portland Day 1

From Woodinville we were venturing down to Porland, OR about a 2.5 hour drive, the drive was mostly through a smaller 2 lane highway throughout the woods, a nice journey to get to Portland. We had grabbed some pastries on the way and knew we would find some lunch in PDX. 

Since we had a lighter breakfast on the road we chose Mother's for lunch in Downtown as a famous spot for brunch/lunch. It was packed, and we were lucky to be seated without a reservation or calling ahead... a lunch place in downtown that crowded? We had some seriously delicious fries, some salads and headed back to the hotel to figure out our game plan for the day. We decided to wander around and walk to the Pearl District to see... DUH Powell's Books, the Doc Marten store (hysterical) and the cool galleries and stores in the area. It was a pretty hot day, so we enjoyed walking in and out of the AC and enjoying seeing the city. 

We did some dancin' around the Jonathan Adler store, some peering around the corners and the vast vegetarian section in Powell's cookbook section and then walked back to the hotel to get ready for dinner.

We knew we were heading to N.E. Alberta for our dinner, and I have a huge hankering for killer fabric stores so we walked around and went a bit early to A) take in the sights of NE Alberta and hit up Modern Domestic and Bolt for some fabric I can't get in RI. I bought quite a few fat quarters and some yards of Robert Kauffman Shots for some wiksten tanks and wiksten tovas for summer. I love the woven/natural feel of fabric for wiksten patterns and can't wait to finish my two new shirts. 

DINNER was epic. NATURAL SELECTION was by far one of the best meals I have had ... ever. We were seated in the window that actually had a great view of the prep area. Our server was fantastic and even apologized if he offended us for calling us "Birthday GIRLS" instead of women - there are more feminist men in pcx than probably all of new england. 

We opted to have one of everything on the menu, splitting column A and B up so we could have the best of everything. We also did the wine pairings to go with each, which was fantastic since each item, not just each course had a separate wine. With our appertivo and granita between courses, we got to try everything that they offered that week for the menu. Brilliant.

From very nice diners, I found some images of the food/restaurant from yelp and facebook. I of course dropped the ball on taking photos, probably since I was so hypnotized by the incredible food and experience. 

We headed across the street to Branch Whiskey Bar where we had a nightcap on our Wednesday evening before heading back to the hotel. I of course opted for Gin instead of Whiskey! One of the best parts of the evening was the taxi ride back to the hotel only because it was purely PDX in every way. Dream of the 90s is alive in Portalnd ... especially in our taxi, with our driver who not only could have been in a 90s band without blinking I would believe it but he was also listening to SNOG at full blast with the windows down. I should also mention that he was in a legit 90s suit in his taxi.

If you don't know the band SNOG here's one of their famous songs from 1992. Need I say more?