Whirlwind tour of Portland

Sort of on a whim, Lumberjack and I decided to take a 2-day jaunt down to Portland.  Portland was on the short list of cities that we considered moving to after I graduated from Oberlin.  I went to Sock Summit with Lumberjack and my parents back in late July, but since I was in classes all day I only got to see a little bit of the city.  This time, we've done a quick food, yarn, and fashion tour and are on our way home tonight.

I've really loved the food - so far we've eaten at a hole-in-the-wall Mexican place called Santería, a fabulous brunch restaurant called Bijou that reminded me a lot of Black River Cafe in Oberlin, and an izakaya called Shigezō, where we took these pictures.  Above you can see the leftovers of our okonomiyaki appetizer, complete with the little metal serving spatulas.  We also shared some chicken katsu curry.  The super green drink was called Godzilla, and had Absolut Citron, Midori and Calpis in it.  Eating in an izakaya made me really miss Japan... sigh.

I've picked up a couple of really good things while we've been down here.  In an exceedingly strange turn of events, Lumberjack and I went into a vintage shop, where he bought a shirt, and I bought... nothing!  Annnnd since I don't really buy books, and I've been holding out on picking up some knitting books that I've been lusting over, what better place to lose my willpower than at Powell's?

And holy crap, there's so many amazing yarn and sewing shops here... I have my eye on some Liberty of London cotton lawn and maybe another Colette pattern, and probably some Brooklyntweed Loft (hooray!).  Today we're hitting up Knit Purl (again - yesterday I was so overwhelmed that I couldn't choose what yarn to buy!) and Dublin Bay Knitting Company, where I have very strategic plans about what I might get.  I sort of wanted to get a sweater's worth of Shelter in the gorgeous red called Long Johns, but all the stores pretty much everywhere are sold out.

Now we're off to eat breakfast... I know it's a total cliche, but I think I love Portland and want to move here...