On October 2nd, our flight from Houston to Denver for our layover. Funny story. Houston has two airports. We went to the wrong one. Whoops. What you get for not looking at detail. Luckily we made it to the other one in time.

Arrived in Denver airport. Loving the view. Hopefully I can visit here soon. Split a Pesto Chicken Multigrain Ciabatta with Mum and got myself a water.

Landing in Portland. Look at all those trees. Gorgeous. I always seem to sit at the wing of the plane unintentionally.

Found Sissy and BIL’s car and we headed for lunch.

Deschutes Brewery
210 NW 11th Ave
Portland, Oregon 97209
(503) 296-4906
www.deschutesbrewery.com

Sample Tray [6 (4oz) glasses of either the Classic Six, Brewer’s Choice, or Choose Your Own] | $8

We chose our own six as listed above. My favorite is the Gluten Free Beer.

Beer Cheese Soup [seasonal potato cheese soup featuring local potatoes, speciality cheeses and one of our specialty ales] | $5.5 cup $7.5 bowl

Sissy got this with her meal so I snagged some. So freaking good especially on this day since it was rainy. Super cheesy that a lot of the cheese residue stuck on the spoon!

Brewery Burger [seared Coleman Ranch beef, Mirror Pond Pale Ale aioli, Tillamook cheddar, butter leaf lettuce, hot house tomatoes, shaved red onion, and brewery made pickles with your choice of pub fries, sweet potato fries, house salad, or cup of soup] | $12

Got the pub fries since Mum got the sweet potato fries and Sissy got the soup. Both the fries were good. They were crispy and thick but soft on the inside just like great fries should be! I’d chose the sweet potato ones next time though. They had a sweet and salty combination. Perfect.

The burger on the other hand was a bit bitter for my taste and kind of wished the bun was softer so that I didn’t have to try so hard to bite through it. Let’s just say stuff were falling left and right. I resulted in cutting it with my knife and fork sans top bun.

After lunch we went on a walk to the ever so famous:

Powell’s Bookstore
40 NW 10th Ave
Portland, Oregon 97209
(503) 228-4651
www.powells.com

Books among books. Underground and over to the other side. I could stay here forever. They have Powell’s all over the state! Even in the airports! People in Oregon seem to really love to read. It was a Wednesday afternoon and there were a lot of people in the bookstore. They’re definitely not going to be going bankrupt anytime soon.

They even sold Cupcake Toothpaste. I would of bought it but I didn’t want it to be another Bacon Necklace incident.

Went walking to our next destination. Elephant statue. So cute. And Chinatown. (duh.)

Voodoo Doughnut
22 SW 3rd Ave
Portland, Oregon 97205
(503) 241-4704
www.voodoodoughnut.com

We all picked random donuts we wanted to eat. We ended up with … too much.

The two pictured are:

Voodoo Doll Doughnut [raised yeast doughnut filled with raspberry jelly topped with chocolate frosting and a pretzel stake]

All their Voodoo Dolls had different characteristics. Was not a big fan of the raspberry jelly.

Cock-N-Balls Doughnut [cock-n-balls shaped raised yeast doughnut triple filled with Bavarian cream and topped with chocolate frosting]

It was their Cocktoberfest. ha So silly.

I wish I had more time to look at the menu. I suggest if you go here, go online and look up what you want first. You cannot see what you’re order. Just the names are written on the board. Online, it describes what they are.

I don’t think they’re as great as people say they are but if I ever do go back I’ll order all the Apple Fritter Doughnuts and Blueberry Cake Doughnuts. They were the best. And be aware of the donuts with cereal on top. Sissy and BIL got those previously and told us that they were stale. Gross.

We walked back to our car and drove to the top of Rocky Butte which had a park (Joseph Wood Hill Park) where you can see the gorgeous landscape of Oregon.

They have a rock? statue? with different places like Mt. Hood, Columbia River, and Mt. Tabor. Apparently this has been replaced (I guess updated?) November of 2002.

No words. Pictures don’t do it any justice.

We drove to their apartment where we got to see Bruno!! and we relaxed for a good while. Then headed to dinner. It was rainy and dark so I couldn’t get a picture of the market until the next day.

New Seasons Market
15861 SE Happy Valley Town Center
Happy Valley, 97086
(503) 558-9214
www.newseasonsmarket.com

This place is like Whole Foods in which you can get food from the Hot and Cold bar. Split a Minestrone with Sissy and got myself a big ol’ amazing salad. YUM!

We headed back to the apartment and just went lazy and into bed.

Great first night. Day 2 coming up …

Not a good day for pictures. I packed my bags and forgot to take my camera with me when I went out the door.

I had Dim Sum for brunch with PoPo and Mum. Then Mum and I went shopping and bought a lot of little things. Last day … had to buy, buy, buy!

After that, all I did was sleep and play on the computer. Very relaxing.

Dinner of Pigeon, intestines, veggies, and homemade soup. Going to miss PoPo’s cooking.

I’m up in the air right now flying high in the sky.

Next time I “talk” to y’all will be when I’m back in the states.

Peace and Love.

The aftermath of the storm … not that bad over here but it’s worse other parts of Hong Kong.

Ate at another Shanghai Restaurant … Shanghai Po Po Restaurant. Not as great as yesterdays but it was okay.

Saw this view while walking in the mall. More aftermath cleaning up and people shopping and whatnot.

Got a haircut … finally. This is the best picture I can show you … I didn’t take any except for this one.

I want to come back once a year for a haircut … from this place … by Brenda. YES.

Oh … and did I mention. When they wash your hair, they go through a long process? They put stuff in my hair and rinsed and repeated four times. And they massage your head. I’m not a great fan of it but dude … I almost fell asleep.

We bought some piggie bread and cakes for Vincent and Alva since they had to go to work.

Mum and I met Kathy at one of the subway stops. Then we went to Ladies’ Market. A place where people open their own shops on the streets and you can buy things. I went down the whole street but only a few things caught my eye … for other people.

When we were leaving going to the subway, Mum wanted some fishballs so fishballs we got. And I finally got my STINKY TOFU! Real stinky tofu. Not like the ones in Taiwan where they were not stinky enough. Ah .. heaven.

(photo via)

Kathy bought me this little beauty … without letting me know! Samsung Galaxy S3. Sahweet! I cannot wait to physically use it. (I have to wait till I’m back in the States …) I’ve been playing with it and I’m already in love.

Dinner was intestines with noodles, veggies, and fried fish skin.

Done deal.

Bags are packed .. hopefully we aren’t overloaded.

Due to going to bed late, I woke up at a good 1pm. YEP! Waited for Vincent and we didn’t eat till 3pm. Just Mum, Vincent, and I at a Shanghai restaurant and all the foods … we are fatties for sure. So GOOD!

Since there was a thunderstorm warning there wasn’t ANY one at the restaurant except us. And when we went shopping later after eating one of the stores literally said, “Are you done? It’s thunder storming and we want to go home …”

Wonderful. So all I ended up with was ONE Essie nail polish.

What dinner consisted of. PoPo was sick so she got congee while the rest of us (Mum, Kathy, Vincent, Rachel, and I) gobbled on all the pizza and many chickens.

Somehow we ended up with a good 14 pieces of fried chicken …. holy mackerel. We obviously didn’t finish it all …

The dang storm won’t let up. It is bipolar. It’ll rain then stop then rain then stop and on and on …

Fingers crossed tomorrow will be better!