Portland in Review, Part II

On Saturday, Lindy and I went to the huge Portland Farmer's Market on the campus of Portland State University. The farmer's market is huge and we were able to sample some delicious bread, sausage, and fresh peaches as well as try some organic milk from a co-op of dairy farmers. And Lindy and I took an awesome picture together:

After getting back to Lindy's apartment, we got ready to head to Edgefield, which is were the concert was held. We got there super early (like about 7 hours before the concert started), so after lunch (and a ruby ale), we went to an outlet mall to walk around and kill some time. This mostly consisted of us trying on dresses and looking at jewelery but we did have a good time. We went back to Edgefield and tried a few more of the beers from the brewery and split an order of their delicious tater tots while in line to get to our seats in the concert venue. Our seats were excellent, we were in the center and about 8 rows back. The opening act was Tift Merritt who is a interesting singer-songwriter who sounds like a cross between Emmylou Harris and Judy Collins. Her set was pretty short but was really good. And then Ray LaMontagne's set started and I thought Lindy was going to hyperventilate and then pass out. I didn't know his catalog as well as David Gray's but I liked his set. And then a little before 8, David Gray took the stage and was incredible (I thought I would be the one to hyperventilate and pass out). He was great and he played my favorite song (Say Hello, Wave Goodbye) as his encore. After the concert was over, we stopped at Jack in the Box for Oreo Shakes before heading back to Portland. And, I'll post the last part in the next few days.

The Portland Review, Part 1

The most exciting thing that has happened to me since moving back to Indiana is my birthday trip to Portland to visit Lindy and attend a Ray LaMontagne and David Gray concert. I flew into Portland last Thursday night and Lindy picked me up in Voldermort (her super cute silver Fit). After splitting fries with rosemary and truffle ketchup from a foodcart, we each got a crepe (mine was ligonberry jam and lemon curd with chevere) and headed to her apartment. I'm not sure the proper name for a Murphy bed that stores horizontally is, but that is what Lindy has in her apartment (essentially you pull the bed out instead of down). We talked for a couple hours and Lindy got a few maps for me to look at since she had to work on Friday. The next morning, Lindy treated to a delicious breakfast at Pine Street Biscuits and dropped me off at the her apartment and headed to work. I (like the giant nerd I am) planned out a little route to the shops that Lindy suggested. After walking to the first store, I realized that none of the stores opened until 10 so I stopped at Starbucks have drank some tea and read for about an hour before heading to Kathleen's Of Dublin. My final destination was this huge bookstore/used bookstore that is legendary in Portland called Powell's. It was a little overwhelming at first but then I decided to just browse in the mystery section and I limited myself to just 3 books (a collection of 3 Agatha Christie novels she wrote under the name Mary Westmacott, the debut mystery novel of Hugh Laurie, and a collection of short stories that are mashups of Charles Dickens and mystery). I stopped at food truck and had really good Korean tacos before heading to a ribbon store and then back to Lindy's apartment for a little rest. That night, Lindy and I went to Beauty Bar for Margaritas and Manicure before going to an Irish pub to enjoy a Guinness (on tap of course) and Shepard's Pie (Lindy) or curried chicken (me). And the last stop of the night was at another Portland landmark, Voodoo Doughnuts. Lindy got a Triple chocolate donut (complete with cocoa puffs) and I got a Raspberry Romeo. And I'll write all about the concert on Saturday (complete with a reenactment of a light saber fight using milk cartons) tomorrow.