Day 2 in Portland

I had a productive day today that consisted of a 2 mile run (it was 85 degrees out and I’m running a 5K tomorrow so I wanted to take it easy), a meeting, picking up my race bib, a Target pit stop (I only bought one item that wasn’t on my list!), some bookkeeping work, cooking dinner, an Institute for Integrative Nutrition phone call, and well, blogging now!

Aside from that, all I have for you today is another Portland recap.

On Monday, Joe and I left our hotel room around 9:00AM bracing for 90 degrees. We were so used to the east coast heat wave that we were pleasantly surprised when we stepped out to an almost chilly 65 degrees. It was the absolute perfect weather for a run along the Willamette River.

We walked all the way down to the river and started out on this path that eventually headed over that bridge. The concierge told us that the run was a 3 mile loop around, but I think we may have missed the bridge back over, because we hit a dead end and had to turn around.

I managed to stop and snap a few photos on my iPhone.

Joe actually ran ahead of me, and I ended up getting stuck when the bridge went up for a boat to pass!

I got nervous and thought I was going to be stuck there for a while, but it came down after only a few minutes. I ran the rest of the way until I clocked in 4 miles.

I was finished but Joe thought it would be neat to try to get a picture of me running.

I thought it was going to be blurry. Not a bad shot for an iPhone, huh!?

We walked around deciding what to do for breakfast and ended up stopping at Starbucks for much needed iced coffees on the way.

After walking around aimlessly for 30 minutes, we decided to search the Whole Foods for protein shakes. Turns out their café had fresh blended smoothies that you could add protein powder to. We couldn’t go without nut butter though, of course!

Mine was some sort of banana, blueberry, kale, soy milk mixture with green protein added. We ate Justin’s maple almond butter with the only “utensil” available: a coffee stirrer.

As usual, we also explored the store because really, who can resist?

They had a refrigerated beer aisle which was pretty awesome.

Eventually, we went to the hotel room to get ready to meet our friends for lunch.

Carrie, Tony, Joe, and I met Judson and Amanda for lunch and Clyde Common. What I love about Portland is all of the sustainable and farm to table restaurants. Most menus change daily based on what fresh produce they get in that day. All of the poultry and meat are also from local farms. We started off with a charcuterie plate for the table.

We also ordered some fun cocktails that they had on their list. I went with the daily punch and Joe got a house carbonated and bottled cocktail.

For lunch, I went with the shirred eggs. They were served with the most delicious bacon I’ve ever had in my life (from a local “happy” pig), toast with jam, and a refreshing salad with grapes.

We couldn’t leave without trying some dessert.

The chocolate peanut butter pie with vanilla pudding was out of this world. This was one of my favorite meals in Portland!

We went back to the hotel room for a bit to relax before heading back out to attempt to get a rental car (failed, too expensive) and meet Carrie’s cousin for a drink at Deschutes Brewery.

The décor was neat and it was very lofty.

I went with a light hefeweizen.

They had some great looking items on the menu, but we had already decided on seafood so we went to Jake’s Famous Crawfish for dinner.

Joe and I did our usual damage: a large seafood platter. This one had crawfish, smoked salmon and trout, oysters, shrimp, prawns, and dungeness crab.

We all shared some more appetizers, but the highlight was the berry cobbler on the dessert trio.

It’s on the bottom right. I contemplated ordering a second one!

We ended the night with a long walk home, but not without stopping to take a picture of this odd contraption we passed.

Lost bikes, maybe?

That sums up day 2!

Tagged as: clyde common, deschutes brewery, jakes famous crawfish, Oregon, Portland